Mann’s Chinese Theatre – IAMNOTASTALKER

April 22, 2009April 22, 2009

Hugh Jackman’s Hand and Footprint Ceremony

Got a call from my good friend Blaze on Monday morning who told me that Hugh Jackman’s Hand and Footprint Ceremony was scheduled to be held the following day at Mann’s Chinese Theatre. So, of course, we made plans to attend. 🙂 I was incredibly excited to see a handprint ceremony in person, not so much because I am a huge fan of Hugh Jackman, but because the event is so historic. That being said, Hugh Jackman is an AMAZING talent and he completely rocked this year’s Oscars, so I was pretty excited about seeing him in person, too. But truth be told, I would have been excited to see just about anyone. 🙂

The Hand and Footprint Ceremonies, or Inductions into the Forecourt of the Stars as they are also called, take place fairly rarely. Previous to yesterday’s ceremony, the last movie star to be immortalized in cement was Michael Caine on July 11, 2008. In 2007, there were three induction ceremonies, one for the cast of Ocean’s 13 (Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Matt Damon, and producer Jerry Weintraub), one for the stars of the Harry Potter movies (Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint), and one for superstar Will Smith. So, I really could not have been more floored to attend! Sadly, though, the event was incredibly disappointing! Even more so for me because I had been so excited about it. 🙁 As you can see in the above photograph, the ceremony was slated to begin at 10 a.m. But that’s not really what happened.

Blaze and I showed up to Mann’s Chinese Theatre at around 8:30 a.m. to stake out a place in line. By that time there were already about a hundred people lined up. Within an hour, about 500 more people arrived. Who knew Hugh was so huge! Needless to say, the event was packed. Right around 9:30 a.m., we were led to a set of bleachers which had been set up in the middle of Hollywood Boulevard. Now, even though it was only 9:30 in the morning, the temperature had already reached 90 degrees! For those of you who don’t live in the area, L.A. has been experiencing a bit of a heat wave the past few days. And the bleachers were located in direct sunlight, so, let me tell you, it was HOT. I’m actually surprised that no one passed out, it was that hot. At around 10:15 when the ceremony had not yet begun, I was starting to feel a bit woozy. At 10:25 I was ready to pack up and call it a day.

At 10:32, when a group of men started hanging a sign at the foot of the stage, I was ready to scream! The ceremony was set to start at 10 and 32 minutes after the fact they are still hanging signs???? I took the above photos of some nimrod with a tape measure who was trying to center the sign correctly, just to make sure it was all really happening and I wasn’t suffering from some heat-induced hallucination. LOL I don’t have a lot of patience to begin with, so for me this was torture. And I LIVE for this sort of thing! So, I can only imagine how the people in attendance who weren’t quite so into the whole Hollywood thing were dealing. When I attended the Friday the 13th premiere back in February, everything went off without a hitch, so I was really surprised at how disorganized this event was.

Anyway, the event FINALLY got underway right at 11 a.m., exactly one hour past the scheduled start time. Just a few minutes before Hugh was introduced, six men walked out carrying the cement block Hugh would soon be standing in. I couldn’t believe it took six men to hold it!!!!

Then, Jay Leno, who was emceeing the event, came out and made a very brief speech introducing Hugh. Jay was much larger than I expected him to be and seemed to have on a ton of makeup. Jay said that Hugh is one of the nicest celebs he’s ever had on his show. He said that you can tell a lot about a person from how they treat the people working behind the scenes in show business, and that Hugh is always extremely kind to everyone from the makeup crew to the production staff at The Tonight Show.

Then, finally, Hugh came out! HJ is very good-looking and VERY tall – 6’2″ according to IMDB – in person. He is in excellent shape, too. Hugh posed for some quick media photographs before heading over to the podium to make a speech.

In his speech, which was also very brief, Hugh said that about 12 years ago when he and his wife first moved to L.A., they visited Mann’s Chinese Theatre and he put his hands in Peter Sellers handprints, which I thought was really cute. Maybe someday I’ll be up at that very podium saying that I once put my hands in Marilyn Monroe’s handprints. 🙂

Hugh also thanked his wife and two children who were in attendance. Apparently, Hugh’s nine year old son told him he would only come to the ceremony if Daddy promised not to make a long, boring speech. LOL

Also in attendance at the ceremony was 20th Century Fox owner Rupert Murdoch and his wife, Wendi Deng.

