Adventures in NYC, part 2

Tuesday

“Those shoes make your legs look short…it's ok, we'll shorten the skirt”…and all that jazz. 

Our day began by walking down the block to Starbucks (for as swankified as this hotel is there’s no coffee maker in the room!  How odd is that?) and then back to wait outside the hotel in a nice little outdoor seating area for the production assistant/our contact’s PA (yes, the assistant has a personal assistant), Joe, to come pick us up.  He took us from our hotel in SoHo to a building in the meat packing district (who knew the place where meat is packed is also where commercials are shot?).  The floor we went to was full of little rooms with computers/temporary offices and a big room with 5-6 racks full of clothes a HUGE table with all kinds of high heels and accessories (belts, jewelry, etc).  There was two vanity tables for hair & make up.  We were introduced to a lot of people—the directors, stylists, seamstress, producer, & assistants galore.   Throughout the day we found out that the directors have done all the WW commercials in the last 5 years, as well as eHarmony.  The seamstress used to work for Victoria’s Secret (she knows Heidi Klum, among others I am sure!).  She also wrinkled her nose & made a face when we mentioned Project Runway.  “It’s scripted,” she says.  Heidi tried to get her to go on it & she declined.  The guy who seemed like the head stylist, Joe (not the same PA/driver Joe—lot’s of Joes in NY) has worked with Jennifer Lopez.  We also found out that Jennifer Hudson comes with her own stylists & hair/make up people.   I guess J-Hud is a bigger deal than us.  (Not for long—look out J-Hud, the Nelson girls are on their way!)  They were a funny.  They told us they would pick out about 5 different outfits for each of us, take pictures & show “the client” (WW) who has the final say. 

While I started with the hair stylist, Bonnie went with the wardrobe team to start picking out outfits.  I could see the top of her head moving around behind the clothing racks—when she finally came out to be photographed I saw why—SUPER high stilettos.  She was about 6’3”.  I kept seeing her walk by in the mirror I was sitting in front of—looking good!  One of my biggest fears in this whole thing has been that they were going to drastically cut my hair or give me bangs—thank goodness the hair stylist is pro-long hair an anti-bangs!  She blew my hair out straight and I said I wanted to take her home with me so my hair could look that good every day!  The make up girl warned me that she’d be putting a lot of make up on for it to look good on camera.  I’ve never seen so many layers of what looked like the same color! 

After a while I went to wardrobe.  The first dress I put on I could barely get on.   I said, “I don’t think this fits.”  To which the stylist, Joe, said back, “oh yeah it does, and you’re not even wearing Spanx yet—that’ll take you down a size at least!”  Well ok, bring on the Spanx—that’s when I saw another whole clothing rack devoted to every imaginable cut & size of Spanx available.  

Here’s what we heard a lot from the stylists & seamstress:

• Pin it.
• Make it smaller.
• Let’s make it shorter.

Bonnie & I both concurred while walking around the city afterwards that we were looking at people & their clothing differently—who’s wearing Spanx, who’s jacket needs to be pinned, whose dress needs to be shorter.  We may be turning into fashionistas—look out Tejas!

Here’s how many pair of $700+ pairs of shoes I wore today: 5 (have you ever worn Christian Louboutins?  Yeah, I didn’t think so!)

My wardrobe fitting took a little longer since Bonnie & I will be filmed together they have to find options of outfits that work together.  We both tried on some fabulous outfits!  Maybe they’ll give us what ever they alter for us!  Here’s hoping!  While we were there we met two other girls who were going to be in commercials as well.  One was 28 & the other 26.  One had lost 61lbs & the other 30lbs.  (Yes, that is the standard question you ask when you meet someone at a WW commercial shoot.  After asking their name you ask, “How much did you lose?”  And then everybody congratulates everybody & everybody feels good about themselves.  This is also the group that you want to try on clothes for—everyone is super encouraging about how great everyone looks!)   Based on all the people we’ve talked to in the last few days, I really think WW is trying to remarket to younger people who don’t have a ton to lose. 

OK I’m tired & losing my train of thought.  We were finished with all that about 3:30.  Since neither of us need a major haircut or color, we have the day off tomorrow!  When we got back to the hotel, I started looking up Broadway times & ticket availability for Wesnesday then decided why not try to make it to a show tonight?  I called Bonnie’s room & asked, “Want to see Chicago tonight?”  “YES!” she replied.   We decided to walk the 3 miles uptown to Times Square.  With only one stop to try on some boots along the way (Bonnie, not me!) we got to the ticket office about 6pm.  They had two tickets on row D in the orchestra section—awesome seats!  We bought them, then headed to dinner.  There was a little Irish pub across the street that looked good & not crowded.  It was nice & quiet (remember, New Yorkers don’t eat dinner till 8 or 9!) & good food!  I had fish & chips & Bon had a veggie sandwich.  We decided we’d earned all the French fries after a 3-mile walk!  We walked around Times Square—went in the Disney Store, Toys R Us, M&M Store, Hershey’s Store & maybe one or two others.  I felt like we’d adequately experienced the madness that is Times Square.  We wanted to get back to the theater by 7:30 & good thing we did!  Long line to get in, but super fun to walk in & walk straight to the orchestra section—ROW D!   The show was awesome. Kara DioGuardi (American Idol judge) stars as Roxie Hart & was great!  Bonnie has decided her next career move is Broadway. 

We decided to walk back to the hotel after the show—think of all you can eat when you walk 6 miles!  J   Our plan tomorrow is to walk down to the 9-11 Memorial area & see what we can see.  We’re hoping to work a Gray’s Papaya hotdog in tomorrow & we already have our pizza place scouted out for Thursday night after the shoot.  Great day 2, looking forward to sleep & then day 3!

I’m neither spell nor grammar checking this before posting it—too tired.