American Idol – IAMNOTASTALKER

May 25, 2011May 25, 2011

Simon Fuller’s Walk of Fame Star Ceremony

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, bright and early this past Monday morning I headed out to Hollywood to attend the Walk of Fame Star Ceremony for American Idol creator Simon Fuller. And I really should admit here that, while the Grim Cheaper is a die-hard fan of AI, I have never really been all that into the show. The only reason I wanted to attend the ceremony was that Carrie Underwood was scheduled to be there and I have been absolutely DYING to get a photograph with her ever since the two of us played the “Carrie Underwater” game together on The Ellen DeGeneres Show back in early April (which you can watch a clip of here). And I have to say that the stalking gods were definitely smiling down upon me because the day turned out far better than I ever could have imagined!

I arrived on Hollywood Boulevard at around 10 a.m., just about ninety minutes before the event was scheduled to begin, and because I got there so early I ended up securing a FABULOUS spot directly against the crowd barricade, right behind the stage. A super-nice woman named Kat was standing next to me and the two of us wound up really hitting it off and shared many of our various stalking stories to kill time before the ceremony began.

The first celeb to arrive on the scene was So You Think You Can Dance judge/American Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe, whom I absolutely love.

Nigel truly could not have been nicer and when I called out to him to ask for a pic, he immediately walked right on over and took a photograph with both me and Kat. Yay!

[ad]

Ironically enough, my friend/fellow stalker Mike, from the Mike the Fanboy blog, whom for a week I had been begging to come to the ceremony with me, texted me at around 11 a.m. to say that he was going to be able to make it after all. I ended up spotting him across the crowd right when a comedian came out to get the crowd warmed up shortly before the event got underway. Well, the comedian saw me waving hectically trying to get Mike’s attention and assumed I was waving at a celebrity. He immediately walked over to ask who it was I waving at and when I explained that it was “just my friend, Mike”, he began to call out “Mike, Mike, Mike!” over the loud speaker for all of Hollywood Boulevard to hear. This went on for a good three minutes or so. When Mike finally figured out that the comedian was speaking to him, he got incredibly embarrassed and tried to hide his face, but the comedian just wouldn’t stop. It was absolutely hilarious and at one point even some of the people in the crowd were shouting “Mike, Mike, Mike.” LOL

Amazingly enough, all of the Top 13 Season 10 Idols were in attendance for the ceremony, including Casey Abrams, James Durbin, Lauren Alaina, Paul McDonald, Pia Toscana, Stefano Langone, Scotty McCreery, Ashthon Jones, Haley Reinhart, Jacob Lusk, Karen Rodriguez, Naima Adedapo, and Thia Megia. When they first arrived on the scene, James and Lauren started making faces at the crowd through the glass doors of Delphine Restaurant, which was being used as a holding area for the event. James was easily the most friendly and funniest out of the bunch and, as you can see in the above photograph, was pretending to be smashed up against Delphine’s glass doors before coming outside.

The Idols were actually first brought out at 11 a.m., thirty minutes before the ceremony was scheduled to begin, for a meet-and-greet with the fans, which was quite unusual. Celebrities usually wait until the end of each Walk of Fame ceremony before signing autographs and posing for pictures, but apparently the Idol kids were scheduled to rehearse for the show’s season finale immediately following the event and would not be able to stick around afterwards.

The Idols were all SUPER nice and happily posed for as many photographs as people asked for. I got my picture taken with James Durbin, who was my favorite this season;

Stefano Langone;

Pia Toscano, who is GORGEOUS in person;

Casey Abrams;

finalist Lauren Alaina;

and Paul McDonald, who, when I asked for a photograph, said, “Of course! I will stand here and take as many pictures as people want.” SO NICE!

Finalist Scott McCreery was also incredibly nice and happily agreed to take a second photograph with me after I majorly failed taking the first one.

