Secrets of the Red Carpet, Part 2
As promised, here is our second installment of Secrets of the Red Carpet, as presented by
journalists who not only cover the red carpet, but walk it.
Stevie Wilson, fashion editor at Orange Coast Magazine, will be attending the Emmys as a guest of Dooney & Bourke. She’s spent this past week hobnobbing with celebrities as cosmetics and fragrance companies showered her with free stuff. But, for reasons we can’t quite comprehend, she agreed to slum it with us and answer a few dumb questions:
Q: How many freebie suites did you hit this week?
A: In one day, I was at five suites:
Platinum Guild at the Luxe Hotel, (celebs + stylists)
Silver Spoon at a luxe location in the Hollywood Hills (celebs)
Extra Suite at the Hyatt Regency in Century City (CELEB-laden too)
Sonya Dakar Skin Care (treatment and blissfully quiet)
Primary Action/Adwill suite where I missed Britney Spears by a few minutes.
Q: Who had the best stuff?
A: Extra Suite and Platinum Guild. Who can go wrong with gorgeous jewelry worth multi-millions PLUS Bliss Spa mini treatments along with great food and Aqua-Bar water? Goody bag HEAVEN here.
Q: Are celebrities turning down freebies because they’re worried the IRS is going to come after them?
A: No one turned down anything as far as I could tell. It sure looked like celebs from every level were carting away tons of stuff–even potato and tortilla chips (Kathy Griffin walked away with a ton of stuff).
Q: Does anybody actually like Emmys week in Hollywood?
A: Well the celebrities love it. The venues having the parties love it because of all the media attention. Some of the brands love it — if they have participated in the suites that get a lot of celeb or media attention. It’s hard on the vendors/brands because I was at one event where they served only candy and cookies. There was no food expected to show up other than cupcakes, water and snack type things.
For them, if there are a lot of celebrities (read B list, since A list rarely if ever attend), then they get great PR. However on the other hand, without media covering it and talking about who was there, it can be a huge expense without a lot to show for it since they pay to do it, plus giving away things costs too.
What irks me is when, as media for print and online, I am ignored or treated poorly by the suite or by vendors, then it’s a hassle.
