courtney zito of hollywood girl
INd Television’s new acquisition may be the “gayest” TV show about a straight woman since Sex and the City
As a little girl growing up, Courtney Zito had stars in her eyes. So much so, she would watch herself in the mirror, practicing her interview prowess as though she were a guest on Late Night with David Letterman promoting her latest movie release as the film's lead actress. Yet after ten years of pounding Hollywood's pavement, her commercial, film and music video credits still remain few and far between, and Letterman has never called. So, disheartened but undefeated, Zito launched her own web-television series, amalgamating her big dreams, Hollywood memoirs and small, waitress-earned bank-account balance into a production that has gotten California's equally starry-eyed festival producers and cable-TV executives banking their bigger budgets on.
Aptly dubbed Hollywood Girl, Zito's show features the ongoing contemporary story of Quinn Monroe (potrayed by Zito herself): a waitress and would-be actress whose well-intended attempts to positively progress her career and love life nonetheless lend themselves to unflattering circumstances—like openly berating a love interest while being interviewed, on camera, at a movie premiere before tripping over the premiere's leading lady and knocking them both onto the red-carpet floor, also on camera. The content of which Zito admits is loosely based on her own personal and professional experiences, attesting, "You can't make this shit up."
"The [mainstream perception] of Hollywood life seems to be wrapped up in the reality-TV world of Paris Hilton and the Kardashians, but that's not the reality," Zito says. "I wanted to make a show that reflected what it really takes to make it in Hollywood, but not depressing with a comic twist."
And with little more than an hour's worth of publically available online content divided up between five season-one episodes sporadically released over seven months, Zito's "little" project is garnering big time, small and silver-screen acclaim, with an world-wide fan base specifically stemming from the lower half of the compass.
"We got a big Brazil fan-club thing-y," Zito says of website's concentration of South American hits, "and that's kind of cool."
However, more accrediting than internationally based site counter rotations is the selection of Hollywood Girl by the International Television Festival for one its 2011 comedy-screening lineup. Additionally, just prior to the festival selection, INdTV [sic] acquired the show with intentions of HG leading the cable network's on-demand programming following its July 2011 launch in southern California by Time Warner Cable.
"INdTV is proud to showcase Courtney and her show," says INdTV Executive Trinity Houston of her company's featuring of Hollywood Girl. "Courtney is the epitome of a hard-working, independent artist, channeling her creative genius into an amazingly witty and clever comedy that has mass appeal."
In regards to mass-appealing targets, Zito briefly describes HG as something of a three-way between Sex in the City, Entourage and Bridget Jones's Diary: romantic comedy for the ladies, toilet humor for the guys and lighthearted slapstick for whole-family fun. However, of the ~60 minutes of currently available web-isode content, the arguably more impressing themes/subjects—like the leading male's introduction of an open relationship, twisting the "penis size matters" cliché into a metaphor concerning the height of Monroe's high heels shoes, the "flagrantly discrete" flaunting of Zito's bust line and Monroe's marketing of "prophylaxatives," a condom that protects against pregnancy/STDS while also inducing bowel movements—all strongly seem to resound with a firm LGBT aesthetic. The correlation of which Zito, as a music and theater school graduate, also makes no airs, especially in reference to the latter of the aforementioned themes.
"A condom that makes you poop is probably going in the pooper," Zito laughs, and then continues in the serious, affirming her affinity and proclivity for LGBT sensibilities. "I'm influenced by the same things the gay community is; I love fashion and pop culture and I have tons of gay friends—it comes natural to me. Gay men are fucking fabulous!" Zito adds some-to-most of the show's lucent gay appeal may also come from the influence of Zito's openly gay cousin, Hollywood Girl's Co-executive producer Taryn Teigue, as well as the close fraternity she shares with Teigue and Teigue's partner. "I went to their wedding," she proudly boasts.
Regardless, be the show for gals, guys or gays, Zito intends to take the show "as far as it will go." And according to IndTV Director of Media and Content Brian Hunt, who echoes Houston's sentiments, the new cable channel's expects Hollywood Girl to go far.