Then came the moment we’d all been waiting for – the handprints! It was actually pretty bizarre to see the handprint process in person, as three men were actually surrounding Hugh the whole time, physcially guiding him through it. You can see in the above photographs how the two men on either side of him actually placed his hands in the cement for him and then held them down. What was also odd was that he had to leave his hands in the cement for a good minute before taking them out. I’m not sure if that was strictly so that the media in attendance had time to snap photographs or if it had something to do with the time it takes for cement to set.

It was very apparent how excited Hugh was to be recieving this honor. His grin was absolutely HUGE. So cute! 🙂

Then, HJ signed his name in the cement with a little wooden stick, which he ended up giving to someone in the crowd. 🙂

Then, this time with the help of four men, Hugh placed his feet in the cement.

As with his hands, Hugh also had to keep his feet in the cement for quite a long time – at least one full minute.

As he was wiping his feet off, one of the fans in the bleachers called out “Can I have your shoes?” LOL Hugh said no to that one, though. I’ve heard that Mann’s actually provides the shoes that celebrities wear during the footprint ceremony, but in this case it appeared that HJ wore his own shoes. They didn’t look new.

After his feet and hands had been immortalized in cement, Jay and Hugh returned to the podium and thanked everyone for coming. At that point Hugh turned to the bleachers and thanked all of his fans, whom he said he knew he wouldn’t be here without. And that was pretty much it. All in all the ceremony took about ten minutes. LOL

And literally the second it was over, Jay Leno was out of there!! He pretty much immediately dashed off stage and into a waiting car without signing any fan autographs. 🙁 I think that had a lot to do with the heat, though. As you can see in the above photograph, Jay looks as if he’s about to wilt. Check out his hair! LOL

After the ceremony was over, Hugh announced he was going to sign autographs for the many fans in attendance. I was extermely impressed by this being that it was so darn hot outside. Blaze and I didn’t stick around for an autograph, but instead walked to a nearby grocery store to buy some much needed bottled water. Twenty minutes later, as we made our way back to Mann’s, Hugh was STILL there signing autographs!! He seemed like a genuinely appreciative, kind, and humble guy. And while it was extremely exciting for me to see a hand and footprint ceremony in person, I don’t know that I’d ever do it again. 🙁 Well, maybe if it was for my girl Jen. But even then I’d have to think long and hard about attending.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Mann’s Chinese Theatre is located at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. You can visit their website here. Hugh Jackman’s handprints and footprints are currently on display in the center of the Chinese Theatre’s Forecourt to the Stars.

February 11, 2009February 14, 2009

The Friday the 13th Premiere

Hollywood rolled out the black carpet last night (and yes it really was black!) for the world premiere of the new horror film remake Friday the 13th – and amazingly, I got to be a part of it! My good friend Blaze Foster is obsessed with the Friday the 13th movie franchise and wanted someone to accompany him to the premiere so he dragged me along. I have to admit that I am not really into the whole slasher flick genre – I’ve never even seen the original Friday the 13th – but since I had never attended a movie premiere before, I was definitely game. 🙂

Apparently, tickets to movie premieres are quite easy to obtain – a fact I hadn’t realized before yesterday. A website named Gofobo was giving away the Friday the 13th premiere tickets and all fans had to do was print up a ticket, show up across the street from Mann’s Chinese Theatre, and wait in line – a line which was literally about 500 people long! (pictured above) Apparently Friday the 13th has quite a cult following, which I had never realized before yesterday. When we showed up across the street from the theatre at around 4:30pm (the premiere started at 7pm) the line was already wrapped around the block! I told Blaze that I wasn’t sure we would be getting in to see the movie with a crowd that large ahead of us, but Blaze is nothing if not determined. He had his sights set on introducing himself to Michael Bay at the premiere and when Blaze gets an idea in his head, there is absolutely no stopping him. So as we made our way through the line, Blaze made friends with a group of guys at the very front and miraculously they let us stand with them. I was extremely uncomfortable doing this as I am kind of a miss goody two shoes. LOL I don’t really break the rules. But like my girl Marilyn Monroe once said “If I’d observed all the rules, I’d never have got anywhere.” LOL How right she was – by cutting in line not only did we get in to see the movie, but we also got great seats! 🙂

