My Holland Taylor Story and Why ANN Rocked
Almost a year ago, I was loitering on Twitter talmbout randomness and being the fool I am when I got a tweet that made me almost fall out my chair.
Back when my username was @Luvvieig. It’s now just @Luvvie
I went to her page and saw the verified checkmark and ALMOST fell out my chair.
Holland Taylor thinks I’m funny! WHAT IS MY LIFE?!?
If you don’t know who Holland is, you should. She’s an actress who’s been in the game for decades! I’m talmbout before some of us were even born. She’s been in TONS of stuff. The woman stays working (you can see her IMDB page).
For the baby boomers, she was in Bosom Buddies in the 80s (with Tom Hanks). And for the younger folks, she was in The Practice (playing that judge who ain’t take shit from anyone. And hey Dylan McDermott, hey). And the Truman Show with Jim Carrey. She played Charlie Sheen’s mama on Two and a Half Men too. But you can’t forget that she was Reese Witherspoon’s tough as nails Law School professor in Legally Blonde. The one who side-eyed her into getting her life together.
THAT Holland Taylor thought I was funny. Chile, I couldn’t fave that tweet enough. It was May 3, 2012 and I made a new friend in an Emmy Award-winning actress (and comedic goon) I’ve admired for years. I could not believe it.
I don’t know how she found me and I didn’t even notice she was following me until I got that tweet and I was floored. You really never know who’s reading your words (especially when you turn off your Twitter email notifications).
Me and Holland talk over Twitter pretty frequently. And apparently, she’s been learning the lingo I use frequently (she’s part of the reason I created that glossary of my terms). One day, she asked me what shade was.
@HollandTaylor Ah ok. Wells, #shade is the act of roasting someone or throwing sarcasm and side-eyes their way. It's an art
— Awesomely Luvvie (@Luvvie) May 5, 2012
@ReignOfApril @luvvieig HA Ha! I guess I have been! & I agree, it's an art, but I've had a long time 2 work on it. Glad to learn the image
— Holland Taylor (@HollandTaylor) May 5, 2012
She ain’t e’em know she had been throwing shade for decades. But the fact that I taught her the phrase tickled me.
We’ve talked about so many things. Like when I got my nose ring, she showed me a pic of her tattoo. And I was all HOLLAND GOT A TAT?!? Like a real G she does. And she told me about the time she almost double-dutched and thought it’d be better for her to watch. She e’em gave me the recipe to her favorite martini (I’m not about that martini life, doe. I like my drinks fruity and sweet. Like liquid starburst). Or the time I was acting a good ass fool and she told me to go to bed OR ELSE… (and I went to bed because I could not win that battle).
I even got her watching Basketball Wives. I should be ashamed of myself for that but it ain’t my fault. She saw me livetweeting it and now she DVRs it and watches when she can. I’m a bad influence sometimes.
@luvvieig Evelyn.Soo cool, collected. "We in Tahiti bitches" Keesha's coughing.Tami "just I get offended when someone coughs OUT like that"
— Holland Taylor (@HollandTaylor) June 3, 2012
Anyway, Holland is the homie, and I’ve wanted to meet her. We almost met last year when I was in LA for a week (working on a TV set. ANOTHER Twitter connection story) but I ended up spending the entire time in Calabasas and she was like 40 minutes away so that didn’t happen.
Then the play she’s been working on and performing around the country for 3 years, ANN, got on Broadway in New York at the end of last year. It was a huge deal for her and she’d been working her butt off on that play and it was getting such great reviews!
So many notables had already gone to see the play (Bill and Hillary Clinton, Senator Gabrielle Giffords, Meryl Streep).
I visit NYC relatively often. When I told Holland I was coming to NYC this weekend, she invited me to her show but told me not to tell her when so she wouldn’t be distracted. Her wish was my command and on Friday, I went to the 8pm showing at the Lincoln Center with my bestie, TC.
ANN is an autobiographical one-woman play about Ann Richards, former governor of Texas and political dynamo.
