Hollywood is not a normal place. There is nowhere else quite like it. Sure it can be glamorous, after all, dreams are made here, stars are born, billion dollar deals are made and everyone seems young, beautiful and rich. But you don't need me, or any commentators, anonymous or not to tell you that it also has a very dark side. Everyday we read about bankruptcies, breakdowns, rehab, arrests, drugs, overdoses, etc. People willing to do anything, including selling their souls for fame and money.
When you live here, the dingy and depressing side to Hollywood quickly seeps into everyday life, and it becomes difficult to escape. The girls who never eat and spend the night in the bathroom. They're desperate for acceptance and attention and are hanging off anyone who can promise them a meeting or an audition or an introduction. The men who talk big and fast, who are always richer and more successful than the next guy. They're always working on a big deal, scoring a big movie, or producing one, or directing one, or filming one, or blah blah blah. It gets tiring, all the fakeness, all the insecurity, all the desperation.
It's like everyone is wearing a mask, and I often wonder who these people used to be. Very few are born and raised here, most come out west chasing a dream. Out of those few that do make it, many end up throwing it away or are so desperate to hold on to it, terrified of some up and comer, that they can't handle the pressure and need some kind of mental escape. Most never make it of course and after years of rejection, not being pretty enough, skinny enough, tall enough, young enough, ripped enough, they are left with the shell of what they once were. It's sad, and it's been happening since the beginning of Hollywood and will continue long after this blog is gone.
Satara Stratton, 24 year old actress originally from Tennessee moved out to Hollywood from NY last year. At some point she became addicted to heroin and went missing in November. Her mother says that Satara was abducted and held captive for four months by a registered sex offender who tortured and drugged her. Satara was found at an LA hospital and is being treated for some external injuries, bruising and drug withdrawal.
Prior to her disappearance, Satara was arrested several times, once for possession of drugs inside a hospital. Police are now looking for her captor.Such a heartbreaking story, but sadly one that is not that uncommon.
I hope that Satara gets her life back and her captor is found. Whether or not she was in fact kidnapped is another story.
I feel like I need a shower.
ReplyDeleteGross.
I never realized how much I appreciate Arial because that serif font is crazy hard to read.
ReplyDeleteI was reading about this a few days ago on a true crime forum. Here is a snip from the article:
ReplyDeleteSatara’s mother states that her daughter was being stalked by a sex offender. Sharon, Satara’s mother, states this man, who is identified as Paul Constantinescu, told her that he planned to get Satara hooked on drugs (heroin apparently) and hold her hostage. According to the WRCB article, Constantinescu was the last person to speak with Satara and now police can’t find him.
According to Sharon last June Satara suffered a severe kidney infection that landed her in the hospital. During that hospital stay Constantinescu and a second person “pushed drugs” on Satara and then did the same thing later on when she went into rehab. Now, this may just be a version of the story that a daughter tells her mother, there appear to be indications that Satara had been having drug problems for quite some time (long before this past June) since reports state she had had several run-ins with police involving drugs. In addition her mother states that shortly after Satara went to Hollywood “she became ill”. This may very well have been Satara’s explanation for drug abuse.
Irrespective of whether this is how Satara started taking drugs or not, that Constantinescu cannot be found for questioning in Satara’s disappearance is just a little more than concerning. Apparently Detective Carmine Sasso with LAPD’s missing persons unit has decided that as well. He states:
If she needs help and is unable to ask for help, either by threats or intimidation, we need to determine if that’s what’s going on.
Sasso states they know where Constantinescu works (or worked) and went there last week, but Constantinescu was not there. The business was boarded up. An NBC 4 employee went there and a person apparently associated with the former business told them they had seen Satara “about a month ago” but had not seen Constantinescu in “recent days”.
In light of everything I've read here in the last few weeks, I'm not sure what to believe...
anita_mark - Haha! I was thinking that as well.
