Followed a Dream to LA. Now Homeless

They don't sound like very smart people. The arrive in LA with just $800? They made the trip on a promise from someone they didn't know very well? They don't sound very resourceful.

I hate articles like this because they are long on bleeding heart and short on common sense.

Goes to an expensive, big city with only $800 and a promise? Not jobs lined up but a promise? Sounds like they were out of options from where they came from but decided to go to L.A. because that's where many drifters go, good state/ local benefits too compared to red states.

Does the city of LA offer services to the homeless like in nyc?

i wouldn't move across the street if i only had 800 dollars to my name, no job, and one "friend"!...

Yes R3 the article is half an ad for the various services people in hard times can find help

They've read too many interviews about entertainers moving to LA in the $60 in their pocket.

There were more empty couches to crash on back then. See also:. San Francisco, Seattle..

You can't even move to Nashville (Music City USA) with just $800. Although the woman could probably get a job at one of the Waffle Houses in Nashville.

And what's all this about not having an address? When I moved to NYC, the first thing I did was go to the post office and get a post office box so I could set up a bank account. And there are those pseudo-post offices that will let you use their street address to receive packages. Sounds like he just wants to do his music and not get a real job.

I moved to LA 20 years ago with 5G & no job. I still felt it wasn’t enough money. These people are morons!

Time to scrape up enough money for a couple of bus rides back home. The Hollywood dream just isn't gonna happen.

Exactly r6. Everyone hears these stories of famous people claiming they moved to a city with nothing and made it big, and think they can do the same thing.

People have to realize those stories are largely big exaggerations that don't tell the full story.

R10 well some do. You could move somewhere with no money 30 years ago and survive somehow by getting a part time job etc.. You can’t now.

[quote] Exactly [R6]. Everyone hears these stories of famous people claiming they moved to a city with nothing and made it big, and think they can do the same thing.

Yes, those stories always omit the sex work that supplemented those lean pockets and big dreams.

They aren't even beautiful. If you are hot there will always be people out there that would be into "helping you out"

It's true that you hear stories about famous actors doing this kind of thing. But those are the FEW who succeeded. It doesn't work for most. These people were...naive.

A lot of people in small poor towns consider $800 a lot of money. In a poor town, you could live on $800 for a month. Many just don’t get big city life and how expensive it is. They see these seemingly unemployed people on TV and think thy can do that. Unlike NYC where I think everyone realizes it’s a hard, expensive city - LA can still be perceived of as a place for nobody to become somebody overnight.

Actually a number of celebrities did move to LA with almost nothing, and they made it.

From my experience in the industry, I would say that there might be as many a few hundreds of these types.

However, many, many thousands and thousands of others did the same, and failed. Just because 1 out of 100 (or worse) makes it doesn't mean that you will. In fact, it pretty much means the opposite.

Pardon the typos above. Doing this on my phone. Little phone.

The defintion of "nothing" varies.

I didn't have money...but I had a friend who let me crash on their couch for free while I got on my feet.

It's hard to know the full story.

Sounds he still wants to pursue his dreams off of her money. She had her father sell her car for $3,000 in Detroit - so they had communication, family and some funds to return and what did they do? They stayed.

She is the one who found a job - nothing about him. She's a moron - leaving Detroit with a younger man with a dream - and they had only been together ONE MONTH!

Oh and this gem from her 'boyfriend' - there are no homeless in Detroit because people take care of people there. LOL! Right!

This is dumb people making dumb choices and then being surprised their pipe dream didn't turn out.

I moved to LA in 2012. I had an apt lined up, a few solid contacts (did internships on the east coast), brand new credit cards I could max out if I NEEDED to, and 15K in the bank. 2017, I worked at the Oscars.

Like someone said above, you can't move across the STREET with 800. Why didn't they sell the car before they left?

It confuses me why people stay after being homeless. Clearly they can’t make it and would be better off going back to Detroit and finding an $300/month studio or room.

