Some might call me a celebrity stalker. But I’m not.
I mean, I do want to find as many celebrities as possible and become best friends with them. So if you define that as a stalker, then fine.
But really, all I want is a good picture, and a good story…so that the rest of my life I can be all….”remember that time I met ????”

I had no idea that I was going to be in Washington, DC the same night at the National Correspondents Dinner until three days before the event.
I suddenly freaked out when I realized that E! was actually hosting a red carpet of the event…because that’s kind of my thing.

The whole weekend started as a fun idea by my sister (who lives in Chicago) to go for a fun weekend visit to DC to stay with my best friend. Done. I don’t really need an excuse. But the weekend quickly turned into celebrity spotting fun.
We arrived at the Washington Hilton by a wonderful cab driver who took a back way, dropped us off at the back of the hotel with Secret Service peeps and lots of people in fancy suits arriving. Within 5 minutes of arriving, we spot Bon Jovi.
Now…he was definitely the closest of any other celebrity to my physical self. It was crazy. So crazy, in fact, that no one said anything. We just starred at him wondering….”OH my gosh…is that really Bon Jovi??” And then the was gone…but I did get good stalker pictures.

And then we had to play the security game. Secret Service quickly cleared us from the area and told us we had to move on the other side of the street. Fine. We moved. Then we were told we couldn’t stand across the street but had instead had to move up the hill behind a tree. Fine. Then we were told we had to be on the street corner. Fine. Then we were told to cross the street. OK, getting annoying. Then we kind of literally ran into Newt Gingrich and his wife with the helmet hair:

And then we were told we had to move behind the police tape. Sigh…
And then we were told we couldn’t stand there and had to cross another street. Fine.
And then we were told we could stand in the median. Then we were told we couldn’t. And then could, and then couldn’t…and it just pretty much continued on this…”no one really knows anything” sort of route.
But long story short, we ended up in a pretty perfect location and were able to see a lot of celebrity arrivals.
I’m told a number of celebrities either arrived super early to avoid crazy fans like us or went into a back entrance, until they closed that off as well for the President’s arrival.
Let me just say this….the President even makes Robert Downey, Junior wait.

See, that guy in the pink ruffle dress shirt and glasses?? That’s RDJ. (He has a really long name and I’m just tired of typing.)
He arrived at the perfect WRONG time. He was the first celebrity in line to get into the party, but was forced to wait until Obama’s arrival.
So he just hung out.
The funniest part is that out of the 200+ people standing around waiting for celebrities, no one really noticed him. Or if they noticed him, no one cared.
I was excited…really because I liked him in Ally McBeal. But I didn’t feel the need to YELL for him. This is an important point that we’ll talk about in a bit.

So another big black suburban pulls out and out comes “Willie” from “Duck Dynasty” and the crowd goes nuts. Not me, because…well….I don’t care. But everyone around me went pretty crazy to see Willie and his giant beard. NUTS!
Even RDJ was all….”what?????????”

It may have been jealously….or envy….or happiness that he didn’t have to deal with that. I don’t know. But it was funny. Now…they had to stand there for about 20 minutes while POTUS was motorcading to the event.
That was all sorts of nuts with helicopters and police everywhere. Quite the sight.
A lot of celebrities arrived during this standing period….like…
Michael Douglas!?!? I did scream for him…he waved. I died. He made an amazing POTUS in American President.

Wolfgang Puck waved, but not sure many people cared.
We saw Russell Simmons, in his tux and baseball hat. I guess if you have a thing you just run with it.
Andrea Mitchell was also in this group. Along with a bunch of others. Most of them all freaking out over Willie.

Once POTUS arrived, the celebrities rushed in to the event…and more arrived…and it was amazing.
Michael J. Fox and wife Tracy waved to the crowd. I missed this while I was telling the story of how I previously met him to the girl next to me. See…I like having these stories.

And we saw Hayden Pantinarre from Nashville who looked beautiful. She waved to the crowd like a good celebrity should.
Then there was Barbara Streisand. FUCKING BARBARA STREISAND!!! Of course, we never saw her face. We just saw her amazing husband, James, get out of the car, walk around the car and open the door for her majesty, who excited with a FULL CAPE….Yes….only Barbra.

Other celebrities trickled in….Al Sharpton, Eric Holder, Willie Geist and then….I almost died.
In front of my eyes it was JOSH LYMAN. In real life, Josh Lyman from the West Wing was standing in front of my face and I freaked the HELL OUT.
Now, POTUS was already in the building, so people decided it was time to run into the street – and we totally joined them.
Basically, my sister and I were SCREAMING…”I LOVE YOU JOSH LYMAN” at the top of our longs because there’s nothing hotter than two 30-something girls yelling at you about a tv character you once played….seriously.

But we did…and he turned and waved…and I died again.
And behind him was Matthew Perry. Yes. I know. I should be freaking out for Chandler Bing, but I just couldn’t. I was too damn excited for Josh Fucking Lyman. But Chandler also waved and it was awesome. Here is ridiculous video of the event:

We saw Olivia Munn from The Newsroom – again…I freaked but she didn’t turn around. Not even a glance. I was sad. Seriously Olivia, I expected more of you.

We saw Julie Bowen from Modern Family – again…here’s her back because she wouldn’t turn around. Dislike.

We saw Chris Matthews, Rahm Emanual, David Alexrod, David Gregory, Peter Alexander…GEORGE LUCAS! That was cool….
Another black Suburban rolled up and out came Tracey Morgan waving to the crowd. That was pretty damn exciting. He was loving the attention…and we were loving him.

All in all, a pretty amazing celebrity night.
We didn’t see any of the Downton Abbey people that were there, that made me a little sad. I also really, really, really wanted to see Amy Poehler, but she didn’t come through. Honestly, I’m happy I didn’t see her because I’m pretty sure I would have been arrested. Seriously. In Jail.
But next year….it’s on. We will actually be attending the dinner as guests and it’s going to be legendary.
I’m going to start a petition to get Tina Fey to host the event….and then become her best fried…and then move to New York to work for her production company….And it’s also obvious that I need a much fancier camera.