My Day on the Set of Weeds!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I absolutely LOVE living in L.A.  You just never know what surprises lay around each corner here!  Yesterday, as I drove up to the Hollywood & Highland Center to meet my good friend Blaze for some coffee, I noticed quite a few of those yellow filming signs that I love so much.  Come to find out, the Showtime series Weeds  was filming on location at the outdoor mall.  I can’t say that I am a huge fan of the show, but my boyfriend absolutely loves it, so I have seen quite a few episodes.  Needless to say, even though I don’t really watch the show, I was floored to be there.  I’m pretty sure I could stumble upon an episode of Sesame Street  being filmed, though, and still be pretty darn excited.  🙂  LOL

I pretty much couldn’t have picked a better time to arrive at H&H, since the filming of a large dance sequence was just about to begin right as I was walking up to the complex.  The dance number was being filmed in the mall’s central courtyard area and there were cameras set up all over the top level of the complex.  There was even a camera crew filming from the top of a ladder (pictured above).

The area where the scene was being filmed was not closed off to the public – much the same as when I watched the filming of The Mentalist a few weeks back – and normal people were walking in and out of the scene not realizing what was going on.  In this case, though, I think that was exactly the producers’ intention.  I believe they wanted to capture the real life reactions of tourists watching the dance sequence take place.  The Weeds  crew was extremely friendly and let people take all the photographs they wanted, so I was in heaven.  🙂

Being that I am a sucker for any sort of musical, I really couldn’t have picked a better film shoot to stumble upon.  I can’t tell you how much fun the dance sequence was to watch!  🙂  The scene being filmed actually seemed to be an imitation of the awesome T-Mobile “Life’s For Sharing” commercial that was filmed at the Liverpool Street Train Station in London.   Not only was the set-up of the Weeds  scene pretty much identical to the T-Mobile ad, but the extras were all pretending to be taking photographs of the dancers with their cell phones, just like in the commercial.  Basically the scene consisted of Mary-Louise Parker sitting in Hollywood & Highland’s central courtyard drinking a fruit smoothie, when all of a sudden loud music starts pouring out of the loudspeakers and one by one a large crowd breaks out into a spontaneous dance routine.  It was really very cool to see in person!  I so wanted to get out there and dance myself!  LOL   Amazingly enough, according to one of the extras I talked to, the dancers had only learned the dance a few hours earlier.

The only series regular acting in the scene was Mary-Louise Parker. I was hoping to see her cutie son on the show, actor Hunter Parish, but sadly he was not there.  Ironically, before Mary-Louise came onto the set, her stand-in walked out and I started immediately snapping photos as I thought it was MLP!  LOL  She looks JUST like her!  It was uncanny!  You can see her stand-in wearing the purple shirt in the above photograph.

The above are photographs of the real  MLP during the filming of the scene.  🙂  Mary-Louise is very pretty in person and a lot taller than I expected, but extremely thin.  Disgustingly thin, really.  Her arm looked like a bone with skin covering it.  I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen arms that skinny in my entire life.

During the filming breaks, Mary-Louise actually had a “personal umbrella holder” who followed her around with an umbrella to shield her from the sun (pictured above).   For those of you who don’t read US Magazine  regularly, some celebrities actually employ what is known as a “personal umbrella holder” – or a P.U.H. – who basically holds an umbrella over their heads for them when it rains.  I’m not kidding!  I guess celebs are just far too important to be holding their own umbrellas.  LOL  I mean, how lazy can someone actually be???  I honestly don’t think I could ever in good conscience allow another person to hold an umbrella for me, no matter how big of a star I was.  I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but something about that just doesn’t seem right.   LOL

P.U.H. aside, I had an absolute blast being on the Weeds  set today and cannot wait to watch the episode on TV!!!  It should air on Showtime in about two months.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It:  Weeds  was filmed in the Hollywood & Highland Center’s central courtyard, which is located at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood.  Some filming also took place at Dlush Deluxe Beverage Joint in the Hollywood & Highland Center.