They have a dream r21. They believe they can't give up on their dream.

Yup, morons. Do your research before picking up and moving to a place you've never been. Find out the cost of living, estimate and plan your expenses, factor in the weeks or months you might be unemployed. Come up with a backup plan. Budget budget budget.

He could probably get work with Blacked.com

If these 2 are now eligible for food stamps and welfare, I feel sorry for the tax payers.

The article is framing a narrative of the harshness of LA and "bad luck." Um, no, this was stupidity. No money, no planning. I'm glad they seem to be "ok" now, but...you fucked up. And if they're that stupid and not pretty enough, they're fucked. Most of the instaho models in LA are broke, but they get by because they're hot.

She researched being homeless after the fact. Why didn't she research cost of living before they moved?

Why didn't they bring the car with them to the notorious car city? Or sell it before they left?

Did this friend who promised even know they were coming? He was “out of town” so either he lied or they didn’t think to check if he’d be around when they arrived.

The problem are these damn celebs who stand up there getting their Oscar or whatever who carry on about making their dream come true because they believed hard enough - as if that was all it took. I remember when Roseanne became the new big hit show, Roseanne Barr went on Larry King and said she, or anyone else has about as much of a chance becoming a rich successful tv star as they do winning a lottery. It just isn’t going to happen, and when it does it’s just dumb luck.

A bar back at SoHo House is a pretty good gig-I'm guessing 25$/hr easy with tips. With $700/month rent, if they save, they should be ok in a few months. At the very least, save enough to go back home. I live in DTLA and know people much worse off than they are.

Reading the story, I felt bad for them and still do. Homelessness and poverty are scary, stressful and dangerous no matter how it happens, so I do have sympathy and empathy. However, her father sold her car for $3,000, and she still stayed?! Their rent at the time of the car sale was somewhere around $700-$925. Well Jesus, $3,000 is only going to last about four months, and fame and fortune aren't coming in four months. Okay, she got a job, but she could have been a waitress back in Detroit. And the boyfriend? He could have gotten to be a better musician via gigs, rehearsals, joining a local Midwest band and making contacts (even possibly some LA contacts) while becoming a real musician back in Detroit, performing at college campuses and various places in Michigan and the Midwest. It takes time and a lot of work building a career.

It seems like he went to LA to "make it big," but not really to hone, refine and perfect his musical talent--before taking the big plunge to LA. And she should know you don't follow a boyfriend anywhere with no direction ans someone you met over the phone. Lesson learned the hard way.

I remember a 20-odd co-worker doing this back in the 80s, quitting her job and moving to LA with a boyfriend, with a couple of month's expense money saved up and without jobs waiting for them. Even then, I thought they were idiots, and the cost of living was far lower back then and housing was a lot easier to find. I heard through the work rumor mill that they came back after a couple of months and moved back in with their parents. Even then, picking up and moving to a new city was a huge risk, without marketable skills, expense money, and someone back home who'd take you in if it all went bust.

As for these idiots, they probably thought the one guy they knew in LA was serious when he said "Drop by some time, if you're ever in the area".

[quote]Choice tidbits: "They arrived last spring in possession of a promise, $800, two backpacks and two duffel bags."

WTF? Did they think it was still the 70s? Not in LA in 2019, honey!

[quote] 2017, I worked at the Oscars.

As what?

This being Datalounge, I’m guessing hair and makeup.

Those stories celebs tell about moving to NY or LA with nothing but a dream are mostly bullshit. They have family support, or friends to crash with, or they do sex work.

Sounds like the girl hitched her wagon to a load of nothing, throwing in with the guy. Dumb. Hope she dumps him before she gets knocked up. Chances of that are slim, though, as they both sound like terrible decision makers.

[quote]Actually a number of celebrities did move to LA with almost nothing, and they made it.

On their backs or knees.