Ann Richards came from a small town in Texas and dared to believe her dad’s repeated affirmation that she was smart and could to anything. Well, that anything turned out to be becoming the first woman elected to become the governor of Texas (and only the 2nd female governor ever. First was Ma Ferguson in the 20s). She defied more than a few odds to win that seat, like being a recovering alcoholic, a divorcée and a Democrat in an extremely conservative state.
Ann was a woman who wanted to see the world more just and everyone treated fairly. But Ann stood out because she was no-nonsense, and was funny as hell. She could not help it. She had a potty mouth and loved dirty jokes but was still a gahtdamb lady.
And that’s what I loved the most about the play. ANN is a history lesson you don’t mind learning. Because Holland’s portrayal of Ann was awesome and filled with so much humor. I laughed out loud so many times during the show and if I could, I would have written down ALL the hilarious quotes. I do remember one:
“I get a lot of cracks about my hair, mostly from men who don’t have any.”
But the play was truly awesome because you forgot you were watching an actress on stage. Holland transformed into the character in a way that was just amazing. The accent, the mannerisms and little quirks and the look. She owned it, and became Ann Richards for those two hours. I loved it! And I could see why it has been extended through September 1. At the end, I wanted to learn more about this epic woman she portrayed. So dope.
Holland had arranged for me to come see her backstage afterwards. When me and TC were taken to the waiting section, along with 12 other people, I was excited that I’d finally get to meet her. I figured it’d be short, since she had to be exhausted and others were gonna meet her too.
As we sat there, someone comes up and says “Are you Luvvie? Holland wants me to bring you to her dressing room.” It was her personal assistant. WHHHAAA?? Really?? And he took us down the hall to her room, where she was getting out of her wig and show stuff.
Holland’s dressing room
She gave me a HUGE hug! I told her how amazing she was in the show. She told us to feel free to sit and look around as she goes to change into some regular clothes. Her only warning was no pics of the letter from the White House. Duly noted. And YESSSSSSSS!!! Me and TC were like “OHMYGAH! WHAT IS LIFE?!? THIS IS AWESOME!”
When she finished getting dressed, I realized how tiny she was. Yes, *I* told her how little she was and she says she’s lost weight doing this show. 8 shows a week will do that to ya. She is even supposed to be on voice rest when she’s no onstage.
And then we took pics!
This picture was Holland saying “Let’s look at her adoringly.” And me being like “HA!”
Then we all leave her dressing room so she could go say hi to the others who were waiting. Holland ends up sitting in a circle with everyone and answering questions they had about the show. She introduced me as “Luvvie is a well-known bloggist. We met on Twitter a year ago and became fast friends.”
I love that she called me a “bloggist” instead of blogger.
She chatted with the group for about 20 minutes, and then had to go rest her voice and body. But before we left, she took more pictures and signed folks’ playbills. She put a bunch of hearts on mine before signing it. And we took one more pic for the road.
We got photobombed by the painting behind us.
It was an amazing night. Dinner with my bestie, taking in the play (and acting like a cultured grown up) and meeting Holland. I was on cloud 9.
Life is wild. The fact that Twitter connected me to someone I have been watching in TV and film for years speaks to the power of social media. At it’s best, it expands our world and can really change our lives. Meeting and befriending folks like Holland has been surreal for me. She found me, read my words and fell in love with my wit. This crazy web we weave! And she’s a fellow Capricorn. WIN.
It’s truly a blessing. Life can be so random and dope sometimes that you have to tell yourself to stop and soak it in. Like Ann Richards said “The here and now is all we have, and if we play it right it’s all we’ll need.”
Thank you, Holland. <3
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43 Comments
This is so cute!! I’m glad you got to meet her finally! The way you felt about that tweet is the way I felt when I first got on twitter and Heavy D and Idris Elba DM’ed me and Solonge Knowles Tweeted me. I damn near died. I literally almost died and came back when Idris told me I had a nice picture…didn’t go much further but I was like My gawd!!!
