The Red Carpet Downlow: Everything you wanted to know about Hawaii Five-0's Red Carpet

 (Sunset that greeted me arriving in Waikiki)

FIRST READ MY POPSTAR ARTICLE

So, at the last minute, exactly a month out from Hawaii Five-0's Sunset on the Beach premiere, I pitched an idea to my editor at Popstar.com. It consisted of thinly veiled groveling for the chance to come out and have a place on the red carpet in Waikiki and cover the Season 2 Premiere of the show that has become my baby over the past year.

When he said yes, and after I had a three alarm freakout, I prepared to fly 3,000 miles to O'ahu, laden with camera and laptop to capture the experience.

(Can you spot me? Look for the gimpy ankle brace...)

I also managed to righteously sprain my ankle while working out two days before I left, because I figured, hey, no one is going to be wearing a stylish ankle brace on the red carpet. I'll be a trend setter.

My very good friend, you may know him as Officer 808 or H50Undercover on Twitter, picked me up from the airport and also took me to enjoy the adventure of local cuisine the next day. See my experience with kim chee here. I also managed to surf – and yes I actually stood up on the board and surfed with a sprained ankle – but I will tell you that you had better be in damn good shape to try that. Since I am obviously NOT in damn good shape, I couldn't lift my arms the next day. Awesome.

Bruce Fisher with Hawaii-Aloha Travel created a wonderful fan tour that included a luau, tweet-ups and a bus tour that took fans to several familiar locations used in episodes of the show.

Okay, so on to the main event.

Saturday morning consisted of brunch with the H50 fans on the tour wherein we had special guest Brian Yang (aka Charlie Fong) break bread with us.

(Brian Yang with blogger/writers Wendie Burbridge, Mel and H50Undercover)

He was a sweetheart and so gracious.

Walking back to the hotel around 10:45am, the Sunset on the Beach area was a bee hive of activity. The VIP tent was set up with tables and a bar for the actors and all the “it” peeps to hang out before and after the event. The red carpet was laid out and venders were setting up shop to sell tasty tidbits and shaved ice.

 (These ladies rock! Out since 3am to get a spot!)

Fans had already staked out the best spots. From the H50 tour, an intrepid group of women snagged one of the choice spots at the end of the red carpet at 3 am! Peter Lenkov even sent them coco puffs in support.

Check-in for the Press wasn’t until 4:00pm, so I had time to vegetate in my room for a while. I’d bought a special blouse for the event, and planned on wearing jeans to hide my fugly ankle brace. Since we were to be standing  in the sand, which was going to be oh-so comfortable for my banged-up tootsie, I figured tennis shoes would work.

All primped and styled I walked down to the event site and waded through the crowd, which even at 3:30pm was a couple thousand strong. I passed a friend and fellow writer’s husband who laughed and said, “Mel, you are so over dressed.”

He was right. It was about 90 degrees (which for Texans is a cool front) and my make-up was already melting. Back up to the room I went to change into shorts. Memo to Mel #1: Next year, I’m wearing a sun dress like everyone else.

The Press was herded into a little holding area while we waited for them to get the ‘final list’ of names. Then, the gate keeper – a stunning Asian woman, dressed to the nines in stilettos that made her about six foot one, and she was built like a linebacker – called us forward.

Except she couldn’t find half the people’s names on her list. Luckily for me there was a second list at the check-in table that had my name on it. I only had one minor coronary waiting for them to find my name. We got our press badges and waited for security to take us to our spots.

(Formally POPSugar. A porn site name might have gotten more attention.)

Originally, they had written “POPSUGAR” – which sounds like a porn site – instead of “POPSTAR”. So I got a hand-written edited sign.  

(Waiting and roasting.)

Now we waited. And took pictures with our cell phones. And waved to friends in the audience. And nicked water from the concessions. We watched the audience participation and guys throwing Hawaii Five-0 hats into the crowd. I managed to get a hat the easy way, Gary Chun just walked up to one of the guys, said “Gimme” and brought it to me!

 (Hai thar, Masi!)

First down the red carpet was Masi Oka. Everything was very well organized. Each actor had a handler who directed them to each reporter in the line. Some of the handlers were super sweet, chatting us up while the actor finished his/her interview ahead.
I asked Masi about Max Bergman, our socially inept lab rat on H50, and his differences to Masi’s former Heroes character, Hiro.

“Hiro definitely didn’t like dead people,” Masi said.