Like Thimas Jane admitted, there is only way one to get by if you have nothing

[Quote]Hey, you grow up as an artist in a big city, as James Dean said, you’re going to have one arm tied behind your back if you don’t accept people’s sexual flavors. You know, when I was a kid out here in L.A., I was homeless, I didn’t have any money and I was living in my car. I was 18. I wasn’t averse to going down to Santa Monica Boulevard and letting a guy buy me a sandwich. Know what I mean?

So there never was a point that they weren't homeless.

Stories like this make me strongly doubt liberal cities' reports of the majority of their homeless being from the area. If showing up in a city with a backpack and $800 to your name makes you "not homeless" according to homelessness advocates, then those statistics are total bunk.

Fact is, West Coast cities with overly permissive homelessness policies are inviting hordes of outsiders who can't or won't take care of themselves, which also means that this problem will never be solved. A few cities in a few states can't bear the burden of the majority of the country's homeless.

Wow...to fellate Thomas Jane for the cost of a Big Mac!

The whole sordid saga reminds me of this AWFUL Dave Loggins song called "Please Come to Boston," which is probably the worst song to ever come out of the 1970s. It is a paean to stupid, gullible people who think they will find their dream of golden unicorns with just spunk and good faith. (God, I hate spunk.)

[quote]Those stories celebs tell about moving to NY or LA with nothing but a dream are mostly bullshit. They have family support, or friends to crash with, or they do sex work.

Years ago, a friend of mine told me a story about moving with no money to the "Big City!" She made it because she worked hard. Years into our friendship I found out her father was an Academy Award winner! They had money!

I was deeply annoyed at her.

Almost a decade later after I had forgotten that story I tried to tell a couple of kids how I moved with about $900 dollars because the rest of it went towards paying for my first month's rent and deposit. I told them that if they worked really hard and got out and met people they'd be fine. I slept on my floor. I had no food. Etc. "But I'm great now because I put myself out there!"

A few minutes after I was done recounting my youth, I later remembered I got my first job because I had a rich roommate who would buy me food and loan me the money for the rent, so I was able to hold on until I got it. However, I got my first job in entertainment (about 6 months into being in town) from a guy at a TV network I was dating.

I left that part out but it honestly didn't occur to me at the time.

[quote]Those stories celebs tell about moving to NY or LA with nothing but a dream are mostly bullshit. They have family support, or friends to crash with, or they do sex work.

I vaguely remember some incident back in the late 90s or early 2000s, in which a celeb's starving artist story was outed as bullshit. I can't remember who it was.

[quote]Does the city of LA offer services to the homeless like in nyc?

You mean the homeless people New York sends on a bus to Los Angeles?

R33 photo IDs for an agency. If the editors didn’t know what starlet was in the green dress, it was my job to find out who she was. Not very glamorous, but $500 for the day and the catering was as good as you’d expect.

Madonna claimed she arrived in NYC with $35 in her pocket and nothing else.

It was possible in the 70s and 80s. 100%. I’ve seen it.

"You can't even move to Nashville with just $800"

In the 70s and 80s, I always wondered why the non-mentally ill homeless came to New York...and ended up on the streets. There are HUNDREDS of better places to go to, why the most expensive city in the US? Why the mean streets (and they were mean) in the entire country???

R46 it’s always been possible. But you need to be very lucky or work very hard.

I have a teenage cousin from rural NJ who was talking about moving to NYC after high school. I told him to pump the breaks and think about a smaller city like Philly for training wheels.

I read this article last week about a mentally ill former college professor who lives in a homeless shelter in NYC. I really sympathized with this guy unlike the couple in the LA article.

Everyone wants to flock to NYC or LA. Geez. Most of these fucktards don’t even last.

What a couple of idiots. In fact I think they might be seriously deluded. Did they think they were going to be “discovered” while sitting at the soda fountain counter like in those 1950’s movies and figured that $800 would last for both of them until then?🙄

R45, Yes, and her brother, Chris Ciccone, spilled the beans in his little expose and his siter:

[quote]After all, she is a middle-class girl who propagates the story that she landed in Times Square with just a pair of ballet shoes and $35 to her name. But that’s pure mythology and the further she progresses, the more mythological her life story becomes.

