Hanging Out With the Cast of “Cougar Town”

This past Wednesday night, fellow stalker and celebrity enthusiast Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, invited me to join her in doing a little stalking of a Cougar Town event in North Hollywood, which I could NOT have been more excited about as I am a HUGE fan of the show.  Pennnnnnnny Caaaaaaaaaaan, anyone?  Anyway, as is always the case with these types of events, we were not entirely sure who from the cast would be in attendance or if we would have any luck whatsoever in getting a photograph with the actors who did, in fact, show up.  As it turned out, though, the stalking gods were DEFINITELY smiling down upon us that night as we ended up getting a picture with EVERY SINGLE ONE of the series’ stars, including Monica Gellar herself, Miss Courteney Cox!  It was quite an evening, let me tell you!  I was so darn excited I am surprised that my head did not explode!

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When I first arrived at the event I spotted E! celebrity correspondent and frequent Chelsea Lately roundtable guest Michael Yo walking around and I just about had a heart attack!  I immediately ran up to him and asked if he would be willing to pose for a picture with me and he truly could NOT have been nicer about it.  Ironically enough, I was so floored over getting my photo taken with Michael, that I kind of figured I was done for the evening – I mean, how much celebrity luck can one stalker have in a day?  Little did I know what the universe had in store for me, though!  (On a side note – Michael Yo is TALL!  I am 5’4”, but I had 4 inch heels on last night and, as you can see in the above photograph, even with those monstrous heels on, he still towered above me!)

The first Cougar Town star to show up was Ian Gomez who plays Andy Torres on the series.  Andy was SUPER nice and I cannot tell you how cool it was to hear him say “Pennnnnnnny Caaaaaaaaaan” in person and do the little dance right in front of us!  Love it!  And when we walked back by the venue later that night after the event was over, Andy was still there signing autographs for fans!  Such an incredibly nice guy!

Josh Hopkins showed up next and I have to say that the man is ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE in person!  And super nice!  Sigh!

I accidentally photo-bombed Pinky’s picture with Josh, though!  As Pinky would say, “Fail!”  Major fail!  I honestly was not trying to hone in on her picture, though – I actually thought I was out of the frame while it was being taken.  I swear, I am such a douche sometimes!

Comedian Michael McDonald, who plays Cougar Town’s wine bar owner Wayne and who is also a producer/writer/director of the series, showed up next.  He was emceeing the event and I think he was slightly annoyed with me as Pinky and I had decided to exchange cameras at that point so that we could take photographs of each other and I could just not get hers to work right.  I know, I know – like I said, I am such a douche sometimes!

Busy Phillips was up next and I was STUNNED at how STRIKINGLY BEAUTIFUL she was in person, way more so than she appears to be on TV.  She is honestly one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen in real life!  She is also much taller and thinner than I expected her to be.  I saw Neve Campbell filming Party of Five in Pasadena a couple of years back and had the exact same reaction.  While Neve appears to be very average-looking onscreen, in person she literally took my breath away!  It was absolutely shocking how GORGEOUS she was in real life!  And also VERY tall and thin.  It is amazing to me how the camera just does not do justice to some people for whatever reason.  But I digress.

Dan Byrd, whom I absolutely loved in A Cinderella Story, arrived after Busy and he was also super nice.

Because of a major camera fail on my part, Pinky and I ended up taking our photograph with Christa Miller together.  I was SO glad to finally get a picture with Christa, because I had actually met her back in January of 2009 when my dad and I watched CSI: Miami being filmed for the first time, but for whatever reason we did not ask her for a photo and I have been kicking myself ever since!

Christa’s husband, Cougar Town and Scrubs creator/producer/writer Bill Lawrence, was also in attendance and he could NOT have been nicer!  Pinky immediately called out to him to ask him for a photograph and he said it was the first time he had ever been asked for a picture on the red carpet.  He said he had massive amounts of respect for any fan who not only recognized a show’s writer, but also knew his or her name. 

Brian Van Holt, who plays lovable dolt Bobby Cobb on the show, arrived next and he was also SUPER nice.  To be honest, the entire cast was incredibly nice and approachable as a whole, which was refreshing to see.

And I just had to get a photo with Extra host Jerry Penacoli, who was also – you guessed it! – SUPER nice. 

Courteney Cox was the last of the show’s stars to arrive and when she pulled up, the autograph hounds went absolutely nuts.  For those who have never attended a celebrity event in Hollywood, there is a group of about twenty to thirty people who make a profession out of attending these events, getting stars to sign numerous (we are talking ten to twenty to thirty!) headshots or movie posters at a time, and then subsequently selling them online.  The problem with these hounds is that they are furiously aggressive (they love to push and shove) and by having celebrities sign so many autographs at once, they use up most of the star’s time and the actual fans in attendance, who are typically not as aggressive, often wind up missing out.  Well, the security team at the Cougar Town event was hip to these hounds and informed them that they could only have ONE piece of memorabilia signed by each actor.  The hounds, of course, ignored that request and after getting their first item signed would just simply move over to a different part of the crowd, push and shove their way to the front, and try to have additional items signed.  Sadly, by the time Courteney arrived, the security was seriously frustrated over the whole thing and removed the actress from the line after just a few minutes, before we had gotten a chance to meet her, which was a COMPLETE AND TOTAL bummer.

As luck would have it, though, the hounds ended up leaving as soon as Courteney started walking the red carpet and only a small group of us was left waiting outside of the venue.  So, during a break in interviews, we called over to Courteney to ask if she would come back over to pose for a few photos and, let me tell you, I just about died when she told us to walk over to the red carpet area and that she would pose with us there.  The security team, of course, went nuts over that and told Courteney that we weren’t allowed near the press line, but she was pretty adamant about it and, after a few minutes of discussion, she finally got them to allow it.  How incredibly nice is that??????  Now that’s a celebrity who truly cares about her fans!

And, as promised, as soon as she completed all of her interviews, she posed with each and every one of us!  SO INCREDIBLY COOL!  LOVE HER!  LOVE HER!  LOVE HER!

Afterwards, Pinky and her friend Mike, from the Mike the Fanboy blog, who had joined us during the event, went out to Starbucks to grab some coffee and we had an absolute blast sharing our numerous celebrity stories.  All in all, it was a fab night!

Big HUGE thank you to Pinky Lovejoy, from the Thinking Pink blog, for inviting me to this event!!!!!  It was honestly one of the coolest nights of my life!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 

Stalk It: There is no stalking location for this one, but you can catch Cougar Town each Wednesday night at 9:30 p.m. on ABC.