Wow. Over a month of silence from Dougie. Six day work weeks, and a three week visit from
Mrs. Laurie has left me unable to sneak to this smelly internet cafe and
share the stories that are piling up.

But those stories have to wait for just a moment. I can’t even think of telling funny quips until
I can release my joys and sorrows regarding one young person who has left a deep impression
on me here in Budapest.

IVAN RICCI

It was mid-June, just after the production started filming. Driver Joey was dropping me
at my hotel entrance after another long day at the studio. As I was saying goodnight to
him, climbing out of the car, a deep voice speaking English but laced with Italian enthusiasm
came from behind me on the sidewalk.

“What time will your wake up call be for tomorrow?” he asked.

I whirled around wondering who in tarnashions would be asking me that here on the street.
And there stood a tall, smiley, angular, 28 year old Italian fellow wearing a silver choker,
t-shirt with jeans that were barely clinging to his little hips, and a white baseball hat. Never
saw him in my life before this, so you can feel my curiosity as to why he was asking me this
question. So, I told him “3 in the morning, why do you ask?”

“Ah” he said with a big smile, “That is a little better than your 2:15 wake up call from today!”

Not sure who or how, all I could say was, “Yes … wait … how did you know that?”

“I am the hotel night auditor who took your wake up call last night … Hello”, he replied.

“OH, yes, OK, now I see. Hi, I’m Doug Jones,” as I shook his hand.

With grinning pride, he said, “Yes, I know.”

Which left another question … “Wait … How did you know that was me getting out of the car?”

“Simple”, he said, not losing an ounce of his posture, “I recognized your voice from the phone.”

Amazed by this boy, I had to flashback to the night before: It was around 10:30pm and I
called down to the front desk for my insane wake up call. I remembered the receptionist
being a very animated and jovial voice I had never talked with before, as I told him that I
wasn’t kidding, I honestly need to wake up at 2:15am to get outside to my driver by 2:30am.
He chuckled with me, and wished me a good few hours of sleep. When 2:15 came, the phone
rang with the automated computer voice telling me to have a nice day. Ugh, the drudgery at
this hour! I hung up the phone and lay there in the darkness for a couple of dangerous
better-not-drift-off-again minutes. That’s when the phone rang again. Again? The system
never calls twice. When I picked up, I heard that jovial voice from the night before, asking
if I got my wake up call, and am I going to be OK. Something no one has ever done at any
hotel I have ever stayed at.

Now let’s jump ahead to the following night again at the hotel entrance. “Oh! So that was
YOU who called me this morning to make sure I was OK! Do you do that for all your wake-up
calls?”

“No,” he replied, “I just couldn’t imagine why anyone would have to get up that early, and I
knew the temptation to fall back asleep would be too great, so I had to call.” Yes. THIS
was Ivan Ricci.

Ivan walked with me up to the door of my suite, and in that short time I learned that he was
from Italy, but living and working at this Italian-owned hotel while in Hungary to fulfill a life-long
dream of recording his first music CD at a studio here in Budapest. Also in that short walk, he
asked all about me, and clutched his heart when he heard that I was here in Budapest as Abe
Sapien working on “Hellboy 2″. Turns out he was also a huge fan of “Pan’s Labyrinth” and
couldn’t wait for the Silver Surfer, as well. Before he walked away from my door, he informed
me that he just lived one floor up, and that if I need anything, or if I have free time when he
does, all that.

I have always said that angels come in two forms. The actual wing-flapping kind sent from
Heaven who protect us, and the people God places in our lives at the right place and time.
Ivan didn’t know it, but he was an answer to prayer. I had been quite lonely in my first few
weeks here, not knowing where to go, or how to get there, and feeling very out of sorts with
the language barrier. And here in a matter of minutes … plop … I’m blessed with a local friend.

Over the next two months, it’s hard to recount how much Ivan was in my life. Some snapshot
memories would include:

– Ivan grabbing me from the lobby as I limped in from another long day, dragging me behind the
front desk, and insisting that I sit with him, David (another night auditor), and Gyorgy (Night
Manager) whom I have also grown to know and adore. Ivan would have room service bring me a
milkshake right there at the desk, and look up songs on YouTube that we could sing together.
If I didn’t have to work the next day, this could go on until the sun came up.

-Ivan making me get down on one knee in front of Night Manager Gyorgy and him as they did a
comical knighting ceremony and presented me with my very own hotel employee badge with
DOUG on it.

