I landed in New York midmorning and rushed to Aunt Sharon and Uncle Larry's apartment in order to get some sleep. After a little food, i spent a good hour and a half deciding what to wear. Luckily the hair was already curly. Got dress, walked over to 6th and caught a cab to the Ziegfeld Theater. We were guests of Debra Martin Chase, Sharon's good friend who got me this job.
The theater itself was nice. Caught sight of a lot of the crew members. Amy Johnson, publicist, and always with a camera on set. Phil Caruso, still photographer. David Allen, property master. Ruth DiPasquele, asst prop master. Michael Kirsten, hair stylist.
The After Party was on top of the Rooftop Garden. It was so much fun. I got to hang out with Sanaa Hamri, director. She looks great btw, changed her hair. Richard Patrick, 1st asst director. He's got a new HBO series starting filming soon, "In The Ninth" or something. Mariana Hellmund, script supervisor. It was great to see her because she did so much work for the film. She helped keep the story together which was NOT an easy job at all. Chris Sacani, exec producer. Gaylyn Fraiche, co-producer.
Funny thing happened. We ate first. We ended up sitting at this table with this woman and her daughter. And we're chatting about the movie and the books, and the film industry in general. She gets up to leave and shakes my hand. I ask her her name.... She says "Oh. I'm Ann Moore, president of Time, Inc." .... Aunt Sharon and Lori were stunned! Completely. Well they ARE lawyers. They are start saying "Get her back, get her back!"
And of course, I hung out with my men. The entire production I was in charge of the leading men and their "1st team production assistant". I had also looked after Blake Lively, but she was being hounded by the girls and their cameras because she had the whole Gossip Girl crew there: Leighton Meeser, Penn Badgley, Chace Crawford, and Ed Westwick. In a word: craziness. So I had chance to talk to her mother, Elaine. She was always a nice, but strong woman.
Back to my boys. Jesse Williams mostly associates me with Debra. Jesse's been doing Off-Broadway shows and . Still Leo Nam remember me. We spent hours in this house on a hot day without air conditioning and squacking parrots outside. We had the greatest time joking and dancing. He had the best attitude and a wonderful personality. So much fun to work with. I went over and found Tom Wisdom. He vaguely remembered me, but he's the perfect English gentleman. Asked me how I was, what I was doing now, and life in general. We talked about life since filming, about his year-and-a-half-old daughter and the vacation he's taking to spend time with her. Talking to him, I'm reminded how new this fame thing is for some. He's been fairly untouched by the media. He is amazingly sweet and sincere. A great combination. And there is Michael Rady. Michael spent 3 days hanging out with me. He was so funny and nice. He didn't remember me at first, but when I told him my role, he's like "Oh my God! CLAIRE!! I'm sorry I didn't remember you. " He introduced me to his dad, whom I talked to for a long time.
It was the best time. So surreal! And I got to see my name in the credits. It is under "Set Production Assistants", in the middle column under Patrick Bevilaqua. EXCITING!! I'll post the pictures soon.