At this point I was beyond floored! I mean, the day was already shaping up to be a huge WIN and the ceremony hadn’t even begun yet! So, as you can imagine, I literally just about had a heart attack when my FAVORITE So You Think You Can Dance judge, Mary Murphy, walked outside! Mary is so incredibly positive, energetic and FUN on the show that I absolutely fell in love with her during the series’ first season. I was standing pretty far away from Mary, but as soon as she walked out I immediately started calling her name to ask her to come over for a picture and she yelled back that she would just as soon as the ceremony was over.

Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony, and Randy Jackson were the next celebs to arrive and, not surprisingly, they did not go up to fans to pose for photographs or sign autographs.

Posh Spice, aka Victoria Beckham, showed up next, but she also did not walk over to the fan area. I have to say that she looked absolutely STUNNING, though!

Carrie Underwood was next on the scene and she also looked absolutely AMAZING! Love, love, love her shoes!

The ceremony got started right on time at 11:30 with Hollywood Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Leron Gubler introducing Simon Fuller with a brief speech.

American Idol host Ryan Seacrest spoke next and gave a very heartfelt speech about Simon. Ryan stated that for once the cameras had been turned on the producer and even though he knew that Simon would be incredibly uncomfortable being the focus of so much attention, it was all incredibly well-deserved.

Then Carrie Underwood came up and said a few brief words, thanking Simon for making all of her dreams, as well as the dreams of so many others, come true. Then Simon spoke and thanked all of the people who had worked behind the scenes to help make Idol one of the most popular shows on television. He said that when he first came up with the idea for the series well over a decade ago, every single network turned him down and no one in the industry seemed to be at all enthusiastic about a show centering around a singing competition. He said it took a lot of hard work and determination to finally bring the show to fruition. I bet those network executives who turned him down are kicking themselves black and blue right about now! Simon also gave a very heartfelt thank you to Idol judge Simon Cowell, who was not in attendance, but whom he said pretty much made the show was it is today.

And with that the ceremony was over. Ryan Seacrest was the first celeb to head over to the fan barricade to begin signing autographs and taking pictures. Ryan was extremely nice and, as you can see in the above photograph, not nearly as short as everyone makes him out to be. I would guess he is about 5’7” or 5’8”.

Carrie Underwood came over next and I immediately told her that I had played the “Carrie Underwater” game with her on Ellen. Well, let me tell you, I just about died when a look of recognition came across her face and she said, “Oh my gosh! How are you? I am so glad to see that you recovered from that! Your make-up is intact today!” (I had gotten drenched with water balloons during the game on Ellen and by the time it was over my mascara had run halfway down my face.) Then Carrie said, “How are you enjoying your new bike?” I absolutely could not believe that she not only remembered that my make-up had gotten ruined on the show, but also the fact that I had won a bike!!!!! What a complete and total sweetheart! Sigh! Love her!

Carrie signed a ton of autographs and took a lot of pictures with the fans in attendance. She also signed a few guitars that people had brought along. So incredibly cool!

Randy Jackson came over next but he, sadly, only signed about three autographs before leaving.

The Eight Season American Idol winner Kris Allen was also in attendance and not only was he super nice in person, but he was also SUPER cute.

Idol’s Season Seven winner, rocker David Cook, was also there and he was also incredibly nice to the fans, and, let me tell you, people were going absolutely CRAZY over him!

Simon Fuller also came over to the crowd, but he sadly only signed a few autographs before heading back into the W Hotel Hollywood for the ceremony after-party.

Ever since the ceremony ended, I had been calling over to Mary Murphy, begging her to come take a picture with me, and when she was finally able to come over after doing a few press interviews, she walked up, put her arms out and gave me a HUGE hug! What a SWEETHEART! I love her even more now than I did before! And with that the event was pretty much over. Quite a day for this stalker, let me tell you! I was pretty much walking on air for the rest of the afternoon!

And, as I was leaving, I happened to spot Extra correspondent Terri Seymour, who, ironically enough, just so happens to be Simon Cowell’s ex-girlfriend.

