name: Alma J. Castillo
occupation: Personal Assistant to "Someone Famous"
(sorry, Alma's not able to disclose, but think A-list)
hometown: Malibu and the Bay Area
homebase: Malibu, L.A. and sometimes other parts of the globe
what's a day in the life? Well, no two days are ever alike. I try very hard to get in a morning run around 6:30 a.m. or my mentality is just shot for the rest of the day. It's a golden rule that I become one with my Blackberry from 7:15 a.m on. It all depends on whether or not "Someone Famous" is shooting a film, but by the end of his morning scenes, I better have a load of schedule changes, notes, messages and whatever else ready to go for him. This is all before noon by the way. A lot of errands are done and they're usually 15 minutes each, so throughout the day I will have completed at least 8-9 various tasks and mini-appointments. Along with that are any personal requests he may have like picking up a suit at a designer's showroom, buying thank you gifts and usually more if it's the day of a big movie premiere. And really it's a lot of running around, checking emails, making calls, chasing after him, chasing someone or something for him that kind of stuff.
average work hours per week? Anywhere from 40 to 80 hours a week.
how did you land the job? I was working as an assistant at one of the big entertainment law firms in West Hollywood, I got really sick of sitting at a desk and working long hours on proposals. "Someone Famous" was and still is a client of the firm and it was basically word of mouth. He sorta knew who I was at the brief interview. I was hired by his publicist and supposedly one of his prerequisites was to have a girl or guy who was active in sports or someone creative. Luckily, he learned that I used to play soccer and was a born surfer girl from Malibu and things like that help how he and I get along naturally.
what's one big misconception about your job and also celebrities? People and by people I mean my parents, just assume that being a personal assistant especially to a high-profile celebrity is being a slave to someone. It's so not that case, because it depends on who you work for. I'm fortunate to work for one of the most honest, low maintenance and laid-back people in Hollywood. And being a celebrity means that one has to play along with the game, because everyone wants to make money. Once they step outside of their houses the game begins and that's the part people see in the "junk rags". Then once you get them inside again, most of the time they'll just want to sit on the couch and watch T.V. like normal folks do after a hard day of work.
is this your dream job? Well, it's not what I want to do for the rest of my life. But, I am really fortunate to meet a variety of people that I never would've met sitting behind a desk all day. And in a way, being a personal assistant isn't a well sought after job, but luckily "Someone Famous" involves me in his non-profit side projects that he does. So, in that sense I'm being exposed to so much more than just the Hollywood industry.
what did you wear to work today? You caught me on a good day, normally it's a wife beater tank, JBrand jeans and flats or flip-flops. However, today I'm wearing a Susana Monaco tunic, dark Paige denim jeans and Sigerson Morrison flats.
what's the most challenging part of your job? Hm...I like to keep an eye on everything, it's my natural instinct to do so anyways, but watching around that things are all smooth, everyone's happy. That's really the challenge, because one unhappy person turns into an unlikely source of information.
what is your bag and what's in it? It's Kooba and it holds my Louis Vuitton day planner, Blackberry, an extra emergency Razor cellphone in case he loses his, Fiji bottle water, cosmetic case, a mini-can of Pringles (which is sure to be lunch later), a banana (also lunch), a small box of band-aids, iPod, some document that I have to get him to sign off on later, keys, Marlboro lights, Ray Ban aviators and Keri lotion.
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