“Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” World Premiere Wrap-up Report [Part 2]
Mike and I had nothing to worry about at the beginning of this day. Today, we were to be going to Beverly Hills and pillage and make port at the Montage Hotel for the Cast&Crew Press Conference. We had all our gear organized, we had all our questions to ask the Cast&Crew…waiting to be answered.
My car to get us there was ‘fixed’.
9:30 AM rolls around. We gather our gear…we head out. Before that, we got gas (so depressing seeing now) and washed my car…it hadn’t been washed in months! We certainly couldn’t go to Beverly Hills outta style, am I right?
…2 Hours in freeway traffic go by…
…Venice Blvd. traffic…
…Cadillac Ave. traffic…
…La Cienega Blvd. traffic…
…Wilshire Blvd. traffic…Wilshire Blvd.
Oh no.
Tourist 1: HEY HEY. (Points at us)
Tourist 2: EHH (Points at us)
Tourist 3: (looks distressed) HEY! You’re leaking gasoline.
…
Mike: Dude you’re leaking gasoline.
Me: That’s not gasoline, but thanks for letting me know.
Indeed my friends, I am VERY glad that they pointed out that I was leaking a yellow-y fluid, because if they hadn’t, we would’ve been stuck in yuppy Beverly Hills forever!
What I thought was fixed apprently was not. My antifreeze was exploding out from its container inside my hood and it certainly left its mark (like a dog) all over Beverly Hills.
Here’s some in-depth action reporting using video, folks. I know it cannot compare to the first-hand accounts of Anderson Cooper in Egypt, this will do. My heart was racing…you know what happens to your car when it overheats?!
Thanks Mike…you truly bring the news. Straight up. I’ll take it from here.
* * *
[Long story short, my antifreeze container’s cap was cracked inside, not being able to hold the pressure when the engine sucks the antifreeze into itself to keep from over heating. We got AAA (triple A for all of you who need layman’s terms) and were towed to the nearest Land Rover dealer to get another cap. Praise God that that truly was the problem and were able to drive all the way home safely…and without leaking any gasoline antifreeze.]That darn cap…
We did eventually get there! Happened to park in a city owned parking structure looked to resemble the hotel facade. We ended up paying close to $20 for 6 hours…2 of which were free with our validation.
[…which really didn’t help at all when we found out that valet parking at the hotel was complimentary. FAIL.]Anyways, time for good news, I mean GOOD news, news that will dwarf all the bad I just presented you readers, but seriously, I would have taken the bad news first.
Keep in mind that we had to come back to all these car problems happened AFTER we left the press festivities at the hotel. So the LAST thing I wanted to think about after arriving is my leaking antifreeze. I wanted to see some Pirates!
…so Pirates we saw! We entered into the Montage and were greeted by fancy things. Made our way to the second floor and checked in. We got our spots, second row to the front, center aisle again! This was going to be awesome. How awesome? Imagine being in my shoes…
Pirates of the Rectangular Table.
Just in case you can’t see, that says “Mr. Depp” & “Mrs. Cruz”
All the media showed up around 20 minutes before the actual conference start time of 12:30 PM. Can you spot Mike?
Then came showtime…
“Please take your seats so we can get this press conference started. Thank you.”
“Hello and welcome everyone to the Pirates 4 Press Conference.” the moderator introduced himself. “Let’s get your esteemed panel out here…”
DE get’s star struck for the first time.
And the Q&A began!
We were fortunate enough to capture the WHOLE press conference via HD video AND audio (which we broadcasted LIVE the day of the event! – the power of DE)! You can take a listen to the audio via our Ustream audio archive. Please remember to skip to 12:30 when you get to the UStream page for the start of the press conference (Yes, we were on time, they started late…).
Here are more pictures from the event.
Looks like they should be having “Supper”…
Penelope looked down…we caught eye-to-eye. What does that say? I don’t know…don’t judge!
“Thank you joining us today. Have a great afternoon.”
…remember that stampede in The Lion King…yeah. That sort of happened. See below for our first hand account of the mayhem!
As you’ll also see, we proved to be smart enough to go to where the distressed Pirates were going to make their escape. We got close-ups…catch me give Barbosa a shake of the hand as he exits. Very cool moment for me. Loved Geoffrey’s performance in The King’s Speech…and of course in Pirates!
And that was it.
I enjoyed every blinking moment and I hope you guys felt what I felt when interviewing and just being their with all the cast and crew. This is what DE will continue to bring you in the year’s to come!
Certainly after an event like that, your appitite seeks to be filled. Me and Mike didn’t eat anything all day and if there’s Pirates nearby, you can be assured that there was a feast nearby too! Our suspicions were correct.
Loot : A spanish-theme to lunch for ye!
The spread. Compliments of Disney Studios. Thank you guys so much!
We chatted with media from around the world that day, and happened to bump into a reporter from Sweden/Norway? TOTALLY FORGOT and I apologize if you’re reading this right now. You know who you are and if you have the chance, please contact us! We’d love to be featured in your country! Time to get DE worldwide…what do you guys think?
It was now time to head out from Beverly Hills…
…and return to reality so to speak as my ailing car was waiting for me to return and get it fixed. Thanks to all for your messages of concern and offers to help!
And that’s a wrap guys. We got a goodie bag from the event as well…
Note that the above picture was what we received throughout those 3 days of events…It was quite a lot. Filled my old couch!
The contents above will be listed at a later time, but they were quite the treat for us! Thank you Disney again for your generosity!
…and we’re back to car troubles my friends because it was time to leave. If you want to read about our car troubles, scroll back up to the beginning of this part of our report. We’ll leave it at that.
On to the Black Carpet!
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*Click Here for Part 3 (the World Premiere)!
*Click HERE to go back to Part 1