the gemma show

Whenever I am set to work the brunch shift at the restaurant, I concentrate all my efforts, the night before, on making it rain. While I feel sorry for all of the delivery people who bring food to New Yorkers who refuse to leave their apartments, as a hostess, rainy days make my life a lot easier. Last night's rain dance... well, let's just say I'm going to have to try those moves again.

Today, from about 10:15 to 10:58, the restaurant was completely, utterly empty. Since I work at a hotel restaurant that never closes, a window of time that large--on a Sunday during peak breakfast time--in which no customers come in is unheard of. Absolutely unheard of. So what did we, the staff, do?

Why, cat-walked around the entire restaurant, of course. Oh, and did yoga in between tables. Some jumping and dancing may have been involved as well. Perhaps a push-up contest transpired. It was absolutely fantastic.

In my producing class this week, we pitched ideas for films and TV shows to each other. One group had the idea of an HBO show that takes place at a fictional New York hotel called the Soho Majestic. Brilliant. An absolutely brilliant idea. I think that the staff at the Bowery Hotel should be a model for a TV show, if we are not worthy enough of a reality show ourselves. Posh hotels are always a good subject for a TV dramedy (though I hate that word). Just this week, a swimsuit designer was mysteriously murdered and found in the bathtub of her suite at a swanky hotel in the meatpacking district. Turned out her scorned lover did it. (When is that not the case?)

But seriously. How great would that show be? Follow the lives of Massimo, the at-first abrasive and OCD maître-d' with a fiery attitude who turns out to be a big old opera-loving, bad-joke-telling softie at heart. There's Noah, the tall and lanky male model wannabe who works room service and makes a little extra money selling special brownies to the guys in the kitchen, but is quite possibly one of the friendliest people in the whole hotel. Don't forget Angelina, a beautiful hostess with a behind out to there and an attitude to match--you don't want to cross her, but if you're on her good side you're golden. Names have been changed to protect identities, and some exaggerations have been made. But still. Don't you want to know more? Don't you want to watch these people as they interact with celebrities, socialites, tourists, and the homeless people that sometimes wander in to use the bathroom?

Yes. That does indeed happen.

Season Premiere Fall 2011.