Michael Hopkins

A crowd is an amazing sight. The power of a group of people all concentrating on one thing, be it a performance or a person is extraordinary. I was sent with a crew to cover the opening of the Metropolitan Opera’s new season and was surprised by the beauty of the crowd in Times Square, as they sat in silence and enjoyed a night at the opera. This sight reminded me of the final scene in King Vidor’s Oscar winning 1928 film The Crowd. It begins with a close-up of a family in their home and dissolves into a second close-up of them sitting in a theatre watching a vaudeville show. They are caught up in the magic of the performance and forget that they are in a crowded theater within a crowded New York City. The camera pulls away from their row to reveal the other theatergoers who are sharing the experience until they disappear in a sea of laughing faces in the audience. They cannot escape the crowd, but they can become lost in the magic of a shared experience. Sometimes it’s ok to get lost in the crowd!

Thursday September 20th 2007

Tonight I covered the Sean Combs party for his new scent Unforgivable Woman. As the producer for Entertainment Tonight I am charged with always making sure my crew is in first position on the red carpet arrivals line. In the past I have had to deal with other shows trying to stake a place in front of us on the line, but tonight was a whole new game. It took several different PR representatives and a lot of explaining to get the crew from myspace.com to understand that the internationally syndicated and most watched entertainment show in the world Entertainment Tonight required first position on a red carpet. It turns out Sean Combs had a deal with myspace.com to cover his Unforgivable Party live on the Internet.

In the end we still got first position and Sean still gave us the first sound bite of the night. ET’s story of the day was that Sex and the City The Movie had just started shooting in New York City. So I asked Sean if he will make a guest appearance in the film and being a smart entrepreneur, he gave a perfect bite. He reminded me that Sarah Jessica Parker has her own scent on the market and told of how he will be meeting her on Madison Avenue for a spray off. He linked his story to the story of the day flawlessly.

I don’t know if Sean and Sarah will ever have their spray off, but the showdown has truly begun between old and new media. The day may soon come when the arrivals line is no longer ET, Access Hollywood, Extra and E! But rather Google.com, Myspace.com, Drudgereport.com, and Ebay.com.
Spray On!

I visited the set of Gossip Girl for ET before it became the latest guilty pleasure for many viewers including me. You never know if or when a new show is going to take off. I do remember that both Blake Lively and Penn Badgley had that certain “IT” quality that you can never quite put your finger on until you see it on the screen. Whatever “IT” is, it sure is working for these Gossip Girls.