Everybody’s business

Dreamz job
You can say you knew her when. Christianne Klein, who left her job as a TV anchor in Chico in 2002, is now so famous she’d probably turn her nose up at you on the street. Just kidding. She’s really nice.

Klein, now an anchor with WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C., recently drew the attention of a casting director, who asked her to audition for a role in a Universal Pictures movie called American Dreamz. She got the part and will appear as a White House reporter in “a couple of scenes,” she wrote friends in an e-mail. The movie is directed by Paul Weitz, of American Pie fame (“One time, in band camp…”) and stars Hugh Grant, Dennis Quaid, Marsha Gay Harden and Willem Dafoe.

Klein’s already a veteran of national exposure, having appeared as a panelist on the former ABC show Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher.

Klein previously anchored a TV news program in Salt Lake City and did a stint working for Senator Sam Aanestad, R-Grass Valley. But she said studio execs want to talk with her about “other projects,” so who knows what’s next for Klein?

“I love anchoring and reporting here in D.C., but it’s also fun to play around in a new medium,” she told me.

Baby in business
Vanasek Insurance Services has been so successful since its 2002 opening that it recently moved to a larger office at 60 Independence Circle, Suite 200, in Chico.

More interesting is the fact that Antonette Vanasek’s business selling individual and group health insurance posted 40-percent growth in the past year, and she’s been taking her daughter, who turned 1 on July 4, to work since shortly after she was born.

Vanasek brings baby Kaia along on client calls, and she has her own “nursery” inside the insurance office. “It’s almost turned into a marketing thing,” Vanasek said. “There’s always people who love a baby in the midst. She’s kind of the mascot here at the office.

“I think it makes it less inhibiting. They understand I’m human and I have responsibilities too.”

Vanasek, who last year was nominated for the Chico Chamber of Commerce’s female entrepreneur of the year award, is an active member of that chamber and vice president of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

My own baby is 9 months old now, and if I tried to bring him to work he’d chatter and screech like a crazed monkey and try to eat random office supplies. Furthermore, I often interview people who don’t even want to deal with me, much less my kid.

Vanasek said she gets paperwork done while the baby is napping, and Kaia’s dad takes over so Mom can put in time on nights and weekends.

Separate the sheep from the goats
Since I already mentioned my kid, I’d like to throw something else out there: This flashcard from a set I bought at the Dollar Tree. Now, I know you get what you pay for, but I was at least hoping for some accuracy here. I go all out, pay a big fat dollar to help my child become bilingual, and what do I get? Mislabeled farm animals. As if I don’t have enough to worry about raising the kid right. I think big business is conspiring against me.