– Ivan continued phoning minutes after my wake-up calls any night that he was on duty.
One wee-hour morning, he wouldn’t hang up until he talked me through all this … “It’s a
beautiful day. Sit up now. Smile because you are alive. Put your foot on the floor.
Now the other one. Turn on a light. It’s going to be a great day on the movie. OK?
OK. Now come downstairs and hug us before you go.”

– Ivan showing me where to buy tickets for the city trams and metros, then taking me for
a test ride to a mall where I needed to buy a tea pot for my room.

– Ivan taking Selma Blair and me to an Italian restaurant for his favorite dish there, Gnocchi
with Gorgonzola. Heavenly comfort food. He and I re-visited this place many more times,
and always got the same thing. A creature of habit, just like me. We would sit in there and
talk for hours about his dreams, his wishes, his passions. A young life with so much potential
and creative energy.

– Ivan talking about his parents back home in Milano, and how his one top goal was to make
them proud of him by fulfilling their wish for him to own his own house one day. As he spoke,
he needed to take a pause as his eyes filled with tears. He told me he hadn’t cried in front of
anyone in years, but how comfortable he was in front of me. Such an enormous compliment
from such an enormous heart.

– Spending an evening with Ivan and his gorgeous Hungarian girlfriend Adrienn. Watching him
point out her cute little nose and stunning green eyes was adorable. Later he told me that
getting her to smile or laugh is one of life’s biggest pleasures. I learned that brightening
anyone’s day is what that boy lived for.

– Running my lines for a scene with Liz Sherman with the deep-voiced, Italian-accented Ivan.
He insisted that we keep going over the scene again and again until he was satisfied that I
knew it well enough. I can still hear his charming voice doing Liz’s line “Shut up Abe” as
“Shut-a Hup Habe”.

– Seeing his face as I gave him signed glossies of Abe, The Faun, and Silver Surfer. You would
have thought I just gave him 3 gold bricks. Best of all, was knowing that he would have been
the same Ivan with me if I was a bus driver.

– Ivan telling me one of the things he loved most about me … that even though I could wear
any designer label I wanted, I was most comfortable that day in my cut-off jeans, t-shirt with
a stain on it, a tourist fanny pack, and a filthy ball cap that I pulled out of my friend’s salvage
yard in Texas. Yep, he fully “got” me.

– Wherever we would be with piped-in music, Ivan stops everything, points to the ceiling and
says, “I love this song”, followed by his fearless singing out loud to it. Of course I always
joined him.

– Hearing him go on about style, colognes, food, and romance, starting every thought with
“Please … I’m Italian!”, which totally justified all his opinions and tastes to the point where I
wanted to get a pen and jot down notes.

– Watching him listen intently with a tilted head after he asked me to share why I believe
there really is a God.

– Seeing his face so proud of himself when he put one of his numerous pairs of designer
sunglasses on me. He stepped back, told me they were better on me than him, and sent me
back to my room with them.

– Watching any store clerk or food server’s barriers break down as Ivan’s charm would get
them all to giggle within minutes.

– Having Ivan take me to his music producer’s (the delightful Achilla Sparta) radio show on a
whim, and ending up staying and chatting on the air with Achilla and Ivan for 2 hours between
songs about the Hungarian opening of “F4: Rise Of The Silver Surfer”.

– Ivan telling me that when he got a call from the daytime desk manager asking him to cover a
day shift right after one of his night shifts, he understandably wanted to cuss. But instead, he
said that he heard my voice in his ear, and even affected my sing-songie tone to tell her, “Why
yes, I would LOVE to.”

– Singing with Ivan, then him looking at me in all sincerity to say, “You should do a song with me
on my CD.”

– Watching Ivan charm the socks off of Mrs. Laurie the day after she arrived here. Over our
usual Gnocchi with Gorgonzola, he told Laurie that he has never known anyone like me, that he
never thought he would meet someone 20 years older that would be this much like him, and
then playfully pondered the possibilities of moving in with us in Los Angeles. By then, Laurie
wanted to know how soon he could get there.

– Ivan telling me that even on his worst days, getting to see me somehow made all his troubles
dissolve away, and how talking with me always made him feel that anything was possible. I
had no idea.

So many moments to savor with this exuberant young man in the short span of only two
months.

