Last Thursday I was flown out to Hollywood for a star studded long weekend of events sure to go down in my blogging history book. As you all know it’s where my heart lives and I am lucky enough to have some wonderful friends and contacts out there to ensure my time spent is never boring. Of course I stayed at The Magic Castle Hotel which is part of the famous Magic Castle historic club. You may have heard the rumor that McG is going to be directing a movie about the Magic Castle. Unfortunately I have very little information on this right now, no one does. But rest assured when the info comes out I will be one of the first to know.
On Thursday night Victoria and I were guests at Yamashiro which is located on top of a huge hill above Magic Castle Hotel in Hollywood. The view is unparalleled to just about any other I’ve seen. Celebrity Chef Brock Kleweno treated us to a tasting of all his new dishes. Yamashiro is traditionally a Japanese sushi style restaurant but Chef Brock is trying to give it some California fusion flare. I’ll be writing up a full review on the food so no worries there. You can look forward to hearing about dishes such as Pistachio Salmon, BBQ ribs with sweet potatoes and cornbread, Lobster rolls with bacon and so much more. I’ve included a picture of myself with Chef Brock in the Japanese Garden. You may recognize this garden from the movie Memoirs of a Geisha.
Friday morning I was up bright and early to hit the set of Rules of Engagement. I was rather excited about this visit because I’ve had a crush on Patrick Warburton since I was a young girl. You might know him as Putty from Seinfeld or even as “High Five Guy”. But did you know he was only in 9 actual episodes of the show? Crazy right! Anyway as soon as I walked on to the set he was standing there and I immediately told him about this secret crush and he pulled me into a huge embrace so we could hug it out. Then I broke the water pitcher. You had to be there but it was typical Lee drama. Patrick threatened to Tweet about it.
My brother in law had just gotten done shooting a movie with the star of Rules Megyn Pryce and I was thrilled to find out she remembered who he was. He’s a stunt man and this movie shot in Ohio. That was one of those “small world” situations.
I had a chance to sit down with all of the actors except David Spade, although I did get to see him. I do set visits here and there and I’ll say this was one of the nicest casts I’ve ever sat down with. Bianca Kajlich is so animated and friendly, Oliver Hudson is smart beyond his years and really has an idea what he wants to do in his future, Adhir Kalyan truly has no idea how this life happened to him even though he worked really hard to get where he is…and you’ll have to wait for my full write up to learn about the rest. I’ve included a picture of myself and Megyn Pryce, isn’t she lovely!
Friday night I rushed back to my hotel to get ready for the premiere of the movie Ingenious starring Dallas Roberts and Jeremy Renner. You know I go weak in the knees over anything Jeremy related but honestly this wasn’t much about him. The movie is a lot more Roberts heavy and he is the shining star. The evening itself was peppered with the supporting cast as neither of the lead actors were able to make the event. I wrote up an Ingenious movie review on Entertainment ExactLee so you can check it out there.
At the cocktail reception after the movie I was able to rub elbows with Eddie Jemison who has long been a favorite character actor of mine. He’s been made famous from the Ocean’s 11 movies. Trust me, you know who he is. But the majority of the night was spent talking to Marguerite Moreau who is now my best friend, I told her I’m a driving force so she might as well not fight it. But really people say she is famous for having been in Queen of the Damned, but her IMDB page is 12 miles long and she was most recently on Parenthood for quite a stint. She played Jeremy’s girlfriend in the movie, there is a half naked love scene, she’s my idol. I’ve included a picture of all of us.
Finally Saturday morning, another early wake up call, had me out the door and on my way to Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. I had been invited by Red Carpet Report to be their host for the day at the Sofia the First lavender carpet event. Sofia is the youngest Disney Princess and she is also Latina. This is all very special for the Disney brand. Stars came out in droves to support the new show including Sara Rodriguez from Grey’s Anatomy, Ming Na from ER and Mulan fame, Constance Marie from Switched at Birth and so many more. I’ll be doing a lot of blogs on this event but for now you can see all my interviews if you go to Twitter and search for #RedCarpetReport and you can see every interview I did with a link to the YouTube video. My favorite was Ming Na because we got to geek out over her upcoming role in S.H.I.E.L.D because I mean hello, Avengers!!! She’ll be working with Clark Gregg who is one of my bucket list interviews. I included that video above because it’s my favorite. Make sure to catch Sofia the First on Sunday November 18th on The Disney Channel.
I would definitely call this weekend a huge success and I can’t wait to share more fun times with you in the future!
I love that top picture of you