LILY LISA

BY ANTHONY EWART

In Homer’s “The Iliad” written during The Bronze Age (c. 1260 - 1180 BC), he tells us in his beautifully well-crafted verse that Helen of Troy, who was a Demigod (her father was Zeus), could be found “at her Loom.” Homer describes a magical quality in the weaving of the robes worn by Goddesses. Intentionally or unintentionally implying that the mystical robes worn by the Goddesses of that time were woven by Helen of Troy.

Dear readers, we have our own Beverly Hills Helen of Troy -- her name is Lily Lisa, or as the world knows her, Lucky Lily Lisa. In this Holiday Season we have to share the story of this incredible woman, fashion designer, creator of her own skin-care line, and most importantly, the most charitable person we have ever met at Hollywood Weekly Magazine. Many times just knowing that there is a real person making an effort to change the world can give you the confidence and motivation to believe you are not alone in trying to make a difference.

City of La Puente for her charitable efforts and and acts of kindness. This is the same Lily Lisa whose phenomenal dress boutique in Beverly Hills has brought her international fame. But Lucky Lily Lisa weaves beautiful dresses and she also weaves love. In fact, the love that Lily Lisa has been weaving in Los Angeles is truly something to behold. And what is amazing is that while Covid has forced many stores in Beverly Hills, including Lily’s to temporarily close, Lily Lisa’s website for her clothing designs and her incredible skin-care is fully operational 24 hours a day. How Lily Lisa is able to juggle her booming fashion and skin-care business while truly playing Florence Nightingale to the Angels in our city I really don’t know.

Lily Lisa has been supplying face masks to people in need. She’s given away hand sanitizers, rubbing alcohol, liquid hand soap, gloves and and even toilet paper. When speaking about Lily Lisa Mayor Klinakis said “All of these items are going to come in very handy, especially for our senior citizens. We are going to be putting packages together to deliver and on behalf of the City of La Puente I thank you for your noble gesture to insure the safety and well-being of our community.” Unbelievable. And this all started because Lily Lisa heard of their need in La Puente and decided to help the senior citizens of La Puente.

Lily Lisa has been a long-time advocate for the homeless. A spiritual, prayerful person, Lily Lisa, who always leads with her heart is an inspiration. Her efforts motivate us to be kind and generous with what we have. In an interview at the time of Lily’s award ceremony by the Mayor of La Puente, Lily commented, “The supplies have been hard for everyone to get but they are a necessities for personal protection. I am glad that I have done my part to help the La Puente community. My desire is that this will inspire more people to do the same. Together, let’s pray for the pandemic to be over soon, and then I believe that tomorrow the world will be more beautiful. God Bless America, God Bless the World.

Lily’s philanthropic heart has led to recent collaboration with a local food drive to contribute personal protection supplies in addition to food for those in need. Lily has also been supplying face masks, hand sanitizer, and gloves to All Saints Episcopal Church in Beverly Hills.

There was a collection of food organized by two local high schoolers and garnered over 2000 items to be sorted and bagged for the needy in the area by volunteers at All Saints. The church’s Outreach Director, Jean, commented, “We are going to be putting grocery bags together to deliver to people’s homes which will insure not only the safety but the well-being of our community”

All Saints also works in conjunction with the Good Shepherd Catholic church to help provide meals weekly for the homeless in Beverly Hills. For protection of those who serve the needy, Lily made a large donation of face shields, a thermometer gun, alcohol, gloves, and liquid hand soap. Lucky Lily always says “Love is beautiful, Love is from your heart,” and God and Nature know she lives those words.

I have saved the best for last. Truly. Because this was a matter of immediate life and death. When the postal workers at the Beverly Hills Post Office needed gloves and masks and hand saunters so they could interact with the public they had the funding to buy these items, the problem was almost all of the stores were sold out due to the pandemic. It was Beverly Hills Lucky Lisa, once again, spinning her golden threads of love to those in need. She gave the Beverly Hills postal workers at the post office the lifesaving protection they needed. That is why I say Lucky Lily Lisa is truly a weaver of all. A weaver of fashion. A weaver of love. A weaver of dreams of a beautiful world.

