That Time I Went to a Hollywood Movie Premiere

So, this happened.

Tuesday, hubs and I flew out to Los Angeles to attend the Veronica Mars premiere in Hollywood. If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile or know me personally, you know that Veronica Mars is my favorite TV show. And you probably also know that Kristen Bell is my favorite person. And you may also know that both of those things combined make me giddy like a school girl so it shouldn’t be a surprise that I contributed enough to the Kickstarter a year ago to score tickets.

The Kickstarter had options for the premiere in LA, NYC, and Austin. Austin would have made the most sense financially (and I super love Austin) but helloooo?? Authentic Hollywood movie premiere? No-brainer right there.

Anyway, our little two-day vacation started with a visit from my big(gest) brother but I’ll get to that in the next post. I’m going to work backwards, kinda like the movie Memento. But terrible.

Let’s fast forward to Wednesday when we’re dressed and ready to drive over to Hollywood from our hotel in LA. We had to be at the TCL Chinese theatre to pick up our tickets by 6:00pm but we got there around 3:00pm so we could wander around, get some lunch, skip some traffic (but not really), and not be rushed.

We went to lunch first at a place called The Pig ‘N Whistle. The name got us. Pigs? Whistles? What’s not to like? The menu looked good and the place was mostly empty but they still managed terrible service and mediocre food. We stayed for a few drinks after we ate and the bartender told us she didn’t have any grape vodka. Now, I don’t want to tell anyone how to do their job but…

Around 5:30, we walked over to the theatre and there was already a line at will call to pick up tickets. I expected to be in the line for awhile but we got through and grabbed our tickets in about 10 minutes. At that point, fans were already packing the street across from the theatre.

Once we had our tickets, we walked across the red carpet to the viewing area for all the Kickstarter backers. Now, I’m not saying I had the best spot but…I had the best spot.

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Where’s Waldo?

A few people asked how I got such a great spot or if I paid for it. Nope. I just saw it and then I stood there. Pretty technical.

Also, I’ll have to give Melissa and hubs props for encouraging me to wear a pink dress instead of a black one because I stood out like a sore thumb. Being 6 feet tall in heels that night also helped, I suppose.

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That’s Tina Majorino taking the picture by the way. If you don’t know who she is, well, then we can’t be friends anymore.

For the past year, I’ve been getting email updates on the progress of the movie, etc. (It’s a perk of being a backer.) A few of the emails said the cast wouldn’t be taking individual pictures or signing autographs so I was just expecting to spectate and drool as my faves walked by. So let me just say, I was not expecting what happened to happen next.

#LoVe

I saw Kristen walking around the corner and got super excited so I asked her to take a picture. While I was getting my camera ready, Jason Dohring (Logan) walked around the corner and it surprised me in that fan girl pee-your-pants kinda way. Kristen noticed and called him over to get in the picture too. I’m pretty sure I thanked them, but one can’t be sure that more than gargling noises actually came out of my mouth.

From there, the night just kept getting better.

That’s Ryan Hansen (Dick) ❤  I super love him. He’s in two other TV shows that didn’t last long but are totally worth the watch: Party Down (which has tons of people from Veronica Mars in it and is also created by Rob Thomas) and Friends with Benefits. Who needs fresh outside air when you can sit on the couch and watch those? No one. No one needs that.

Then, Tina Majorino (Mac) rounded the corner. She’s so adorable and tiny!

I also took a picture with Dax Shephard and met Chris Lowell (Piz), which somehow made the Veronica Mars instagram page.

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Is anyone else watching his new show Enlisted? It’s pretty funny so far.

Anyway, I. got. to. meet. them. all. It. was. amazing. We saw the rest of the cast as well (Keith, Weevil, Wallace, Madison Sinclair, Cliff (the lawyer), etc) but I’m already doing enough of a photo dump and I’m sure these names mean nothing to those of you who haven’t seen the show. And if you haven’t seen it, what is wrong with you? Honestly. Have I taught you nothing? (Don’t answer that.)

It was so fun to watch the cast wander around the red carpet, talk to the press, and take pictures. They were all so nice. Plus, my front row view made it even better than I was expecting.

Jerry O’Connell

Kristen and Dax Shephard

After a little over an hour on the red carpet, we made our way into the theatre. The theatre has assigned seating so I didn’t have to body check anyone for a good seat. It also had something I’ll never see again in this lifetime: COMPLIMENTARY popcorn and drinks. < —- I die

The theatre is really beautiful inside. It’s more like an Opera House than a theatre. Check out the ceiling. Even that was like a piece of artwork.

The cast was wandering around the inside of the theatre as well. We ran into Lisa Rinna and Harry Hamlin (Logan’s mom and dad) at the concession stand, so we said hello. I’ve loved Lisa since the Days of Our Lives days (I’m so old to know that) and hubs was excited to see Harry since he’s a big Clash of the Titans fan. I also ran into Jason Dohring outside the women’s restroom. I smiled while expelling some incoherant babble and then he said to me, “I heard the best seats are in there.” Heh

Before the movie started, Rob Thomas came out with the cast and thanked us all over and over for making the movie happen.

The movie was great by the way (hubs liked it a lot too), but I was so freakin’ excited from everything that happened on the red carpet that I can’t even tell you what happened in the first 20 minutes. In fact, I even tweeted Kristen Bell a question during a live tweet a few days later THAT SHE RESPONDED TO.

Then, 100 fans kindly tweeted me the same answer all. day. long. The answer is in the first 20 minutes of the movie. The same first 20 minutes in which I was recovering from a fun-induced heart attack. And to be fair, Kristen didn’t know the answer either, so I should get a pass.

So yeah, that pretty much made my year. The trip was not cheap and it killed all my vacation time, and because of that I really considered not going. I’m so glad I changed my mind because when am I ever going to have a chance to attend something like that again? Probably never.

Completely worth it.