[quote]Although our father wasn’t really allowed to tell us about his job because it was top-secret, he worked in the defence industry in Detroit, designing firing systems and laser optics, first at Chrysler Defense and then at General Dynamics.

[quote]Far from being this lost and friendless little waif who didn’t even have a crust of dry bread to eat, when Madonna went to New York she had money in her pocket, plenty of contacts and a support system all in place. I often wonder whether her taste for self-invention explains her attraction to both Sean and Guy.

*sister

If they didn't even consider hooking and porn, I have no sympathy for them. After all, if it's good enough for the First Lady of the Land, it's good enough for these nobodies.

They don’t even have a car to live in!

R40, I’ve been thinking of this song lately. The line I like is about LA, when he says “there’re some stars that fell from the sky living above me”. I like that metaphor.

It was possible in the 1970s. I think both Brett Butler and Kelsey Grammer said they came to NYC and slept in their cars while they were trying to make their way in NYC.

Also, before NYC gentrified, there were a lot of low rent hotels. You could also stay at the YMCA cheaply. Also, somebody I knew said for about two weeks, he stayed at the East Side Club bathhouse. Back in the 90s, you could get a room for 4 hours for something like $35. If you went really late, like 1:00 am, there was nobody there and you could get some sleep.

Back in the old days you could go and move to the city without much money, because you knew someone and could sleep on his couch until you've got on your own two feet.

Nowadays all people have are social media "friends" whom they don't know at all and can't be trusted to rant about you on social media for being such a nuisance.

[quote] Madonna claimed she arrived in NYC with $35 in her pocket and nothing else.

We know how Vadge supported herself.

Kelsey Grammer went to PineCrest prep school and then to Juilliard. I don't think that story is true.

Coming to L.A with only "possession of a promise, $800, two backpacks and two duffel bags?" How stupid can you get? What did they think would happen, that good fortune would just fall in their laps, the way it does to people in the movies? These two are idiots!

My mom went to LA as a single parent with two kids. Tennessee to CA on Greyhound. Recent immigrant to the US, barely spoke English. But we had family in LA who put us up until my mom secured a minimum wage job and a single room rental.

I live in a mid-size town in CA where half the folks are educated and pretty wealthy. We have a small but very visible group of homeless in tents. It's sad, actually. We could find solutions by discussing this. Take a Birdseye view off it all. I love shark and sarcasm here but homelessness is sad.

Sorry R63 here...typos from typing on my cell ...but y'all get the general idea..

Bitch gets a job at the new Soho House in DTLA and I can't even get an interview. And I'm in a better place than her.

Really going places

I have compassion for anyone who's struggling, but these two aren't suffering because L.A. and CA are so cruel and heartless. They're struggling because they're fucking stupid and dangerously naive. Even if you're just moving from one neighborhood to another in some Podunk Midwestern town, you still need at least a few thousand dollars to pull it off, which is one reason so many low-income people are stuck in place - they can't even scrape together enough money to move. So how the hell did these two simpletons think they were going to pull off a move to the most expensive state in the union with 800 measly bucks? Did they do any research at all about this move? And they BELIEVED the smooth talker who'd made them promises, with nothing to back it up? Have they never watched TV or a movie?

She seems to have followed his lead in this disastrous choice, which again, just shows us the poor judgment they're operating with - he's 20. Who thinks letting a 20-year-old's unrealistic career ambitions set the tone is a good idea? His rose-colored glasses' view of Detroit at the end of the piece tells you all you need to know. Fucking hell.

[quote]Stories like this make me strongly doubt liberal cities' reports of the majority of their homeless being from the area.