www.LilyLisaCollection.Com Info@LilyLisaCollection.Com

HOLLYWOOD WEEKLY - PAGE TURNERS

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Save the hassle of shopping for the latest gadget and share the gift of an amazing story with your loved ones this holiday. Bedside Reading is keeping the spirit of the holiday bright by offering complimentary downloads of our favorite books of the season through our novel amenity, on the download at luxury hotels. Be sure to follow @BedsideReading on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn for holiday cheer and gift inspiration to ring in the new year! ❄ BedsideReading.com

The Tenant by Katrine Engberg

An electrifying work of literary suspense from internationally bestselling author Katrine Engberg, The Tenant—heralded as a “stunning debut” by #1 New York Times bestselling author Kathy Reichs—follows two Copenhagen police detectives struggling to solve a shocking murder and stop a killer hell-bent on revenge.

When a young woman is discovered brutally murdered in her own apartment with an intricate pattern of lines carved into her face, Copenhagen police detectives Jeppe Korner and Anette Werner are assigned to the case. In short order, they establish a link between the victim, Julie Stender, and her landlady, Esther de Laurenti, who’s a bit too fond of drink and the host of raucous dinner parties with her artist friends. Esther also turns out to be a budding novelist—and when Julie turns up as a murder victim in the still-unfinished mystery she’s writing, the link between fiction and real life grows both more urgent and more dangerous. But Esther’s role in this twisted scenario is not quite as clear as it first seems. Is she the culprit or just another victim, trapped in a twisted game of vengeance? Anette and Jeppe must dig more deeply into the two women’s pasts to discover the identity of the brutal puppet-master pulling the strings.

Evocative and original, The Tenant smorgasbord of surprises” (People). promises “dark family secrets—and a

The Return by Nicholas Sparks

In the romantic tradition of Dear John, Nicholas Sparks returns with the story of an injured Navy doctor -- and two women whose secrets will change the course of his life in this #1 New York Times bestseller.

Trevor Benson never intended to move back to New Bern, North Carolina. But when a mortar blast outside the hospital where he worked sent him home from Afghanistan with devastating injuries, the dilapidated cabin he’d inherited from his grandfather seemed as good a place to regroup as any.

Tending to his grandfather’s beloved beehives, Trevor isn’t prepared to fall in love with a local . . . yet, from their very first encounter, Trevor feels a connection with deputy sheriff Natalie Masterson that he can’t ignore. But even as she seems to reciprocate his feelings, she remains frustratingly distant, making Trevor wonder what she’s hiding.

Further complicating his stay in New Bern is the presence of a sullen teenage girl, Callie, who lives in the trailer park down the road. Trevor hopes Callie can shed light on the mysterious circumstances of his grandfather’s death, but she offers few clues -- until a crisis triggers a race to uncover the true nature of Callie’s past, one more intertwined with the elderly man’s passing than Trevor could ever have imagined.

Hutchinson’s engrossing historical baseball thriller, “Dead Ball,” begins in 1912 when young St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Hal Gerecke unleashes a throw he’ll regret as long as he lives. Popular Boston Braves hitter Rube Wannamaker evidently never catches sight of the incoming fastball, and the next thing Hal knows, Rube is on the ground, unconscious and bleeding. As succeeding weeks pass, it becomes apparent that the errant pitch has left Rube in a permanent vegetative state. Gutted by the incident, Hal abandons baseball for married life with spunky Gracie Matthews, but recruiters for the newly formed and supposedly safer Mutual League of Professional Baseball soon pull him out of retirement. Certain folks, meanwhile— including mysterious baseball newcomer Johnny Wagner— haven’t forgotten Hal’s fateful fastball. Believing he purposely maimed Rube, they’re out for blood, and Hal’s life is in serious danger.

Under Lock and Key by Betty Bolte

Giles Fairhope reluctantly journeys to the Fury Falls Inn in the wilderness of 1821 Alabama for one reason: his beloved sister Cassie needs him after their mother was murdered. He plans to find his mother’s killers, ensure Cassie’s safety, and then go home. When Cassie tells him their mother’s ghost haunts the inn, he suddenly faces his dead mother amidst shocking memories from his past, unexpected changes in himself, and dangerous family secrets. The revelations change everything he thought he knew about his family and threaten his sister’s safety and perhaps even her life...

