![\"\"](\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_MwnH1kpbPRM\/RlyQwqmefCI\/AAAAAAAAAYg\/xIdXqDAT9PM\/s1600-h\/mikefiggis-a.jpg\")
<\/a>This story<\/a> is over a month old now, but it\u2019s still funny \u2014 in a scary kind of way:<\/span><\/p>\n
Director Mike Figgis<\/a> spent longer at LAX airport than intended. He\u2019d arrived in Los Angeles, along with half the acting and directing world, for what is known as \u2018pilot season\u2019, when the big studios try out new scripts, directors and actors in a two-week frenzy of auditions and career make-or-breaks. When Figgis was being grilled by airport immigration, he was asked the purpose of his visit. Unthinking and tired after a long flight, Mike replied: \u2018I\u2019m here to shoot a pilot.\u2019 After five hours in an interrogation cell (yes, really), he finally made it into town.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
You would hope that airport and immigration staff in Los Angeles<\/i>, of all places, would not need too much education in the ways of the entertainment business. But you never know.<\/p>\n
JUNE 5 UPDATE: It turns out virtually every detail of this story is wrong. The Huffington Post<\/a> passes on this e-mail from Figgis<\/a>:<\/p>\n
the story is a complete exageration of something I said in an interview, namely\u2026I was being questioned in toronto airport by the US immigration officer who said \u201cpurpose of your visit?\u201d and I was about to reply \u201cI\u2019m here to shoot a pilot\u201d when I thought better of it and said<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m here to film the 1st episode of a potential series for Fox\/Sony\u201d<\/p>\n
This was exactly as I said it to the journalist and the next I knew of it was phone calls wishing me deepest sympathies etc and the venue had moved to LAX and I had been arrested etc etc.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve had distortion before in interviews but never fiction. If it had been true it would have been a good story \u2013 sorry to dissappoint All the best \u2013 mike figgis<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Now that Figgis mentions it, I wonder if I should have sensed something was amiss the moment I heard this story. I have flown to Los Angeles from Vancouver several times in the past few years, and whether I\u2019m coming or going, I always go through customs & immigration in the Canadian<\/i> airport, rather than the American one. When I first read this story, I did not know where Figgis was arriving from, but it would not surprise me if similar arrangements existed with airports in other countries.<\/p>\n
The really funny part is that the original Guardian<\/i> story used the words \u201cyes, really\u201d at the most explicitly fictional part of the original story, i.e. the bit about the interrogation cell.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This story is over a month old now, but it\u2019s still funny \u2014 in a scary kind of way: Director Mike Figgis spent longer at LAX airport than intended. He\u2019d arrived in Los Angeles, along with half the acting and directing world, for what is known as \u2018pilot season\u2019, when the big studios try out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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