Closed Circuit Red Carpet!

I've branched out into doing red carpets!

A friend hooked me up with a contact and now I'm the go-to East Coast guy for a media outlet.

The pay isn't great. $300 per event. But they're only like an hour or two. And you get to spot celebs. So that is fun fun fun for me!

My first event was a screening for the new movie "Closed Circuit" starring Eric Bana, Rebecca Hall, and Julia Stiles.

It was a great one to start on because it wasn't like a huge premiere. There were maybe 30 other photographers (instead of hundreds) so the fight to get the shot wasn't as intense. Everyone gave each other time to get the shots they need before yelling and screaming to get the stars' attention and direct them.

And they were all SUPER friendly and helpful, offering tips on where to stand, how to not get in the way of others, how to shoot, general etiquette, etc etc.

The first people through were the director and screenwriter. These guys are noticeably less comfortable in front of the cammys. Plus they know none of us really care.

Then the stars walk in, introduced by their publicists so we know exactly who we are shooting and whose name to scream.

First up was Rebecca Hall who you may remember from her breakout role as Vicky in Woody Allen's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" (his best film ever) or in Ben Affleck's "The Town".

She was SO tall and STUNNING.

So literally as soon as they hit their marks, the flashbulbs go NUTS. Each of 30 photogs (in thise case) fires like 10 shots a second hoping to get their money shot. And because of this you get TONS of crappy shots where other people's flashes are throwing off and overexposing your shots.

Meanwhile everyone is screaming "REBECCA! REBECCA OVER HERE!!! TO YOUR LEFT!!! REBECCA 2ND ROW!!!! REBECCAA!!!!!!!"

It is cray.

Then came Miss Julia Stiles.

Then came Mr. Eric Bana.

It was definitely a learning experience. Excited to do more!

After they pass through the gauntlet of photographers. They hit all the news outlets and interviewers. Common etiquette is to not fire your flash at them while they're being interviewed so that it doesn't show up in the video.

Oops.

We LOVES Celebrities!!!

LOVES a red carpet!!!!!!

Perez's 35th Birthday / Ridiculous Veggies

Some of you have been bugging me about Joy Luck Club already.

But I'm not ready to blog about it yet.

I still have the last two days in South Africa to cover too. Ugh.

Not ready for that one either.

So instead, you get to read about veggies and Perez Hilton's birthday party.

I was going to tell you about the veggies first...but who wants to read about veggies BEFORE they read about Perez? DUHHHH. Veggies come last!

ANYWAY. As you may or may not remember, I was in LA last week. And Steven happened to have +2 to Perez's birthday party. (They are friends somehow. It's WeHo. I don't know.)

So we went.

Oh, also it was a Pajama Party. TOTALLY ripping AnnieAli's Birthday Party Idea WTF.

I wish I had had my Kigurumi. Instead I bought these stupid Sesame Street PJs at Target for like $2.50.

So it was me, Steven, and KatiSharp against the world.

Some other attendees had Kigurumi! So cute!

There was a pretty awesome pillow-fight photobooth.

There was also a Panda running around grabbing people's butts and boobs. (Funny how people are totally willing to let what you know has to be a creepy-ass homeless dude in a panda suit grope them freely AS LONG as they are wearing the panda suit.)

And a cereal bar.

There were also free tacos. But the tacos were Taco Bell. Because they sponsored the party. Classy.

Anyhoo. It was really fun. I ate like 20 tacos. I don't think Perez eats Tacos anymore. Which is why it was weird to have a Taco Bell Birthday.

(PS Last time I saw Perez he looked like this.)

Oh, Adrienne Maloof was also there. She looks WAY skinny in person. (On TV she looks kinda big, but she's tiny.)

Also thanks to her bodyguard for photobombing our picture.

Adrienne happened to know our friend KatiSharp...so we all chatted.

Perez gave some presentation about his new baby.

And Panda was all over Ke$ha as we were leaving...

Ooooh OK. Now I'm going to tell you about vegetables.

So Will here is a crazy manorexic veggieman. So he likes to eat at weird little veggie restaurants which are all the rage in LA for obvious reasons. So we went to this place Cafe Gratitude, which is an all vegan restaurant. I was totally tricked. The vegan aspect was not revealed to me until I arrived.

So the menu of this place is like everything people hate about vegetarians and vegetarian culture.

Instead of listing menu items like "Kale Salad" or "Eggplant Sandwich", each menu item has a special name and you have to order it that way.

For instance:

I AM SUSTAINED Steamed quinoa with fresh fruit, goji berries, cinnamon, maple syrup and coconut milk

I AM PEACE Live onion sesame bagel with cashew crèam cheese, nori “lox,” tomato, onion, capers and sprouts   7.5  Add Avocado   2

I AM VIVACIOUS Live marinated kale chips with your choice of dipping sauce: Hempseed ranch, garlic-tahini, spicy nacho 8

I AM DAZZLING Caesar Salad with romaine lettuce, avocado, brazil nut parmesan and capers tossed with Caesar dressing 9 Add olive tapenade 2 

The f*cking words have to actually come out of your mouth in order for you to receive the "food" that you want to eat.

Oh P.S. our "waitress"'s name was PRINCESS. (Pretty sure she was a pre-op M to F tranny). 

If you want to see the full menu, you can go here: http://cafegratitudela.com/menu/

All that silliness aside though, the food is actually really good!

I had the eggplant sandwich. Mainly because it was called "I AM AWESOME" and that was the only thing I was willing to say out loud in front of other humans.

(Oh and when they deliver the food, they say, "YOU ARE AWESOME, etc." in supertranny gayvoice. That part is pretty rad.)

I also had a smoothie. I AM INCREDIBLE Green superfood smoothie with kale, coconut, milk, hemp seed, almond butter, Maca, banana, & Himalayan sea salt

Tasted good for the first 4 of 5 sips. And then it felt like I was drinking a chalkboard.

We had some bruschetta...

Brussel Sprouts...

And Garlic Kale...

Really really good. Surprisingly. I'd go back. If your name is KristenGastler you'd love this place.

Campus Movie Fest: Red Carpet

So I got to the Paramount Theater at the Paramount lot to shoot red carpet pics for the grand finale of the Campus Movie Fest, the world's largest student film festival.

There were a good deal of people. 36 teams of student filmmakers to be exact. And all their family and friends.




All the young filmmakers were a fun and good-looking bunch.

There were some quasi-celebrities on hand...

And a smattering of actual celebs like Christian Slater...




Gale Harold from Queer as Folk/Desperate Housewives...



(Who is INCREDIBLY good-looking in person...)



(And wearing the TIGHTEST skinny black jeans ever.)



Oh and some dude from Resident Evil/The Mummy and a chick from Heroes.

John Cho was running late and missed the red carpet. Sadly I could not stay to wait for him.

It was a fun, relatively chill first red carpet work experience.

But the best part is, the event was sponsored by AT&T and I'M GETTING A NEW IPHONE 3GS!!!!