"Hollywood Girl is original," Hunt says. "The writing is fresh, and really, I believe there is a huge audience out there waiting to see Hollywood Girl. I've always equated it as a fresher, more hip, younger version of Sex and the City, but with a more attractive cast."
Headshots and episode productions stills courtesy of www.hollywoodgirltv.com
Aptly dubbed Hollywood Girl, Zito's show features the ongoing contemporary story of Quinn Monroe (potrayed by Zito herself): a waitress and would-be actress whose well-intended attempts to positively progress her career and love life nonetheless lend themselves to unflattering circumstances—like openly berating a love interest while being interviewed, on camera, at a movie premiere before tripping over the premiere's leading lady and knocking them both onto the red-carpet floor, also on camera. The content of which Zito admits is loosely based on her own personal and professional experiences, attesting, "You can't make this shit up."
"The [mainstream perception] of Hollywood life seems to be wrapped up in the reality-TV world of Paris Hilton and the Kardashians, but that's not the reality," Zito says. "I wanted to make a show that reflected what it really takes to make it in Hollywood, but not depressing with a comic twist."
And with little more than an hour's worth of publically available online content divided up between five season-one episodes sporadically released over seven months, Zito's "little" project is garnering big time, small and silver-screen acclaim, with an world-wide fan base specifically stemming from the lower half of the compass.
"We got a big Brazil fan-club thing-y," Zito says of website's concentration of South American hits, "and that's kind of cool."
However, more accrediting than internationally based site counter rotations is the selection of Hollywood Girl by the International Television Festival for one its 2011 comedy-screening lineup. Additionally, just prior to the festival selection, INdTV [sic] acquired the show with intentions of HG leading the cable network's on-demand programming following its July 2011 launch in southern California by Time Warner Cable.
"INdTV is proud to showcase Courtney and her show," says INdTV Executive Trinity Houston of her company's featuring of Hollywood Girl. "Courtney is the epitome of a hard-working, independent artist, channeling her creative genius into an amazingly witty and clever comedy that has mass appeal."
In regards to mass-appealing targets, Zito briefly describes HG as something of a three-way between Sex in the City, Entourage and Bridget Jones's Diary: romantic comedy for the ladies, toilet humor for the guys and lighthearted slapstick for whole-family fun. However, of the ~60 minutes of currently available web-isode content, the arguably more impressing themes/subjects—like the leading male's introduction of an open relationship, twisting the "penis size matters" cliché into a metaphor concerning the height of Monroe's high heels shoes, the "flagrantly discrete" flaunting of Zito's bust line and Monroe's marketing of "prophylaxatives," a condom that protects against pregnancy/STDS while also inducing bowel movements—all strongly seem to resound with a firm LGBT aesthetic. The correlation of which Zito, as a music and theater school graduate, also makes no airs, especially in reference to the latter of the aforementioned themes.
"A condom that makes you poop is probably going in the pooper," Zito laughs, and then continues in the serious, affirming her affinity and proclivity for LGBT sensibilities. "I'm influenced by the same things the gay community is; I love fashion and pop culture and I have tons of gay friends—it comes natural to me. Gay men are fucking fabulous!" Zito adds some-to-most of the show's lucent gay appeal may also come from the influence of Zito's openly gay cousin, Hollywood Girl's Co-executive producer Taryn Teigue, as well as the close fraternity she shares with Teigue and Teigue's partner. "I went to their wedding," she proudly boasts.
Regardless, be the show for gals, guys or gays, Zito intends to take the show "as far as it will go." And according to IndTV Director of Media and Content Brian Hunt, who echoes Houston's sentiments, the new cable channel's expects Hollywood Girl to go far.
"Hollywood Girl is original," Hunt says. "The writing is fresh, and really, I believe there is a huge audience out there waiting to see Hollywood Girl. I've always equated it as a fresher, more hip, younger version of Sex and the City, but with a more attractive cast."
Headshots and episode productions stills courtesy of www.hollywoodgirltv.com
