Sundance 2009 aka The Best Day EVER!

Since I had yesterday off work, my friend Erin and I went up to Park City to the Sundance Film Festival.  The plan was to get in the wait list to see the movie 'Brief Interviews With Hideous Men'.  I have to admit an ulterior motive- John Krasinski directed and stars in it.  I was wanting to do a little celebrity stalking there (does that totally discredit my filmmaker status?)  We arrived almost three hours before the movie started.  We were 116 and 117 in line.  Ugh.  We met some... interesting people in line.   Let's see- there was Fancy Pants, Talks-a-lot, Prima Dona, Giggles... the list could go on and on!  Needless to say, there were some interesting conversations!  Not surprisingly, we didn't get into the movie.  Obviously, I was bummed out.  I was really looking forward to being in a dark room with Jim Halpert for 2 hours.  

We decided to go walk around Main Street a little bit and then go home.  Main Street was the place to be!  And it totally filled my quota for celebrity stalking.  Erin doesn't watch much TV, so she wasn't as knowledgeable as me!  We saw Gina Torres (she was on '24') and Rodrigo Santoro (from 'Lost' and 'Love Actually').  Look them up on imdb.com- this post is way too long to add their pics!

As we were walking we saw a bunch of people gathering around some cars.  We went over to see what the fuss was about.  Yup- Wynonna Judd.  She apparently didn't get the memo that your hair isn't supposed to match your assistants coat!  It was like 'hunting jacket orange'!  My favorite part was that this kid yelled out, "Sorry you got caught shoplifting!"  For those of you not 'in' with the celebrity world- he was referring to Winona Ryder and her shoplifting fiasco.

Right at the place we were standing this guy was yelling at the back of a car.  We asked him who was in there and it was Johnny Resnick from the Goo Goo Dolls.  This guy was seriously begging him to roll down the window.  I (jokingly) suggested that he should start singing to him.  He said that he would if I helped him.  So... we started singing 'Slide'.  Right as it started I saw Johnny's head duck down and he started waving at us.  I know that he was laughing, but I don't care because I was laughing too!

It was about time to leave so we headed for the bus stop.  While there we met one of the most beautiful men I had ever seen in my life (ask Erin about his lips).  His name was Loren and he was in a movie premiering at the festival.  We talked with him for a while and then ran to get on a bus.  While we were on the bus we were hitting ourselves for not waiting for the next bus so we could talk to him a little longer!  He was crazy dreamy!  But fate was on our side....

We had parked at the Eccles Theater.  We got back there right as 'Brief Interviews With Hideous Men' was getting out.  I told Erin that we should wait at the entrance a little bit to see if John would come out.  We made up this whole story about why we were there- they don't like it when you just hang out waiting for celebrities.  There were three guys standing next to us.  They were obviously working at the festival (clipboards, ear pieces...) and they were talking about Mr. Krasinski.  They were saying that they weren't sure that they would recognize him when he came out and it occurred to me that they were his drivers.  So as long as we stayed by them, we would for sure see him (I SWEAR I'm not a stalker).  All of the sudden these guys take off running for the back of the theater.

I paused for about 10 seconds, in which I decided that we should follow them.  Erin was worried that we would miss him if he came out the front.   I went with my heart and ran around back.  And friends, fate did not lead me astray.  Standing there- mere feet away was Jim Halpert himself.  In all his cuteness!  He was just talking to fans, signing their playbooks, taking pictures and being adorable.  So I pushed my way to the front (not hard because there was only like 20 people there) and gave him my book.  He signed it and I asked for a picture.  'Absolutely' was his answer.  But people kept throwing their books to him for him to sign them.  I waited for a few minutes then asked, very coyly 'Um, can it be my turn next?'  He stopped what he was doing and looked at me JUST like how he looks at Pam and said 'Of course you can'.  Then he stopped everyone from giving him their books and said, 'Hold on, we have to take a picture.' 

 Then- time froze and ... kidding.  He was literally the nicest celebrity I've ever met, and I've met my fair share!  So we took a picture and started walking away.  We waited until we were around the corner before we started screaming like 12 year olds and calling everyone we knew!  

So... that's it.  Sundance 2009 was by far the best one I've ever been to.  Erin ate the biggest peanut butter cup ever, we had some interesting conversations, met J Kras (I can call him that because we're friends now).  Amazing day and some great memories.  Thanks for reading!