ReplyDeleteThe fakeness does get really tiring. I grew up here and I still can't handle LA some days, especially since I'm not in the movie industry. I can't even begin to describe how horrendously awful actors can be. On more than one occasion, an actor has walked away in the middle of my sentence "I'm not involved in the industry..." It's pathetic
WOW! I hope she is able to kick the habit and that his ass gets thrown in prison.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'm world weary, I feel as if every city has that group of people who are insecure and greedy and ego centric. They are so tiresome and their desperation is so hard to be around.
ReplyDeleteAnd with that, I'm now heading back to the smiling, handcuffed, George Clooney...
ReplyDeleteLooking at the pictures, I'm sure she was one of the prettiest girls in her school/town. She goes to Hollywood and finds out that there are thousands of other girls that are just as pretty all fighting for the same 3 second spot on a commercial.
ReplyDeleteVery sad to look at the other photos and see what happened to her. I hope that she can overcome this and be happy with a normal life. Of course, she may get a reality show now (cynical I know)
so sad. a beautiful girl with such hope reduced to an addict who will fight that demon with every breath for the rest of her life.
ReplyDeletethe person responsible should be punished. this is basically a murder .. murder of someone's soul
A friend of mine tried the acting thing... got to hang tight with Al Pacino and some other boys and went to H'wood and now he's getting out of rehab for heroin addiction, moving back to a normal place and turning his back on that world forever. Why is it that we even idolize these actors anyway?
ReplyDelete@Smasherstein
ReplyDeleteThat's what I was thinking. Living like that would make me sick. I'd probably move the second I was able to if I were from there. No offense.
This is extreme, but sadly not rare at all.
ReplyDeleteBack in the late 80's in an alleyway behind a recording studio I watched a middle-aged, slobby guy holding a vial of coke in front of him as he walked backwards leading a scrawny, disheveled girl (teen?) to who-knows-where to do who-knows-what. The girl actually didn't look much different than the bottom picture here. I have often wondered what happened to her. My friends and I did nothing because this was a pretty normal H'wood scene back then and we weren't exactly angels either. I suck...now I need to make an amends.
I saw this same soul sucking phenomenon living in San Diego, it was so sad and disappointing.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't so much fame people there were after, just money and status. Watched many beautiful girls starve themselves to death for no reason other than to look good in a bikini.
At 125 lbs, I was the "fat friend".
Most of them started using meth, the few who didn't did land the mega-rich husband but are miserable in their marriages.
I have a friend who went to college in San Diego and she always talks about how hard it was to always have to look perfect and that everyone was so self absorbed. I thought she was exaggerating about it. Thanks, Henny now I will cut her a little more slack.
ReplyDeleteVery sad indeed. There is not doubt that Hollywood is one Fd up crap hole. Unfortunately there are thousands of women and children who are being held has sex slaves in this country, I don't even want to begin to think how many worldwide. Just to horrific to comprehend.
ReplyDeleteI love living in L.A.
ReplyDeleteI am not in the industry, and for as many perfect bodied pretty women there are, there are overweight shlubs. It's all about how good you feel about yourself.
Those mugshots sure do look like a completely different girl than the topmost one, don't they. What a frightening ordeal she has been through, I hope she makes it out okay and all the other people - whether they are in Hollywood or not. Sadly, the impulse to fit in is prevalent whether you are in Hollywood trying to get famous or just living your life in the "normal" world.
ReplyDeleteKidnapped?? Okay...call me doubtful but that's a meth/heroin progression if I've ever seen one. If she got kidnapped so did Jeremy London.
ReplyDeleteWow. Just wow. The sequence of those photos is absolutely haunting.
ReplyDeleteYears ago when I was about to graduate from college with my degree in acting, my acting teacher gave us all a lecture. He told us there would always be someone out there who wanted a part more than you do and who would be willing to do what you aren't to get it.
ReplyDeleteI found that out.
I also met a girl from a small town in Virginia who was an aspiring actress. One day she called me very excited because she met a man who told her if she signed with him, he would make sure she only slept with the "right" people. I told her he was a pimp and never to contact him again.
I ended up leaving LA not long after that (due to discouragement with my own casting couch experiences - I wouldn't play the game). I have no idea what happened to that girl. I hope she didn't end up like this one.
