Film crew searches for ghosts in Crystal Bay

CRYSTAL BAY - The film crew had barely entered the attractive suite when the young actor sitting on the end of the bed began talking rapidly as he stared at the floor.

He was describing a woman who was feeling ill.

"Her hair was flowing in this direction, and this is exactly where she lay," he said.

He suddenly reeled and slumped onto the carpeted floor, face down. The young man claimed he was experiencing what happened to Marilyn Monroe as she overdosed from barbiturates in 1961 during the filming of "The Misfits."

Chris Fleming, a paranormal intuitive from Chicago, was hired by the British film crew to contact the spirits of departed celebrities.

The British film crew was shooting at Crystal Bay's Cal-Neva Resort as part of a series called "Dead Famous" for The Living Channel.

"This is our last step to try to find the ghost of Frank Sinatra," producer Charlotte Wheeler said.

She described the program as an alternate way to present biographies.

"The paranormal is really popular in England now," she added.

The crew had been in Los Angeles in November where they had a seance for Marilyn Monroe.

They also went to known James Dean haunts but nothing came through there, Wheeler said.

The crew consists of Wheeler, plus director Chris Williams, cameraman James Lloyd, and the actors. The female star is Gail Porter, well-known to British audiences for hosting "Top of the Pops," plus appearances in a variety of programs aired on the BBC, ITV and Channel 4.

"Gail is the skeptic," Wheeler explained. Her counterpart is Fleming, who has published Unknown Magazine for five years, a publication that invites people to tell their stories about paranormal experiences.

Fleming describes his childhood as being similar to that of the child in the movie "Sixth Sense."

The "Dead Famous" crew went through the Thunderbird Lodge where Fleming said he felt a lot going on.

"If I don't feel anything, I can't just turn it on or off for the camera," he said.

Fleming, who is termed a "sensitive" intuitive because of his ability to sense people's emotions, histories and futures, learned not only of that term while acting in the series but also discovered he is an empathetic channeler.

"What both James Dean and Marilyn Monroe wanted to get across is that people (should) let go of them, stop worshiping them and wanting to be like them," he said. "They can't really go on to the afterlife because of millions of peoples' thoughts."

Fleming said the television series has meant his reopening himself, allowing himself to see spirits as vividly as when he was a child.

As a channeler, he said he was astonished when he began to experience people's feelings, thoughts and emotions just before their deaths.

The intent of the series is not to glamorize the deaths or diminish the memories of these celebrities but to discover what really happened and to show respect for who they were, he explained.