! Yes They're Fake ! - Breast Augmentation Infomercial

I was asked by my first doctor, Dr. Jeffrey C. Friedman, to appear on his infomercial featuring Breast Augmentation with the Trans-umbilical Approach (belly-button). I am an avid supporter of this type of technique as it gives you only the smallest of scars INSIDE of your navel. After the maturation of the scar it blends in perfectly within the navel which leaves you only to reap the benefits... no scars, very little blood loss (about 1 tsp. on average), a faster recovery and no secondary incision infection.

Several of his patients and I, along with our significant others, met at his beautiful home in the California. The house had THE BEST view of the Bay, the Golden Gate & the Bay Bridge. Dr. Friedman had some wonderful food prepared and laid out for us, yet there was no way I was going to eat just yet (I didn't want to look bloated on camera, ha ha!).

We all sat around in the kitchen and waited our turn to be interviewed. Of course, we all discussed our different procedures and our healing stories. One of my good friends, Francesca - who also works as an O.R. Tech with Dr. Friedman, was there with her boyfriend, Dave. Dave kept making fun of us because we were all nervous. He would just laugh and say "I don't know why you guys are so nervous, it's just a camera". Now, we were all previously given a prompt sheet on questions I would be asked. Of course I studied this like it was an S.A.T.

Finally it was our turn (my boyfriend and I) to speak in front of the camera. Marc and I sat down on the sofa, the lighting was so hot just sitting there for awhile wile they were getting the filters right. Plus make-up (powder to keep the shine at bay) and position. Then it was "ACTION!" time...

Immediately my voice became high pitched like Mickey Mouse and I began to get this 'twitch' on the left side of my face. I thought, "Here it comes, I am finally losing it. Please, God, not like this... Not like this!" Plus the sound man starting picking up the sound of my heart beating through my chest. Seriously. He kept telling me to calm down and I kept thinking to myself, "Yeah, right." Then, of all things to happen, during one of my answers he yells "Cut!" - he picked up the sound of my empty stomach growling in agony. How utterly embarrassing. This happened twice. I felt like hiding my head within the pillows on the sofa. Anyway, they asked Marc if he felt as if my self esteem is better now that I have had surgeries, which by the way is a big Y-E-S! They asked him what he thought of Cosmetic Surgery and especially of the belly-button technique. Everything was going rather smoothly and I was finally getting "the hang" of speaking in front of the camera. Now, I have done very few commercials and whatever before but I never had to actually speak! Ugh! I used to dive in a shark tank with 9 sharks (yes NINE!) at Sharkey's Reef in New Orleans. I had a custom made mermaid tail (with diver's fins sewn into the lower half of the tail. It had all kinds of sheer "fin-like" fabrics to enhance the whole mermaid thing). I used to do this or dive in full gear on the weekends and communicate with the crowds through the thick glass. I once did a commercial with the whole mermaid thing for them, without my mask (salt water stings the eyes and I couldn't see where the sharks were) and I was definitely more scared doing this Infomercial than diving, blind, with the sharks. The others were regular non-speaking, "extra" or focal-point parts.

Then, they took Marc away from me and I was left to face the camera, ALONE. All of my progress went down the drain. Fear immediately set in and my voice rose even higher and I developed a nervous tick! Well not noticeably. After the first 3 minutes I suddenly became "one with the camera" (I'm kidding!). I realized that I had nothing to be afraid of and I actually started liking it. I kept thinking, "Hey! I'm pretty good at this!". It became fun! They started to finish up my segment and I was thinking wait! I'm just getting started! I'm not finished yet!!! HA HA!!! Well, they were.

Next, I went straight to the kitchen and ate 3 chocolate-chocolate chip cookies! I deserved it. We spoke with the camera crew and their production company about LASIK surgery which they had recently put together a infomercial for and got contact numbers from their company and the eye doctor. It seems the man we were speaking to had the eye surgery recently and was an avid believer and promoter of the surgery. I am interested in this because I have astigmatism (I can't see far off, like street signs). I would like to eventually get my eyes "fixed" although I think I still would wear my green contacts! They need to come up with a way to change the color of your eyes... Anyone agree?

I found their film crew to be extremely considerate and wonderful even from a first-timer like me! Seriously, they were cool. They were finishing up the next day with outdoor shoots, activities and what not, and were asked to participate. We had to decline as we had plans the following day and could not make it. :(

I have no stills of this shooting but I will try to obtain images from the VHS tape (what's a VCR?? Where's my DVD player???). The quality may not be good but at least you will see how incredibly nervous I looked and how well Marc did on camera, in his leather sports coat (hot under the lights - Make-Up, Please!!!) He is one of those people who never gets nervous with anything no matter what is thrown at him. I am the shy one and will tense up until I am comfortable in my environment - which sometimes takes about 30 minutes!

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