Simon Fuller’s Walk of Fame Star Ceremony

P1060272

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, bright and early this past Monday morning I headed out to Hollywood to attend the Walk of Fame Star Ceremony for American Idol creator Simon Fuller.  And I really should admit here that, while the Grim Cheaper is a die-hard fan of AI, I have never really been all that into the show.  The only reason I wanted to attend the ceremony was that Carrie Underwood was scheduled to be there and I have been absolutely DYING to get a photograph with her ever since the two of us played the “Carrie Underwater” game together on The Ellen DeGeneres Show back in early April (which you can watch a clip of here).  And I have to say that the stalking gods were definitely smiling down upon me because the day turned out far better than I ever could have imagined!

P1060273 P1060276

I arrived on Hollywood Boulevard at around 10 a.m., just about ninety minutes before the event was scheduled to begin, and because I got there so early I ended up securing a FABULOUS spot directly against the crowd barricade, right behind the stage.  A super-nice woman named Kat was standing next to me and the two of us wound up really hitting it off and shared many of our various stalking stories to kill time before the ceremony began.

P1060280

The first celeb to arrive on the scene was So You Think You Can Dance judge/American Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe, whom I absolutely love.

P1060281

Nigel truly could not have been nicer and when I called out to him to ask for a pic, he immediately walked right on over and took a photograph with both me and Kat.  Yay!

[ad]

ScreenShot074

Ironically enough, my friend/fellow stalker Mike, from the Mike the Fanboy blog, whom for a week I had been begging to come to the ceremony with me, texted me at around 11 a.m. to say that he was going to be able to make it after all.  I ended up spotting him across the crowd right when a comedian came out to get the crowd warmed up shortly before the event got underway.  Well, the comedian saw me waving hectically trying to get Mike’s attention and assumed I was waving at a celebrity.  He immediately walked over to ask who it was I waving at and when I explained that it was “just my friend, Mike”, he began to call out “Mike, Mike, Mike!” over the loud speaker for all of Hollywood Boulevard to hear.  This went on for a good three minutes or so.  When Mike finally figured out that the comedian was speaking to him, he got incredibly embarrassed and tried to hide his face, but the comedian just wouldn’t stop.  It was absolutely hilarious and at one point even some of the people in the crowd were shouting “Mike, Mike, Mike.”  LOL

P1060282 P1060283

Amazingly enough, all of the Top 13 Season 10 Idols were in attendance for the ceremony, including Casey Abrams, James Durbin, Lauren Alaina, Paul McDonald, Pia Toscana, Stefano Langone, Scotty McCreery, Ashthon Jones, Haley Reinhart, Jacob Lusk, Karen Rodriguez, Naima Adedapo, and Thia Megia.  When they first arrived on the scene, James and Lauren started making faces at the crowd through the glass doors of Delphine Restaurant, which was being used as a holding area for the event.  James was easily the most friendly and funniest out of the bunch and, as you can see in the above photograph, was pretending to be smashed up against Delphine’s glass doors before coming outside.

P1060285 P1060288

P1060308 P1060307

P1060305 P1060306

The Idols were actually first brought out at 11 a.m., thirty minutes before the ceremony was scheduled to begin, for a meet-and-greet with the fans, which was quite unusual.  Celebrities usually wait until the end of each Walk of Fame ceremony before signing autographs and posing for pictures, but apparently the Idol kids were scheduled to rehearse for the show’s season finale immediately following the event and would not be able to stick around afterwards.

P1060291

The Idols were all SUPER nice and happily posed for as many photographs as people asked for.  I got my picture taken with James Durbin, who was my favorite this season;

P1060293

Stefano Langone;

P1060295

Pia Toscano, who is GORGEOUS in person;

P1060312

Casey Abrams;

P1060294

finalist Lauren Alaina;

P1060310

and Paul McDonald, who, when I asked for a photograph, said, “Of course!  I will stand here and take as many pictures as people want.”  SO NICE!

P1060289 P1060290

Finalist Scott McCreery was also incredibly nice and happily agreed to take a second photograph with me after I majorly failed taking the first one.