While we were waiting in line, I tried to snap some pics of the red – ahem, I mean black – carpet. Unfortunately, due to the torrential rain plaguing Los Angeles for the past few days, the carpet was actually shortened and completely tented so that the celebs would stay dry while walking the press line. Due to the large plastic tenting, I couldn’t get very good pics of the black carpet, or the hundreds of Jason Voorhees hockey masks that lined it, but you can sort of get an idea of what it looked like in the above pics.

At around 6pm, we were finally led into the theatre. We entered Mann’s Chinese just to the side of the black carpet and did not get to walk through the press line. Bummer! I snapped the above photograph of the press area, but again, due to that darn rain tent, it didn’t come out very well. 🙁 Inside the main lobby of Mann’s Chinese, there were hundreds of popcorn bags and small sodas set out for us – for free, no less. It was awesome! Especially since I am the type of girl who can’t watch a movie without popcorn. 🙂

At a premiere, the fans are usually let into the theatre first, before any of the stars. So after finding our seats, I immediately started looking around the auditorium for celebs. And sure enough, there were plenty. I ran into Jordanna Brewster in the lobby on my way to the restroom (she didn’t seem very friendly) and I saw Dax Shepard in the popcorn line (he was by himself and slightly under-dressed in a hoody and jeans). Blaze got to meet actress Betsy Rue from My Bloody Valentine, Willa Ford, and Wes Craven! But I was most excited when Friday the 13th star (and Rory’s former love interest on Gilmore Girls) Jared Padalecki sat down about ten feet away from us. When the movie started I must say it was absolutely surreal to be watching Jared act onscreen knowing he was sitting just a few feet away. 🙂

After the movie, as we made our way out of the theatre we ran smack dab into Anna Faris – who I absolutely loved in Lost In Translation! I was SO excited to see her in person!!!! Anna was a total sweetheart and posed for a picture with me and gave Blaze a hug! And when she walked by us a few minutes later on Hollywood Boulevard, she stopped to say good-bye to us. See what I mean – total sweetheart! 🙂 She’s also super, super pretty in person.

But the high point of the night for me was when fate stepped in to give my friend Blaze his wish! Right after I took my picture with Anna Faris, Blaze noticed Michael Bay standing off to the side of Mann’s entrance. It was the opportunity Blaze had been hoping for and let me tell you, he took the bull by the horns! He marched right up to Mr. Bay, introduced himself, and told him about his dream of playing Glen Lantz in the new Nightmare on Elm Street movie! Michael was extremely receptive and talked to Blaze for a few minutes and then shook his hand. I couldn’t even believe it! Never in a million years could I have walked up to MICHAEL BAY and PITCHED MYSELF for an upcoming movie role! LOL But perhaps that is why Blaze has acted in a Jodie Foster movie and I haven’t. LOL In the above photo Michael Bay is the man wearing a white jacket and a blue shirt. And as a perfect end to our Hollywood evening, we saw Kevin James from King of Queens while driving out of the Hollywood & Highland parking lot. 🙂

We had such a blast at the Friday the 13th premiere. If you have yet to attend a movie premiere and are at all into celebrities and movies, I highly recommend you go to one! Oh and as for the movie – I actually liked it. I was thoroughly entertained – and scared out of my wits – the whole time. I was confused at the movie’s premise, though, as I really felt there wasn’t a point to it. But Blaze enlightened me to the fact that slasher flicks don’t ever have a point. LOL 🙂 If you are at all a fan of the horror genre, I highly recommend going to see the new Friday the 13th.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Mann’s Chinese Theatre is located at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard in the heart of Hollywood. You can check out upcoming events and premieres on Mann’s website. The premiere for Watchmen is currently scheduled to take place at Mann’s on March 2 and the premiere for Observe and Report is scheduled for April 6. For your best bet at getting tickets to any Hollywood premiere, check Gofobo’s website.

