The 2011 Rolling Stones Teen Choice Awards After Party

Events — By Buddy Sampson on August 8, 2011 at 9:43 pm

The Scoop LA’s Publisher asks, “Have I Been Hiding Under a Rock?”

By Buddy Sampson

Lately, I’ve been having other writers cover events for The Scoop LA. But at times an event seems so promising that even I, as Publisher of The Scoop LA have to go check out the scene. So when I received an invite to cover the “Unofficial Teen Choice Awards After Party, Hosted by Natasha Alam of True Blood,” I said “Hmm, this might be interesting.” But I have to admit I didn’t know who Natasha Alam was. Okay, I said, maybe, they’ll be a celebrity there or two.

I was wrong. This after party was star studded. Okay, I’m getting ahead of myself. I arrived at the Rolling Stone, a club at Highland and Hollywood where the event took place and saw my good friend Jon Scudder of Jon Scudder TV and my good friend, Phil Jones.

And then it dawned on me- this is a PIC (Presidential Inner Circle) event. Phil Jones is the CEO/Founder of PIC. So I asked Phil if he needed any help. I didn’t expect him to say yes, but he did. Just my luck, huh? So next thing you know, I’m helping to put up the banners for the step and repeats (the thing that the celebrities pose in front of.) Little did Phil know that I had done little of that before, so I was secretly panicking inside thinking, “it would be just my luck if the banner fell down when a big celebrity is in front of it.” Ah but it went well. Perhaps a career in stage management awaits me. Anyway, I digress.

So I decide to take a walk around the corner to see if there were any celebrities I recognized and I saw a bunch of young, pretty and handsome teens standing in line. And quickly, I realized that I’ve gotten old. I didn’t recognize any of the faces. So I asked a couple of younger journalists and photographers to point out the celebrities to me. So I decided to interview some of the pretty faces.

 

I heard the teenage girls scream when one of the first guys got on the red carpet, so I said to myself, maybe I should interview this guy. Turns out it was Matthew Scott Montgomery, who worked on a TV series called “Shake It Up.” “I’m working on ‘So Random’ on the Disney Channel,” said Matthew Scott Montgomery. “We air Sunday nights at 7:30. We’re on our eighth episode. It’s airing as we speak right now, a lot of exciting stuff is coming up on Disney Channel.” I asked Matthew what it was like working on the show. “It’s way too much fun, ” he said. “It feels like you get to be in junior high again, but this time you get to sit at the cool table. It’s basically SNL (Saturday Night Live) for teens.” He seemed to be a fine young man, so I’d suggest you watch his show, “So Random.”

So now that my first interview was completed, a lovely young lady walked up and it was young actress and singer Taylor Beckett. So, of course, I asked her what she was doing there. “I’m actually singing at the event tonight,” said Taylor, who also worked on the show “Gene Simmons:Family Jewels.” But she has big plans for her immediate future. “I’m just working on my music right now and focusing on that,” she said. I suspect, judging by the great performance she did later that night, that her future will be bright.

Later, I ran into a couple of friends- a PR maven named Tamara Wentworth, who represents another friend of mine, Cher Rue. Of course Tamara wanted mention of her client and Cher Rue now has her own TV series. (There’s hope for me yet! Someone I know got a TV show!) We’ll do more on Cher Rue’s show in the future. Tamara also had two of her clients Lorraine Ziff and Matthew Ziff, on the red carpet, who just wrapped a movie, “Mansion of Blood,” with Gary Busey. “We’re doing a lot of things now,” said Lorraine Ziff. “We just did ‘Hardflip,’ (scheduled for release in 2012) with Rosanna Arquette and John Schneider.” The lovely ladies Lorraine Ziff and Cher Rue as well as handsome Matthew Ziff, obviously will be doing great things soon.

I also spoke to Helenna Santos Levy, who worked on “American Reunion,” “In The Motherhood,” and “The Day Player,” among other movies and Barry W. Levy, a character actor who has worked on “Hawaii-Five O” and “Law and Order LA.” I also spoke to Drew Seeley, a good looking young man who starred in television series “The Closer” and in “One Tree Hill” and Actress Kate Seeley, his sister.

Later I saw a good photographer friend of mine, Scott Naide and I asked him, “so where are the big celebrities here?” He pointed to the guy next to us and it was Bronson Pelletier, star of the “Twilight” series of movies. I, of course had no idea who he was, because I’ve never seen any of the “Twilight” movies. But he was an incredibly nice guy. “It was amazing,” said Bronson Pelletier, when I asked him how working on that series was. “The comraderie was great, working with a lot of my friends. You really love it when you have fun with what you do.” I have to admit, I was very surprised to see such a popular young man standing around with no airs whatsoever.

I also talked to a really pretty young lady, Ashley Barker, who worked on a movie “Bring It On: In It To Win It.” She was also a very grounded lady who is destined to become a big star.

I saw a couple of huge stars that I actually recognized. Gosh I feel like that guy in the GEICO commercial is asking me, “Have you been hiding under a rock?” There were many stars I didn’t recognize, but I saw a few I did. I saw Eric Roberts and I think that he thought I was a rabid fan when I asked him if I could take a picture of him. He said, “I’ll only do it if you are in the picture with me.” I reluctantly agreed. Then he kept on asking me if I was satified with the picture and honestly, I didn’t want to be in the picture in the first place, so I was a little embarrassed. So I tried to tell him who I was and asked him if I could get a quote. He said something to the effect of “this is a good quote, don’t take any wooden nickles.” I knew I wasn’t going to get anywhere with him. He was a real hoot, a very funny guy. So I said to myself, “let’s take a walk around the club.” I went upstairs and I immediately saw Camille Winbush. You may know Camille as the fresh teenager on “The Bernie Mac Show,” and “The Secret Life of American Teenager.” I had a television show for 6 years called “People You Should Know,” and Camille was a guest on that show. The fantastically gorgeous lady, with skin that is flawless, also appeared at an event for which I was the publicist for, a fundraiser for the Community Health Alliance of Pasadena (CHAP.) I reminded her of both and she said “Oh yeah.” But she had that deer in the headlights look that told me that she didn’t know me from a can of paint. So I asked her did she really remember me and of course she didn’t.

My ego sufficiently bruised, I saw this incredible blonde and I thought, maybe I can amuse myself by talking to her. Turns out, she was Katie Blair, the 2011 Miss California pageant winner. I tried to act like it wasn’t a big deal, but I’d never met a pageant winner before. Okay, well I met and interviewed Vanessa Williams, but that was after she became an actress. (Does that count?) Anyway, we had a brief conversation and then Quinton Aaron, the star of “The Blind Side,” walked up. Katie went to talk to him. Oh well, a bigger name. And he is really a bigger name. The guy is huge. He took a picture with Katie and Camille Winbush did, too.

Phil Jones and PIC organized a fine event and I want to give him props for giving me a VIP bracelet. I’m a little worried though. I think the rock I’ve been hiding under has been a little heavy. Maybe I need you guys to help me get it off me. But it was very nice to meet a cadre of young stars. Special thanks to Erin Schnicker and Alicia Dahl for letting me get The Scoop on a wonderful event.