Mary

At this point I was beyond floored!  I mean, the day was already shaping up to be a huge WIN and the ceremony hadn’t even begun yet!  So, as you can imagine, I literally just about had a heart attack when my FAVORITE So You Think You Can Dance judge, Mary Murphy, walked outside!  Mary is so incredibly positive, energetic and FUN on the show that I absolutely fell in love with her during the series’ first season.  I was standing pretty far away from Mary, but as soon as she walked out I immediately started calling her name to ask her to come over for a picture and she yelled back that she would just as soon as the ceremony was over.

P1060317 P1060320

P1060321 P1060322

Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony, and Randy Jackson were the next celebs to arrive and, not surprisingly, they did not go up to fans to pose for photographs or sign autographs.

Posh Spice

Posh Spice, aka Victoria Beckham, showed up next, but she also did not walk over to the fan area.  I have to say that she looked absolutely STUNNING, though!

P1060324 P1060325

Carrie Underwood was next on the scene and she also looked absolutely AMAZING!  Love, love, love her shoes!

P1060332P1060333

The ceremony got started right on time at 11:30 with Hollywood Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Leron Gubler introducing Simon Fuller with a brief speech.

P1060338 P1060340

American Idol host Ryan Seacrest spoke next and gave a very heartfelt speech about Simon.  Ryan stated that for once the cameras had been turned on the producer and even though he knew that Simon would be incredibly uncomfortable being the focus of so much attention, it was all incredibly well-deserved.

P1060341 P1060345

P1060346 P1060347

Then Carrie Underwood came up and said a few brief words, thanking Simon for making all of her dreams, as well as the dreams of so many others, come true.  Then Simon spoke and thanked all of the people who had worked behind the scenes to help make Idol one of the most popular shows on television.  He said that when he first came up with the idea for the series well over a decade ago, every single network turned him down and no one in the industry seemed to be at all enthusiastic about a show centering around a singing competition.  He said it took a lot of hard work and determination to finally bring the show to fruition.  I bet those network executives who turned him down are kicking themselves black and blue right about now!  Winking smile Simon also gave a very heartfelt thank you to Idol judge Simon Cowell, who was not in attendance, but whom he said pretty much made the show was it is today.

P1060353

And with that the ceremony was over.  Ryan Seacrest was the first celeb to head over to the fan barricade to begin signing autographs and taking pictures.  Ryan was extremely nice and, as you can see in the above photograph, not nearly as short as everyone makes him out to be.  I would guess he is about 5’7” or 5’8”.

P1060355

Carrie Underwood came over next and I immediately told her that I had played the “Carrie Underwater” game with her on Ellen.  Well, let me tell you, I just about died when a look of recognition came across her face and she said, “Oh my gosh!  How are you?  I am so glad to see that you recovered from that!  Your make-up is intact today!”  (I had gotten drenched with water balloons during the game on Ellen and by the time it was over my mascara had run halfway down my face.)  Then Carrie said, “How are you enjoying your new bike?”  I absolutely could not believe that she not only remembered that my make-up had gotten ruined on the show, but also the fact that I had won a bike!!!!!  What a complete and total sweetheart!  Sigh!  Love her!

P1060356 P1060358

P1060359 P1060360

Carrie signed a ton of autographs and took a lot of pictures with the fans in attendance.  She also signed a few guitars that people had brought along.  So incredibly cool!

P1060363 P1060365

Randy Jackson came over next but he, sadly, only signed about three autographs before leaving.

P1060362 P1060368

The Eight Season American Idol winner Kris Allen was also in attendance and not only was he super nice in person, but he was also SUPER cute.  Smile

P1060372

Idol’s Season Seven winner, rocker David Cook, was also there and he was also incredibly nice to the fans, and, let me tell you, people were going absolutely CRAZY over him!

P1060374

Simon Fuller also came over to the crowd, but he sadly only signed a few autographs before heading back into the W Hotel Hollywood for the ceremony after-party.