I was starting to realize, as the lovely women of H50 started down the red carpet, that I was at a disadvantage. I’m five foot five – as average a height as they come. But standing in the sand off to the side of the ply-wood bottomed red carpet put me another three to four inches down.

(Grace Park and Lenkov - OMG Grace!)                                   (Lauren German and friend - So damn beautiful)

 (So many male reporters wanted to have Daniela Ruah's babies. How, I don't know, but they wanted to try.)

 
Once Lauren German, Grace Park and NCIS: LA’s Daniela Ruah started coming toward me, I felt like an Oompa-loompa. Guys, these ladies are absolutely flawless. Stunning doesn’t even cover it. Hollywood must have a height requirement for leading ladies too and these girls are statuesque anyway, but add 6-7 inch heels on that and… yeah.

Mel was a Hobbit looking up at them from Middle Earth.

All three were very sweet and gracious. I got some wonderful quotes from Lauren about newcomer Lori Weston and how excited she was about being on H50. Grace was looking forward to exploring the shades of gray in Kono. Daniela was looking forward to start shooting on the NCIS: LA crossover episode this week and working with Alex and Scott.

I know fandom has reservations about Lori Weston and McGarrett, and guess what, so does Lauren. “No one wants to see a hot dude with the girl he likes.” I’m going to “amen” you on that, Lauren.

 (Oh Mark, how shall I fangirl thee...)

By this time, the girls had moved on and I was having severe self-esteem crisis. Because looking at how lovely and thin and just… everything those women were, I felt like a huge slug. But then I got a boost.

Let me fangirl Mark Dacascos for a minute, guys. I just want to sit back and bask in this man’s energy and exuberance.

If you watched the live feed, you saw what a riot Mark was. That doesn’t even compare what it was like to talk to him in person. He was so animated and expressive and just so damn happy about being there and talking about his character and the show. I really could have just stood there and talked to him for hours, soaking up that energy.

He talked about making Wo Fat his own character and then he thanked me about three times for coming out and talking to him! Thanking me! And I was just stuttering ‘thank you’ back at him and … oh. I am his newest fangirl. I want to bottle up that buoyancy and take it home with me.

 (You'll always be the CAG from JAG to me, Terry)

Terry O’Quinn came up next and honestly, I didn’t have anything prepared for him. I didn’t think I’d have one-on-one access to SO MANY of the cast members that I had to wing it a couple of times.

Now, I’m not a LOST fan. I never watched it and frankly, that show was not conducive to new fans coming in and being able to know what the hell was going on. I’ve known O’Quinn’s work over the years for everything from JAG to STAR TREK TNG.

So I blurted out something inane like, “I know you from JAG” after I introduced myself and Terry smiled and said, “Oh really? Good.” Because I was probably the only one there not screaming “Hey John Locke!” (LOST) at him. Then I asked him how his H50 character, White was different from other military characters he’s played.

His answer was great but I don’t think it was as challenging a question as he liked. And he sort of loomed over me while I was talking. I think he was trying to hear me better but as I said, I already felt like a Halfling standing in the sand and having big Terry O’Quinn focused in on you was intimidating.

(Picture via Honolulupulse.com - yes that's my hand as I interview Daniel)

(Peter Lenkov and Bob Orci -amazaballs!)

 





Executive Producers Peter Lenkov and Bob Orci also made the reporter circuit. They looked like rock stars bejeweled in huge leis. Bob was hysterical, joking with reporters while answering questions.

 Memo to Mel #2: Write your questions down. I had something else I wanted to ask Team Lenkov and Orci but I forgot after they got to me. Naturally. So I asked my plan A question, got a great answer and pulled my 2^nd question out of left field. Something about continuity and story boards for the seasons when I really wanted to ask “What have you learned from Season 1 that you’re bringing with you to Season 2?”

That would have been a great answer! Damnit.

There were some reporters from the Honolulu Star Advertiser’s Style section next to me so I was getting good shots of the celebs while they posed for them, but somehow I missed getting a shot of Daniel Dae Kim.

Daniel was extremely well-spoken and concise and answered my questions so fast I almost wasn’t ready. Which probably meant my questions were too easy. I almost didn’t get my digital recorder going in time too, which left me saying “hang on” when he got to me. Preparedness, thy name is not Mel.

(Hey! It's Scott Caan! Blink and you miss him!)

