| March 2, 2010 | We Gave William Shatner a Yoostar System... |
 After making my red carpet entrance in front of a wall bearing the Yoostar logo, I was inside the pre-Oscars "Suite of 100 Stars" at the Beverly Hills Hotel to introduce Yoostar to the celebs. William Shatner, Captain Kirk in the original "Star Trek" TV series and movies, Bridget from "Girls Next Door," James Pitt from "Avatar," Candace Cameron Bure (a.k.a. D.J. Tanner from "Full House"), Brody Jenner's mom (Linda Thompson), Mimi Rogers, Lou Diamond Phillips, Candy Spelling, Amy Yasbeck, John Heard, former NBA player John Salley and his wife Natasha, Charlene Tilton, Margot Kidder (Lois Lane in the original "Superman" movies), Lorenzo Lamas and his new fiance Shawna Craig, and Lou Ferrigno (the original "Incredible Hulk") all took home Yoostar systems. I demo'd Yoostar for Joyce ("notaspringchick") Chow from MBN; check out the video:  As for those who stepped up onto the stage to try Yoostar, what movie scenes did they jump into?
Labels: celebrities, la, yoostar posted by Jess Barron @ 9:26 PM 
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| November 11, 2009 | "Wild" About David Lynch |
 Today I achieved one of my lifelong dreams of appearing in a scene from a David Lynch film. (Thanks to Yoostar!) I put myself into a scene from "Wild at Heart" alongside Nic Cage, and I improv'd some advice for Nic. Check it out, and let me know what you think.This particular scene is an excellent example of how seamlessly Yoostar works. Side-by-side two-shots are some of the best kinds of scenes, because you appear as if you're actually sitting side-by-side with the actor (in this case Nic Cage). Also, when you view the video, you can see that the beer bottles in the foreground that are sitting on the bar in the actual movie scene appearing in front of me. This adds to the realism of the video.  One of the most frequent searches we're seeing people type in on Google is "How does Yoostar work?" Yoostar is a greenscreen video product. This means that in the box, you get a 6-foot-by-6-foot greenscreen and stand and video webcam with audio echo cancellation. You set up the greenscreen in your house, plug the Yoostar camera into your PC via USB connection, open the application on your PC, and choose a scene from a famous movie or TV show. Then you sit or stand in front of the greenscreen and position yourself for acting in the scene. The dialogue goes across your PC screen karaoke-style, and you can say the real dialogue or make up your own (as I frequently do). Two other recent Yoostar performances where I improv'd some dialogue are Something wrong with feather boas? ("Witness" clip opposite my first movie star crush, Harrison Ford) and my mash-up of What if Scarlett O'Hara met Lou Costello?Labels: celebrities, davidlynch, video, yoostar posted by Jess Barron @ 7:36 AM
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| August 14, 2007 | I Was Ecstatic About Meeting David Lynch |
It's definitely not as awesome as Bethany's photo with David Lynch, but I must say I was bowled over just by shaking hands with this guy. We were at an "Inland Empire" DVD signing at a bookstore here in LA, and I carried all my David Lynch stuff:  and I dropped the whole pile onto the table for him to sign. I officially had the biggest pile of David Lynch items at the signing, so I guess that made me David Lynch's "Biggest Fan." (I hope that didn't scare him too much.) David Lynch is my favorite celebrity-person in Los Angeles and the director/artist/writer I most admire. I couldn't say even one intelligent thing when I shook his hand. I just said, "Hello David Lynch." And then I stood there for at least a minute not saying anything until Chris pulled me away. Chris actually conversed with him. Neither of us got to ask where he got his inspiration for the bunny people in "Inland Empire." Shoot. I hope I get another chance to meet him. Labels: celebrities, davidlynch, losangeles posted by Jess Barron @ 10:49 PM
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| July 26, 2006 | Celebs, "Umbrella Girls," and Hot Motorcycle Riders |
 At E3 they have "booth babes." At MotoGP, they have "umbrella girls." Umbrella girls dress in revealing skin-tight outfits and carry color-coordinated umbrellas advertising their team's name. Part of their job is to hold up the umbrellas to keep their team's riders out of the sun when they're waiting on the grid. Another part of their job is to promote their team and brands. Guys line up to get their pictures taken with the umbrella girls (as Chris aptly demonstrates). These women were all very sweet and charming when I spoke with them -- much more pleasant than I would be if I was wearing spiked heels or platform moonboots for hours on the baking hot asphalt. Of all the female fans at Laguna Seca -- and it surprised me that the crowd seemed to be comprised of about 45% women -- most wore sensible footwear: sandals and sneakers. Hardly anyone chose high heels for hoofing around the huge track and paddock area. I kept wondering how the umbrella girls managed it all day long. In retrospect I'm surprised I didn't ask them to reveal their secrets. Monterey, California is generally mild temperature-wise, even in summertime. But this July, all of California was caught in the midst of an intense heatwave, and it was unbelievably hot, especially under direct sun on the blacktop