Adam Sandler’s Hollywood Walk of Fame Star Ceremony

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Last Thursday morning while in Santa Monica running some errands, my dad and I, of course, stopped into a nearby Starbucks to grab a quick latte and who should we spot while standing in line, but Robbie Hart himself, aka Mr. Adam Sandler.  He was sitting inconspicuously with his wife and youngest daughter having a quiet breakfast and, amazingly enough, no one else in the entire store seemed to recognize or even take any notice of him.  Because the place was jam-packed, I did not want to call any attention to the fact that he was there or bother him in any way,  so I did not ask for a photograph, but I did go up to him to tell him how much I appreciated his always thanking the troops while on the red carpet and at awards shows.  One of my very best friends sadly passed away while on active duty in the Navy and both my dad and my uncle served in Vietnam, so I have always been extremely appreciative of Adam’s vocal and constant support of the armed forces.  Adam was EXTREMELY sweet when I went up to him, shook my hand, introduced himself, and thanked me for coming to talk to him.  Well, needless to say, after that encounter I loved the guy even more than I had before.  So, when I found out that he would be receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame this week, I immediately called up my dad and asked if he wanted to go to the ceremony with me.  Now, as I have mentioned many times before on this blog, my dad pretty much hates all things Hollywood, excluding, of course, David Caruso and CSI: Miami and, ironically enough, Adam Sandler.  My dad said he’d love to attend the event and we both added the date to our calendar.  Sadly though, he wasn’t feeling well yesterday morning, so I had to head out to Hollywood on my own.

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I am typically not the type of person who enjoys doing things by myself, so I was not looking forward to attending Adam’s ceremony alone, but as it turned out I had a fabulous time!  I ended up meeting a really nice gentleman who was not only a big fan of Adam’s, but of Hollywood in general and the two of us spent the entire morning talking and sharing our stalking stories.  If you are ever considering going to one of these events, but are nervous about attending alone, after today I have to say don’t sweat it at all!

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While a fairly huge crowd did accumulate for Adam’s ceremony, there were not nearly as many people there as I had assumed would be.  I would say that there were about 150 people in attendance, with a large group standing on the roof of the W Hollywood Hotel (pictured above).  The ceremony was actually set up much differently than Kyra Sedgwick’s ceremony which I attended back in June of 2009.  During Kyra’s event, fans were only allowed to stand on one side of the podium, but for Adam’s we were allowed to stand along all four sides of it.  I ended up snagging a spot directly next to the stage, which was absolutely INCREDIBLE.  It was literally the PERFECT, PRIMO spot and allowed me an amazing unobstructed view of the ceremony.

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The event started right on time (yay!) with Adam arriving on the scene promptly at 11:30.  On his way to the stage, he stopped to have his picture taken with some of the policemen on duty and a few of the fans in attendance.

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His two little girls (pictured above) and his wife were also there . . .

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as were Henry Winkler (aka The Fonz!) and Kevin James;

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and David Spade.

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David Spade actually went over to the crowd to take pictures and sign autographs at the start of the event, but he was pretty far away from where I was standing and because I did not want to lose my primo spot, I did not try to get a photo with him. 

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Hollywood Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Leron Gubler opened up the ceremony by introducing Adam and welcoming him to the stage, along with his two daughters who absolutely refused to leave their father’s side.  It was really cute to watch.

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Then Henry Winkler came onstage to honor Adam with a speech.

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Henry said that his first encounter with Adam was when he mentioned him in 1994’s comedy hit “The Chanukah Song”.  Adam later asked him to play the role of Coach Klein in 1998’s The Waterboy and the two have since acted together in several movies, including Little Nicky, Click, and You Don’t Mess With the Zohan.  Henry called Adam one the “kindest souls in show business” and I honestly believe that to be true.  Henry also informed the crowd that his own star was located directly across the street from Adam’s, in front of the historic Pantages theatre.

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Kevin James spoke next and called Adam “the man who is responsible for employing everyone in this town” and he said he was honoring him in one of the best ways he knew how, by wearing slacks to the ceremony which he would “not do for just anybody”.  Winking smile

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Then Leron Gubler took the stage again and presented Adam with a certificate and the plaque pictured above and officially declared the day “Adam Sandler Day” in Hollywood.

