An “Extra” Taping with “The Bachelorette’s” Emily Maynard!

Late last week, Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, informed me that the current Bachelorette, the impossibly adorable Emily Maynard, would be filming a segment for Extra at The Grove in L.A. on Tuesday, May 22nd.   And while I am not usually a fan of getting celebrity pictures during Extra tapings – there are always massive amounts of people trying to do the exact same thing, security is difficult, at best, and the set-up is different everyday so one never knows the best place to stand – because this stalker absolutely LOVES LOVES LOVES herself some Emily Maynard, I had to at least try.  Which is how I found myself heading out to The Grove bright and early this past Tuesday morning, and, as it turned out, things could not have gone more perfectly!  And I would like to go on the record here and state that while I LOVE Emily as The Bachelorette, it is this stalker’s never-to-be-humble opinion that producers seriously dropped the ball on choosing her suitors.  There is not one guy in the bunch that I even mildly like.  (Although I did truly laugh out loud at the comment contestant John “Wolf” made about fellow contestant Kalon in Monday night’s episode in which he said, “I have a rule – if you have Louis Vuitton luggage and you’re a dude, you’re an a**hole!”)  Emily, you’ve definitely got your work cut out for you!

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I ended up arriving at The Grove at around 9 a.m., about two hours before Emily’s interview was scheduled to begin and, amazingly enough, the mall and area around the Extra stage were both completely empty.  After milling around for a bit, looking in the windows of my favorite stores, I lucked out by spotting host Maria Menounos walking towards the set, so I ran up to ask for a pic.  Maria was a complete and total sweetheart and even chatted with me a bit about her stint on Dancing with the Stars.  Love it!  Shortly thereafter, one of the Extra crew members came to the stage and announced that a prize would be given to those audience members who were willing to stick around for the entire taping, which would last about three hours.  I, of course, agreed to stay, not because I wanted the prize, but because, as you all know, I LOVE to watch filming of any kind!  The crew member then came up to me and the two women standing next to me to inquire if we would be willing to ask Emily Maynard a “fan question” during the show.  Um, yes, please!  I mean, could this day get any better? (For those who read my blog regularly, you will remember that I also asked actor Colin Egglesfield a fan question during an Extra taping a couple of weeks ago, but it seems that I ended up on the cutting room floor as I never saw my question air.)

Shortly after we were informed of the questions we were to ask during the taping (yes, the fan questions are written by producers and are not spontaneous), Emily showed up on the scene looking absolutely adorable, as you can see below!

I was OBSESSED with her shoes, which, thanks to a quick internet search, I discovered are Pierre Hardy’s Canvas Multi-Colored Wedges.  For those of you who have an extra $695 burning a hole in your pockets, you can pick yourselves up a pair here.

I happened to spot Emily as she was making her way to the Extra set, completely unnoticed by passersby.  Seizing the opportunity, I snuck away from the crowd and approached her to ask for a picture, knowing it would likely be my only chance.  And while security seemed extremely peeved with me and told me that photos could only be taken once filming was completed, Emily said it was OK and happily posed.  She seemed quite a bit shy and was surprised I wanted a picture with her, but was very sweet.  And yes, she is just as cute in person as she appears to be onscreen.  As it turns out, the stalking gods had definitely been smiling down upon me when I spotted her, because after her interview was over, she was mobbed by fans and my chances of getting a photograph would have been slim to none.

Emily’s interview, which lasted about ten minutes, was very fun to watch and she was very sweet answering my fan question, which was, “Did you learn anything from your previous experience with Brad?  Is there anything you are going to avoid this time around?”  After the interview was completed, one of the Extra crew members took a photo of The Bachelorette posing with Mario Lopez, which I somehow made it into the background of (!!!) and which The Grove later posted on its Facebook page.  (Thanks to Lisa, from the Finding the Famous blog, for letting me know!)  SO INCREDIBLY COOL!  Can you tell I was excited?  You can check out another pic from the taping that fellow stalker Sandy told me about here.

After Emily left, Mario, Maria, and host Renee Bargh taped a few more brief segments.  The girl who was standing next to me – a super nice tourist from Texas named Danielle – really wanted a photograph with Mario, and even though it is typically extremely hard to get pictures with him during the filming of Extra, I decided to try to help her make it happen.  After getting turned down four separate times by him throughout the course of the morning, we were noticed by his security guard who, knowing that we had been standing there for over three hours and had participated in the show by asking fan questions, took pity on us, asked for our cameras and managed to snap pics of each of us posing with Mario during a break.  Yay!  As I said earlier, the stalking gods were definitely smiling down upon me on Tuesday!

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention our prize!  All of the audience members who stayed for the duration of the filming were gifted a Philips Sonicare Airfloss Electric Flosser, which at first I thought was pretty lame – until I got home, that is, and tried it out.  The Flosser is seriously one of the coolest things I have ever owned!  The machine flosses one’s entire mouth electronically, using air and water, in about sixty seconds time.  For someone who has never been a fan of flossing, this is pretty much the best invention ever and I am now completely in love with it!  The Grim Cheaper has Siri and I have my Philips Sonicare Airfloss Electric Flosser. All in all, it was a fabulous, FABULOUS day that I could not have enjoyed more!  Look for Emily’s interview to air on Extra next Monday, May 28th.

Big THANK YOU to Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, for telling me about Emily’s appearance on Extra! 

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 

Stalk It: Extra tapes daily at The Grove shopping center, which is located at 189 The Grove Drive in Los Angeles.  You can visit The Grove’s official website here and Extra’s official website here.