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ReplyDeleteGD, poor thing looks like a Faces of Meth pix series.
ReplyDeleteWomen goes to L.A. to be a big star. Women comes up missing, but leaves behind a series of mugshots, not glamour shots. Mom tells a tale of instant drug addiction purposely imposed on missing daughter. Mugshots aren't dated, but they might hold a different tale. I hope she fights her needle dreams and monsters. Other than that, she's just another addict to me. Pretty can mean wise.
ReplyDeleteI fall somewhere between Smasherstein and Pasrissucksliterally.
ReplyDeleteI love living in Los Angeles, and I've lived here most of my life (moved here as a young school girl). The hideous shallow superficial people Smasherstein decribes definitely live here, and they are as horrible as you can imagine. Thing is, you don't have to hang out with them or interact with them in any way if you're not in the industry (which I'm not). My only complaint is the high cost of living and real estate. So I live in 1000 sq ft instead of 3000 sq feet. Point is, I have a family, friends, job and life that all make me happy. The idiots shopping at Kitson all day and hanging out at (insert club-of-the-week here) all night aren't in my world, even though they are in my town.
We may not control the cards we are dealt, but we control how we play them. You can make a good life or a bad life for yourself anywhere.
Anyway, I'm glad this poor woman was found alive.
Having grown up in L.A. and now living in L.V. (and living A LOT of places in btw... London, D.C. to name a couple), I can tell you it's bad everywhere but the WORST is L.A.
ReplyDeleteShe became a heroin addict in one year? I think Mom believes what she wants to hear.
ReplyDelete@Mango ----> heroin is an extremely addictive drug. That is absolutely possible.
ReplyDelete@ the fame whore
ReplyDeleteGlad you could get out when you did and you could share some of your experience.
It seems the older I get, the less I understand about people and their motivations and how they get seduced by that lifestyle-the hunger for money or fame or that lifestyle. It seems so foreign to me, something that I had never wanted for myself.
I have always been the bleeding heart type-trying to help the world in my own little way. Some people told me what I did was an exercise in futility; that what I tried to do was as helpful as a drop in of rain in the ocean. I have always felt that if I never tried, then I would be part of the problem.
When I was in high school, my father told me that being a bleeding heart would eventually break my heart. I wouldn't be able to save every poor soul in the street, every tree in the forest and stray dog in the street. He was right. I had to eventually accept there was a limit to what I could do. As long as I try and I don't give up, then I have succeeded and that is what I try to tell my daughters.
I guess that no matter what your lifestyle goals are there is always a chance that the pursuit of that goal can suck you up and spit you out, leaving you feeling empty and defeated. It is easy to get lost in the pursuit and lose yourself along the way.
I am sorry to hear about that young lady. I am sorry she lost herself along the way only to become a cautionary tale.
(sorry for sounding so maudlin today-tired, icky day and this fed right into it and please excuse all the typos and grammar mess)
Can we please have a bunch of kindness blinds? We deserve it :)
@!Wonderama!, how do like Las Vegas? We've been here twelve years from Seattle. Big difference!
ReplyDeleteDid anyone else notice Enty's nod to Himmmm in the first paragraph, or is it just my imagination?
ReplyDeleteI did. The whole tone of the post seems to be acknowledging what happened yesterday.
DeleteL.A....My hometown...the place where I dream of going back to.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's full of evil people, but they only prosper because of the stupid people following them.
Obviously, this girl is dumb enough to succumb to them.
And I agree with the people saying that not everything in L.A./Hwood is bad.
PS: My friend from high school moved to LA to make it big. We lost touch because he deleted his fb...does anyone know where online I can find info on actors/actresses trying to make it big?
@Little Miss Smoke and Mirrors and Wonderama, you both are right. And there are different types of social climbers and pretentiousness. There are also people that try to be to most socially conscious or the perfect animal rescuer or greatest volunteer or teacher or whatever. It is not always about fame and money and power and beauty.
