I love LA!

Ahhh, this is the life!  On my fourth day into my world travels I am sitting on the beach in Santa Monica soaking up the sun – actually, no sun, but I’m still on the beach - and I’m having the time of my life!  My trip so far has been packed full of star studded activities.  To date I’ve seen 37 celebrities around town – some of the more notable have been Matt Damon, Denzel Washington and Katy Perry.  Hours after I arrived in LA I went to the People’s Choice Awards!  I knew there was a reason I had saved my high school dance dresses!  As I entered the Nokia Theater practice was already underway for the flash mob which was to start the show!  Before I could take my seat in the back of the theater I was taken to the front as a “seat filler” and settled into my seat in the 7^th row!  No flippin’ way!  I was sitting behind Raven Simone and I quickly determined that she is a snob!  How ‘bout being grateful and appreciative that being a cute, talented little kid led to you being a millionaire and getting the amazing opportunities you have had in life?!  Geez!  The show started with the floor shaking flash mob, which was so awesome – I’ve always wanted to be a part of one!  Celebrities were all around and my head was spinning!  I’ve had two encounters that I think have landed me on TV – once at the People’s Choice Awards in the background when Queen Latifah (host) was talking to Taylor Lautner in the audience (Side note: It was entertaining to watch the pre-teen girls screaming and trying to run up to Taylor during the commercial breaks only to be whisked away by one of his three personal bodyguards) and once when I stood in the audience behind Mario Lopez as he filmed Extra.

You can’t go to LA and not do a tour of the movie star’s homes.  I took the tour a few years ago and it has been updated since then to include the house that Michael Jackson died in – kinda creepy!  As I rode through Beverly Hills, the Hollywood Hills and Bel Air I couldn’t help but to fantasize what it would be like to live there.  I’m sure each one of them had room for a dedicated scrapbook room and a gym, maybe a pool and even a personal butler – oh and I’m sure they come with a few million dollars in the bank – perfect for me!  I’ve decided that if I ever lived here I would live in Beverly Hills, the Hollywood Hills or Malibu!  Expensive taste, I know!  Although, I didn’t win the $320 million Mega Millions so I think that will have to wait!  That day ended with meeting the Ambassador of Beverly Hills, who was a very friendly man (as you can see in the picture below?) asking me, "Would you like a picture with me?!" and yelling to passing movie stars' tours buses that I was a celebrity and pointing at me.  A group of people came running over to me and said, "You're famous?!  Who are you?!"

You may recall from a previous post that I am not a fan of comedy clubs – but I attended the most hilarious comedy show ever at The Laugh Factory!  I thought I was going to die laughing!!  I got seated in the second row – uh oh, the people up front are always the ones who get picked on.  However, much to my surprise, the show was nothing like that!  Tim Allen was the headliner and a guy from Last Comic Standing opened for him.  I have never laughed harder or longer in my entire life!  Two hours of laughing is a great ab workout too, I recommend it!  And above all else I got to hear Tim “The Toolman” Taylor’s grunt in real life – lol!

I love TV and movie production and was fascinated when I took a tour of Warner Brothers’ studios.  I love seeing where everything goes down and getting the inside track on TV tips and secrets!  For example, in the famous upside down kiss scene in Spiderman they had never rehearsed that in the rain before, so of course when they went to film, as Tobey Maguire hung upside down his nose filled with water, so they had to plug his nostrils with cotton balls, seal them off with Vaseline and paint it brown so it wouldn’t show up on camera, but then this made his voice too nasally, so in post production they had to completely replace his voice with a soundtrack created in the studio.  And remember Gunther, the barista, from Friends?  Well, in the first episode they didn’t have a barista yet for Central Perk but they did want to run the espresso machine for authenticity, but none of the crew knew how to operate it.  So they asked the extras if anyone knew how to operate the machine, and one man raised his hand – he did so well that they kept him on for 10 years and thus Gunther was born!

I attended a taping of Two and a Half Men which may rival the People’s Choice Awards as the coolest thing I’ve done since I’ve been here!!  The episode was hilarious and it was really amazing to watch such good actors as Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer act.  Now I want to see some of the greats in action – I think I’m addicted to this Hollywood thing!!