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Adam then made a brief speech, during which a tour bus drove by to whom Adam yelled out, “Hey you guys, how are you all doing?”  So cute!

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Adam said he could not believe he was standing there receiving such an honor as it is not something he ever thought would happen.  At one point during his speech, his youngest daughter Sunny tugged on his leg and asked to be picked up. 

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Sunny then grabbed the microphone and yelled out “I love my daddy!”  His other daughter Sadie then immediately walked up, stood on her tip toes, and announced into the mic, “I love my daddy!”  The two girls then went back and forth for a few minutes, each proclaiming their love for their “daddy” and then for their “mommy”.  It was a very cute moment which culminated with Adam saying, “I love you, too, more than anything in the world!”  He then thanked his wife and said he was most grateful for his career because it led him to her, which I thought was incredibly sweet.

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Adam’s star was then unveiled and the group posed behind it for the many members of the media who were in attendance.  As you can see in the above photographs, I unfortunately did not have the best view for that portion of the ceremony.

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After the ceremony, while Adam was speaking to the press, the man I had been hanging out with called Henry Winkler over for an autograph.  Henry only signed the one photo, though (pictured above) and then said that he did not have time for anything else as he had to do interviews.  And while he seemed nice enough, after the interviews were finished being taped, he did not go up to anyone else in the crowd and, as far as I know, did not sign any other autographs or take any photographs with fans.  Sad smile

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Adam Sandler, on the other hand, signed a huge number of autographs, but unfortunately the fans were being EXTREMELY aggressive and were pushing and shoving to get closer to him, so I kind of stayed in the background and did not end up getting a photograph with him.  One of the journalists who was covering the event, though, said that Adam was one of the nicest celebrities he had ever met and that he wouldn’t be surprised if the actor stayed around as long as necessary to give autographs to everyone who attended the ceremony.

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Sadly though, the whole thing got just a bit too crazy with people swarming Adam (he is somewhere in the middle of the mass frenzy pictured above) and he was, sadly, not able to stick around for very long.  And even though I did not get a photograph with him as I had hoped, the event was still extremely fun to attend!  If you happen to find yourself in the Hollywood area on the day of a star ceremony, I honestly cannot more highly recommend attending!

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Adam’s unveiled star is pictured above.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Adam Sandler’s Walk of Fame star can be found at 6262 Hollywood Boulevard, directly in front of the W Hollywood Hotel, in Hollywood.  You can find out about upcoming Walk of Fame ceremonies and other celebrity events on the Upcoming Celebrity Events page of my blog.

The King of Queens House

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As mentioned in Wednesday’s post, I have many stalking adventures to share from the day my fiancé and I spent with fellow stalker Owen in New York City, including one that actually led us off the island of Manhattan and into the Garden State, aka New Jersey.  In all of my many trips to the Big Apple, I have only actually been off the island once and even then I only ventured as far as Brooklyn.  So, leaving Manhattan to head to an entirely different state was quite the stalking endeavor for me!  The location that led us to such uncharted territory, you ask?  The home where the Heffernans lived in the Kevin James/Leah Remini sitcom The King of Queens.  Owen had actually tracked down this location back in August, after what he described as “the longest, most headache-inducing search for a location that I’ve been through”.  LOL  Oh, I’ve so been there!!!  🙂  Owen’s quest for The King of Queens house actually began ordinarily enough, with him contacting numerous people who had worked on the series, from production designers all the way up to the Vice President of Sony’s Media Relations!  Not kidding!  Unfortunately, they all came back with the exact same answer – they had absolutely no idea where the Heffernan house was located.  Owen certainly had his work cut out for him on this one.  I mean, if a production staff doesn’t even know where one of their filming sites is located, how are any of us stalkers ever supposed to find it???  One of the crew members did remember one pertinent piece of information, though. He said that the establishing shots of The King of Queens  house which were used throughout the series nine year run had been found in the Columbia Television (now Sony) Stock Footage Library shortly before the pilot first aired.  No one on The King of Queens staff knew who had taken the footage or what production it was originally used for and in the nine season run of the show, no one had ever come forward to claim the house as theirs. 