Limerick Comics by Robert Hoyman

Limerick Comics offers lighthearted original limericks on a wide range of history and science topics, each with an informational panel of surprising facts, presented in entertaining comics. Kids of all ages are invited to linger on each page to enjoy the humor, ponder inferences, and view the evocative details of each illustrated panel. This innovative blend of verse and fun facts is crafted to appeal to reluctant and advanced readers alike. Limerick Comics is a cross-curricular deep-dive sure to provide a springboard for discussion between kids and parents, or teachers and students.

Eye of the Moon by Ivan Obolensky

Percy, the narrator, begins as someone raised on the fringes of the elite, quasi-abandoned by his traveling parents. He is abruptly reunited with his pseudo-brother and pulled into his hijinks. They stumble upon the artifacts of the legendary socialite Alice, who had died mysteriously twenty years prior. Her letters and journals bring a darker world to light and the two men dive headlong into the shadows. This inadvertently involves everyone at the estate, including the butler, Stanley, who was the only confidante of Alice with hidden knowledge of what happened behind closed doors before her death. She still lives in the places lit with magic, her narrative woven tightly with Percy’s. What will be the cost of revealing the truth? Where does Percy ultimately belong?

The twenty-seventh entry in the #1 New York Times bestselling series isn’t just the biggest case of Stephanie Plum’s career. It’s the adventure of a lifetime.

When Stephanie’s beloved Grandma Mazur’s new husband died on their wedding night, the only thing he left her was a beat-up old easy chair…and the keys to a life-changing fortune.

But as Stephanie and Grandma Mazur search for Jimmy Rosolli’s treasure, they discover that they’re not the only ones on the hunt. Two dangerous enemies from the past stand in their way—along with a new adversary who’s even more formidable: Gabriela Rose, a dark-eyed beauty from Little Havana with a taste for designer clothes. She’s also a soldier of fortune, a gourmet cook, an expert in firearms and mixed martial arts—and someone who’s about to give Stephanie a real run for her money. teens, Lei’s world is rocked.

Stephanie may be in over her head, but she’s got two things that Gabriela doesn’t: an unbreakable bond with her family and a stubborn streak that will never let her quit.

She’ll need both to survive because this search for “fortune and glory” will turn into a desperate race against time with more on the line than ever before. Because even as she searches for the treasure and fights to protect her Grandma Mazur, her own deepest feelings will be tested—as Stephanie could finally be forced to choose between Joe Morelli and Ranger.

Borrowed Time – Book One: Broken Promises by Dänna Wilberg

Imagine being shot, thrown into a pool, and left for dead. But by some miracle you survive−only to be tormented by visions of young women being murdered… she can’t rest until she finds

When Suzanne Cash’s dead fiancé, Jack, appears during her near-death experience, she credits him for saving her life. But when he keeps reappearing, hijacking her sanity, and insisting she revisit her past, she questions his motives. Why would he lead her into the lair of a serial killer? And what is his connection to the victims? Detective Sam Metzger wants answers, even if it means suspending his disbelief about things unknown. As the body count rises, Suzanne’s visions become more frequent and Goldorado’s Sheriff’s Department is on the hook. Sam knows the clock is ticking, and although Jack is determined to help Suzanne understand her nefarious visions, lifting the veil to the other side is out of his control. After all, in the Universal Law of Cause and

Blood Orchids by Toby Neal

Overcoming a past filled with scars, Lei makes a life for herself and her dog, Keiki, as a cop in the sleepy Big Island town of Hilo. When a routine patrol turns up two murdered She knows one of the girls, and Effect, destiny must prevail.

answers—not only about the victims, but about her own shadowed past as well.

Blind Vigil by Matt Coyle

A friend arrested for murder. A vicious killer lurking in the shadows. A world of darkness. Blinded by a gunshot wound to the face while working as a private investigator nine months ago, Rick Cahill is now sure of only one thing: he has to start a new life and leave his old one behind. He’s still trying to figure out what that life is when his onetime partner, Moira MacFarlane, asks for his help on a case she’s taken for Rick’s former best friend. The case is simple and Moira only needs Rick for one interview, but Rick is wary of waking sleeping demons. Ultimately, he goes against his gut and takes the case which quickly turns deadly. Rick’s old compulsion of finding the truth no matter the cost—the same compulsion that cost him his eyesight and almost his life—battles against his desire to escape his past. The stakes are raised when Rick’s friend is implicated in murder and needs his help. Can he help the friend he no longer trusts while questioning his own lessened capabilities? His life depends on the answer as a shadowy killer lurks in the darkness.

