My Stint At the Prime Time Emmy's

I know, I know. This clearly does not qualify as “abroad”, although considering I live on the East Coast, it may as well be. Since I don't have a blog called, “Domestic Adventures: Culture shock from all over the States”, this blog adopted the orphan post.

So, I was lucky to attend the Red Carpet Arrivals @ the Prime Time Emmy's this past September. It was cool. It was fun. It was all that. But there was a catch. The procedure we had to go through was like something out of the Twilight Zone. For starters, we had to get up really early on a Sunday morning (like 7:30) to get dressed up and drive across town. Once at our destination we were made to sit in rows on these really uncomfortable benches, one behind another, crammed in between a bunch of other people who were all there for the same purpose. This is when I developed an unfortunate case of bleacher butt. It was the one and only time I was wishing I had more junk in the trunk. I know it's wrong to covet, but I sure envied the few that were hoarding all of the cushion, if you know what I mean. As we continued to sit as one big congregation, I tried to keep my faith by reminding myself that I would be rewarded for this later.

It was mildly entertaining to watch the behind-the-scenes activity involved in airing the live footage to all of the networks covering the Emmy's. I can not deny that there was a certain intoxication in the air. However, there was an abundance of celebrities, paparazzi, and crew members, so perhaps the aura of intoxication had nothing to do with the excitement. We were provided refreshments and a goody tote loaded with what I suspect, were the same effects given to the stars. The contents included a magazine, ball cap, Emmy's t-shirt, mascara, AND, hold on.....let me build some suspense, a bag of chips. As if seeing droves of celebrities wasn't enough, I was privileged to experience, first-hand, a moment so special, that it's very essence has been coined. The cliché clearly originates from this red carpet event, whereby the audience gets ALL THAT the stars get AND a bag of chips. Doritos, to be specific.

One by one, the stars eventually made their way down the red carpet. Some were friendlier than others, and I was disappointed that Steve Carell was the least personable. To his credit, he did arrive in the same manner as the rest of the garden variety stars. Some celebs, one in particular, was simply too famous for all the fuss and had to be privately escorted through a trap door. It is true, he probably would have been recognized and, chances are, have ended up in the tabloids. Of the oodles of celebrities on site (Dr. McDreamy, Kevin Bacon, Michelle Pfiefer, to name a few), Alec Baldwin knew that he would have shone brighter than the rest, causing unfair press and attention and was, therefore, unable to walk the red carpet due to the unfortunate curse of super-stardom that has befallen him.

I did encounter one odd moment when a man from the paparazzi who was standing in front of me, turned and unexpectedly took my picture, almost point blank, mind you. I have no idea what his objective was, but I'm fairly certain it didn't score any front covers.