Everybody in California KNOWS a lot of these people are not from here. SF is well aware of it. There was a terrible story a couple of years ago about this poor deaf and blind homeless guy from NV who'd been put on a bus to Sacramento by the assholes at whatever hospital he had been at there - he had no idea where he was or why it had been done. The other passengers noticed him crying when the bus stopped and he had nowhere to go. They got him help, but the fact is other states feel free to use CA as their dumping ground, and it fucking sucks. There was another article a year or two ago that said that many of the homeless in CA basically have a circuit they travel, up and down the state. When the heat from the local authorities gets too much in one area, they tip each other off about where to go where they won't be hassled. So at any given time, someplace like Fresno with far less resources is playing host to SF's homeless.

In 1988 I moved to NYC with $500. Fortunately, I knew people who helped me get a job right away, and a place to crash. It worked out for me, but it could have gone wrong. I wouldn’t have wanted to move back home, but at least it was an option.

The world is completely different today than it was in the 1970s and 1980s. When I was in college, I lived in a dorm and had a 5-day a week pre-paid meal plan. There were many of us who had that, and could therefore have literally ZERO money for weeks and weeks. On weekends, you’d break into the kitchen and pilfer something, sponge off someone, or eat a dollar meal.

When I got my first apartment, I had four monthly bills: rent, electric, phone, and I splurged on cable TV, which I could have gone without. Oh, I must also have had car insurance.

Today, I can’t even tell you all the recurring monthly bills I have. I have 4 monthly heath insurance related bills alone. Cable TV; land and mobile phone; electric; condo fee; mortgage; data plan; wi-fi; property insurance; car insurance; umbrella insurance; property taxes on home; property tax on car; PC off site backup service; extra mobile storage plan; extra PC off-site storage plan; two online newspaper subscriptions...

A lot of that is “optional”, but I don’t think you can go long stretches with absolutely no money and still manage to fit-in with mainstream America, like you could in the past.

Just not having a smart phone puts you at a great financial disadvantage and prohibits you from participating in a lot of things. If you have no internet access at all, forgetaboutit, you’re toast.

I came to LA a long time ago with a bit of a better plan. I had an entry level job in a chosen field. I had savings from living at home; about $14K, a fortune in those days.

I have found success -- but not wealth; scraping by. Hoping to hang in there till things get better.

Hollywood is a toilet. So dirty and nasty. My cousin lives in Los Feliz for years. Hated it. Lived in a small apartment with 3 people. Does special effect makeup. Now lives in Pasadena. He had to work his ass off for years. But makes better money overseas on movies. Hard to get work in Los Angeles. I feel bad for them. But your going to have jobs waiting tables, etc. To stay there. My cousin worked at Hot Topic for years while to get makeup gigs. Most actors are Not going to tell you the whole story. They are full of shit. Thomas Jane was one of the few.

[quote]A lot of that is “optional”, but I don’t think you can go long stretches with absolutely no money and still manage to fit-in with mainstream America, like you could in the past.

[quote]Just not having a smart phone puts you at a great financial disadvantage and prohibits you from participating in a lot of things. If you have no internet access at all, forgetaboutit, you’re toast.

That is so, so true. Without some so-called "optional," but in today's world it really isn't. A smartphone and internet access, especially. If you don't have these things you are completely cut off from society at this point, and forget about having a career. Certain technologies have really become essential for us to be functioning members of society.

[quote]Without some so-called "optional," but in today's world it really isn't.

Sorry, that should've been "Some would call it "optional," but in today's world it really isn't."

[quote] They got him help, but the fact is other states feel free to use CA as their dumping ground,

This right here. Homeless people are being dumped all over cities in California, even the small ones. They come from red states and many of them are clearly out of their depth and not equipped to handle living in the West coast.

Male prostitution in California has risen in the last few years. Does anyone remember the "boys of the Boulevard?" It seems like we are having a resurgence.

I moved to NYC with no money in 1991 - maybe $200. But I had a job lined up. It was tough the first year. Got a summer shared dorm at NYU the first few months then transitioned to a shared apartment. Getting the first and last months rent for a place took over a year. It was tough - but part of the deal was living in near poverty for a while but being willing to sacrifice for the dream. I also had the benefit of a college education. But the job lined up was key.