ReplyDelete@Tempetuous Grape, I love your icon. My day isn't complete if I haven't called someone or something an asshat.
No way in hell that is the same girl. In the first pic, her eyes are clearly blue. In those mug shots, the girls eyes are brown.
ReplyDeleteAs Michael K would say, something in the milk aint clean here........
In this piece, Enty completely nails the tragic promise of Hollywood for a lot of people whose hearts are ultimately lured out and stomped down. The picture gallery reminds me of the tragic story of Rodney Harvey, who was "discovered" in New York, pimped out in a downward spiral of exploitation, and eventually died of a heroin overdose in a sleazy downtown L.A. motel. It still haunts me to this day.
ReplyDeleteI'm from L.A., born and raised, and it's a great city. It's not L.A.'s fault that the industry is so full of vampires, con men and pimps. These people are from all over the place.
In honor of our favorite pseudo-commenter: “it’s literally like someone took America by the East Coast and shook it, and all the normal girls managed to hang on.”
ReplyDeleteHoly Hell Batman! Those pics are one years progression??? If she were my relative, I'd have passed her on the street without knowing her, if she looked like that bottom pic.
ReplyDeleteYIKES
@Del - I love it here. I've had it good here, make a nice living, run a company... but I've seen kids move here thinking they'll be poker kings or they get on drugs, stay out at clubs till 8am... You know, thinking about it, for a kid moving to a city from some small town, L.V. and L. are on par for 'bad things that happen to naive people'.
ReplyDeleteI should have clarified that before. L.A. isn't ALL bad, just bad for dumb, young, optimistic kids. L.V. has the same skin trade.
So glad I was young and pretty in the 80s, before Girls Gone Wild, Rehab Pool Parties, huge nightclubs, etc.
But yeah, to be a mature adult living here is AWESOME. :)
@TheBarber Lady- that's what I was going to say. This story sounds just like the Jeremy London fake "kidnapping" one. I wonder if the mother truly believes her daughter, and is just faking it fir whatever reason, or if she's in complete denial that her daughter is an addict.
ReplyDelete@Parissucksdaily- I agree. LA is really, really great, and I am not just talking about the weather. My closes friends are from LA, whereas in NY, I have a lot of friends, but it's on a more superficial level. NY and the east coast is way more about status and MONEY. Much more.
I live in a tiny town. A coworkers son moved to LA to work as a camera operator. He actually did fairly well. He came home the following year. He was happy to be home. I think it is very easy to glamorize any place. Hell, I could make where I live sound like a dream. Actually, after all the places I have lived, it is. But when you live someplace where faking it is a way of life....that has to be hard. When I was younger I became friends with a retired actress. I told her I wanted to go to Hollywood. She very politely told me I wouldn't make it. Not because I didn't have "it" but because Ididn't have the steel you need to survive. (frankly I think it was also because I didn't have "it") LOL
ReplyDeleteI hope this poor girl recovers and makes a better life for herself. Maybe she needs to move out here.
@Bored Soccer Mom, they could be contacts. The first shot is a glamour shot, she's made up (I can't say styled but made up for sure). The rest are mug shots.
ReplyDeleteI once had to get passport photos and they could easily qualify as faces of meth pictures. I was wearing minimal make-up, my hair wasn't straight, I had to look straight into the camera and not smile, all resulted in a horrifying picture that almost made me cry. I got a new one taken but kept the old one to remind myself, when I get too conceited, of how bad I can look.
Ah, the poor kid.
ReplyDeleteEnty -- those first paragraphs are mesmerizing and could be a great intro to a novel (not in any way about this real young girl you get to in the fourth paragraph).
ReplyDeletesad story and scary that the suspect is nowhere to be found. Seems lke Hollywood is one seedy place. I would like to know how the nice people got to where they are in spite of the madness.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't look like a progression per se, it looks like the last 3 pictures were taken at the same time (at least the same day) unless she only owns one sweater that happens to be green.
ReplyDeleteNot sure how meth folks look, to be honest. However I had an unfortunate 'eyeliner running' incident while posing for my drivers license picture not to long ago and ended up looking like a raccoon.
