In the fall of 2001 I became consumed with two things, terrorist attacks within the borders of my homeland and crop circles. There was little I could do about our national security other than to be vigilent in keeping my awareness sharp for any telltale signs of potential acts of terrorism within the framework of my day to day life in Los Angeles. But exploring the world of crop circles was totally within my realm of possibility as long as my internet connection was up and running. Having been introduced to the phenomenon by my friend, John Rixey Moore, in August of that same year, I became intrigued from my very first internet sight of the enormous face that had appeared in a wheat field in Chibolton, England in August of 2001. My husband and teenage son quickly became computer widower and orphan, respectively, while I surfed the web for any and all information that could be found on this earth mystery. And as the Hollywood hype began for the upcoming Summer 2002 release of Mel Gibson's movie, 'Signs', I became even more firmly committed to my desire to see and experience the crop circles first hand. Despite my husband's ridicule and my son's imminent departure for his first year of college at a far away university, I decided that making a student documentary film was the perfect way to experience this phenomenon in a very personal and in depth way. My college roommate's son, Holt Haynsworth, became my qualifying film student and cameraman, and my friend, actor John Rixey Moore, of Falcon Crest fame, agreed to join me on the adventure and act as interviewer. With my sister, Rosely Stevens, enlisted as my aide de camp, and interviews and accommodations arranged via email, we flew to London in early August and headed out for eight days and nights of the most glorious weather imaginable among the most hospitable and friendly people on earth. The quaint inns and pubs of Southern England offered us delicious meals at days end while we glowed with self-approbation and excitement at our skills interviewing truly remarkable and talented subjects. Another reason to celebrate was our good fortune of capturing on tape footage of truly wondrous crop glyphs which serendipitously continued to pop up night after night while we were there. As soon as I returned to the U.S., I found a professional editor to work with me and we spent 5 weeks transforming my 10 hours of mini dv tape into,not a student film but into an informative documentary of which I am extremely proud. And all the while I never even noticed that I had successfully undergone a metamorphasis of empty-nester turned filmmaker! Close "The filmmakers become the subject of the film" While we were in England, I met a cousin whom I had not even known existed until three weeks prior to my arrival in Wiltshire England. I was the proverbial 'rich American' bearing gifts, offering American cigarettes and Kentucky whiskey to my cousin in hopes of dousing any suspicions he and his wife might have that I was a spoiled American kook in pursuit of the paranormal. After spending an evening in their jovial company over delicious fare at a garden variety English pub, my sister, Rosely, and I found ourselves mentioned the next evening on the front page of the local Marlborough weekly newspaper! Suddenly I was being innundated with requests for live radio interviews with several of the BBC's morning talk show hosts. After participating in several of these shows, my crew and I were totally startled by the request from the BBC Television 1 to do an interview with us in the fields! As it turned out my new-found cousin was pretty PR savvy from his years as volunteer marketing director for Marlborough's yearly carnival. He had been e-mailing all of the local news outlets and titillating them with his 'everyman' take on the tasty fare of the adventures of a 'Beverly Hills housewife turned filmmaker.' As it turned out their news broadcast of "Beverly Hills housewife, Poppy Paulos, and her film crew" made us instant celebrities in Southern England and brought a good deal of local attention to the crop circle phenomenon that the British unfortunately take far too much for granted.