Are Simon Cowell's secrets about to be revealed? Sony work experience girl set to earn £2m as Hollywood turns blog into film
*MKILETEWA HAPA NA FLORA LYIMO DESIGNER*A work experience girl who toiled for free at Sony has landed a multi-million pound film deal from Hollywood producers keen to make a movie of her life.
Dubbed 'The Devil Wears Prada meets Bridget Jones's Diary', the film will be based on blogs written by 25-year old Lotte Mullen while she worked for free for the music giant - parent company of Simon Cowell's label SyCo.
Written from the Londoner's grimy bedsit, the blogs divulge tales of the sordid side of the music industry, where Lotte frequently rubbed shoulders with high profile music moguls.
Rags to riches: Lotte Mullan, pictured in London's Old St, has set her sights on U.S. domination after Hollywood bid to make her life into a multi-million pound film!
Her blogs caught the attention of literary agent Julian Alexander of LAW, who signed her up as a fledgling author, and producer and screenwriter Nick Moorcroft, the movie executive behind St Trinian’s and Burke & Hare.
Moorecroft now plans to portray Mullan's life as a comedy drama set across both the British and American music industries.
Mullan is set to gain over £2million from the film, book, live work, merchandising and music publishing.
Mullan, who previously struggled to make ends meet, says she is 'overwhelmed' by her unprecedented reversal of fortune.
Bedsit blogger: Lotte in the grimy bedsit she calls home - though that may change now that she has landed a £2m book and film deal"
'My diary was just something I did as therapy,' she says. 'It’s an account of me chasing the dream. It’s all the highs and lows that can happen when you choose to do something that you love for a living.
'The fact that this could be a Hollywood blockbuster is beyond my comprehension.'
Producer Nick Moorcroft says: 'Reading a woman's personal diary is a bit like going through her knicker drawer. It is something you just don’t do.
'Thankfully, Lotte allowed me to share her hilarious and eye-opening account of her journey trying to make it in the cut-throat music industry whilst simultaneously searching for ‘Mr Right’.
Her daily entries are painfully honest, very funny and at times heartbreaking which has provided us with rich source material for what we hope will be a genuinely funny and uplifting coming-of-age story.'
Industry insider: Lotte - with musician Rhys Morgan during her time as a tour manager for Sony - has used the highs and lows of her work experience to write an online diary"
While working for industry giants, the 25 year-old musician and performer was consistently rejected by them for her own recording contract, so formed her own label, running it from her flat and producing and promoting her own record.
Her shoestring budget led to her making videos on her iPhone, booking her own gigs and using her boyfriend’s car as a tour bus.
Lotte’s self-promotion saw her dubbed 'Suffolk’s Joni Mitchell' by a music magazine, with another comparing her to BRIT winner Laura Marling.
The film is set for release in 2012, with Mullan releasing her own solo album Plain Jane later this year.
Her former Warner Music boss Dan Chalmers said: “When Lotte did work experience with us she did a great job. She is a character that can just get things done, and this once again proves it. We are so pleased for her.'
So should Simon and his fellow execs be quaking in their boots?
Probably not. Lotte has promised anonymity to her subjects, and anyway, she says, her dealings with Cowell were few.
‘I saw Simon Cowell a couple of times in the office and would often see his Rolls-Royce parked outside. Nice guy but shame about the TV show.'
EXTRACTS FROM LOTTIE MULLAN'S BLOG...
MAY 12
THE SIDE-BOOB HUG
Apparently Madonna never hugs anyone – it’s a firm handshake or nothing. Unfortunately when you’re an aspiring nobody you have to be a bit more compliant otherwise people think you’re just cold.
There’s a bizarre over-familiarity in this business – I wouldn’t hug or kiss my bank manager. It all seems to be part of the 'we’re ‘friends therefore we do business' culture – designed to lure you into a false sense of security.
I’ve often tried to be business-like and go in for the handshake but guys nearly always disregard it and pull me in for an awkward sweaty hug. The new breed of pervy hugger seems to have it sussed that this is a potential groping opportunity and that if he (it’s always a he) extends both hands towards your armpits he’s likely to get a fingerful of breast.
Prime suspects are middle aged record label executives chancing their luck, or the lone fan that turns up to the gig two hours early hoping to catch you at sound check and ‘hang out’ for three hours while you wait to go onstage. They know where you are – MySpace and Facebook have told them.
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MAY 28
BEING SEEN AND NOT HEARD: I LEARN THE TRUTH AT 23
I must have been walking around with my eyes shut. I always thought it was only models and actresses who had to look good. Call me naïve, but I thought my music would be enough to ‘make it’ and everything else would just fall into place.
The woman I grew up admiring: Janis Joplin, Aretha Franklin, Joni Mitchell, Rickie lee Jones – none of them look like beauty queens. They had a charm of their own and most importantly they are Rock n’ Roll; free spirited individuals who sing their stories to the world and ride around with the boys on the road playing guitars.
Fast track from my teenage 60’s hippy fantasy to 2008 in a cold, damp-ridden bedsit in West London staring into the mirror and wondering what on earth I’m doing with my life.
I’ve been told I have to have my nicotine stained teeth whitened. I’d stopped being self-conscious about them a few years ago but apparently they’re not up to scratch. If you want people to buy your music you have to get on TV and no one on TV has anything less than a shiny white fake smile.
I’m being plucked, pumped and primed; I spend more time these days trying to squeeze my breasts together than playing music. Why am I doing this? Shouldn’t I be out touring venues up and down the country, even if they are tiny, just for the love – take the grass roots approach?
An A&R man from Sony who was old enough to be my father told me I should “show my body off more”. It’s astounding that these are the kind of people you have to get through in order for your record to be released.
I know entire meetings are conducted where these guys sit around and consider how ‘fit’ I am; they are all geeky posh boys from private schools with their affected Cockney accents wearing Converse in an attempt at cool. It would be hilarious were my career not in their hands.
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