February 4, 2009June 16, 2011

The He’s Just Not That Into You Movie Premiere

I am currently waiting on pins and needles for the movie He’s Just Not That Into You to hit theatres this upcoming Friday. The New Line Cinema film has all the makings of a hit – it stars my girl Jen and is based on an episode of fave television show Sex and the City. Come on – what more could a girl ask for?? 🙂 The “Pick-a-Little, Talk-a-Little” episode of Sex and the City that featured that now infamous line “He’s just not that into you!” is one of my all-time-favorite episodes. And I absolutely loved the book by SATC creative consultant Greg Behrendt and SATC executive story editor Liz Tuccillo that came out of that episode. I find it absolutely mind boggling that Greg and Liz took one line – one line – from a hit television show and not only turned it into a best-selling self-help book, but also a major motion picture starring numerous A-List celebs. How inspiring! Who knows, maybe one day a hit movie will be created out of a line from one of my blog posts! Hey, a girl can dream, can’t she? 🙂

According to fave book Sex and the City: Kiss and Tell , the idea behind the line “He’s just not that into you!” came about one morning while a group of SATC writers were sitting around their offices getting ready to start their day. One of the writers was asking for advice about a man she was dating who had been sending her “mixed signals”. Someone happened to ask Greg Behrendt, the only straight male in the room, for his perspective on the matter. And that is when Greg uttered the now ubiquitous line: “He’s just not that into you.” The SATC writers were absolutely intrigued by this line of reasoning and an idea was born. And the rest, as they say, is history! So yesterday when some friends and I stumbled onto the world premiere of He’s Just Not That Into You while grabbing a coffee before our acting class I just about keeled over with excitement! 🙂

The premiere was being held at Mann’s Chinese Theatre – the movie house where almost all Hollywood premieres are held – and the red carpet had been set up right in the middle of Hollywood Boulevard. To watch the event fans had to stand on the opposite side of the street behind some steel barriers where the view, unfortunately, was not the best. As you can see in the above photograph, several large screens were placed every few feet along the length of the red carpet for the actors to pose in front of. Much to my dismay, the screens also majorly blocked our view of all the hoopla. LOL

For some incredibly odd reason I have never watched a premiere before – I know, unbelievable, huh? – so I was extremely excited that my first red carpet event would be starring my girl Jen. 🙂 My friends and I parked ourselves just across the street from the red carpet and it wasn’t long before the celebs started arriving. 🙂 The first star we spotted was Ginnifer Goodwin (pictured above), who I absolutely LOVED in fave movie Win A Date With Tad Hamilton. The bright lights on the red carpet made it really hard for me to take photographs, though, so unfortunately the pics didn’t come out very well.

Next up was Drew Barrymore who is absolutely adorable in person. 🙂 She kept turning around to wave to the crowd and would pop her head in between the red carpet screens to smile at us. She was super, super cute in person and seemed very friendly! And it was right around that time – are you sitting down for this – that my camera died! I am not kidding! I managed to snap some pics of Drew using my camera phone, but of course they didn’t turn out very well. Let that be a lesson to me – ALWAYS have my camera charged! LOL After my camera died one of my friends said it was a sign that we should leave the premiere and head to our acting class – which we were already almost a half an hour late for. LOL While talking about the fact that we were so late for class the girl standing next to us said that she, too, was missing a class to watch the premiere. LOL So like the dutiful student that I am, I left the premiere and headed to class – WITHOUT seeing Jen! 🙁 Yes, you read that right. Now that’s dedication if I’ve ever seen it! LOL

For those of you who have never been, I HIGHLY recommend stalking a red carpet premiere. It was SO MUCH FUN! Even though we had to stand pretty far away, I still felt like we were right in the middle of everything that was happening. Besides Drew and Ginnifer, we also got to see Justin Long and Kevin Connolly. 🙂 You can see some high quality red carpet pics on this website where it looks like quite a few celebs – including Jennifer Aniston – walked across the street to sign autographs after making their way through the press line. So bummed I missed it! 🙁

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Mann’s Chinese Theatre is located at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard smack dab in the middle of Hollywood. You can visit the Mann’s Chinese website to find out about upcoming premieres being held at the famous theatre. The premiere for the new Friday the 13th movie will be taking place there next Monday, February 9th, at 7pm, with the celeb arrivals most likely starting at 6pm.