It was Sunday morning August 12th, just a couple of weeks ago, when my phone started
ringing. I got out of bed to find three missed calls. Upon returning these calls, I spoke with
girlfriend Adrienn and Linda, a long time friend of Ivan’s family. What they told me left me in a
heap on the floor staring at the carpet.

Ivan was in a coma. That Friday night, he and four friends were driving on the highway to the
beautiful Lake Balaton. He left his job and living arrangement at the hotel a couple of weeks
before this, and told me that he had accomplished more with his song writing and vocal
recording in those two weeks than he had in the entire last year that he has lived here. But
now without a day job, he wasn’t sure if he could afford to stay. Ivan had told Laurie and me
how his time at the Lake inspired him and gave him hope to continue his dream of finishing this
CD album of his. So it was no surprise that he took his friends up on an offer to return to the
lake for this weekend. Little did any of them know what was about to happen. While at top
speed on the highway, and attempting to pass another vehicle, the car rolled, throwing Ivan
from the back seat, and leaving him with many injuries to his head, neck, stomach, and one
lung. Enough so, that the prognosis after surgery was “Hopeless.”

Now it was almost two days after the accident, and Ivan’s friends and family found my number
in his cell phone. I was so humbled to hear friend Linda say that since the first day Ivan met
me, every time they spoke, he would spend half the time talking about this Dougie guy. She
told me what a huge impact I had on Ivan, and said she simply had to contact me. Again, how
very humbling to hear. I don’t think any of us will ever fully know what effect we leave on
others.

All I could think to tell Linda was to please kiss Ivan on the forehead for me, whisper that
Dougie loves him, and that God’s angels are all around. Holding him. Holding all of them.

By 10:30 that night, the call came telling me that Ivan had indeed passed away.

I was a mess.

How could a 28 year old with such promise, such energy, such passion for life, such passion
for people … how could his young life be over? So hard to wrap my head around. At my age,
having people in my life for 20, 30, 40 years, how did this boy make it so far into my heart in
only 2 months.

Let me share one last snapshot with you.

One morning at around 3am, I was leaving the hotel for work as Ivan was heading back into
the hotel after a party night off from work. He figured out what day it was and excitedly
said, “I don’t have to work tonight either … may I come to the set with you?!” So, he got in
the Mercedes with Driver Joey and me, and off we went.

Thus began a day that he referred to as a dream come true. Not only had he finally gotten
onto the set of a big Hollywood production, but he also got to witness the filming of that
scene with Selma that he helped me rehearse, and sat in my make-up trailer watching the
whole Abe getting ready process. When our Hungarian assistant Nora stepped out for a
cigarette, Ivan joined her, leaving me alone for a minute with my make up artists Thom Floutz
and Simon Webber. That’s when Thom said, “I can see why you two get along so well … he’s a
younger Italian version of … well … YOU.”

Just then Ivan came bursting back into the trailer with a child-like excitement telling us we HAD
to come outside to see this!!! So, make-up half done and feet in slippers, I went outside with
all of them to witness the most beautiful double rainbow. By now it was around 6am, and the
sun was just rising in the east with a gray cloud cover over us that created the most beautifully
serene lighting over the sunflower fields that surround Korda Studios out in the country. And
that rainbow … like I’d never seen. As I stood there taking it all in, Ivan came up behind me,
put his arm around my shoulder, and spoke with all the Italian charm he had in him, “See what
happens when you bring me to work with you.”

I did see.

To me, rainbows have always meant a sign of God’s promises. And as I look at the attached
picture taken that morning by make-up artist Simon, I feel joy in the midst of all the sorrow.

All that hope that Ivan spoke of. So happy that he got to record 5 songs before he left us,
that producer Achilla will finish mixing and have available on MySpace soon. So happy that I
had the chance to know this remarkable young man, who was an angel to me. So satisfied that
even though he never got to show his own house deed to his parents, he did own so much real
estate in people’s hearts like mine. So happy that he got to see a double rainbow, marking
God’s promises to him so close to his own going home to Heaven.

Please enjoy this beautiful photo with me.

And if you get the chance, you may click on this link to see Ivan in a music video he made
on a shoestring budget here in Budapest about 2 years ago. Goran MC … That’s him.

Thank you for indulging me in this very long catharsis. And I’ll check in again soon to continue more stories from “Hellboy 2″, I promise.

There’s Love!!! — Dougie