The problem with dreams is then you wake up.

They're so young. Young enough to think "Nothing could be worse than being poor in Detroit, anywhere else HAS to be better than this!".

Because yeah, being homeless in a big city with a high cost of living is worse. And yes, in big cities with a high cost of living, it's painfully easy to tip into homelessness.

Can't they get a job and start from there? There are a lot of homeless wannabe actors all over L.A. Many even hang in groups at night.

A guy I knew had a substance abuse problem and stole $40 from me. A few years later he called me saying his parents kicked him out and he was living in his car. He wanted me to let him shower at my place. I told him I’d take him to an AA meeting, but he wasn’t setting foot in my home. Never heard from him again. He really must have been desperate to even consider asking me.

R67

Regular people largely know that most homeless in liberal cities aren't from there. And, more specifically, the visible homeless are generally from out of town. (Locals briefly down on their luck tend to keep a lower profile.) Anyone who works with the homeless knows this; although some seem willing to lie about it. But it's practically pulling teeth to get politicians and homelessness advocates to admit it.

My experience is that the local homeless in my city are painfully aware how much of our homelessness crisis is caused by outsiders, and they generally fear and loathe the outsiders. Local homeless, even those who are pretty far gone, still have a connection to the community and try not to make too much trouble. Outsiders, often enough, have no such compunction.

Can't they go home?

I ALWAYS made sure I had a place to live before I moved to a new city. Also I don't know how the economy is in LA but I'm not particularly skilled and can find a job in about a week if I need to.

[quote] Without some so-called "optional," but in today's world it really isn't. A smartphone and internet access, especially.

This why so many homeless congregate in LA's public libraries -- especially central library downtown. Free WiFi and they can't get kicked out. It's shitty, spotty WiFi, but hey, you can't beat anything free in LA.

Santa Monica did feed the homeless (I don't know if they still do). Midnight Mission feeds homeless people for three square meals a day, although it's located in a very rough section of the city.

[quote]. Got a summer shared dorm at NYU the first few months then transitioned

Wasn't the surgery expensive?

I went to New York with $40.00 and a dream!

I thought it was $35, Madonna. Where did you get the other $5?

Their instagram stories are quite proud of the article. "They're gonna make it."

I could not even imagine moving anywhere without first having a job and a place to live lined up - especially a major city like LA. I suppose it was possible in decades past (though not easy) but today it would be next to impossible to find a job right away.

The average rent for a 1 bedroom apartment in Los Angeles has gone up $700 per month over the past eight years. LA is a city of people barely hanging on, going into debt, just to keep the same roof over their head.

Any skills? Are they nice? This is the sad reality about the shit-hole banana republic, USA. Its not easy to know what to do when few options are available and they all suck.

What are they, 20? What kinds of jobs are there for 20 year-olds with no education to make a living wage?

I have sympathy for them, but they made a lot of startlingly poor choices. Splurging on a hotel room when you only have $800 to your name? Not enough money for Metro bus fare? -- they could probably find a water fountain somewhere with enough quarters for the $1.75. Hanging out with tweakers will only lead to further ruin.

[quote] What kinds of jobs are there for 20 year-olds with no education to make a living wage?

The best they can aim for with that pedigree is a shared room in a cramped apartment with various roommates. Their combined income + tips as servers should make it affordable. She actually found herself a sweet gig at SoHo house. Their work (he works a a restaurant) probably allows them to eat a basic meal for free, so that takes a chunk out of what they'd spend on food.

Between the STUPID decisions they made when they landed here and a casual glance at their social media, I totally expect them to be homeless again by 2020.

R94, they look like drama. Especially her. I suspect there is more to this story than what they have disclosed. Usually a young broke person can couchsurf for free on somebody's sofa here in LA for at least a short amount of time. That they never pursued that option, or that option wasn't available to them, tells me something is amiss.

They've actually received a lot of help and relief from different parties but don't seem very appreciative.

