Oceans 13 + Me...

I love the theme of “My Heroes Have Always Been...” this week, but unfortunately, I had promised to do a follow-up on my trek to see George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon put their hands and feet in the Grauman’s Chinese Theater cement. And a promise is a promise...

To back-up a bit, this all started with the “confession” here that I had had the opportunity to meet my crush, Mark Wahlberg, but passed it up for fear of finding him “less than” the prototypical romance hero bad boy I needed for my writing. Some people understood my logic; others did not. I remained on the fence myself, wondering if I’d made the right decision.

Then I heard an announcement for this Ocean’s 13 event, and in addition to thinking it would be great fun for my friend’s visiting exchange student, decided it was also a way to test the waters and see if these guys jump-started my romance writer’s brain--or not.

So...off I went last Tuesday, in a group of five. We arrived and joined a line we hoped went somewhere. It did--we were moved with a crowd to a secured area in the street, which actually had a pretty decent view of the event, and only one set of heads in front of us, so we were happy. Here’s a view from where we stood:


However, fate had different plans for us! A security guard came by, offering VIP seats to foreign visitors, so we pointed out our exchange student, and what do you know? Our whole party got tickets and sent on our way, across the street. (Looking at the previous area photo, we moved to group on the left.)

Now, here’s the rub: this time, there were lots of heads in front of us (and, it turned out, lots of camera blockage). Which would require lots of jockeying for position, and handing our cameras around. But what I quickly realized was that while I wouldn’t always be able to see, when I could see--YOWZA!

The crowd seemed quite nice, and the one difference between them and your average Southern Californians being their unabashed starstruck-ness. So when I spotted Matt Damon’s wife, I said as much, and instead of people’s eyes glazing over, all southern California cool, I got a lot of “Wow, where? Oh, yeah, that’s her!”

So the event started. I took this picture, and may I tell you, that while I’ve always thought Brad Pitt to be a 10, in real life, he is a 12, okay? GOR-geous! I mean, I think that low guttural sound I kept hearing was me moaning...



Here’s a picture of the guys putting their feet in cement. It was taken by my friend (as was the stage shot at the top of this blog):


After a time, I wandered around a bit. And found myself in an incredible position, behind the stage area, with a direct shot of George Clooney (with his back to the cameras) saying something deliciously wicked to Brad Pitt. His eyes were glittering, his brow was arching, and his mouth was pursed in that perfectly evil smile of his. I’ll never know what he said, but wow, the way he said it! He was every bit as sexy and smooth as I’d dreamed.

After the ceremony ended, the guys came toward the crowd barriers. My friend took these two:




(And notice the women hugging each other behind Brad, and that horrendously awful boil on the guy's hand in front of George!)

I took this one as Matt Damon signed an autograph down a bit from us.


Matt stopped and signed an autograph for our exchange student and talked very briefly to her, which was terrific. Even though I had the camera in my hand, I was suddenly stunned by his presence...his looks, his smile, his voice. It short-circuited my writer-girl senses!

So...summary time. Did seeing these guys in the flesh help or hurt my romance writing? Help. Big time. So if anyone knows Mark Wahlberg, tell him I’m up for a meet!

Tina
www.tinaferraro.com
Top Ten Uses for An Unworn Prom Dress
How to Hook a Hottie, January, 2008
The ABC’s of Kissing Boys, Spring 2009