THANKS FOR TELLING ME STOOPID DMV PEOPLE
(Somehow I think I ended up being the happy hour joke that evening)
I agree that in the first shot odds are she was wearing contacts.
Just glad she's back and alive. Hopefully rehab is her next stop.
Correction: I think I'm wrong about the contacts. The grainy film notwithstanding, it sure looks like she has green eyes in pictures 2 and 3
ReplyDeleteThat poor woman... seeing those pictures makes me so sad. I recently had to cut ties with my own sister because she's got a way out of control drug problem, and it was heartbreaking. I don't wish that kind of hell on anyone, and hope Satara can get the kind of help she needs.
ReplyDeleteit does not take a year to develop a heroin addiction and those pictures are meth all the way. she very easily could be in the same clothes and probably was doing something on the streets.i think the story originally reported she was usually in one location which leads me to believe she was on the streets for awhile and had routine police contact. and like i asked before, just how did the good people himmmm refers to, manage to avoid all the horrors?
ReplyDeleteHollywood ruins so many lives. :(
ReplyDeleteI know five !"hollywood" actors/actresses. One has tiny occassional tv bits, one has worked very steady for the last 15 years in TV/movies but is still known as umm that guy i have seen in umm that other movie, they are both fairly normal, one was a actress who cam this close to that big break, but literally lost her sanity through depression, drugs, and mental illness and is in a state home now, divorced and unable to see her children, one did two straight to video movies and now eorks in the adult film industry, and one is A list, has headed a fanchise and is a super nice person...grew up and was bff from age of 8 with one of my closest freinds from college. You would never know he was a rich and famous actor..so some of them have their heads on straight
ReplyDeleteI find all of this to be really sad. I hate the thought of people being so unhappy within themselves. Every place is like this on some level but its going to be magnified when youve got one million other people competing with you. Im glad this girl was found safe she has a 2nd chance some people dont get. I think Ill go read the kindness blind again.
ReplyDeleteCocktail waitresed with a really sweet, fun girl from the south back in the early 80's. She'd come to LA after college to make it as a graphic artist. She was cute and fun and ended up running around on the west side with Rick James who introduced her to George Clinton and the son of a very well-known R&B band leader. Very well known. The band leader's son and my friend ended up getting married. She was so proud of her new very famous last name and really thought she had married "up" and was going to have it made. Was not to be...
ReplyDeleteBefore too long my friend's husband started beating her, just like he'd seen his daddy beat his mom and very famous step-mom for all those years. My friend ended up being imprisoned in her father-in-laws house for months getting beat and hooked on coke. She was cut off from her local friends and her family back in the south.
Eventually word got back to her dad who had to come out and remove her from her FIL's house. Needless to say she divorced Jr. and back home she went. Nice talented girl, sad LA story.
@ms smoke and mirrors. Dallas is the same way. We have the very rich fashionistas, party crowds, etc..the Dallas Most Eligable set, but they are not in my world. And after voluteering at an animal shelter with Tara Harper..thank god. I dont like that crowd
ReplyDeleteI work in the industry and started at a small agency and now have moved up to a bigger one. I assure you, the douchebaggery, narcissism, and all around grossness only gets worse the higher up you go. There are definitely the exceptions to the rule (and I try to be that exception, i always try to teach the assistants and be patient with them instead of just biting their heads off like some of my corowokers.) but for the most part, it is a true statement. I, fortunately, have realized that I do not care one lick about the entertainment business and am getting out soon, even if it means making less money and being a bit financially stressed. I'd rather be financially stressed than as miserable 12 hours a day as I am now.
ReplyDelete@Kimberly. if i lived in Dallas I would be at paws in the city every day. Tara is amazing IMHO. @Marna sounds like your getting out is a good thing. I look back on entourage and think of all those girls who slept with vincent chase just to say they did. isnt as funny to me anymore.
