Why go through the cliched restaurant and ring method of proposing to your significant other? Hollywood is Calling is a website where you can pay for often obscure actors to call up and propose on your behalf. Worryingly, this is their recent marketing ploy, celebrity marriage proposals. Picture it, your loved one is sat at home, and there’s a phone call. She answers it to her favorite actor, who pops the question on her partner’s behalf in a breathless 30 second call before it terminates. Surprise?

The surprised woman then calls her boyfriend:

“Guess who called me? I can’t believe I just spoke to him! He was so sweet on the phone…what? Oh, sorry, yes…. anyway, I love his films…”

Or worse:

“Guess who called me? Sorry, I can’t marry you. Anyway, damn, he’s hot, I think we connected…”

It reminds me of people who propose on TV or elaborately in public - it could either go really well or really badly. Why would a celebrity do such a thing? Is it a little telling that the majority of stars on this website aren’t exactly getting the biggest roles?

It’s a wonderful side income for actors whose careers are a little slow. The website answers this early on in their FAQ’s-”The vast majority…” (note that they don’t say all of them) “… of our celebrities are not motivated by financial reasons when it comes to this project… (and) our new service is great way for them to stay in touch with their growing fan base.

“The website also feels it’s necessary to state that it isn’t a scam, by listing evidence (mostly reviews from the press.) For this article, I chose Christopher Atkins (featured in above photo) to call me. I’ve loved his films for a long time, ever since I saw the Blue Lagoon back in the eighties. Chris enjoyed early success with the movie; “I couldn’t go anywhere. I had my hair pulled and my clothes ripped off of me several times. To this day, people still recognize me. I’m still fighting the image I have from Blue Lagoon.”

I’m a die-hard fan of Chris’s career, so I managed to talk to my favorite actor in Hollywood for a mere 20 dollars! When I booked the call, I selected my actor from the celebrity directory, then went through to another screen where I added my personal details. It’s worth noting for the security conscious among you that the page wasn’t secure. I noticed this, but plodded on for the sake of what I was ordering. I soldiered on, and payed through paypal, but still the site wasn’t secure. Had it been a pair of shoes on another website, it’s likely I would have been too worried to continue.

It asks you for your name, your email address and the details for the person you’re ordering for. The website does assume that anything you order is a gift for someone else, so I did feel a little foolish filling out all the fields with my own name. From the drop down list, it was mainly Birthday wishes, Bar Mitzvah congratulations, etc. I felt odd picking one for myself, but in the end, I chose “congratulations on recent success” for myself, as I’d recently gotten a very good job. This page sticks, and I had to refresh the page three times and begin again to a bug in one of the fields that crashed the page. They sent me an email confirmation with instructions on how long to wait until the celebrity calls you and tips for catching the call, like removing call blocker and putting on your answering machine. It gives no indication of when in the 7 days the celebrity will ring, or even if it will be day or night. This means that you are very likely to miss the call. When Chris rang me I was luckily at home reading a book.

When I read the website rules, it did say that the call would terminate after 30 seconds, and for 20 dollars, that seemed very expensive. I looked at my phone once Chris had hung up, and it read 7 minutes 30 seconds. He’d warned me that the call was due to cut off, so I’m assuming the maximum length of time allowed was about 10 minutes. Whether this was Chris being kind, or the calls do last longer, I don’t know.

Chris rang through and dutifully congratulated me on my recent job success, and politely asked me what it was. I explained, and he was very enthusiastic for me. We chatted on, and he was very likable and human. It must be tough for the celebrities to ring and make conversation with complete strangers that they have nothing in common with. Perhaps the 30 second rule is to save them from having to make conversation, and perhaps goes up to 10 minutes at the celebrities discretion.

The website does state that the calls terminate after 30 seconds “No matter what.” I might have cost my celebrity 7 minutes of the call, which means that Chris is possibly a complete sweetheart. He says of the service; “The service is very cool and it’s fun to talk to or leave a message for an admirer. It’s REALLY nice to know there are still die hard fans out there and it’s nice to be able to thank them for their support over the years and to be able to wish them well in their endeavors. The people who run the service couldn’t be more professional and I certainly would recommend it to a fellow celeb or sport figure.”

Chris was very chatty, and we had things in common to talk about, which was probably why our call lasted quite a while. I feel I managed to keep my cool, considering that I didn’t squeal at anytime during the call. I can imagine the regular call for these celebrities is a 30 second gush session. Perhaps they put the rule in to save the celebrities eardrums.

I think on the whole, my good experience of the service was largely due to picking such a good natured actor. I think the idea of the site is ingenious, just that little bit crazy - whenever I mentioned the site to friends who knew nothing of it, I was met by laughter and disbelief. But as Chris says; “I have left messages for people all over the world. How cool is that!!”

Find Hollywood is Calling here.

Photo by IMDBImages sourced from Chris Atkins

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