Angel

Yep, I was ! I cannot believe the week I’m having ! I saw James in Ghost of the Robot Saturday, and now the WB Premiere Party tonight ! The online party was part of a larger party held at The Grove—which I thought was a nightclub, but turned out to be a fancy outdoor mall by the famouss a nightclub, but turned out to be a fancy outdoor mall by the famous Farmer’s Market in the Fairfax district. (I know, it probably means nothing to most of you, but it used to be REALLY famous 30 to 60 years ago and is still a popular tourist stop). The local paper, the LA Times, hosted the online part, and the local top 40’s station, KIIS, and KTLA, the WB station here, hosted the live event.

I arrived about 4 :30, there was already a big crowd, so I didn’t get a great spot...I thought ! I wound up on the side of the stage behind the sound mixer board, but the stage was like 6 feet high, so I could have seen pretty well, except that most of the stuff took place behind monitors and crew people blocked the view most of the time. Sigh. But I could see the stars coming up the stairs in back and walking the path to the backstage area as well, so I could see who was coming and then get glimpses. They started around 6 PM, had all these people from "Like Family" ? ? ? I think. Whatever. Joey...er Joseph, excuse me !..Lawrence among them. Later they had John Schneider ( ?) who plays Jonathan Kent in Smallville, they were pretty much the only ones I knew. Not a big TV watcher, sorry.

Anyway, just before 7 PM, who do I spot coming up the path... ? None other than David B himself ! ! ! ! ! Yes, live in the flesh ! He looked great, he had on jeans and a black tee shirt with "New York City" on it. A coat over that. They cut the audio going out to record the audio for cameras—it was all mostly for live cut ins—so I can’t tell you what he said, although later when I got home the station’s news had a last piece and showed him telling the interviewer that Jaden is in a phase now where he takes his diapers off all the time. The interview started it with "one of the stars of Angel has an angel of his own" and he also said he was babysitting tonight, but I didn’t see the child anywhere.

NOTE for KK : definitely broad shoulders much in evidence... :)

So after David left the stage, about 20 minutes later, Amy Acker was up. Again, no audio, but she looked nice, casual in jeans and a plain white top and jacket.

So an hour later, as I was beginning to wonder if anything more was going to happen, since Smallville had started, I see David and Amy coming up the path again. Cool. I looked over a few seconds later and BLONDE is going up it ! ! ! ! I about had a coronary—James ! Just when I was thinking he wouldn’t be there (no one put out any announcement as to who would be there, I just went on the off chance they would ! I figured if anyone would, David would, being star and all ! James tends to go to these things to ’give back to the fans’ so I had hoped !) He was wearing jeans (duh ! what else !) and he had on his brown leather jacket (yum !) and a tee shirt I’d never seen (the man has finally gotten a few more than 5 shirts !)...hard to describe, but it was a sort of burnt orange in color (like it had been red but faded from too many washings ? not sure !) with a 1/2 size black rib for the collar ribbing. He looked very very good as usual. Oh, and both their hair looked very gelled ! :)

Of course I couldn’t hear anything, but they did the camera stuff, then James did something NOT ONE OTHER STAR before him did. As soon as the camera work was done, he went straight over to the edge of the stage and started shaking hands and signing autographs ! The most anyone else had done was wave. Sorry, all you DB fans, even he didn’t sign, except one or two as he ran the gauntlet (more later). I know I’m completely not objective about James, :) but I have seen over and over reason to adore him and proof that singing his praises is not misplaced !

So, as soon as they had finished their bit onstage, I decided to race over to the path that led from the stage to the restaurant they used for a backstage area. I got there in time to take a really close shot of David as he stopped to sign an autograph, then he was gone into the restaurant. I’m not sure, but he probably left right after that.

I continued waiting for James to come by, of course. He took a while, meeting people and signing autographs in the crowd (from the safety of behind the barricade, of course), but eventually his publicist hustled him past—and I do mean hustled—he was calling out "sorry, but I can’t stop !" as she was almost dragging him by at warp speed ! But I followed his progress and noticed he didn’t go inside, but detoured to the outside eating area of the restaurant, so I followed over and finally he stopped at a less crowded area and started signing in earnest. I made my way to the front, and after a couple minutes, he suddenly noticed me and did a double take and said "Well, Hi darlin’ !" SIGH ! I said "Hi James ! How are you ?" He said "I’m doing *great*, thank you." Anyway, I stood maybe 1 foot at most from him (only a short railing between us !) for the next like 10 minutes as he continued to sign, and we talked ! I told him how much I liked the 90 minute show Saturday, that at least it wasn’t quite such a blink ! He looked right in my eyes and very earnestly asked "Did we do a whole 90 minutes ?" I told him it had been pretty close. He explained that it was often up to the people who put on the show or the venue ; they dictated the length of the set, usually they wanted 40 or 45 minutes. I told him to tell Steve it was great to see him sing and that he did a great job. James said "OH ! He was sooooo nervous !" I said, "Well he did just fine" James smiled. Someone asked when they were going to do a show in LA, and he told them "um, we just did one last Saturday" (DUh ! where was she ? !) In response to something I didn’t catch, he said, "No, we’re going to put our effort into he studio, we’re trying to get he next CD recorded before Christmas." YAY ! ! ! ! Another gal told him that Automatic Hotel should always open for them, I agreed with her vocally ! He said he hadn’t had a chance to hear them yet. I mentioned I’d heard they might be doing a show in Sacramento soon ? He was all "Oh really ? I don’t know ? I don’t ...I’m not sure..." LOL. He always says he has no clue about where he’s going to be, he just goes where his manager tells him to ! And that is pretty much all I remember, I think that is all of it, though. I’m still a bit OMG from it ! Brain is in overload...and doesn’t want to leave !

Anyway, it was about that moment his publicist insisted they had to leave, and whisked him away in a limo ! I was starving, so I decided to go ahead and leave, too, since wasn’t nothin’ going to top that ! ! ! Besides, I was missing Angel—which I still haven’t seen yet—I was, after all, a bit preoccupied when it started ! :)

Have I said lately how much I love living LA ? ! ! ? ?

Patti <---floating 10 feet off the ground, and without benefit of Red Bull !