ReplyDeleteWow, it's so hard awful to hear about Hollywood. I'm glad I never moved there. I use to work for one of the bigger entertainment companies a long time ago. But on the business/merchandising side. And it was not in LA but a different state. I never did date anyone from work but I got hit on hard by one of the VPs who slept with quite a few of the ladies. I was just not into advancing myself that way.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I did visit Los Angeles a few times when I was younger, and then a few times for conferences and trade shows when I was a little older. I was friends with a girl who is still today a producer in the industry for the same company. I can't tell you what company or shows she works for but it is part of reality tv. We went out to the clubs and producers types that hit on me kept talking about how they had "this and that" going on. They spotted me and told me they could tell I wasn't from LA because I didn't really wear the tight club clothes and wasn't really impressed. We went over to a celeb's house that night (and he's a washed up celeb now - very annoying and he uses women but has a hollywood pedigree and rich/famous parent) and everyone was calling to score drugs that night. It just was a very weird scene. I was kind of star struck but I just didn't do any drugs or hook up with anyone because it was just too weird.
@MarnaP I have a good friend in LA that works for the biggest company there and she absolutely thinks it's soul sucking. She works like a dog and they don't pay her what she should and she works on 1 of the top hit shows on network tv and another highly rated comedy. She really wants to get out of the business too but I think she doesn't know how to get out because that's all she's done for a long time. She's come close to having breakdowns over her job and the constant pressure. She's like a regular person in production and it's not glamorous at all. I was also in production for a while and I totally agree it sucks, really long hours!
ReplyDeleteGoogle faces of meth and she'll fit right in. Meth would explain her story about being kidnapped. I'm sorry if I'm wrong but most kidnappers don't take their victims to the hospital, especially when they can be identified.
ReplyDelete@Kimberly, it's good to hear now and then that an A List celeb hasn't let it all go to their head. I think it's important for a lot of these blinds (I'm talking to you Dirty Dan Schneider) to be exposed but it's starting to feel like the whole world is evil.
LOL @Mooshki. In honor of our favorite pseudo-commenter: “it’s literally like someone took America by the East Coast and shook it, and all the normal girls managed to hang on.”
ReplyDeleteI just love "RDJ'"s crappy writing. Is it LITERALLY like that? Because that's called an earthquake.
Great post Enty, it's good that you point this out on your blog. I hope naive and young people out there will read it.
ReplyDeleteI was born in Los Angeles and was spotted at an early age by talent scouts for my "beautiful features".
My mother declined and moved us out of L.A. before we were able to understand what was out there.
I've always wondered what would have happened to me if we stayed and my mother would have become one of those stage moms.
I honestly feel I would have ended up on the streets like this girl and many others.
Hollywood dreams are made for those who are willing to play the game at any cost. If you are unwilling to play, you loose. If you do play, there is a 90% chance you will loose as well, your soul, health, dignity and self respect.
I know you are right Enty when you say it'll still be like this long after your blog and probably all of us are gone. The industry will not change, but hopefully people will wise up and decide that it's not worth it in the long run........
Yeah, this is simply a sad but many times true Hollyweird story. Hope the girl gets the real help she needs.
ReplyDeleteWho wrote this?
ReplyDeleteFaces of Meth, agreed. Also have to wonder if mummy isn't believing a tale tale. Junkies will say ANYTHING. I hope she gets her life back, too.
Hollywood is like a giant lottery. That girl is a scratched-off losing ticket. Who needs to wait for The Hunger Games. They're right here.
ReplyDeleteLOL @Gladys & Mooshki.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, friends. Agreed. ;-)
And count me among those of you wondering who actually wrote this post, 'cause it sure as hell wasn't Enty.
I'm just happy she was found.
ReplyDeleteRose, I totally agree. No kidnapper would drop her at the hospital. More like the nearest dumpster.
ReplyDeleteI hope the mother is just trying to salvage her daughter's reputation. I have to give her credit for pushing the police to keep looking for her. That girl is going to need rehab and counseling for a long, long time.
That poor young woman :( I hope things start looking up for her, and I kind of hope she gets the hell away from Hollywood!
ReplyDelete