Vibrant Nation

my bio

I’ve worn so many hats.  I started out as a directing major in college, but, sadly, at the time I graduated school, women were basically not allowed to direct.  Ida Lupino was the only woman who was directing feature films at that time. 

I became an agent after college and had some wonderful clients, then went to Dick Clark Productions. I started out on television on a show for NBC and worked my way up to Associate Producer.  From there, I went to ABC and had a really great career as Associate Producer.

But when my kids were born, I had to figure out how I could still remain creative but be a mom and a Cub Scout mom and all of those things. So I started to write, with the encouragement of my husband. I did magazine articles and then some newspaper articles, and when the kids got older, I wrote a television show for ABC, a children’s show, for about three years.  It was great because I could be home, write my scripts, and just go into Los Angeles for production meetings. 

After my husband passed away, I moved back to L.A. and became an agent again for a short period of time, then did a couple of pilots for television, and recently I’ve been busier than ever.

I wrote the book Rescue Me, He's Wearing a Moose Hat: And 40 Other Dates after 50, which is a collection of real experiences I had when I started dating again after 26 years of marriage. Some of the men I dated became good friends; others didn't even get a second date,  because I don't want to be a nurse or a purse!

I produced my first feature film two years ago.  It was in 20 film festivals around the country, and it’s being released nationally in February 2010.  It’s called Adopt A Hero. 

I have two television shows right now that I’m pitching with a woman by the name of Maria Baltazzia, who has produced Survivor for seven years.  I’m just like the Energizer Bunny, I keep going and going and going.

You know, you have choices in life, and when you have a divorce or a death, you can either hole up and be the poor widow or the poor divorcee and look for pity from everyone, or you can pull up your pants and say, "Hey, I'm going to make a life for myself." I recommend that everyone make a Bucket List and get on with life.

my VN interview

• How do you see yourself differently now than you did 10 years ago?

  That’s a wonderful question, because I see myself as being very free.  Free to do whatever I want.

  About two to three months after my husband passed away, I wrote what is now known as a Bucket List but what I called it my Life List: 10 things that I wanted to accomplish.  Well, to date, I’ve accomplished nine out of the 10, and I’ve added two new ones to the list.

  My original Bucket List had everything from parasailing to snorkeling Belize, arranging a piece of music and recording it to seeing my name in lights on Broadway.  I produced a world music concert at Lincoln Center.  I wanted to learn how to knit.  I wanted to write a book and get it published, take golf lessons (I was horrible at it because my boobs are too big).  And I wanted to see “Produced by Sherry Halperin” on a major film.  I wanted to swim with dolphins. The thing that I haven’t done so far from the original 10 is to conduct a marching band. Here's how I'm going to get to do that: I’m going to make it a donation to a local high school and ask them if I can conduct a march with them.

  And I'd like to go to racecar driving school. 

  And cruise around the world to places like Mumbai and South Africa.

  I just feel that I can do anything I want.  And it’s very freeing, and very liberating, and it’s a great time of life.  It’s absolutely a great time of life.

• Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

  Well, hopefully, alive and, if that’s the case, I see myself still writing.  I have at least two more books, three more books in me.  (I’m about a third finished with my next book.)

  And I hope to be in a wonderful relationship so that I can grow old with someone.  If I have to say anything's missing in my life, it's that I don’t have a partner. So, that would be wonderful if I met a wonderful guy.  I don’t have to be married at this stage of my life -- and I’ve been proposed to several times -- but I just haven’t found the right one yet. 

  I see myself in ten years doting on my grandkids, writing another book, still traveling, still boating in Florida, which I love to do, and still enjoying life.

a postcard to my younger self

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my role models

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