My future baby daddy DM’ed you? I’ma have to tell me man to stop flirting and carrying on in the interwebs lol.
OMG!!!! I am so jealous of this entire story!!
This is straight dopeness!!! She is a side eye, shade throwing Alum lol. Glad you got to meet her. What a humbling experience.
OMG! I have loved her FOREVER! And yes I’m so jealous but something in me said she was a G lol
This is AWESOME! I’m SO glad that you got a chance to see the play. Holland is an awesome actress and I love her in everything I’ve seen her in. I’ve only read great things about the play.
The next time someone says “It’s just twitter”, I’m sending them the link to this post.
Great pics of you and Holland, too!
This entire story makes me smile like I was there. Congrats lady!
Holland Taylor is #thatdiva. i love her work. what a great story!
How awesome are you?! To be able to do what you love and then get constant validation from people you admire that you’re great – that is the life!
I interact with a lot of famous people too.
I once met Diddy’s baby moms at a pizza joint. And by ‘met’ I mean I stood behind her in line and hummed “It’s All About the Benjamin’s” until she picked up her pepperoni pie and left.
So yeah, I’m right there with you 😐
This made me CACKLE.
Girrl, I was with until you got to the part about the pizza joint. Laughed so hard that my liver ’bout fell out. 🙂
I am slumped over on my desk trying to keep from laughing out loud. Tears rolling down my face and errthang!!!
Awww this is a great story! I remember someone tweeting that they followed you on twitter because of Holland and me replying that I followed Holland because of you…she responded too, commenting on the ties that bind us…
That is so awesome! I love her, she’s an excellent actress.
Way cool. I love her!
Aaawww!!! Great story! Holland seems like cool and funny ppls.
I met Mamie Parris, an actress from the play Wicked while I was working and she suggested ANN, and after reading the rave reviews on it, i’m hoping to see it soon, and who knows, maybe I can meet Holland too? hehe 🙂
Awesome story on leading up to you finally meeting Holland Taylor, Luvvie
i think this is one of my most favorite blogs that you’ve ever written – 3 strong, amazing women who are doing/did the damn thing!!!
i’ve always been a fan of Holland’s and i LOVED Ann Richards – i’m a Texas girl and voting for Ann Richards was the first election i was eligible to vote, which meant everything to me as an 18 year old girl!
so happy that you got to meet Holland in person – thanks for sharing!
Wow Luvvie…what a great story. I do hope that you know how gifted you really are. I found your corner of the interweb by doing a search on Scandal recaps to catch up on past eps because I just started watching the show this season. Then, I discovered all of the other stuff you write about and started following you on Twitter. I’ve shared lots of your posts and now some of my friends read your blog, too. In fact, I shared your Rick Ross post on FB (just recently), and at lunch one of my colleagues said…”yeah, that Luvvie…” I was like…”you started reading her blog, too. Saying all of that to say…”Go ‘head, girl!”
What a great story!!! You are blessed!
This was inspirational. She seems like a nice, down-to-earth person. It’s always nice when you meet your heroes and they are the person that you thought or better than you thought. I think I’ll learn more about her work. 🙂
Lord I love this!!! It made my day!! Sooooo glad you got to meet her.
While most of us are consuming laughs and randomness on the the “internets,” you are ACTIVELY engaging with TONS of people, and having great life experiences along the way. Inspiring. Keep rising! You are doing life right. You’re like, the kid that played video games too much, but then became a professional gamer 🙂 You rock!
Your meeting Holland Taylor and this post is such a wonderful tribute.
As a born and raised Texan, Ann Richards was an amazing woman and an equally great politician. I’m so pleased that this play is a labor of love for Holland Taylor. It’s wonderful to hear how much she does Ann justice.
I remember Holland Taylor from Bosom Buddies very well (I’m old enough). I’m glad someone let her know about #shade and look forward to her throwing more in upcoming projects.