 
If you were waiting for something brilliant from Scott Caan, I hate to disappoint you, but we never got to speak with him. None of my press buds on the red carpet did. Maybe he gave a great quote to someone else, but most of us didn’t get any time with him. Scott arrived near the end, walked down the red carpet and immediately started signing autographs at the end. Which is great, I’m glad he took time to acknowledge the fans who’d been standing out there all day for the chance to see him.

But then he just walked back up the carpet, his handler struggling to keep up with him, stopped at a couple of the mega media outlets at the front of the line and then disappeared. I was lucky to snag a shot of him and his girlfriend when he stopped for a split second in front of me, otherwise I might have not known he was there at all.

I know, I know... you ask, “Mel, how the hell could you have missed Scott Caan? All his fans were screaming!”

Yes. They were. But you see, at the time he breezed down the aisle, I was interviewing Daniel Dae Kim. Alex had also arrived and was making his way down the carpet in front of me and… well… excuse me if my mind was elsewhere.

For once, I didn't mind being short b/c I was eye level with his chest.

 Guys. I can’t stress enough how awesome Alex O’Loughlin is. I can’t convey to you his passion for this show and for Hawai'i or put into words how wonderful it was to get just a few minutes of his precious time. But I'll try.

I also had a good stern conversation with myself that I wasn’t going to turn into a blithering idiot the minute he walked up. Watching him come down the aisle was enough to get my nerves jumping, but I’d been a complete professional and I wasn’t about to stop now.

I made sure I had good footing in the sand, because it had been shifting under my bad foot all night and I wobbled a few times trying to balance my weight. A couple of actors even asked what I did to it and I had to relay my idiocy to them. That was fun. And embarrassing.

Waiting my turn...

 
But I wasn’t going to fall over in front of Alex.

The reporter in front of me didn’t really know when to stop and I could see Alex’s handler getting antsy. She asked me how many questions I had and I said, “Just one” – “please don’t skip me please don’t skip me!!” rattling in my head. The handler was all relieved because she was getting tired of dude in front of me that wouldn’t shut up.

What a doll!

Then, there he was, all cute boyish smiles and amazing accent and y’know what? I just pretended like this was a buddy of mine and we were chatting about our favorite show together. I asked him “What excites you about McGarrett this season?” Why? Because Alex is excited to talk about anything with this show and that is why he is so incredible.

He answered my question beautifully with all the charm of a interviewing pro, even though I know he gets nervous too. When he mentioned getting hurt a lot, I laughed and looked down at my ankle saying, "Yeah I understand.”

Alex looked at my brace and said, “Yeah, see? You look just like me Monday through Friday”... all banged up, I guess.

(If you look past Grace you can see Alex talking with me. Yes, that's the best pic I have of my interview w/him right now.)


Anyone could go on and on about Alex’s looks, but I’ll tell you, it’s that passion for his job and that humility and down-to-earth attitude that makes his so attractive. He’s one of those rare creatures in TV industry who is not an asshat. One who doesn’t have to turn sideways to get his head through a door. I do so hope he stays that way, because he's one big dollop of awesome now.

I would kill for the chance to sit down with Alex somewhere where there wasn’t a million fans screaming at him, have a beer and talk about his work.

After that it was time for the press to be shown out to mill amongst the proletariat. My friends from Honolulu Star Advertiser ( Mike Gordon and Wendie Burbridge) and I went back to the hotel across the street to watch from the balcony. Some of us had deadlines and had to write, but Wendie of the Five0 Redux on Honolulu Pulse and I wanted to watch the episode we’d been waiting for.

I won’t spoil you. I have too much respect for all the hard work the cast and crew put into this episode to spoil. But I will say, it was pretty damn amazing.

All will be revealed. The questions you blogged, tweeted, messaged on fan communities will be answered and new questions will be asked. There were a couple of scenes I didn’t think were wonderful, but it didn’t detract from the awesome of the episode.

There will be bromance, people. Danny is at loose ends about everything he’s dealing with but rest assured, even being neck-deep in shit, Steve is still worried about him.

And the ending? Oh, yes. If the cast and crew got a kick out of hearing the fans reactions to the ending on the beach, they should have heard the reporter/blog writer’s reactions from the balcony. It was PG-13 rated reaction but in good way!

I’ll be posting more pictures in my next post of the fan tour in which I was able to see the inside of Steve McGarrett’s house, aka the Bayer Estate and much more!

STAY TUNED FOR MORE!