After the ceremony I met up briefly with Mike, from the Mike the Fanboy site, and was floored to learn that he was one of the very lucky few to get autographs from both JLo and Posh Spice. Each woman only signed about five autographs the entire day, so Mike majorly scored on that one! You can see his autographs and his fabulous photographs of the event here. Simon Fuller’s unveiled star is pictured above.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Simon Fuller’s star on the Walk of Fame can be found directly in front of the W Hotel Hollywood, which is located at 6250 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood.

April 14, 2010April 15, 2010

On Set With the “American Idol” Contestants

This past Sunday, while doing some stalking in Downtown L.A., my fiancé and I happened upon the current American Idol contestants filming a Ford commercial on the corner of South Hope Street and Wilshire Boulevard. And even though I have yet to watch even one episode of the series this season, I begged my fiancé to pull the car over so that we could watch a bit of the filming. And, wow, what a mistake that turned out to be! As we made our way over to the set, camera in hand, an incredibly rude crew member walked up to us and said – and I am quoting here! – “If you take a picture of this, we will sue you!” Being that we were standing on a public sidewalk in the middle of Downtown Los Angeles and that the Idol set was an open one (i.e. not closed to the public), I didn’t see how we were committing an act that was sue-worthy. Furthermore, I’m pretty sure that you need to know who someone is before you can actually sue them. Was the guy planning on serving a summons to “the blond girl in the white jacket who was standing on the corner watching American Idol film in Downtown L.A. on Sunday, April 13th at approximately 11 a.m.?” Don’t think that would really fly in court of law. 😉 My fiancé pretty much told the guy to stick it, to which the crew member said, “O.K., then I am going to have to call the police!” I am not kidding here! He actually said that he was going to call the police and have us arrested! For a second there, I thought we were being Punk’d! It was at that point that I noticed a group of three paparazzi standing a few feet away from us, chatting with the two policemen who were on duty manning the set. Being that the photogs not only weren’t being arrested, but seemed to be having a very amicable conversation with the cops, I figured we were safe. 🙂 I’m telling you, though, not once in my ten years of living in Los Angeles have I ever experienced the type of rudeness I encountered on the Idol set. Sure, some crews are not very friendly, some are even rude, but this one was in a whole different realm! One of the crew members even went so far as to shove a paparazzi at one point! Honestly, I’ve never seen anything like it! Oh well, at the very least, it was entertaining to watch! 🙂

Now, I should explain here that if you tell the Grim Cheaper not to do something, he becomes pretty hell bent upon doing it. So, even though neither one of us cared much about watching the Idols film their commercial or about taking photographs of them, the next thirty minutes of our day were spent doing exactly that. My fiancé took as many pictures as he possibly could and, for once, it was me dragging him off a set instead of the other way around. I was ready to leave after about five minutes of being there, actually, because there just wasn’t a whole lot going on and because I didn’t recognize any of the contestants. In fact, I had a very hard time distinguishing who was a crewmember and who was an Idol, as did my fiancé, and he actually watches the show!

The Idol shoot basically consisted of four of the contestants (Michael Lynche, Lee Dewyze, Tim Urban, and Siobhan Magnus) watering a patch of dirt in the middle of a Downtown L.A. street.

Then something happens – something that I am guessing is going to be added in digitally during post-production – causing them to all look upward. And that was pretty much it.

After doing about four takes of the above sequence, the Idols joined together in front of a Ford car to shoot some publicity stills for Fox. And, let me tell you, the crew REALLY did not want anyone getting pictures of that! Which begs the question, why didn’t the producers just close the set? Sure, it’s more expensive permit-wise, but geez, it’s a better way to go about things than getting your panties all in a twist and almost punching out a paparazzi!

