17 July 2009

Catching a Premier - in My Rearview Mirror

I saw my first red carpet last night, as I drove by at 35 mph. It was somewhat odd and disorienting, actually. First of all, it was at the ArcLight closest to my office, which is the theater I have frequented most often since moving here. I saw a big line of people outside the side door and first thought it was Harry Potter mania, but noticed folks were a little overdressed. Then I saw that constructed background with the movie's logo ("The Ugly Truth" btw) and I could actually hear the din of the photographers yelling for attention over my car radio with the windows closed and AC on high. And this was all just on the sidewalk in front of the theater. There were also a number of tourists and whoever else trying to take pictures from across the street.

It was all just so weird. Kind of like when I went to see a taping of Late Night with Conan O'Brien in college and discovered that the stage was tiny. The camera angles cleverly made it seem like there was more than 2 feet between the band and the desk. Same here - there was this tiny area of transformed sidewalk and all the camera and video footage manages to ignore the regular life - parking meters, the ticket window, the choked up traffic on Sunset Blvd - making it look all glamorous and fabulous. But I also got a little thrill, I could totally relate to the across-the-street gawkers who were sort of awed at being this close to the movie magic, even though being this close pretty much kills that magic.

06 July 2009

Should I Know Who you Are?

Are you famous but crave privacy? Well, then come hang out with me because I will have no idea who you are and so treat you like a regular schmoe.

I thought that I'd actually be one of those people who embarrasses her native Angelino friends with squeals and pestering when I saw a celebrity. But nope, I am one cool cucumber. Though, mainly due to the fact that I never recognize famous people when I see them.

It all began when I practically bumped into Adam Arkin coming out of the bathroom at a restaurant. My friend had to tell me who I had almost just run over.

Then there was Mr Belding at Dimples. And, seriously, that took a very strong power of obliviousness. Nearly every person I talked to about this bar told me Dennis Haskins was a regular. The karaoke host even announced who he was while I was in the ladies room, everyone had their cameras out and Jill was gesturing wildly to me as I came back to the table. But I took that to mean "Hey, let's go dance" and I think it still took a couple minutes after that.

But the topper was this past Friday. Linda and I went up to the Santa Ynez Valley to enjoy some wine tasting and ended up at Rideau Winery and Bistro. After we cleared our plates and got a second glass of wine, we found a couple had taken the picnic table we'd been at before. We ended up joining them and struck up a conversation about the nearby Neverland Ranch. The conversation kept going from there for a couple of hours until one of the other patrons came up and said, "Excuse me, are you Terrell Davis?" He was sort of evasive, but his girlfriend quickly and skillfully changed the subject and distracted the questioners. I already knew his first name was Terrell, so I said "You are this Terrell Davis - but who is Terrell Davis? Should I know who you are? I'm sorry." and he sort of blew it off and so we moved along. Shortly after that, the two of them left to go change for dinner and the original interrupter came back and asked us "But that really was Terrell Davis, right?" and we told him we had no idea and who was Terrell Davis anyway? he looked a little annoyed and kind of yelled "He played for the Broncos!" So we Googled him and, sure enough, we had been spending a lovely afternoon with the MVP of Super Bowl XXXII and his very charming girlfriend.