Hobnobbery

The cast of "Secret Circle" 

After Wednesday's polite knee-bashing encounter with Kenny Ortega, followed by a severe scolding from my longtime brother John for not seizing the moment and dancing up and down the aisles (if not the stage of) the Eugene O'Neill, I opted to step it up a notch on Thursday.  It was a day of celebrity hobnobbing, shoulder-rubbing and extreme eyeballing.  I didn't just journey to NYC for no reason.  I came here as hubby's Plus One, or as I like to think of myself, his Arm Candy.  Thursday was the CW Upfront, an event that takes six weeks of hard-labor for sixty minutes of glory.  It is the ultimate dog and pony show for the advertising peeps, who gather to preview the Fall lineups of the different networks and decide where to place their advertising billions.  I'm not sure exactly what hubby does for the CW, but leading up to the presentation, he's on quality control, making sure things go according to plan and spending an inordinate amount of time on his crackberry.  I get to sit in the back during the show and do what I'm so good at:  yell and scream woo-hoo.  This is an unpaid position, but since I was born to do this, I am in my element.  No special perks for the SJG, other than the joy of trying to rejigger the energy level of the room.  Basically, I just mimic the important CW folk I'm sitting next to, as they clap and whoop it up.  They show clips of the upcoming shows, like "Secret Circle" (scary witch community) and "Hart of Dixie" (adorable fish-out-of-water Dr. Rachel Bilson from  "The O.C" in a southern town) and  "Ringer" (Sarah Michelle Gellar as twins in scary noirish setting).  There are two realities shows, one about hating celebrities (impossible to pick just one) and remodeling a modeling agency.  At the noisy party last night, held at a club full of young hip people (I felt so old, I needed a cane by the end of the evening) I got to meet Maggie Q, the stunning star of "Nikita" who was so sweet and pretty and thin that I started to weep in her presence.  She told us we looked like male and female versions of each other.  I said, "Aw," as opposed to, "Ew." The rabbi who married us wondered if we were brother and sister, a relationship we continue to deny to this day.  I eyeballed Mario Lopez and the handsome stars of "Vampire Diaries."  I got "this close" to the diminutive Sarah Michelle Gellar.  I met many bigwig executives and smiled till my face hurt.  After many hours of hobnobbery and appetizers, I begged hubby to please let me go back to the hotel, where I could soak my battered feet, and nice guy that he is, he complied.