P1060373

Ever since the ceremony ended, I had been calling over to Mary Murphy, begging her to come take a picture with me, and when she was finally able to come over after doing a few press interviews, she walked up, put her arms out and gave me a HUGE hug!  What a SWEETHEART!   I love her even more now than I did before!  And with that the event was pretty much over.  Quite a day for this stalker, let me tell you!  I was pretty much walking on air for the rest of the afternoon!

P1060376

And, as I was leaving, I happened to spot Extra correspondent Terri Seymour, who, ironically enough, just so happens to be Simon Cowell’s ex-girlfriend.

P1060375

After the ceremony I met up briefly with Mike, from the Mike the Fanboy site, and was floored to learn that he was one of the very lucky few to get autographs from both JLo and Posh Spice.  Each woman only signed about five autographs the entire day, so Mike majorly scored on that one!  You can see his autographs and his fabulous photographs of the event here.  Simon Fuller’s unveiled star is pictured above.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Simon Fuller’s star on the Walk of Fame can be found directly in front of the W Hotel Hollywood, which is located at 6250 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood.

Oscar Weekend 2010

IMG_6067

The celebrity sightings during Oscar Weekend 2010 started a bit early for me this year when Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I accidentally stumbled upon the filming of CSI: Miami in Altadena on Friday morning.  But I’ll save that story for tomorrow’s blog post.  Today, it’s strictly all about Oscar, Oscar, Oscar!  And, let me tell you, it was another amazing Oscar Weekend for me.  Man, I love awards season!!!!  🙂

DSC_0014

Anyway, after hanging out on the CSI: Miami set for a few hours this past Friday, Mike and I made our way over to the Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood to check out the Academy Awards preparations at the Kodak Theatre and to take a little walk on the most famous carpet in the entire world.  My fiancé and I usually hit up the Kodak Theatre each year on the Saturday morning before the Oscar ceremony is held and, amazingly enough, the place is usually not all that crowded.  But when Mike and I showed up early Friday afternoon, the Hollywood & Highland Center was absolutely JAM PACKED.  So much so that they actually had to CLOSE the parking garage there as it was completely full!  If you’ve ever been to that parking garage, you know what I mean when I say it is absolutely GINOURMOUS, so the fact that it was FULL was mind-boggling to me!  Even with all the traffic and throngs of people, though, we finally managed to make it to the Kodak.  And I can’t even tell you how exciting it was to be standing there in the middle of it all!  Being that this was my fourth year stalking the Oscars, you would think that I’d be at least a little tired of it by now.  But nothing could be further from the truth.  I was absolutely ESCTATIC to be seeing it all in person once again.  I still have to pinch myself every time I am there.  Unbelievably, this was actually Mike’s very first Oscar stalk, though!  For whatever reason, even though he grew up in the Los Angeles area, he had yet to ever visit the Academy Awards red carpet in person, so it was extremely exciting for me to be sharing that experience with him.  And it got the Grim Cheaper off the hook of having to take me there on Saturday morning.  So, it was definitely a win-win situation for all of us.   😉

DSC_0036

DSC_0038

I have to say that it was very cool to be stalking the Oscars a day earlier than usual, as Mike and I got to see quite a bit of the red carpet set-up taking place, including one of the Oscar statuettes being brought into the theater on a golf cart . . .

DSC_0027

. . . and part of the red carpet being rolled out.

IMG_6069

IMG_6056

DSC_0016

Thanks to the massive rain-storms that have been plaguing Southern California as of late, many of the Oscars were actually covered over with plastic tarps;

IMG_6076

IMG_6064

and there was also a rain tent set up over the red carpet.  Which got me to thinking, why does it always seem to rain on Oscar Night?

IMG_6059

As usual, the actual carpet was also covered over in tarping to prevent the awards crew from trampling on it pre-show.

