The Only Thing Better Than Hairspray...
Kitson, Los Angeles, California, July 14th, 2007. For my Sweet Sixteen my mom was willing to take me anywhere in the world. It was a tough decision between Laguna Beach and Paris, but after learning that Zac Efron was doing a meet & greet in LA for Hairspray the week we were planning on going, naturally there was nothing to think about. Mind you, LA is not exactly around the corner from Laguna Beach. We had been to California several times, in fact it was my first trip ever when I was still in the womb, but we had never been to the sacred homeland of MTV’s Laguna Beach. I needed to experience my idol Lauren Conrad’s stomping grounds including her high school, the surf shop she worked at, and the mall where she bought her prom dress so that I could buy my Sweet Sixteen dress (thanks BCBG Max Azria!).
During our week in Laguna Beach, we had to make two trips to LA, one to buy the Hairspray merchandise, and one to meet the cast. Each piece of exclusive Hairspray jewelry purchased came with a meet & greet wristband until quantities were sold out, so of course I had to get there for when the store opened. We had to leave Laguna Beach by 8am as LA is a good hour and a half away without traffic, and if you know anything about LA it’s that there’s always traffic. We arrived just in time to be told that the store was shut down for Victoria Beckham who was inside shopping (thanks Posh Spice!), so we walked around until the coast was clear. Thankfully we were still some of the first people there for the Hairspray event and were able to secure two wristbands by purchasing a Zac Efron (or should I say Link Larkin) bracelet and ring. I was over the moon, I couldn’t believe I was going to meet my celebrity husband in just 48 hours!
Two days later we did the exact same thing and arrived shortly after 9am to camp out for the meet & greet at 2pm. We had a decent spot in line, but boy was there a lot of people. There’s no way they could meet this many people in just two hours. To top it all off they arrived about an hour late, which would only leave an hour to meet all these loyal people that have been waiting all day. Sure enough, they sold about 500 wristbands but would only be able to meet about 200 people as they had press events lined up the whole day. I was confident we were in the first 200 people, but you really never know how these things will go.
We had finally made it into Kitson, and I knew they wouldn’t just get up and walk out while people were in line waiting. What was about to happen was becoming surreal. In order from left to right at the signing table were Elijah Kelly (Seaweed), Nikki Blonsky (Tracy Turnblad), Zac Efron (Link Larkin), and Amanda Bynes (Penny Pingleton). Of course they let Zac address everyone’s posters so that you could tell him your name 😍 Which, by the way, I am so proud of him for spelling my name right without even asking (BRIANA!). I told Zac and Amanda that I would see them next week in New York for their Today Show concert in Rockefeller Center, and they looked at me like I was crazy, like how could I possibly be in New York next week? And then even though I knew this was only a signing and NO pictures, I thought hey, what the heck? I asked Zac, “Would you mind looking at my mom to take a picture?” I knew he wouldn’t say no. In an outrage security screamed, “NO PICTURES!” They bum rushed my mother and threatened to delete the picture, but my mother smart as ever told them it didn’t take. I felt like I had gotten away with murder. I was seeing stars. I was hyperventilating. I left Kitson and sat on the sidewalk of Robertson Boulevard and balled my eyes out as my mother laughed at me. These are the moments I live for.