They're just going to have to build vast buildings of efficiency apartments for poor and/or aging people- or else we're going to have a homeless explosion soon.

The richest country in the world...

R95 don't you have to know people to couchsurf? They came here with no connections

It sounds like the only contacts they had were illusory-- the 'music producer' who vanished when they arrived in LA, for example.

R97, I'm pretty sure you just need to sign up for free and create a profile.

They could have used WorkAway too. You sign up to work on somebody's property for a set number of hours per day/week -- usually doing maintenance work/cleaning-- in exchange for a free room. It's actually a good way for young, broke people to travel these days. This couple just planned poorly.

R20 here. When I think about the "contacts" I had when I moved out here vs the people who actually became part of my life and helped my career, it's less than 50%. One person in particular has opened a lot of doors for me and continues to do so because I proved I worked hard for her.

Moving across the country with $800 is the definition of planning poorly. Their story could be used as a "How Not to Move to LA" without changing any details.

I noted that they mentioned arriving at LAX.

That means that they flew out from Detroit.

It would have been cheaper to travel by bus.

R101, agreed. They needed to Greyhound/Megabus themselves

I’ll pass.

One could do this in the 20th century. No longer. And this, the chance to struggle experiment and fail to succeed, was Americas greatest strength. Was.

The female has quite the manjaw...

r71- Is your cousin JR at Fractured? if so, I've been working with him for years- and yes he works his ass off, and is a really good artist. He should have won an Emmy for, "The Knick".

Does she have a weirdly-shaped body or is it those clothes?

Is she MTF?

From Detriot r101/r102?! That's like a 33hr drive.

In the world of low cost airlines like Frontier/Spirit, flying isn't even that expensive.

Wonder if he told their "contact" that he was coming or if they just showed up and called him? Either way, the guy who promised them to put them up is a sleaze and they are fools for believing it.

R110 it's probably as R31 described.

[quote]they probably thought the one guy they knew in LA was serious when he said "Drop by some time, if you're ever in the area".

And they took that as an invitation to actually drop everything and relocate there.

How much do you wanna bet that she'll be knocked up within a year or two? There are some people who just love proving wrong the saying "At least things can't get any worse"

Got to sell the peen.

R110 - there's no proof the contact said that he would put them up. It's this 20 yr old - and that's still a kid folks - and his pipe dream about being a rapper.

He met somebody from LA who probably said niceties - like look me up if you're ever in LA. That's just industry niceties - no one believes that shit.

Theyll be on drugs and she will be turning tricks in no time. Mark my words.

She's not exactly premium meat and neither is he. In order to successfully turn tricks, one needs to be somewhat attractive.

Do they know that their are cheaper cities right? I went to college in Indiana, and I was active in theater, though I never wanted to do it professionally. Several classmates moved to Chicago after graduate to pursue acting, not LA, in part because it was cheaper. I also know people that moved to places like Atlanta and Nashville because they were interested in music career. While those cities aren't cheap, they're a lot cheaper than LA.

Oh R115 , you've led a sheltered life hon. I worked a c-store once that was right on a whore stroll and you should have seen some of those skanks that got picked up all night long. Looks has very little to do with it.

EARLIER posts made mention of the 70s song "please come to boston".. actually in the song, the singer HAD MADE it in hollywood and WAS now a success, his selfish no career, no ambitions of her own "girlfriend" refuse to move with him to boston, then to denver, and finally to l.a..

selfish woman! wanted him to come back home to her, giving up his dreams and what made him happy and even when he was successful and a star she still wanted him to drop it all and come back to her wherever the hell they were originally from!

I read something about a homeless couple and their adult daughter in the San Jose area. They couldn't find housing because they wouldn't give up their 3, count'em, 3 pitbulls.

Why didn't they drive her car over to LA? Unlike other cities, a car actually comes in very handy [almost a necessity] here.

