Six degrees of Mark Wahlberg

The other night when we were in the cab on our way home from El Carmen, we passed an inconspicuous hole-in-wall bar.   Coco hits me on the shoulder and casually says, “that’s Mark Wahlberg’s place, ‘Goal’.”  The girl knows how much I ♥ Mark Wahlberg, talented actor, co-creator of Entourage and he’s from Boston!….It takes a couple seconds to process and then I was like, “What, Mark Wahlberg, what?”  “That bar back there, it’s an awesome sports bar with flat-screen TV’s , she motions behind us, “‘Goal,’ Mark Wahlberg owns it.”  “Go?”  “Goal.”  “Goulmb?”  “GOAL.”  For the life of me I couldn’t figure out what in the heck she was saying, “Gold?”   She lifts her hands up, in a “my team just scored a field goal, referee style” and says “GOOOOOOOOOOOOAL” like the Spanish announcer on Telemundo.  “Oh, goal.”  “Cool, where?”   She gave up because by this time, we’re almost home…I had missed laying eyes on it, but I was intrigued…Goal was now etched into my memory and I had a new mission, I  Must  Go  To  Goal,  -DING - which also reminded me, I forgot to share a little nugget of life in LA with you all…..

In the summer of 1997, I moved from Houston to Boston (notice a pattern here) because I wanted to work for the Boston Bruins.  Having never been to Boston, let alone the East Coast, I was really going in blind.  But I wanted to work for an NHL team and in the season before I moved, the Boston Bruins had the worst record.  I figured, if any NHL team was going to take a chance on a girl from south Texas who wanted to work in hockey, it was a team that really had nothing to loose – insert the Boston Bruins.

While living in Boston and working for the Bruins (guess they couldn’t resist my charm) I developed a deep appreciation for all things Beantown.  The Red Sox, (little did I know what I was getting myself into there) the Patriots, the Celtics, Cape Cod, saying “wicked,” and the importance of understanding and appreciating the deep roots of family and being from such a unique city.  It was right about that time Good Will Hunting came out and I fell in love with the depth and range of talent from actors who were around my age (well, obviously I am delusional here, I am at least 10 years their junior) from Boston.   Edward Norton, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Casey Affleck, Tom Everett Scott, Dane Cook (no?  Lol, fair enough, but he’s cute and funny as hell) and Mark and Donnie Wahlberg, of course. 

So for the last 10 years, I have followed the films of Boston and with actors who hail from Boston as well as developing a deep affinity for the show, Entourage from Closest to the Hole Productions, Mark Wahlberg’s production company.  For those of you that are familiar with Entourage bare with me, if you’re not, it’s a weekly show about a group of guys with one “leading” guy, “Vince” who brings his crew out to LA to pursue his life’s journey of becoming an actor.  (Kind of like me!) His crew consists of his brother, his best friend Eric, “E” who is his manager and a childhood friend “Turtle” who is basically his chauffeur and all around “guy-Friday.”    Well, E is amazing; he fields all of Vince’s scripts, negotiates projects for him, and makes sure Vince is where he needs to be and doesn’t oversleep!  I have a best friend in Houston, who has helped me in a very similar way, that I call “E” as kind of an homage to her and the show.  I presented her with a diamond-encrusted “E” necklace before I left for LA as a token of my appreciation for all she's done for me, so far....  (My plan is to get her out here once I can afford her.  It wasn’t real diamonds, but cubic-zirconium encrusted.. just looks odd…)

Okay, so I am bringing it all back around -

My first Saturday morning in LA.. I Googled coffee shops and settled on one 2 miles away on Sunset.  I throw on my Red Sox hat, grab my backpack and hit the road for the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. 

I walk up and there is a group of men sitting outside chatting, this one guys asks me if I am from Boston.   “No, not originally, but I lived there for a while and I am a huge Sox fan.”  And I flash an endearing smile.  He kind of frowns, and I ask, already knowing because of his tell, “You a Bronx Bomber fan?”  (HUGE Red Sox / Yankees rivalry, always, no matter where you are in the world, if you’re a Red Sox fan, you typically don’t jive with Yankees fans.)  “Born and raised.”  “Oh no.” I said.   He laughed and we all started talking.  I go inside and get coffee, and return just as my phone starts ringing.  Who is it but my E!  I chat with my E for a couple minutes and then hang up and sit at the table adjacent to the group of men.  A few minutes after I had hung up with my E, the Yankees fan asks what I do and basically, what’s my story.  I share with him I just moved out to LA and he tells me he’s in town for business.  Business meaning “one of his guys” is up for a Golden Globe.   Huh.   I wonder what who was “one of his guys” or who he was for that matter, but by no means was I going to ask or ask his name or any of that because I didn’t want to be that girl, although I was dying to know! 

After a while of chatting, I tell him how nice it was to chat with him and leave.  No names, no nothing.  Oh well. 

(where the magic happened)

The next day, I get up and once again hit the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.  I am inside for about 30 minutes when the Yankee’s fan walks in.  “Hey Caroline!”  (Agh, he remembered my name, that’s cool…)  “Oh hey”  I was cool as a cucumber..No worries.  “Hey, we’re outside.”  “Cool.  I will come say hi in a bit, I am just wrapping up some work.”  By work I meant catching up on Perez Hilton, but whatever….A while later I head outside, sit down by the guy and we all start talking.  Yeah, it was kind of cool, 2 days in and I had some new friends.  So we’re talking about films and I mention how much I admired Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg’s performance in The Fighter.  Later on we’re talking about Dubai, I don’t remember why, but then he was all, “I was just in Dubai,,,,beautiful place, anything you want you can have, any time of year, even an indoor ski mountain.”  “Wow, really, what took you to Dubai?” I asked.  “Well we took our film over to show it to the troops in Afghanistan and stopped off in Dubai for a couple days.”  “Oh, really…that’s awesome.  What film?”  “The Fighter.”  What?  What?!?  Thank God I said good things about it before.  “You’re in The Fighter?”  “Well, I have a tiny part in the opening scene, but I’m with Mark Wahlberg.”  “Oh.”  (Processing…..processing….processing….)  “Neat.”  (I don’t even really know what that means, but I am keeping cool.  Nonchalant.)  “Oh and Mark is up for a Golden Globe for the film.”  “Right.”  “Neat.”  Then I ask, “so you work with him?”  “Yeah, I’m with his management team.”  “Oh, (I laugh out loud) kind of like ‘E’ on Entourage.” “Exactly, you got it, I am E.”  I was all, “that’s so cool, they modeled the guy Eric, ‘E’, after you?!”  And he was all, “Yeah, my name is Eric.”

 and BOOM GOES THE DYNAMITE.

The real life Eric!!!

No one is ever going to believe this. 

- Until next post,

Caroline

P.S. – He was much taller and more handsome then the actor, if you were wondering.