The ESPYs

Today, Mark and I were working for Good Morning America covering the ESPY awards. We arrived at around 1 but the red carpet arrivals didn't start until 4. Hollywood was H-O-T! Whenever I am there, I am so happy to live close to the ocean. We hunkered in the shade of the Kodak complex until the last minute with the other GMA crew and producers. Our talent for the day was Tanith Belbin-as in Belbin and Agusto. All I knew in the AM was that it was going to be an ice dancer. Later I found out she won silver at the Torino Olympics and was US champ for the past three years. Very impressive. Looking at this girl, you would never think she is an elite athlete. When I first saw her, with her big sunglasses, I thought she could pass for Nicole Ritchie. Tanith is thin but not THAT thin. She is adorable. Very easy going and funny.

Our first assignment was to shoot red carpet arrivals. Mark and I have shot a ton of these things and this one was so much less drama and attitude. Well there were no Celebrity/Hollywood egos to deal with. A sampling of the folks I saw today follows:
LeBron James
Terrell (sp?) Owens
Matt Leinert
Reggie Bush
Venus Williams
Matthew McConauhey (sp?)
Shaun White
Janet Jackson
Kobe Bryant
and others. But my favorite sighting had to have been James BLake. So cute. And the red leather shoes were fabulous. He was smaller in person though. Too bad he didn't do too well at Wimbledon. Maybe the US Open will be his slam...
The rest of the day was fairly chill. We hung out in the press tent. I knitted and Mark read the paper while out producer and correspondent went to California Pizza Kitchen.
I have to hand it to ESPN-they catered food for the press. Everyone was fed and hydrated. The food was pretty good too. Mixed greens with candied pecans-always a plus in my book, Sesame noodles and a myriad of different sandwiches.
At around 9pm, we were scheduled to shoot at the after party. The place (The Highlands) was packed with wanna-bes and such but there was a ton of food, alcohol and music. Sugar Ray was playing all their greatest hits (it was a short set). We shot a bit inside and even got to graze. Nothing great. I didn't even see any athletes in there. Oh-speaking of Sugar Ray...Earlier in the evening, I saw Sugar Ray Leonard. Maybe he should've sung "I just want to fly".
At one point, we were searching for someone who had won as ESPY and the only person we saw who had one was Tammy Richardson who won for, can you even guess? Best Angler.
As our shoot drew to a close, we ended up, as luck would have it close to the dessert table. MMMMsugar. Tanith said the brownies were really good. Whoa-understatement. They weren't brownies at all but miniature chocolate lava cakes. They weren't warm but they did have the goooey middle. Oh. my. god. I stuck two in my audio kit and called it a night. I am not ashamed. I would have taken more if I didn't have so much gear in my pack. Damn gear.
As we packed up by one of the many bars in the place, I inched closer to the bar pretending to utilize the light while I labeled the tape. I caught the eye of the bartender and asked him what kind of tequilas he had. "Cuervo (no), Cazadores(eh) and Corazon-(that will do!) I had already cleared it with the producer so I wasn't that naughty. Before he handed me my drink -gotta love open bar at awards show parties, he actually carded me. Bless his soul. That was one fine shot of tequila.