DSC_0015

And, even with the tarping, I, of course, just had to get a picture of myself standing on it.  🙂

IMG_6078

[ad]

IMG_6077

DSC_0021

For those who have never visited the Kodak Theatre, it is located inside of the Hollywood & Highland Center, which is, for all intents and purposes, a mall.  So, when the stars walk down the red carpet on Oscar Night, they are actually walking right through a bunch of shops.  It’s pretty hard to imagine, I know, but you can kind of see the set-up in the above photographs.  The windows to the right and left of the carpet area are actually stores.  Whenever I take out-of-towners to the Kodak Theatre and explain that it is where the Oscar Ceremony is held each year, I invariably hear the following sentence, “But this is a mall!”  LOL  Anyway, the red carpet goes right through a stretch of the mall which houses such stores as MAC, Louis Vuitton (sigh!), Sanrio, Sun’s Up sunglasses store, the Gateway Newstand, and Kelly’s Coffee & Fudge.  I swear, if I was an actor walking the red carpet, I would so be tempted to stop into Kelly’s Coffee for a quick latte before making my way into the theatre.  😉  To prevent this, though, the stores are actually required to close during Oscar Weekend, beginning on the Friday evening before the ceremony.  Mike and I happened to stop into one of the stores on the red carpet to do some shopping while we were there and the clerk told us that she was getting ready to close for the next few days and that security was just about to do their final check of the premises, along with their bomb-sniffing dogs who roam each store to make sure that no explosive devices have been left inside.  How crazy is that?

IMG_6058

EXTREMELY bright (like absolutely BLINDINGLY so) lights were set up all along the perimeter of the red carpet.  One is pictured above and even via photograph you can tell how darn bright it is.

DSC_0029

Some of the Oscar statues are unbelievably HUGE, especially the one located at the corner of Highland Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard, which is where the red carpet begins.  As you can see in the above photograph, even the base of that statue is taller than me!

IMG_6054

I was just itching to jump up on the above pictured press stage to snap a quick picture, but the security guard standing in that vicinity did not look at all friendly so I didn’t want to risk it.   He probably would have ended up banning me from the Hollywood & Highland Center for life.  😉

DSC_0030

While hanging out on the red carpet on Friday, Mike and I ran into this enterprising young woman who was holding up a homemade sign asking Matt Damon to be her date to the Oscars.  😉  Love it!

IMG_6060

IMG_6061

While walking around Hollywood, we also spotted this gigantic movie poster for Sex and the City 2 on the side of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel and I just had to snap a pic of it!  Love it!  Love it!  Love it!

DSC_0034

As much fun as Mike and I had on Friday, I must say that there was even more fun in store for me on Saturday.  Beginning early Saturday morning and ending very late Saturday night, I dragged my fiancé from one end of Los Angeles to the other to do some major star-gazing.  Sadly, though, due to the rain and the Independent Spirit Awards’ change in venue (while they are usually held on the beach in Santa Monica each Saturday before the Oscars, this year they took place on Friday evening at the much less accessible Nokia Theatre L.A. Live in Downtown Los Angeles), my celeb sightings weren’t as numerous this year as they were last, but I still managed to have an ABSOLUTE BLAST.  In fact, I am still pinching myself this morning.  I even got to meet up with one of my readers, a super sweet fellow stalker named Kendall, at one point during the evening. And while I didn’t spot my girl Jen or crooner Michael Buble (whose sightings were the highlights of my Oscar Weekend last year), I did manage to stalk quite a few celebs.  But because hotel security is very tight during Oscar Weekend, I, unfortunately, didn’t get to snap any pictures of them.  🙁

So, without further ado, here is “The List” of celebrity sightings from Oscar Weekend 2010.

1. Jerry Ferris – from Jen Schefft’s season of The Bachelorette

2. Jamie Foxx

3. Lenny Kravitz

4. Aaron Eckhart

5. Benjamin McKenzie – At one point in the evening, I noticed Ben standing next to my fiancé at a valet stand, so I leaned over and said “Hi, Ben!”  He looked over expecting me to be someone he knew, got a blank expression on his face, and then smiled a big smile when he realized I was just a fan and said “Hey, how are you doing?”  SIGH!