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For those not familiar with Hollywood lingo, stock footage, or archive footage as it is sometimes called, is basically a video image of a location that is not taken for a specific production, but is instead cataloged in a studio’s stock footage library to be used on an as-needed basis.  Footage that has actually been used in a specific production can also very well wind up in a stock footage library.  Using stock images ends up to be much cheaper for a production than actually sending a crew out to shoot establishing shots of each different locale needed for a particular show or movie.  So, in essence, footage originally shot for, oh say, a car commercial, may wind up being used regularly on a hit television series almost a decade later.  Which is pretty much exactly what happened with The King of Queens  house.  Anyway, once Owen found out that the images of the Heffernan house had been procured from the Sony Library, he went through the painstaking task of searching through all of Sony’s archives until he came across the right video.  But, amazingly enough, his quest didn’t end there!  All Owen was able to gather from locating the footage of the Heffernan house was that it had originally been shot in 1991 for use in a production entitled SIBS II.  Because he had never heard of SIBS II and because that production is not listed in the IMDB database, thought his search may have suddenly hit a brick wall.  Until an idea struck him.  Owen decided to rifle through some of the other stock footage that had been taken for the mysterious SIBS II production and eventually stumbled across this video, in which a clapboard with two crewmember’s names written on it was visible in the opening frames.  Employing a bit of internet savvy, Owen somehow managed to track down one of the crewmembers listed and sent him an email asking if he remembered the location of the Heffernan house.  Here is the crew member’s response, “You should work for the FBI.  I’d be delighted to answer your question, if I can find the info.  But hopefully you’ll be kind enough to answer mine: How in the hell did you find me?”  LOL LOL LOL 

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The shocked crew member said he had the address of the house written down in one of his files and promised to dig through them to find it.  As promised, just a few days later he emailed Owen with an address, FINALLY putting to rest the mystery of the Heffernan house location!  🙂   And because Owen knew that I would be coming to New York just a few weeks after he had received the address, he promised to wait to stalk the house until I arrived.  YAY!  So, on October 2nd, Owen, my fiancé, and I ventured across the Hudson River to do some King of Queens stalking.   And, let me tell you, seeing the Heffernan house in person was extremely exciting, especially considering the long road that got us there!  

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A big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location and for waiting to stalk it until I could join him!  🙂

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The King of Queens  house is located at 519 Longview Avenue in Cliffside Park, New Jersey.  If you plan to take a cab ride from Manhattan to the Heffernan house, be forewarned, even though it is only about a ten mile ride, it will cost you upwards of $45!  Not kidding!!!!  I would suggest taking a bus there instead, as it is the much cheaper option. 

The Friday the 13th Premiere

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Hollywood rolled out the black carpet last night (and yes it really was black!) for the world premiere of the new horror film remake Friday the 13th – and amazingly, I got to be a part of it! My good friend Blaze Foster is obsessed with the Friday the 13th movie franchise and wanted someone to accompany him to the premiere so he dragged me along. I have to admit that I am not really into the whole slasher flick genre – I’ve never even seen the original Friday the 13th – but since I had never attended a movie premiere before, I was definitely game. 🙂

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Apparently, tickets to movie premieres are quite easy to obtain – a fact I hadn’t realized before yesterday. A website named Gofobo was giving away the Friday the 13th premiere tickets and all fans had to do was print up a ticket, show up across the street from Mann’s Chinese Theatre, and wait in line – a line which was literally about 500 people long! (pictured above) Apparently Friday the 13th has quite a cult following, which I had never realized before yesterday. When we showed up across the street from the theatre at around 4:30pm (the premiere started at 7pm) the line was already wrapped around the block! I told Blaze that I wasn’t sure we would be getting in to see the movie with a crowd that large ahead of us, but Blaze is nothing if not determined. He had his sights set on introducing himself to Michael Bay at the premiere and when Blaze gets an idea in his head, there is absolutely no stopping him. So as we made our way through the line, Blaze made friends with a group of guys at the very front and miraculously they let us stand with them. I was extremely uncomfortable doing this as I am kind of a miss goody two shoes. LOL I don’t really break the rules. But like my girl Marilyn Monroe once said “If I’d observed all the rules, I’d never have got anywhere.” LOL How right she was – by cutting in line not only did we get in to see the movie, but we also got great seats! 🙂

