Posted under mtv
By Kathleen Newman-Bremang
Ask any reporter who’s had to cover a red-carpet event and they’ll all probably tell you the same thing: Most of the time, it ain’t glamorous.
They’ll tell you to be prepared to check your shame at the door and get ready to throw some ‘bows in order to keep your spot on the carpet. Well, at least that’s the advice I got from seasoned MTV News vets, hip-hop editor Shaheem Reid and writer Eric Ditzian when I went to them for tips on covering last night’s Burberry event in New York City — and they weren’t kidding.
Last night Micaela Rogers, our rock-star production manager who’s just learning to become a shooter, and myself, news intern and reporter-in-training, packed up our gear and headed to the New York Palace Hotel for a red-carpet event featuring some big names like Orlando Bloom, Claire Danes and Blake Lively.
Burberry pulled out all the stops for their celebrity guests — dazzling lights lining the hotel’s courtyard and a chic white runway. I’m sure the courtyard red-carpet idea seemed like a good idea in theory, but when the weather called for rain, couldn’t you have sprung for some kind of protective tarp, Burberry? I mean, really. A rainy red carpet is little like Britney’s performance at the 2007 VMAs: everyone just wants it to be over as soon as possible. So we were a little worried about which stars would actually make time for us.
First to walk the carpet were Danes and her British beau, Hugh Dancy. Danes and Dancy may have been perfectly polite when they declined to stop for press (I was surprised Danes even acknowledged us erratically shouting her name), but we’re still mad at you, Claire. Same goes for Orlando Bloom, who stopped to talk to one news outlet before brushing past the rest of the line. But we do have to give props to Bloom for his impressive dodging skills — he avoided a reporter from Fox 5 with moves like a NFL running back.
The weather not only made the celebs a little less chatty, it left Micaela rethinking her pink pumps and me regretting wearing a flimsy flowery dress — as Micaela put it, we were the “girliest crew ever!”
After getting snubbed by Justin Long and Molly Sims, and just when our sore feet and wet hair were finally starting to get to us, hope came in the form of the one and only Harry Connick Jr. So, what do you ask Harry Connick, Jr. when he randomly shows up at an event without warning and you have nothing prepared? Well, you ask him about Susan Boyle, of course. After Connick, our luck took a turn for the better. We got some good stuff out of Rose McGowan, Emanuelle Chriqui of “Entourage” and rock bands Parachute and One Night Only.
The award for the most fashionably late has to go to Blake Lively and Penn Badgley, who showed up last at around 10 p.m. (they even missed Burberry’s lighting of the New York skyline). As soon as the couple hit the press line, madness and mayhem ensued. Photogs started yelling, publicists starting running around and everyone starting pushing — but this “girly” crew held our own. Blake Lively wasn’t talking, but her boyfriend Penn was more than willing to wax poetic on his “Gossip Girl” co-stars’ singing careers and his own music hopes.
As an avid “GG” watcher, I never thought I’d say this, but as of last night, Dan Humphrey totally trumps Serena Van Der Woodsen.
So we braved the rain and made it out of our first red-carpet experience alive — now we’re pretty sure we can take on anything. What’s next, MTV News? Bring it on!