Extra – IAMNOTASTALKER

May 24, 2012May 24, 2012

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? Smile (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? Winking smile 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. Winking smile 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! Smile

Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here. You can also check out the IAMNOTASTALKER About Me page here. And you can follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

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.

May 23, 2012May 24, 2012

Attending a Taping of Extra . . .

I spent all of yesterday morning at The Grove watching an episode of Extra being filmed that featured special guest Bachelorette Emily Maynard, whom I LOVE LOVE LOVE. (She is so freaking cute, it is almost unbelievable!) Then, when I finally did get home, the Grim Cheaper hooked me up with a new watermark (check it out above) and a cutting-edge photograph program, which I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to master. As I said a couple of weeks ago, this stalker is taking things to the next level. Smile Anyway, because of all of that I was not able to write a new post for today, but I will be back tomorrow writing about my whole Extra experience, which was FABULOUS! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

July 11, 2011July 11, 2011

Christina Aguilera’s “Extra” Taping at The Grove

Way back on Friday, June 3rd, Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, called me up to inform me that Christina Aguilera would be appearing live that afternoon at The Grove shopping center in Los Angeles to tape a segment for the television series Extra. And even though I have never really been a big fan of the pop singer, because I absolutely LOVED LOVED LOVED me the movie Burlesque, I was simply dying to attend. I am so obsessed with Burlesque, in fact, that a couple of months ago I cut my hair to resemble the wig that Christina wore during the “But I Am a Good Girl” number, which you can watch by clicking above. “The dress is Chanel, the shoes YSL, the bag is Dior, Agent Provocateur.“ Sigh! I LOVE that song! And that hair!

Pinky Lovejoy, from the Thinking Pink blog, had long before informed me that the Extra stage at The Grove was one of the worst venues in L.A. for celebrity photographs, so I knew that my chances of getting one with Christina were slim to none. As I mentioned in Tuesday’s post, though, I am an eternal optimist, so when the Grim Cheaper and I headed out towards the shopping center that Friday afternoon, I was armed with some pretty high hopes.

As you can see in the above photograph, the area surrounding the Extra stage was absolutely JAM PACKED with people when the GC and I arrived on the scene. Because a large portion of The Grove’s courtyard had been partitioned off for the taping, though, I did manage to secure a spot right along the fan barricade and still had pretty high hopes that I might be able to get a picture with the singer.

Christina’s team from The Voice (singers Beverly McClellan, Frenchie Davis, Lily Elise, and Raquel Castro) arrived a couple of minutes before the segment was set to begin and promptly hit the red carpet to film some media interviews.

Mario Lopez arrived next and while I had presumed that he would most certainly pose for photographs, that was sadly not the case. He walked right by the crowd, both on his way in and on his way out, without so much as signing an autograph. Such a bummer!

Just a few seconds later, a huge limo drove right into The Grove’s central courtyard and stopped in front of the fan barricades. Needless to say, the crowd went absolutely wild at this point.

Because Christina is so darn tiny, the limo blocked her almost completely from view as she stepped from the car. But the GC did manage to get a few pics of her by holding his camera above his head.

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As soon as Christina walked onto the stage, all of the fans in attendance moved over to that part of the courtyard to get a better view of the taping. And while the GC and I tried to find a spot in that area, it was just far too crowded for my taste. As you can see, it was so chaotic that the GC could hardly get any photographs of the stage even though he has a high-tech, long-lensed camera.

So I dragged him right on back over towards the rear of the stage where we once again were lucky enough to snag a spot against the barricade.

While Christina spoke with Mario onstage, her Voice team walked over to where the limo was parked and started signing autographs and taking pictures with the fans. We were standing just a bit too far away from them, though, so I was not able to get them to pose with me.

Mario invited The Voice contestants to take to the stage a few minutes later to sing a cappella for the crowd and, oh my lord, were they INCREDIBLE!!!!!!

After the four contestants sang, the segment ended and Christina came walking down the red carpet towards her limo.

And while she sadly did not stop to sign any autographs or take any pictures, she did reach out to touch some of the fans on my side of the barricade (that’s my hand in the above photograph) . . .

. . . and the GC somehow managed to magically snap some pics of Christina grabbing my hand! NICE camera work, GC!!!!

Thankfully, The Voice contestants stuck around to meet some of the fans after Christina’s limo departed. Because I had watched Frenchie Davis on Season 2 of American Idol back in 2003, I really wanted a photograph with her. And I am very happy to report that Frenchie could NOT have been nicer and, even though her publicist was rushing her along and kept telling her that she did not have time to take pics with fans, Frenchie said, “I’m staying until everyone who wants a picture gets one. I’m nothing without my fans!” Love it!

After Christina left, the GC and I headed over to the Whisper Lounge, Michael Buble’s favorite restaurant which I blogged about back in November of last year, to grab a bite to eat. And let me tell you, I just about died when I spotted both Tajari P. Henson and Teri Seymour dining (separately) at tables near the bar. When I saw Teri get up to leave the Lounge, I followed her outside and asked her for a picture and she happily obliged. But the GC was in charge of watching for Tajari to leave and, of course, was not paying attention when she actually did, so I did not get to ask her for a photo. 🙁 Men!!!! Being that he had managed to snap that awesome picture of Christina and me touching hands, though, I could not get too mad at him about it. 😉

Big THANK YOU to Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, for telling me about this event.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Grove shopping center is located at 189 The Grove Drive in Los Angeles. Extra films on the premises on a daily basis. You can check out their filming schedule and list of their upcoming celebrity guests here. The Whisper Lounge is located inside of The Grove, in Suite F-90B. You can visit the Whisper Lounge’s official website here.