July 21, 2008December 6, 2013

All Marilyn, All the Time!

I dragged my mom to Hollywood last Friday to do a little Marilyn stalking. She wasn’t too keen on the idea, but I was absolutely dying to do something I had yet to do in all the years I have lived in LA – I wanted to put my hands in Marilyn Monroe’s handprints outside of the famous Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. I can’t tell you the number of times I have been to Grauman’s Theatre, but never once had I put my hands in her handprints or even made it a point to go look at them. I was so excited to be there on Friday, that I actually walked right past Michael Caine’s freshly made handprints on prominent display in front of the theatre without so much as even taking a picture for the blog. LOL I am kicking myself now for not taking a picture as it was very cool to see how the handprints looked in an unfinished state. But what can I say, I was just too excited to see Marilyn. 🙂

Grauman’s Theatre has long been an iconic Hollywood symbol – almost a celebrity in and of itself. Grauman’s Chinese Theatre opened its doors on May 18, 1927. The Theatre was the brainchild of movie theatre owner Sid Grauman, who in 1922 built Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre, and his partners Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. Grauman, who passed away in 1950, now has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (near 6379 Hollywood Boulevard), and he was also one of the original founding members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Chinese theatre was purchased by the Mann’s Movie Theatre chain in 1973 and the name was changed to Mann’s Chinese Theatre. But in 2001 the original name was reinstated and the theatre is once again officially known as Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.

The handprint tradition began one day in 1927 while the Chinese Theatre was still being built. Sid accidentally stepped into some fresh cement in front of the theatre, leaving his footprints behind which sparked a magical idea. He says he immediately ran to get his two partners, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, who did the same with their feet. The rest as they say is history. There are currently over 200 stars’ handprints and footprints immortalized in cement at the entrance to Grauman’s, including Tom Cruise, Betty Grable, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Tom Hanks, Harrison Ford and even R2D2 and Donald Duck.

It is interesting to note that Marilyn’s handprints are absolutely black with dirt, one hundred times dirtier than any of the other handprints at the Theatre. (You can see the dirt in the picture to the left.) Seeing that, it becomes quite apparent just how many fans come on a daily basis to place their hands in Marilyn’s famous handprints. Marilyn’s handprint ceremony took place along with Jane Russell on June 26, 1953 during the promotion of their movie Gentleman Prefer Blondes. You can watch their handprint ceremony here. If you look closely at the dot in the “i” of Marilyn’s name, you can see that it looks a bit odd. Marilyn had wanted to put a real diamond in the cement to mark the dot of the “i” in her name in honor of the song “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” which she sings in the movie. The studio refused out of fear of it being stolen, but Marilyn was allowed to use a rhinestone instead. Apparently less than three days after the handprint ceremony that rhinestone was indeed stolen, so the theatre replaced it with a glass bead which has remained embedded in the cement ever since.

Several movies and TV shows have also been filmed outside the theatre, including Hollywood Homicide, I Love Lucy, The Beverly Hillbillies, Forest Gump, Blazing Saddles, Mighty Joe Young, Rush Hour, Borat, Goldmember, Earthquake, and A Star is Born. Although the theatre is a complete tourist trap and is always crowded with hordes of people, I highly recommend stalking it if you have not yet had the chance to do so. Grauman’s is a true Hollywood icon and a place everyone should see in person at least once in their lives. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Marilyn’s handprints can be found in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, which is located at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard, right in the heart of Hollywood. Her handprints are close to the doors of the Theatre, on the left hand side as you face the front of it. If you can’t find them, there are many theatre ushers standing around who can direct you to the right spot. You can still catch a movie at Grauman’s and I highly recommend doing so, as the theatre has recently been restored to its original grandeur and the interior is quite a sight to see.