I managed to get access to the U.S. Open Red Carpet Arrivals last night. Between my press pass and the tournament taking place in my beat of Flushing, the big PR people happily let me in. I got a spot just in front of the red carpet and right beside a bunch of crazy paparazzos. I felt right at home.
We were told that a lot of celebs would be coming to watch the women's final and so we arrived at the stated time of 4:30 p.m. And we stayed there, standing no less, until almost 8. And barely any celebrities showed up.
There were no A-listers, contrary to what our media package told us. Instead, we got people like Leann Womack, Dennis Leary, and Richard Branson. I wasn't aware that such C-listers could still get access to red carpet events. They happily posed for pictures and answered questions while people scratched their heads trying to remember Leann Womack's last hit or Dennis Leary's last movie that actually made more than ten bucks.
I don't know if this means anything... but I seemed to be the only person there who knew who these three people were. The paparazzos actually turned to me after photographing the "stars" to ask who they were! I felt so special writing down, "Richard Branson, President of Virgin and failed reality-TV star" on the back of the crumpled Starbucks napkin handed to me by one of the crazy photographers. It totally made my night.
When Jason Lewis (of "Sex and the City" fame) arrived, the crowd went wild. Grown woman started begging him for an autograph or worse, a kiss. The crazy paparazzos yelled for him to take off his shirt and look their way. I motioned for Jason to come over and talk into my voice recorder for a second and he nodded. Meanwhile, some lady from US Weekly made a similar request only to have him tell her he wasn't interested and that she should just stay to the side. I felt special.
He didn't end up talking to me but that's really besides the point. The most important thing is that I was given preference over the reporter from US Weekly! This Columbia journalism thing isn't half bad.
We were told that a lot of celebs would be coming to watch the women's final and so we arrived at the stated time of 4:30 p.m. And we stayed there, standing no less, until almost 8. And barely any celebrities showed up.
There were no A-listers, contrary to what our media package told us. Instead, we got people like Leann Womack, Dennis Leary, and Richard Branson. I wasn't aware that such C-listers could still get access to red carpet events. They happily posed for pictures and answered questions while people scratched their heads trying to remember Leann Womack's last hit or Dennis Leary's last movie that actually made more than ten bucks.
I don't know if this means anything... but I seemed to be the only person there who knew who these three people were. The paparazzos actually turned to me after photographing the "stars" to ask who they were! I felt so special writing down, "Richard Branson, President of Virgin and failed reality-TV star" on the back of the crumpled Starbucks napkin handed to me by one of the crazy photographers. It totally made my night.
When Jason Lewis (of "Sex and the City" fame) arrived, the crowd went wild. Grown woman started begging him for an autograph or worse, a kiss. The crazy paparazzos yelled for him to take off his shirt and look their way. I motioned for Jason to come over and talk into my voice recorder for a second and he nodded. Meanwhile, some lady from US Weekly made a similar request only to have him tell her he wasn't interested and that she should just stay to the side. I felt special.
He didn't end up talking to me but that's really besides the point. The most important thing is that I was given preference over the reporter from US Weekly! This Columbia journalism thing isn't half bad.
posted by Tim @ 9/11/2005 10:40:00 PM
1 Comments:
At 8:39 AM,
p said…
Haha Tim, you couldn't resist showing off, could you? :-)
I'm proud of you - your journalistic crassness is an inspiration to us all... (Just don't let R.R. see this.)
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