Hollywood Goes O.B.

Winstons turned away customers on April 14 and 15 to accommodate a Fox production crew, in town to shoot the pilot for a proposed series called Mythological X. The show is based around a cast of thirty something women, one of which is in pursuit of a rock front man named Johnny Diamont (played by Eric Balfour, who appeared in Six Feet Under).

Winstons was used to film a segment in which the lead character meets Diamont, whose band was appearing at the club.

“I thought it was a scam,” says Sean Cox, the Social Green rhythm guitarist who was chosen to act in the scene. A Fox producer called him at 10 p.m. one night. “I told the lady she had the wrong number. There are so many people out there who are trying to rip you off. But then she told me she heard about us from the San Diego Independent Music Festival, so I knew it was legit.”

Besides Cox, Social Green bassist Jon Carter and drummer Emily O’Bannon (of local band Runhoney) were hired to act as backup musicians. Cox says they lip-synched their way through two prerecorded music tracks.

“We happened to get picked for our looks,” says Carter. The Winstons shoot took 14 hours one day, 10 hours the next. “We pretended to play the same song, like, 100 times,” says Cox.

Carter says he was treated well. (He would not disclose how much he earned.) His only complaint is how the extras were treated.

“They were treated like shit, yet they were working harder than us,” says Carter. He says members of local reggae band Vegitation were some of the 80 extras hired for the shoot.

“When we took a lunch break, this coordinator yelled out, ‘Nobody eats till the band eats,’ ” says Cox. “Me and Jon yelled out and said, ‘Hey, man, let them eat.’ ”

Fox TV producer Jimmy Simons says CBS will decide by May 14 if they want to include the show in its fall schedule. He says O.B. will be used if the pilot becomes a series.

“Ocean Beach is the perfect place,” says Simons. “It’s a beach community with a small-town retro feel. You can’t find a place like this in L.A.”

— Ken Leighton