Last night the ESPYs were being taped in Los Angeles and my two friends Nick and Charlie flew in for the big event. I knew if they were in town that we couldn’t not meet up! So I started my heavy duty planning, which involved calling several promoters to see about the parties going on. Turns out everything is for these people who are “VIPS” or something special like that so we had to figure something else out.
So Nick calls Jonathan, a friend of his from college and also a fellow TCU alum, who happens to know Jessica Biel’s ex-assistant. She, having planned outings for JB, knows a ton of doormen. Jonathan directs us as follows: “Walk up to the doorman, tell him you come on Thursdays with Danny. Act like you own the place.” Well first of all when we walked in we walked in the wrong direction, strike one. We get up to the bouncer and stare at him. “Hi, are you guys staying at the hotel tonight?” “No.” A huge crowd passes through so we get disconnected from the convo, which was really awkward. The guy kind of looks us up and down and I guess he thought we were important enough because Nick and Charlie were in nice suits and I in a cute dress. “You’re not on the guest list?” “Nope.” Okay. He stamps all of our hands… and in we go.
Okay. That was pretty flawless. Let’s see what’s going on around here…
So the first person we run into is Ryan Sheckler, the skateboarder (who also is pretty easy on the eyes, ladies). I figure he is too young to be here and upon further research my suspicions are confirmed because he’s not even 20. Nick, Charlie and I are all kind of chatting and waiting around when Jonathan shows up. He is really funny and has an interesting life (last minute trips to Cairo to climb the pyramids? What!?).
We’re all standing around just talking and laughing when I kid-you-not that about 45 people walk in and a very tall black man walks in. He is wearing shades but based on his height I knew he had to be a basketball player. Upon further inspection we all look at each other and go, “So that was Carmelo Anthony, right?” Yes sir it was. He’s a giant, first of all, and second, you couldn’t NOT notice him – the man was wearing a bright baby blue suit with a pink tie. So yeah, Melo was there and I kept thinking of all of my guy friends who would have loved to have been within three inches of him like I was. 🙂
We left that locale and then headed to The Bev for a hotel party. We got there and it was on the rooftop which provided a beautiful view. Charlie let me borrow his suit coat so I looked like a linebacker most of the night. We headed to the bar to order some drinks – which, I have to add, I did NOT drink last night… I know, stop the presses – and while we were talking Sean Penn was leaving to get in the elevator! He’s short. But it was definitely him. That is definitely my first “movie star” encounter here!
Anyway we ended the night with a Pink’s hotdog, which was good but not as wonderful as everyone raves about. Luckily we only waited 15 minutes and not a solid three hours for a dog like some tourists.
Lesson of this post? Don’t say you can’t do something but inevitably you’ll know someone who knows someone and then you get to sight-see the celebs 😉
Kirbie Johnson 