Update: Well, I knew at the time I was talking to Giovanni Ribisi in line at the Los Angeles County Registrar’s Office that it was a big deal that he was getting married there, on that day, but had no idea what a tidal wave that story would cause. Practically every news outlet in the world ran the story, sending so many people to our website that it crashed for much of the day. But now, the website’s back! We’ve gotten some interesting responses about the story, including this blog entry from a fashion modren writer who is very conflicted about my writing style.Then People.com said the story first appeared on Huffington Post, but Huffington Post clearly credits Crown City News for breaking the story, so maybe they just didn’t make it to that part of the story. Updates are happening with the story now with confirmation from Deyn’s family and Ribisi’s reps that my ears did not deceive me that day. Just hope the couple was able to enjoy some time together on some sort of honeymoon before the story broke. Here’s a video giving my take on this whole story.
Friday, June 15, 2012
Giovanni Ribisi is a pretty big name in Hollywood, so since I had a direct encounter with him today, I thought I’d share. Ribisi, who is starring in the comedy Ted with Mark Wahlberg about a teddy bear that comes to life because of a childhood wish, was a couple of people behind me in line today at the LA County Registrar’s Office, the East LA Branch.
He was passionately kissing a young blond-haired woman with an English accent. They must have kissed passionately at least 3 times in line, not seeming to care who was watching. When I realized who he was, I asked him if he was Giovanni Ribisi. He was very friendly, and said yes he was, and I told him I enjoyed his work. He thanked me and then asked me if I was getting married today, and I said no, we had waited too long and that it was finally time to get our child’s birth certificate. I asked him and the blond woman if they were getting married today and they quietly said yes, in a shy kind of way.
We chatted for a little bit and I told him what I do as General Manager of Crown City Media, LLC. I told him how we provide broadcast journalism training for aspiring TV News Reporters and behind the scenes personnel, who go on to amazing careers at places like CNN, Good Morning America, National Geographic, ABC 7, and TV News Markets all over the country. I also told him that I consult internationally in broadcast journalism training and general news room restructuring and that I was trying to break into show business with show creation, development and production of TV series, movies, and documentaries. He seemed impressed and said that was really great. I then asked him what work he was doing currently and he told me he was in the movie TED, and asked if I’d seen anything about that. I told him yes, I see it everywhere, and that it seems to be on ALL the buses. He smiled.
I asked if the two had been together for a while, and they looked at each other and kind of smiled, and he vaguely said “A while.” Then I told them I was kind of embarrassed to ask, but could I get a picture of him, and he said sure, no problem. Then she asked if I wanted a picture with him and I said “Sure!” She wasn’t sure how to use my phone so she snapped the picture accidentally with me looking crazy, and I cried out, asking if she would please take another one. She did. I’m not going to show the crazy picture, though, so don’t ask!
I then asked if the two of them would let me take their picture together, and they went back and forth with each other for a while. I told her that if she wasn’t comfortable with it, then I wouldn’t. She still seemed unsure, and he stepped up and said yes, let’s do it. I said ok, and took a great shot of them. I’m sure she’s a famous actress and I missed an opportunity to get to know her, but at this point, I was feeling extremely intrusive, so I didn’t ask her name. At this point, I’m really embarrassed that I don’t know who she is and that I didn’t ask. Mama taught me better than that as a regular person, and as a journalist, I broke the number one rule.
After my husband finished wrangling our little 4 year old boy who was telling every mommy in the place how cute their baby was, he came up and started chatting with the couple. My hubby Chavel, who notices every detail about a person, and makes it a point to discuss the details, asked her about her accent, and she said yes, it was an English accent. He told her about a friend of ours who married one of Chavel’s best friends who also has an English accent. By that time we were getting close to the front of the line. We started chatting with some others in line, and the couple went back to kissing passionately. As we were leaving I thanked Giovanni for the pictures and he smiled and said you’re welcome.
Ted comes out in theaters in August.