"2 Love All" All-star Reality event to benefit Step-up Women's Network April Fools Day 2004

I met the folks at Realitycentral at a conference last year and have stayed in touch. Two amazing women run the show for AR's Blake Mycoskie and E! founder Larry Namer. Now they have cable carriage on a smaller system and have launch money to keep the channel moving.

My favorite contestant from The Bachelor 1 Emailed me about this event. The party was held at a club at Hollywood and Vine called Deep. There were three guest lists--VIP, press, and other.

The event was a charity event and also tied into L.A.'s 4th Annual Fashion week. There was a party just up the street (we were on a hill) at Avalon. That party had Nicki Hilton and Tommy Lee and an entrance fee. My friends tried to crash it to no avail.
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We were really early. Ethan and Blake were standing in front of a plastic white background that had reality central's logo and the other logos for the event. Three or four photographers were taking their pictures.

Next up for photos were Jessie and Heidi from the Apprentice. Both were wearing the pink tank tops that Ethan designed for the event. I told Heidi she was my favorite and we talked about how Donald appeared on The View with her. She said that was really nice of him.

Not much time for talk as a crowd was forming on the sidewalk and ogling them. Two Asian guys had created headshots of Heidi from screencaps and wanted her to autograph them. One guy pulled the group of photos (all the same shot) from a manila envelope. It seemed clear he had created these on his home computer. He even brought the black marking pens for the autographs. Remind me to check if those are on Ebay today!

Jessie looked a lot different with her hair back and in the tank top. Jessie is huge compared to teeny tiny Heidi. I finally placed her (duh!) and said, you were one of the nice ones. They are all gone now. She laughed. Yes, she said the nice ones didn't make it that long.

Estella was the next arrival. She stood with another woman from her edition of the Bachelor. People said it was Kelly Jo but she looked different too. They kind of clung to one spot on the sidewalk near the sign in table until the red carpet cleared in front of them. Then everyone got their pictures taken together. And yes, George Boswell got in on some of those pictures.

Ethan at the event in baby blue.
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Estella and Kelly Jo
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Jessie
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Given that nothing was happening except the same folks posing over and over for photos from the same photographers, and the club doors wouldn't open for half an hour, we found a bar across the street. It had been a cool and rainy day. We took a table just across the street in the bar so we could watch the events in front of Deep.

This began our running joke. There was valet parking in front of the club. The first car we saw pull up was an ancient station wagon with some of its paint missing. Next we saw a compact rental car. Then, another old wagon. No SUVs; no new cars; no German cars except for one older edition Bug. No limos or town cars, just little rentals and wrecks.

When we saw a waiting line on the red carpet, we went back. We walked up to the door but the doorman said we had to go back to the check in table and come through the red carpet. Back at the check in table, I met one of the sponsors of the evening.

He distributed a special type of vodka that is only served in restaurants or through orders. Couldn't find the name but I found this cool site looking for the name:
http://www.wine-x.com/wine/r.htm

The vodka guy said all vodka drinks were free for the first hour of the event until 10 pm. We made it though the red carpet to the same bouncers who let us in. I stopped at the first bar inside to secure vodka and tonic that I nursed the rest of the evening.

The interior was reminescent of the discos of the early 80s. After the rectangular room with the first bar, another room had a longer bar and a group of raised tables that were set off. On that platform there were for or five headless, limbless mannikins.

The third room back was lit in blacklight. This made it amusing every time someone took out a business card. There was a small, rectangular disco floor complete with hanging strobe light globe--all set off behind glass walls and doors. There were tables in this area and each had a reserved sign on it. On the far side of that room were the restrooms.

Somebody was very impressed with the restrooms. I went into the ladies room and was unimpressed except for there was an attendant sitting inside it. Apparently, the men's room was decorated in pictures of heavy set, nude women. And there was an attendant in there too.

Along the way I said hi to Blake Mycoskie and talked to Cat from Tech TV. We were all standing around Ethan and Jonny Fairplay so we talked to them for awhile. I also talked to Summer from Average Joe Adam Returns. Two guys dressed in red were from the same TAR as Blake and Page. It was clear the guest list included people from only the most current, highest rated reality shows.

We kept looking for people from Big Brother but they weren't there. We saw no network people that we recognized and between us, we know everybody from ABC and NBC. And Mike Darnell from Fox is hard to miss. No singing show contestants. No judges. Mark Burnett had RSVPed but didn't show.

After several interesting discussions with other party goers, we returned to the main room. It was packed so you could barely move. Most of the former contestants were in there.

It was a fun, lively party with gorgeous people in party clothes. Everyone seemed happy. The place slowly became more and more and more crowded.

Blake made a short announcement and invited everyone to the event. He introduced the people who made Realitycentral possible, including Ethan Zohn who is also an investor.

The main event at the party was a T shirt designing contest. My favorite was Estella and Kelly Joe's design that said "Bob Who" on the front. On the back it said, "I'd rather date an Average Joe!" The winner was Summer from Average Joe (see bottom row at http://www.nbc.com/nbc/Average_Joe:_Adam_Returns/ladies/index.shtml. It said "Not Your Average Lover."

I wasn't sure if that was referring to Summer or to Adam.

The give aways, other than the vodka, were business card size burlap and satin tags with pink lace ribbon that said "@ Love who you are, 2 Love what you do, 2 Love your style, 2 Love others, 2 Love forever, 2 love. www.2love2.com

Since it was all over and impossible to talk to anyone, we went back across the street to the tavern to watch everyone exit. One by one, people would walk up to the valets and the valets would fetch the old station wagons, rented compact cars and other wrecks. A stretch limo drove up and we held our breath--just to see it drive by. It was coming from the party up the street at Avalon.

We closed the bar and that was the evening.


Realitycentral is planning a bus tour coming to your town. The buses are already on the road, filled with former contestants from Road Rules and Real World.

Town by town, these folks will tell you and your neighbors about how you can get Realitycentral on your TV. So watch your local newspaper and cable stations for the time and place. Or keep looking at www.realitycentral.com

A Tribute to George
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Another tribute to George
http://www.abt.org/performances/performance_display.asp?Event_ID=146