Arun Visits Sex and the City 2

Vacations are always nice, especially when there's a lot of fun and mischief involved. New York City just so happened to be one of those "nice" vacations. Sure we did the normal stuff: Statue of Liberty, Metropolitan Museum, Cruise around the Island, Empire State, Central Park, etc. But the real awesome stuff was the atypical experiences that NYC brings.

I love tennis, so naturally we went to the US Open. I've been to a number of tennis tournaments, but going to a Grand Slam is definitely a different experience. It also helps that I have a soft spot for my *friend*, finalist Caroline Wozniaki (pictured below).

A few days later, we happened to get tickets to the Letterman show. This was a bit tricky because after you request them, you get a phone call from someone who gives you a trivia question you have to answer about the show in order to get the tickets. Well I almost never watch the Late Show, so this presented a complication...luckily I'm clever, resourceful, and shamelessly fraudulent. The call went like this:

Letterman Lady: "So in order for you to get the tics, you have to answer this trivia question."
Me: "Uhhh, Okay"
Lady: "Dave likes to visit a place of business owned by a Rupert (something inaudible that rhymes with "wee"). What business does he own?"
Me: "Oh!!! I uhhhhhh knooooooooooow this ooooooooooone"

Basically I was stalling as I was secretly trying to google the question. Thank God google has autofinish because after typing just "Letterman Rup" it finished the search field for me as "Letterman Rupert Jee visits". I hit enter and stalled some more.

Me: "Ohhhhh...It's on the tip of my tongue! Lettermaaaaaaaaaan visits....uhhh....OH YEA!" (as if I just remembered as google spits out the answer) "It's the Helo Deli!"

Yea! I am awesome! (never mind, shameless)

It's crazy how much the Letterman staff tries to pump you up before the show. Seriously, I think we encountered at least five people enthusiastically yelling/asking how much fun we're going to have while jumping up and down. Then, they issue empty threats saying that if Dave doesn't think we're a fun enough audience, he won't use his best jokes (as if they're going to rewrite the content in five minutes).

The show itself was pretty fun. We saw former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and television actress Juliana Marguiles. The taping went by pretty quick and the studio is a lot smaller than it looks on TV.

BUT, the highlight of the trip was probably getting on the set of Sex and the City 2. Now I've actually never seen the show or the first movie, but that wasn't the point...I just wanted to be on a movie set.

Earlier in the day, I was walking through Time Square with Darren, when I began to feel and little rumbly in my tumbly. Across the street I noticed an indescript table with food. Yea Food! We moseyed on over and noticed a sign that read "cast and crew only."

Naturally, my mind began to scheme.

There was a peculiar door adjacent to the table that opened into a narrow stairwell. I immediately wanted to check it out. Darren was resistant. Luckily, I can be very convincing ;) So we went up four or five flights of stairs until we came upon an open door that with a sign: "Set -> Sex and the City 2."

Jackpot Baby! This was too good.

Inside there was a bunch of crew moving pieces of set around. There was a bar in the back and some of the actors were taking a break and having a drink. Near the windows overlooking Time Square however, was where all the action was taking place. Darren had this huge camera hanging over his shoulder, so I used it as an opportunity to act like we belonged there. As we shuffled around the set, I barked out orders to him as if I was his supervisor:

Me: "Now make sure you're ready to take the shot when they need it! I think this lighting is decent for what we need. I want to capture MAGIC today! Now be ready to shoot and stay out of the way otherwise!"

Ok, Ok...I may have been hamming it up a little excessively.

On set, they were setting up a shot with some sexy secretary with thick rimmed glasses at a desk with big windows overlooking Times Square behind her. The director was giving her instructions and Kim Cattrall was getting pampered with beverages as she sat in the chair labeled "Kim Cattrall." It was pretty interesting to see that each major crew/cast member actually had their own special chair with a label.

After being their for probably 20 or 25 minutes, the producer finally came up to us:

Producer: "And you guys are???"
Me: "Oh we're just NYU film students. Carry on!"
Producer: "And you're here because?"
Me: "Oh just checking stuff out. Thought it'd be a nice learning experience! Don't worry about us!"
Producer: "You guys can't be here and need to leave right now. And by the way, if you ARE film students, you shouldn't just walk on to movie sets."


We took off, but only after I grabbed one of the water bottles reserved for the "A-Cast." I embedded the crappy video (since obviously we weren't supposed to be taking video). Funny enough, when I looked up Sex and the City 2 after getting back to the hotel, the first article that popped up was one about how they've had to beef up security because fans were getting too close to Sarah Jessica Parker and Kim Cattrall.

Obviously their security needs some work ;)