Meetings and the Porphyria Virus

Had meetings all day today with the writing staff-we're trying to find a way to expand the role of one of the actors, I hate to waste talent.

Finally got my immigration photo, ugh..I hate it-after the long flight from Italia I look so tired and harried.

Saw some of the cast today. After her test shots, Ruth was talking with Storm about decorating her condo, she and Josie are sharing a four bedroom condo on what we affectionately have termed "Actor's Way". The studio has brought two condos on the same street for those actors who are commuting more frequently to thier hoods. Each actor has thier own private suite with ensuite bathroom. So bewteen scenes they can relax in thier suite or explore the hood. Thankfully we're trying to arrange the shooting schedule so that the actors can work in blocks-(ie, most of Alexis scenes will be filmed in the beginning of the week, leaving the end of the week free for her to spend time in Eden, or having most of Alexis scenes for the season filmed now, so that she can return to Eden for some months) but sometimes that isn't possible. For example, Ruth's character has a lot of scenes so her schedule is pretty hetic, so is Chad's schedule.

We tapped a 'newbie' to the industry to play Erika and she has been nervous eversince landing in Apple Valley-she's scared that she'll mess up her 'big chance'. Thankfully Shawn said that Josie and Ruth had taken her out for a late lunch and calmed her down. Speaking of Josie, we had a near scare with her last night.

I was awakened at 3am with the call that Josie was rushed to the hospital. Apparently she had become infected with porphyria after attending a coffee house downtown. The doctor said that porphyria is a virus that disrupts the production of heme and that sims with extreme cases of this disease are very sensitive to sunlight, causing them to be nocturnal and avoid all light. Also that sims with porphyria can have red eyes and teeth and that porphyria sufferers "crave" the heme in blood and the consumption of blood might ease the symptoms of porphyria. Thankfully the virus is not contagious unless the infected sim bites another sim and since Josie was sent to the hospital in time, she was given a vaccine and cured of the virus by later this morning. They're trying to find the sim that infected her, goodness, this is the last thing I need-a porphyria stricken cast.