“The fact that Twitter connected me to someone I have been watching in TV and film for years speaks to the power of social media.”
More proof that the phrase “It’s just Twitter” is shullbit. Go, Luv!
I’m all misty, awwwwwwwww.
I love this whole story. When I meet you I’m writing a story just like this one. You go girl.
I read this whole post smiling like a fool! I’m smiling now! OMG!!!!!! I would have needed my inhaler! That was too much awesomeness 😀
i always liked her! i’m going WAY back but i remembered the small role she had in car wash…but on 2 and a half men she threw major shade!!
awesome post luvvie! u doin big thangs…
Loving this! Like someone stepped out of the TV & into your “real world” 🙂
This is too funny because I was watching The L Word last night and Holland’s character was giving Bette mad shade. I was loving how she ain’t have time for Bette’s BS, but then Bette earned her respect. I’ve always adored Holland. She also has one of those beautiful “come hither” voices. I love it when I find out people love folks that aren’t necessarily in the huge spotlight, but are way too cool to go unmentioned. Yea for Holland… Off to follow her on Twitter. Methinks Holland will have tons of new followers today… You never who is on Twitter watching you act up and loving errr bit of it. hahaha
Cheers to Holland! Here! Here!
Yessss I LOVED Holland as Helena’s momma in The L Word!!!She was not only throwing all kinds of shade, she took “I’m rich bitch!” to a level never imagined! I was here for Peggy Peabody honey! She got whatever she wanted! You go Luvvie!!! Holland is THAT girl!!!
I’m in awe, loving this … just recently I commented to my daughter about the foolery we see/hear in social media continuously. It’s so great to see the good and you bring it – which is why you are one of three FB bloggist that I follow. (I’m a baby-boomer and haven’t evolved into the twitter world.) Keep doing what you do!! It so matters!!! And the humor – luv it.
I remember when she told you to go to bed… and you WENT!!!!!!!!! ROFLMAOO!!!!!
i love Holland Taylor too much. ISWEATERGAWD when she tol’ you to go to bed or else, i fell out.
she’s tweeted me a few times as well, she told me that she will bring ANN to Austin at some point so i can see her.
she was one of my mom’s faves, i told her and she responded so kindly and said she was sorry my mom couldn’t take me to see her play. like, this is my LIFE?!?!
girl, you are the cutest and bestest. i love this blog the most of all the blogs ever. xo
That story just blows me away. Incredible. Incredible.
(Putting ANN at the top of my to do list the next time I’m in NYC )
how AWESOME is this?!?!?!?!? Knowing that Ms. Taylor is a goon and the story of how ya’ll meet is incredible. Now, tell her to bring that play down to Texas cause we know’d who Ann Richards is and I wanna see it now. Way to live your dreams Luvvie 😉
(Delurks) …….Luvvie you have just convinced me to go back to Twitter. I never got the hang of it and I only go on for your live tweets. BUT. I think I need to return and chill and see what it’s all about.
You of course must now refer to yourself as a bloggist. Holland has spoke it so. That was a fantastic story Luvvie! What an opportunity!
Love your review! Just got mine posted, I got to see it the day I left for my birthday week off so I was a bit delayed in getting it posted.
Seeing the performance inspired me on so many levels as I can see it did with you as well!
For me my ‘having my blog recognized by a celeb moment’ actually started with Rev Run, he re-tweeted one of my first inspirational blog posts, and it was picked up by celebs in his timeline and I was definitely blown away! Then when I saw Kim Coles as one of my Google Friends Connect Follower I was jumping up and down as I think she is awesome, and then I got tweeted by Dita Von Deese and almost passed out!
I love the term ‘bloggist’, and had to laugh that you defined ‘shade’ for her!
That is awesome!!!! How exciting… I’m from Texas and honey Governor Ann Richards was ON IT!!!!
Love this story. Love Holland Taylor. And truly love you Luvvie!
This gave me ALL of my life and I really did live vicariously through you in reading this post. Holland Taylor?! Beyond cool.