Vanities

Briefly, George Huang

—JAN BRESLAUER

Age and Provenance: 27; Berkeley, California.

Current Occupation: First-time Hollywood filmmaker, whose Swimming with Sharks is the tale of a studio executive and his beleaguered assistant.

Previous Occupation: Five years as a beleaguered assistant to studio executives—including Barry Josephson, now president of worldwide production at Columbia Pictures.

Worst Thing About Old Occupation: The high risk of having objects thrown at you. “I have a lot of friends who had to take cover on a daily basis.”

Worst Thing About New Occupation: “Making a movie was a lot more miserable than I ever anticipated.” On day one of shooting, someone forgot to buy film; day two, the transportation chief was run over by one of his own trucks; day three, the art truck caught on fire; day four, the big L.A. earthquake hit.

What Could Possibly Be More Hair-Raising than Filmmaking? Working as an assistant at Columbia and getting caught up in the eye of the Heidi Fleiss media storm. “Tom Brokaw even called me at home. I said, ‘Whoa! Time!’”

How He Got His Break in Showbiz: “The dish columns started writing about the script, and on the basis of that it started generating heat.”

How He Thinks Show Business May Try to Break Him:

“Everyone assumes the film is about Barry Josephson or Joel Silver, but it's not an attack on any one person. I've never had anything thrown at me in my life. I hope it stays that way.”