In 1968 two young Vietnamese sisters flee to Saigon after their village on the Mekong River is attacked by American forces and burned to the ground. The sole survivors of the brutal massacre that killed their family, the sisters struggle to survive but become estranged, separated by sharply different choices and ideologies. Mai ekes out a living as a GI bar girl, but Tam’s anger festers, and she heads into jungle terrain to fight with the Viet Cong. For nearly ten years, neither sister knows if the other is alive. Do they both survive the war? And if they do, can they mend their fractured relationship? Or are the wounds from their journeys too deep to heal? In a stunning departure from her crime thrillers, Libby Fischer Hellmann delves into a universal story about survival, family, and the consequences of war.

The Ancestor by Lee Matthew Goldberg

When a man with amnesia encounters his lookalike in the Alaskan wilderness, he becomes convinced they are ancestors and remembers being Wyatt Barlow, a 19th century gold prospector frozen in time, fully thawed now and desperate to get back to his family by getting dangerously close to his descendant, who has the life and the love he left behind.

Never Say Goodbye by Kim Sakwa

She’s a famous songwriter who can’t remember a year of her life. He’s the British spy with all the answers. While walking through the tunnels of her family’s estate in the British Isles, successful singer-songwriter Amanda Marceau travels through time and into the arms of Alexander Montgomery, the Royal Navy Admiral who captures her heart. Months later Amanda’s forced back to the present with Alexander’s daughter, heartbroken they’ve been separated, and shocked to discover she’s pregnant. Hoping Alexander will find his way through time to her, she’s later devastated to learn he was killed for being a spy at the dawn of the American Revolution. Unable to cope with the horrible consequences, Amanda suffers an epic breakdown, and tucks away the memories that are just too much for her to bear. But Alexander Montgomery wasn’t executed, nor has he forgotten Amanda. He’s spent each day planning, searching for, and finding his wife and his daughter. He’s made the jump through time, and is using everything at his disposal to reunite his family in the twenty-first century. Then he learns that Amanda has amnesia--she can’t remember the time she spent in eighteenth-century Britain--and has no idea who he is. More determined than ever, Alexander knows it will take all of his love to restore her memory--or just maybe win her heart anew.

The Appraiser by R. Franklin James

Remy Loh Bishop carries a newspaper clipping labeling her as the incompetent forensic technician forced to resign under a cloud of supposed evidence tampering. Determined to prove her innocence, she secures an appraiser position in an auction house in San Francisco. Once a hobby, now a necessity, she stumbles on a dead body and once more faces being discredited. Remy befriends an older woman looking for an heirloom. The search uncovers a murderer and this time Remy is a target. Book One is the new Remy Loh Bishop Mystery Series.

Bond’s Sunbeam Alpine is pursued by the Three Blind Mice in a hearse.

Terence Young is under the camera directing Kitzmiller, Ursula Andress and Sean Connery on location in Jamaica

Cubby and Dana Broccoli, Sean Connery, and Jacqueline and Harry Saltzman, on location in Jamaica during the filming of Dr. No in 1962.

Film Festival Review Reviewed by Anthony Ewart

The Little Chapel Writer/Director Richard Schertzer

Writer/Director/Editor Richard Schertzer is a triple threat. To put this in perspective, Steven Spielberg has only direction one script that he wrote. That was of course "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977). Scherttzer's "The Little Chapel" is also about encounters. Paranormal encounters.

"The Little Chapel," Schertzer's short film submission to our film festival, is an engrossing nightmare in just under 5 minutes. A nightmare because Schertzer sets his story in the one place we think is safe. A church.

One actress, Jessica Cinquemani, holds our attention as unknown spirits vie for hers... Scary stuff. The film is beautifully shot, however. The eerie blue light of Schertzer's chapel has stayed with me...as have the scares. Richard Schertzer is a Writer/Director/Editor on the rise.

“I have worked in this field for a while and I’ve noticed that the industry looks like it’s run out of ideas with remakes and reboots. But it’s really run out of creative ambition where directors don’t make movies that they want to make. They make movies based on how big studios want them made.” Alaskan Long Hunters Writer/Director Marc Rose

Writer/Director Marc Rose is an aviator and former Alaskan hunter. In his short film "Alaska Long Hunters" based on his book "Last Of The Long Hunters," is a fascinating journey into Alaska pre-1980s, before the natural landscape of Alaska was reshaped into family-friendly parks devoid of wild animals.

with beautiful images of Alaska Rose shares harrowing stories of hunting life (by plane for caribou) in that early wild Alaska. This is definitely a pilot's movie or a film for anyone who loves aviation.