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While we were waiting in line, I tried to snap some pics of the red – ahem, I mean black – carpet. Unfortunately, due to the torrential rain plaguing Los Angeles for the past few days, the carpet was actually shortened and completely tented so that the celebs would stay dry while walking the press line. Due to the large plastic tenting, I couldn’t get very good pics of the black carpet, or the hundreds of Jason Voorhees hockey masks that lined it, but you can sort of get an idea of what it looked like in the above pics.

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At around 6pm, we were finally led into the theatre. We entered Mann’s Chinese just to the side of the black carpet and did not get to walk through the press line. Bummer! I snapped the above photograph of the press area, but again, due to that darn rain tent, it didn’t come out very well. 🙁 Inside the main lobby of Mann’s Chinese, there were hundreds of popcorn bags and small sodas set out for us – for free, no less. It was awesome! Especially since I am the type of girl who can’t watch a movie without popcorn. 🙂

At a premiere, the fans are usually let into the theatre first, before any of the stars. So after finding our seats, I immediately started looking around the auditorium for celebs. And sure enough, there were plenty. I ran into Jordanna Brewster in the lobby on my way to the restroom (she didn’t seem very friendly) and I saw Dax Shepard in the popcorn line (he was by himself and slightly under-dressed in a hoody and jeans). Blaze got to meet actress Betsy Rue from My Bloody Valentine, Willa Ford, and Wes Craven! But I was most excited when Friday the 13th star (and Rory’s former love interest on Gilmore Girls) Jared Padalecki sat down about ten feet away from us. When the movie started I must say it was absolutely surreal to be watching Jared act onscreen knowing he was sitting just a few feet away. 🙂

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After the movie, as we made our way out of the theatre we ran smack dab into Anna Faris – who I absolutely loved in Lost In Translation! I was SO excited to see her in person!!!! Anna was a total sweetheart and posed for a picture with me and gave Blaze a hug! And when she walked by us a few minutes later on Hollywood Boulevard, she stopped to say good-bye to us. See what I mean – total sweetheart! 🙂 She’s also super, super pretty in person.

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But the high point of the night for me was when fate stepped in to give my friend Blaze his wish! Right after I took my picture with Anna Faris, Blaze noticed Michael Bay standing off to the side of Mann’s entrance. It was the opportunity Blaze had been hoping for and let me tell you, he took the bull by the horns! He marched right up to Mr. Bay, introduced himself, and told him about his dream of playing Glen Lantz in the new Nightmare on Elm Street movie! Michael was extremely receptive and talked to Blaze for a few minutes and then shook his hand. I couldn’t even believe it! Never in a million years could I have walked up to MICHAEL BAY and PITCHED MYSELF for an upcoming movie role! LOL But perhaps that is why Blaze has acted in a Jodie Foster movie and I haven’t. LOL In the above photo Michael Bay is the man wearing a white jacket and a blue shirt. And as a perfect end to our Hollywood evening, we saw Kevin James from King of Queens while driving out of the Hollywood & Highland parking lot. 🙂

We had such a blast at the Friday the 13th premiere. If you have yet to attend a movie premiere and are at all into celebrities and movies, I highly recommend you go to one! Oh and as for the movie – I actually liked it. I was thoroughly entertained – and scared out of my wits – the whole time. I was confused at the movie’s premise, though, as I really felt there wasn’t a point to it. But Blaze enlightened me to the fact that slasher flicks don’t ever have a point. LOL 🙂 If you are at all a fan of the horror genre, I highly recommend going to see the new Friday the 13th.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Mann’s Chinese Theatre is located at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard in the heart of Hollywood. You can check out upcoming events and premieres on Mann’s website. The premiere for Watchmen is currently scheduled to take place at Mann’s on March 2 and the premiere for Observe and Report is scheduled for April 6. For your best bet at getting tickets to any Hollywood premiere, check Gofobo’s website.