The Emmys This was NOT! -A Letter from America

Wow, an invitation to attend a Hollywood event! How exciting would that be. Well as most of my regular readers know we spend a considerable amount of time in LA and enjoy the friendship of several Hollywood greats. However my lovely wife Rose had never had the opportunity to visit an 'award event' she was very excited to attend one in person. We have attended as invited guests many Red Carper events and Television Award shows here in Las Vegas, but Hollywood - that would surely be different. Our invitation came from the Borgnine Group, headed by the daughter of one of my all time favorites Ernest Borgnine.

Our company had been invited to take part in a 'gifting suite' for EMMY winners and hopefuls, past and present.

Sponsors are invited to part with fees up to $2000.00 to display their products and gift official visitors in return for some valuable picture opportunities. Though I was well aware of the procedure of 'gift baskets' being given to the winners following the awards - I was not aware that mini versions of this procedure took place for literally anyone in 'the business' as early as the day before!

We had truly decided to display one of our companies at the event but an unexpected family illness took my wife out of the country only a few days before our scheduled participation. As things turned out the family member made a swift recovery and Rose headed back to good old USA on the day of the event.

As soon as we knew that we would not be able to participate I rang the Borgnine Group and advised them of our disappointment.

Ms Borgnine graciously accepted our withdrawal and offered her sincere best wishes to Rose and her family member. I asked if it would be possible for us to view the event should Rose arrive in time, in view of her excitement and disappointment at not being part of the occasion. I was informed that this would be fine, however because of the nature of the event we would not be permitted to 'hang around' and would be invited to leave after a quick look, which was certainly understandable in view of the money spent by those who did choose to participate.

I re routed Roses flight to LAX instead of Vegas and drove overnight to meet her on Saturday morning. After dropping her bags at a friend's house we drove the 90 minutes to the Sportsman's Lodge where the event was to take place, and we easily located the event in the rear garden tucked away behind the swimming pool. Armed with my camera which no respectable photojournalist would be without, we entered the gate and instantly spotted Ms. Borgnine standing immediately in front of us. We were met with a very cool greeting and immediately informed NO Photo's were allowed. Moreover we could not proceed to enter the event or look around! Rose was devastated and I was too embarrassed to say anything !

We courtesy departed.

My impression was the event looked like a yard sale in a mobile home park, however in fairness we saw so little. I guess the satisfaction of knowing that we didn't part with hard earned dollars to be part of a 'swap meet' compensated for the fact that I invested several hundred dollars just to get us there.
The following day (Sunday) we had the pleasure of watching the event with our dear friends Roger and Gizelle Dawson; Roger is of course one of the world's formost speakers and Gizelle was head of one of Hollywoods leading placement agencies.
Enjoy life.
Dr. Peter J. Shield PhD, ARP (http://pjshield.com)