Patti Smith wrote romantically and nostalgically of how she and her gay lover Robert Mapplethorpe lived hand to mouth in New York City while they were "just kids" creating their "art" and pursuing their dreams of becoming rich and famous. Maybe these dopes read "Just Kids" and thought "Wow! That is so cool! WE can do that!"

They were both talented and also genius self-promoters. Also, the cheap housing no longer exists.

The female looks like she has hygeine issues.

You have a car, but you don't take it with you when you move to fucking LOS ANGELES? How stupid are these two?

[quote]Most actors are Not going to tell you the whole story. They are full of shit. Thomas Jane was one of the few.

What was his fake story?

[quote] Yes, those stories always omit the sex work that supplemented those lean pockets and big dreams.

Mine don't!

How do even pronounce "Loxk"?

Thomas Jane openly admitted to fucking guys for money when he was young and struggling.

R118, get some sleep, hon.

Even Al Pacino fucked guys -- errr, excuse me, "old Italian ladies" -- for room, food, and board when he was young and struggling.

"They were both talented and also genius self-promoters."

Well, both Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith were certainly "genius self-promoters." But "talented?" Not so much. They were just in the right place at the right time.

My husband us a therapist. More than one of his patients having a manic episode have called him from LA. They're going to make it big in LA. They're usually musicians/singer/songwriters ...bad ones.....who just know they'll make it in LA. They figure they'll go out there, pick up a few gigs in clubs for money until they go to see a music producer in person. That's all they need is to see Mr Music Producer in person and he'll give em a contract. "I've got to believe in myself. If I don't get out there and show I believe in myself, nobody else will."

My husband, when he gets one of these calls "You need to call your mom/dad right now and tell them where you are and you need to go home."

"Even Al Pacino fucked guys"

He probably closed his eyes and let gays with $ and influence do him. Robert Redford did, and probably hundreds of other actors did too. Although I don't know who would go back for more on Redford's tiny dick.

Where did you hear that about Redford? I'm not doubting you, I've just never heard casting couch stuff about him.

But the landlords come at night

with their warrants to evict us

And they tear futons apart

And the put us on the stree-ee-ee-ee-eeeeeeeeeet!

R134, I heard it from a theater friend of mine when I was in college around 1979. Judging by the other backstage info he knew, I totally believed him. And Redford had cooled off from the peak of his career, so I did not think it was fake gossip about the biggest movie star of the day.

This couple reminds me of the other couple profiled here recently, the one with two kids and over $700,000 in student debt. Criminally naive and unable to make rational decisions.

I'll never understand people like this; I always err on the side of excessive risk aversion myself.

R137 the two couples are in dissimilar situations, though. The debtors are fucked for life, especially if they default on that mountain of debt. This LA couple could get ratty jobs and start building something modest. Maybe in a different city.

The LA couple made a bad choice but they are both young, presumably healthy, and without dependents. They can (in theory, at least) recover and regroup. I expect there is a GoFundMe in their immediate future.

Don't they have parents? When I was in my early 20s if I did something stupid like this my mom would have let me come back home.

A rebuttal. Have they broken up yet?

R140, dude I was 43 when I lost my job -- the stupid part was having no savings -- I almost moved home, came the closest I ever had but Mom was like no, stay there in LA.

I stuck it out. Four years later I got a book deal and jobs to pay the bills came along too.

I've gone up and down; the key is to have a plan and have a great mom I suppose. If you're not lucky to have the latter make sure your former is a great plan.

r8, I moved 15 years ago with 15k, a free room in a relatives house for 3 months, and I still had a hard time.

Anyone currently have a couch available for someone to crash on for maximum three nights tops? I can pay a small amount.

$800.00 won't even get you far in Riverside, CA. Stupid dreamer!

R145 I dont quite have $800, are you in Riverside? How can i get in touch with you?

Anyone is West L.A.?

Hey, r146. I live in my Mini Cooper near the car wash that leaves their wi-fi on. You can bunk with me but I get to be on top. I hope you're not allergic to ferrets.