[ad]

Oddly enough, only eight of the nine remaining Idols were on set on Sunday, including Casey James, Katie Stevens, Michael Lynche, Siobhan Magnus, Tim Urban, Aaron Kelly, Lee Dewyze, and Andrew Garcia. For whatever reason, Crystal Bowersox was not in attendance. Or, if she was, we didn’t stick around long enough to see her.

[ad]

What struck me as odd about the whole thing was that the Idol contestants are virtual unknowns – relative newbies trying to make a name for themselves in the music industry. You’d think that the studio would want to drum up as much publicity for them as possible, not steer free publicity away! Ironically enough, one of the paparazzi told me that the only reason the photogs were there in the first place was because Ben Affleck was supposed to have been shooting a movie a block away. When that shoot got cancelled due to early morning rain, the paps figured they might as well take some Idol pics since they were already in the area. They said the pics were worthless now, but when the final winner is announced in a few weeks, they might bring in some money. Oh, if those Idols only knew!

The one highlight of my time on the Idol set was hanging out with the paparazzi who were SO incredibly nice I almost couldn’t believe it. It has been my experience in L.A. that photogs are typically not very friendly people. Most are downright despicable, actually. But the three who were on the Idol set were total sweethearts! We had great conversations about which stars are nice, which aren’t, our experiences living in L.A., and even the Michael Buble concert that I had just been to two nights prior. 🙂 The guy pictured above even let my fiancé, who has become very interested in photography as of late, test out his ultra-expensive camera. The whole thing was a very pleasant surprise.

It’s very sad to me that the Idol crew ruined something that is usually such a positive experience. If that had been my first time stalking a film set, I might never have gone back. So, to all of my fellow stalkers out there I say this – if you ever encounter a crew like this one, please, please don’t let it deter you from visiting other film sets! 99.9% of the crews out there are very friendly and know that what they do is pretty darn special and that us so-called normal people, who aren’t in the industry, are often fascinated by it and want to see it all firsthand and take pictures to show our friends back home. As the saying goes, “Mean people suck”, but I am very, very happy to report that in L.A. the number of nice crews far outweighs the mean ones!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Idols filmed their Ford commercial at the intersection of South Hope Street and Wilshire Boulevard in Downtown Los Angeles.

March 23, 2009March 23, 2009

Where The American Idol Contestants Live

Even though American Idol is not a show I regularly watch, I was completely floored to find a two page article in this week’s US Magazine featuring the mansion the current Idol contestants are calling home. I love me some celebrity real estate! And while US didn’t give the exact location of the Idol pad, it did publish several photos of the 35,000 square foot manse and stated that it was located somewhere in Bel Air. Well I, of course, got to cyberstalking and it wasn’t long before I had located the Mediterranean style home. And I immediately dragged my boyfriend right out to stalk it. 🙂

In years past, the Idol contestants were put up in an exclusive apartment building called The Marlow which I blogged about last year. Well, the economy may be bad, but the Idol finalists are movin’ on up, because this season they are residing in a rented four story, nine bedroom, twenty bathroom (I’m not kidding!) mansion that sits on over an acre of well-manicured land. According to one real estate website, the home, which was originally built in 1927, boasts two pools (one indoor, one outdoor), a gym, a screening room, a bowling alley, an elevator, an indoor basketball court, a steam room, a jacuzzi, and private guest quarters. It sounds like Disneyland! I swear, put in a Starbucks and I’d never leave the place. 🙂 FOX has also sprung for a live-in chef, who cooks up healthy meals for the Idols daily. You can see great indoor photos of the house on some real estate websites here and here. And you can watch a video of the Idols moving into their new home here.