But at its core this is a movie about great storytelling, since reenactments aside, this is a colorful narration about meaningful events and moments that happened to people in a land far, far away, yet they emotionally and universally connect us. And... Rose has signed a pre-production agreement to turn this one hour movie into a feature film. Congratulations to you, Marc.

Little French Fish Writer/Director Eva Lanska

Filmmaker Eva Lanska is a graduate of the London Film Academy, majoring in cinematography. Her first film ended up in the Cannes Film Festival. I can tell you after watching Lanska's short film submission "Little French Fish," that Lanska is a filmmaker concerned with revealing the inner thoughts and emotions of her characters onscreen. Lanska's two leads, Britain's Jonas Khan and Devora Wilde with intoxicating intimacy. I can feel air as Devora exhales -- and I want to. Lanska takes me where I want to be: with these characters.

The colors in this film are gorgeous, as Lanska shows us Paris as only she knows it. "Little French Fish" is a believable, intimate, passionate cinematic portrait of two people struggling to protect the love they've created. A love that is threatened to be torn apart by cultures and dogma and just plain ignorance.

Eva Lanska is the author of five novels and it is abundantly clear that her goal is to give film audiences the same satisfaction one gets from reading a great novel. Mission accomplished, Mademoiselle Lanska, mission accomplished. Expect big things from Writer/Director Eva Lanska.

“The year 2020 has placed us in a new reality, and now I would like to see more films and books that leave the reader thinking about True values. I’m talking about the values of family and spirituality. I believe that an invisible thread connects all people in this world. To overcome difficulties, we have to unite by creating films, writing articles, and publishing books that teach us to accept and love each other.“

Dr. Sophia Romma is a fascinatingWriter/Director. She has more in common with David Lynch and Salvador Dali than most filmmakers. She's an accomplished playwright and has won numerous awards and is known for infusing surrealism and mysticism in her films. "Used and Borrowed Time" is her feature length submission to our film festival and clocks in at over 3 hours. The reason for this is at her heart, Dr. Sophia Romma is a dramatist and playwright, so her character s must speak...about themselves. They must reveal who they are...through words.

This is the trap that many novelists and playwrights fall victim to when writing screenplays. But Romma is more like a David Mamet when it comes to transitioning to film, except she's much more visual. A camera may hold on a leaf, or beautiful colors in nature. Bold colors. An explosion of colors. So Dr. Romma allows us to hear who these characters are while being stimulated and entertained by her creative camera angles and shots.

"Used and Borrowed Time" is a story about time travel. She has a unique twist to the cinematic flashback in that her main character actually travels back into her own timeline. It is the story of a blind jewish girl who falls in love with an African-American man in the south during the 60s. They were relentlessly persecuted by a southern racist family who also include incest in their bag of sins.

This film is a statement about inequality, hatred and bigotry which is of course very relevant today. Dr. Romma wants to turn her characters inside out and show their motivations, regardless of how disgusting it may sound. This is an adult movie made for adults who are capable of change. The horrors and pathos of this film is a road to change. “It is the duty of righteous men to make war on all undeserved privilege, but one must not forget that this is a war without end.” --Primo Levi

Gravel Wounds Director Demarcus Brown

Not since Billy Wilder's "The Lost Weekend" (1945) have I seen a film that tackles alcoholism in as realistic a way as Brown handles this material from a script by Jessica Waters. This is just great writing and directing, but most importantly, great actors. This movie just pops. The pacing is perfect to sustain the tension of the film. We are witnessing the destruction of a family due to alcoholism. The fallout is mesmerizing in its emotional intensity. Demarcus Brown has made a tiny masterpiece in just over ten minutes. The good news is that Demarcus and Jessica Waters will be teaming up for several more projects, one of which is a feature film. Demarcus and Jessica Waters are a filmmaking duo to keep on your radar.

SUBMIT YOUR FILM

GET REVIEWED

(424) 371-9900 HollywoodWeekly@gmail.com