October 26, 2017
"Watch out for the men in this town. They like the young girls." This piece of advice came from a checker at a grocery store when we moved to Malibu in 2010, just as my daughters were about to sign a record deal with one of the iconic Universal Music labels as the singing group Cimorelli. Welcome to Los Angeles and the entertainment industry.
It certainly wasn't a secret that there were predators in Hollywood. Even the checkers at the grocery store knew.
"Don't be naive! Those people aren't being supportive; they're out to exploit you!" This jarring comment came from our agent at CAA about a month later. I thought maybe he was just jaded from being in the business too long, but I learned otherwise as time went on.
Less than a year earlier, in 2009, my five daughters had put up a v...
April 20, 2017
When my 15 year old daughter Christina announced she wanted to start a band, I never dreamed we would be touring the world a few years later. Getting from the dream to reality was not fulfilled overnight, and it took enormous persistence and hard work, but we proved that it was possible to start from nothing in a small town with no connections in the entertainment industry and make it.
Initially, Christina wanted to be in a band with her friends, but they had a hard time coordinating practices, none of them were particularly great at an instrument, and they didn't all sing in tune. Frustrated that she could rarely get them together to practice, she was ready to throw in the towel. I suggested she do something with her sisters, with whom she had been singing since she was a little kid. The a...