[ad]

Sadly, there’s not a whole lot of the home that is visible from the street, excluding some large exterior gates. I could see about ten cars parked in the driveway, though, so it seems that the Idols were allowed to bring their cars with them to California. 🙂

There are numerous differing online reports as to whether the Idol mansion is currently for sale. From what I can gather from the many conflicting accounts I’ve read, I believe the mansion was on the market for quite some time back in 2006 at a price of $43 million. After over 200 days with no sale, that price was dropped to $29,995,000. After an $18,500,000 deal fell through in 2008, the house was eventually taken off the market altogether. It is currently available for lease at a rate of $85,000 per month. The sign pictured above was on the ground in front of the mansion when I was stalking it. I wonder if one of the Idol hopefuls took it down in hopes that they would be able to buy the mansion themselves after landing a record deal. LOL If you have the $85,000 a month to shell out to rent the place, it should be available in about ten weeks when Idol is over. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The American Idol mansion is located at 277 St. Pierre Road in Bel Air.

June 11, 2008February 13, 2009

Alma Mater to the Stars

This weekend, while stalking in the Valley, my boyfriend and I drove by Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks. American Idol fans might remember Notre Dame from Season 5, when Katherine McPhee returned to her hometown of Sherman Oaks for a large pep rally held in the gym of her alma mater. Antonio Villaraigosa even showed up for the celebration and declared the day as “Katharine McPhee Day”! Gag me! I, personally, did NOT have McPhever during Season 5 of Idol and was very happy when she didn’t take home the crown. 🙂

Besides Ms. McPhee, Notre Dame is the alma mater to countless celebs, including Rachel Bilson from The OC, director Nick Cassavetes, Kristin Dunst, Maureen Flannigan (from Out of This World), Devon Gummersall and Devon Odessa from My So-Called Life, Staci Keenan from My Two Dads, Jerry Mathers aka the Beave, Dave Navarro and Stephen Perkins from Jane’s Addiction, and Michelle Trachtenberg from Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and Gossip Girl, as well as countless professional football and baseball players. There must be something in the water at Notre Dame, I swear!! It definitely seems like a breeding ground for lots of talented celebrities. 🙂

According to Wikipedia, the softcore porn TV series Love Street shot an episode at Notre Dame High School, which is very surprising as schools are usually pretty choosy about what productions can and cannot film on campus.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Notre Dame High School is located at 13645 Riverside Drive in Sherman Oaks.

March 22, 2008March 25, 2009

You’re Going to Hollywood, Dog!

Got a challenge from Hilary last week to find the apartment building that the Top 12 American Idols just moved into. This challenge was actually a slam dunk as a good friend of mine used to live in the Idols building. So I just called him up and got the address (Thanks, DH!) The Idols live in The Marlowe apartment building in Los Angeles, and let me tell you – they are some nice digs! If I could carry a tune, I might audition for the show just for a chance to live there!

The Marlowe is a humongous upscale apartment complex, complete with outdoor pool, patio areas, fitness center, concierge service, gardens, and community barbecues. It is practically a resort! The front of the building is currently under renovation, but if it ends up looking anything like the back of the building, it’s going to be gorgeous! The Marlowe is located in a great neighborhood, right next to the Wilshire Country Club and just a few blocks from Larchmont Village, an adorable little shopping district which also happens to be the filming location of MacGuyver’s loft, but I’ll save that for a future post! 🙂

[ad]

The past three seasons of Idol contestants have all lived at the Marlowe, along with the So You Think You Can Dance kids. My friend lived in the Marlowe for about a year and a half and witnessed the comings and goings of two seasons worth of Idol and SYTYCD contestants. He used to call and taunt me everytime he saw Heidi, who I absolutely LOVED, from Season 2 of SYTYCD. Maybe it’s time I take my stalking to the next level and just move into the Marlowe, so I can stalk 24/7! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Idol apartment building is located at 445 N. Rossmore in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles. You can see even more pictures here. If you want to get an even closer view of where the Idols live, you can visit the leasing office and request a tour. I tried to take a tour, but by the time I got to the Marlowe last night, the “Leasing Lounge” was closed. Such a bummer! 🙁 After stalking the Idols, head to nearby Larchmont Village for an afternoon coffee and some shopping. Larchmont Village is located on Larchmont Boulevard between Beverly Boulevard and 3rd Street.