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# ‘Parker’ a blast from past
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/parker-a-blast-from-past/
- Published: 2005-11-11T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T08:08:43.000Z
- Author: Dan Dunn
- Tags: Entertainment, Santa Monica, #archive-import

Five years ago, actor/director Scott Coffey bought a consumer-grade digital video camera and in three days’ time shot a 16-minute short about a bottom-of-the- Hollywood-chain actress named Ellie Parker whose life is a whirlwind of humiliating auditions, overwrought therapy sessions and romantic turmoil. The star of Coffey’s short was a then-unknown Australian actress named Naomi Watts who has since become, as anyone paying even the slightest attention is surely aware, a Hollywood A-lister. The expanded “Ellie Parker” was made on the cheap and it shows, with little to offer in the way of a cohesive storyline. Still, it’s worth the price of admission just to watch Watts turn in one of the liveliest performances of the year doing a hilarious study in self-imposed human bondage. Chevy Chase also fares well in a cameo as Ellie’s agent.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 11, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/111105.pdf?ref=smdp.com)