6. Elizabeth Banks

7. Dennis Haysbert (from 24)

8. Ben Stiller

9. J.J. Abrams (the producer of Lost)

10. will.i.am (from the Black Eyed Peas) – He seemed super nice and waved at us.

11. Ed Westwick

12. Jessica Szohr

13. Jake Gyllenhaal

14. Maggie Gyllenhaal – She is extremely taaaaaaaaall in person.

15. Rashida Jones

16. Katie Couric

17. Zachary Quinto

18. Morgan Freeman

19. Jason Reitman

20. Steven Spielberg

21. David Spade

22. Leonardo DiCaprio

23. Halle Berry

24. B.J. Novak

25. Kevin Connolly

26. Sofia Vergara (Gloria from Modern Family)

27. Jesse James

28. Sandra Bullock

29. Ryan Reynolds

30. Ryan Seacrest – He is so not as short as everyone makes him out to be.

31. Jon Hamm

32. Jennifer Westfeldt

33. Jimmy Kimmel

34. Anna Kendrick

35. Christian Slater – Was super friendly and waved at us.  🙂

36. Meg Ryan

37. Ron Livingston

38. Jemaine Clement (from The Flight of the Conchords)

39. Colin Firth

40. Taylor Lautner – He looks VERY young in person, but is VERY cute.

41. Fred Savage

42. Kristin Davis

43. Kate Beckinsale

44. Eddie Murphy

45. Matt Damon

46. Luciana Barrosa

47. Tina Fey

48. Jeanne Tripplehorn

49. Gina Gershon

50. Stanley Tucci

51. Robert Downey Jr.

52. Susan Downey (Robert’s wife, who is a big time producer)

53. Jeff Bridges

54. Winona Ryder

55. Mariska Hargitay – She is STRIKINGLY beautiful in person!

56. Rich Ross – The new chairman of Walt Disney Studios, who I actually served on jury duty with once.  😉

57. Julie Bowen (Claire from Modern Family)

58. Ty Burrell (Phil from Modern Family)

59. Elton John – We ate dinner just a few tables away from him and in what was an absolutely surreal moment, the musician working at the restaurant started playing Elton’s 1970 hit “Your Song” with him sitting just a few feet away.

60. George Takei and his husband Brad Altman – My fiancé said he was actually star struck for what was probably the first time in his life over seeing the two of them, not because he is a Trekkie, but because he is a fan of “The Howard Stern Show” on which George is a frequent announcer.

61. Carrie Underwood

62. Eric Nies

63. Brian Grazer

64. Felicity Huffman

65. Eric McCormack from Will and Grace

66. Jeff Prettyman

67. Dianna Agron (Quinn from Glee)

68. Mark Salling (Puck from Glee) – He is SUPER cute in person and also waved to us.

69. Vera Farmiga

70. Amy Adams

71. Carey Mulligan

72. Peter Sarsgaard

DSC_0033

But the highlight of the evening for me had to be when I got to see my latest celebrity crush, Mr. Schuester himself, Matthew Morrison from Glee!  Sigh!  Ironically, earlier in the day, I had told my fiancé that of all the people I was hoping to see this Oscar Weekend, Matthew Morrison was number 1!  And then it happened!  I got to see him – and better yet, he even did a little Glee-style spin and turn in front of us when he walked by.  SIGH!  I literally almost had a heart attack right there on the spot!  Truth be told, though, I was SO completely starstruck over seeing him in person that I didn’t even notice his little dance routine.  I must have blacked out from excitement or something, but it wasn’t until fellow stalker Kendall mentioned something about it that I even realized he had done it.  LOL  Anyway, Oscar Weekend 2010 was INCREDIBLY exciting and I CANNOT wait to do it all again next year!!!!!   But for now, I am absolutely exhausted, so I am going to go park myself on the couch and spend the next few hours recuperating.  😉

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: I stalked so many hotels and bars this Oscar Weekend, that there are far too many to name here. For a detailed list of places to go to see movie stars on Oscar Weekend – or any weekend, for that matter – check out this blog post that I wrote last year.