of the paddock. There was hardly any shade for fans to escape to (except inside the Red Bull tent). I was wearing flip-flops, a short skirt, and a t-shirt and I was about to faint from the heat. The Laguna Seca announcer kept coming over the PA reminding everyone to drink plenty of water. At $4.00 per bottle for Dasani (which isn't even real spring water) -- you could see why some people needed encouragement. At those prices, I was drinking $16-$20 worth of water per day. Thankfully, we had access to free water in the Media tent -- I'm a frugal person, and I might've risked dehydration just to save $10. By Sunday, many of the vendors in the "International food court" of the paddock had run out of bottled water. They posted hand-written signs to tell potential customers "Sorry -- Out of Water." No one seemed to expect it would be this hot. In the women's bathroom, gals ran cold water from the sinks over bandannas and tied them around their necks. Others jumped into the showers with their clothes on. I wondered how the riders handled being out in the track wearing full leather outfits, helmets, and mesh long johns underneath for 32 laps. It seemed impossible and unbearable. During Saturday's post-qualifier press conference, the riders told us that the track is literally melting in the heat and breaking up in places, making the heat even more challenging to them. When the riders left the pitts area, they would immediately begin peeling off their leather outfits and hang them outside their trailers (or, their girlfriends hung their outfits on the metal stairs outside the trailers as we saw Cardoso's gorgeous Dolce & Gabbana bedecked lady friend do). We noticed some Japanese female fans getting their photos taken with their arms around Nakano's leathers, so I followed suit, pun intended.  Speaking of female motorcycle fans -- we saw Pamela Anderson walking out of the pitts area on Sunday afternoon. She looked great in a black tanktop with her MotoGP VIP laminate passes around her neck. She wasn't with Kid Rock when we saw her and we didn't recognize the guy she was with -- do you? Pam wasn't the only celeb hanging out at Laguna Seca. We also saw semi-celebs Ian Zierring (of "90210" fame) Matt LeBlanc (from "Friends") and Italian male model Fabio Lanzoni, known to most of the world, of course, as simply "Fabio." Fabio may have been my favorite sighting of the weekend. Just as you might imagine, he's very tan and his long-hair was flowing in the breeze. When we saw him on Sunday he was wearing a bright lavendar shirt and pin-striped jeans. He was standing next to two umbrella girls from the Kawasaki racing team wearing very short shorts. It could've been the cover of a romance novel. Or maybe not. Check out my Flickr photoset from the event. With all these umbrella girls, celebs, and hot motorcycle riders (as well as their hot girlfriends) roaming around and American rider Nicky Hayden winning MotoGP at Laguna Seca for the 2nd year in a row -- I'm still surprised MotoGP isn't more popular with the American audience (yet). Maybe if Hayden becomes the next world champion -- Americans will start to take notice. What do you think? Labels: celebrities, motogp, motorcycle, pamelaanderson, umbrellagirls posted by Jess Barron @ 3:14 PM
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| November 10, 2005 | Why Are All These Famous People Stalking Us? |
Neil from the Yahoo! News team invited bunch of us to attend the  International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) Courage in Journalism Awards at the Regent Beverly Wilshire last Wednesday evening after work, and Laura and I met Maria Shriver and CNN's Judy Woodruff.Then yesterday Allyson met Bono at (of all places) the Yahoo! campus in Sunnyvale. She risked being fired to capture this photo, all for our enjoyment. And, don't let me forget -- Bethany met David Lynch this week at his talk on transcendental meditation. Honestly, this one makes me truly jealous. We all know how obsessed I am and have been with David Lynch. Labels: celebrities, davidlynch, famous, photos, yahoo posted by Jess Barron @ 1:26 PM
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| July 28, 2005 | Why It's Not Totally Stupid to be Celeb-Obsessed |
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Allyson, I think you'll be happy to know that our friends at MSN have published some scientific explanations to your celebrity obsessions! This is a great topic to discuss tonight on the show. I found it particularly interesting when they talked about how celebrity worship was almost taking the place of religion. (A crazy, though possibly true, theory!) One psychologist they interviewed speculated:
Personally, I've always thought that today's celebs were our modern version of the Greek and Roman gods and goddesses, but I never quite made the leap that people who had less organized religion in their lives today might be proportionally more celeb-obsessed. Another fascinating point made on the second page in this article is that our brains are hard-wired from hundreds of years ago to cliassify a recognizeable face as a "friend:"
Finally, on the third page the article explains why although beauty is obviously important -- personality is really what transcends and influences our interest:
Labels: allyson, celebrities posted by Jess Barron @ 3:33 PM
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