These pretzels are making me thirsty.

Because I have some afternoons free I thought I'd enjoy another time-honored New York tradition: rubbernecking a crime scene on Law & Order*. I've considered extradom for a while -- Alex mentioned it last summer as a side job -- and it popped up again this week, when I passed through West 10th Street where L&O was setting up, and later talked about it with friends. Oh, and I work somewhat from home with the television on. And guess what's blaring every few hours? Dung-dung. Okay, it doesn't have to be Law & Order, but there is something about that show. It stands for every location shoot in the city -- it's like Kleenex.

During the morning Craigslist scan I dipped into the Film/TV page. "Hipsters" needed tomorrow for a party scene in a Catherine Zeta-Jones film. And there was that number again in SCREAMING CAPS, the one that always looks so hoax-y. So I dialed it and a woman answered immediately. Sure enough they work with a number of crime shows and are also casting background and speaking parts in the new Julia Roberts/Clive Owen and Julie & Julia. There is no fee unless you are paid, and the agency collects 10 percent. They were conducting interviews this afternoon and would I like to come in? Sure, why not. It's a fun fantasy to engage in on a subway ride to Times Square, and something to write about in the afternoon.

In the office I was handed a brief monologue and instructed to watch the video showing on a large plasma. A couple people were seated on the couches; the woman next to me told the group her friend had landed a recurring role on a crime show after a year or so of extra work. She (the woman next to me) doesn't want to be famous, just to make a little extra money -- which seems to be the consensus. I just want the bragging rights of beating around the background at some college kegger-gone-wrong. Dung-dung. The video, which was a little distracting from, you know, my art, featured Actors' Reps member testimonials (infomercials! Game shows!) and a montage of film posters cut to the tune of a chorale's "Hallelujah." I immersed myself in "Sylvia" who is trying to convince her lover to choose her over his dying mother. "The closer we've gotten," she says, "the more she seems to tell you it's any day now. It's been over three years! Any day now?" She sounded neurotic, so I played her that way, because Diane and Mia are my only frames of reference. Actually, I kinda dressed like Annie Hall today.

I had a nice chat with an assistant agent, who looked about my age. She seemed pleased with my reading and gave me the number of someone I have to call tomorrow. I told her I worked briefly on extras casting for Factotum, and we both know someone from the project. She didn't come right out and tell me I'd make a good stiff, but I'll take that as a given.

*My favorite bit of trivia: In the 1992 episode "Intolerance," there is a character named Kate Silver.