After Saturday's barrage of pictures on the set of How I
Met Your Mother (HIMYM) you're either wondering, “Wow, how did Rodney get that
opportunity?!?!?” or “Wow, who the heck are you taking pictures of and why do
you think I would care????” Well, to make a long story medium-length, a friend’s
best friend (Shannon) is the assistant to one of the show’s creators (Carter Bays). Shannon helped organize Saturday night’s fundraiser on behalf of the
other creator, Craig Thomas. His son is diagnosed with a rare disorder called
Jacobsen Syndrome (or 11q Deletion Disorder). The research behind the disorder doesn't
get much support so Glodine & I were more than happy to contribute. We heard
stories from affected families and the lead research doctor shared his staff’s work
and the possibility of their findings impacting other conditions such as Alzheimer's
or Autism.
Thanks to our hookup, we received our invite a month ago
and we made it down to LA despite me being sick. We arrived to Fox Studio Stage 22 right
on time for the 7pm start but were not prepared to be suddenly thrust into the presence
of celebrities. We walked into the studio and were immediately next to five actors... geeking out in the inside, we tried to keep it composed on the outside. Here were our encounters that night:
- Alyson Hannigan (HIMYM’s Lily aka Willow from Buffy aka One Time at Band Camp) – while it would have been a dream to take a picture with her, she was always deep in conversation with people so we left her alone. But her husband on the other hand…
- Alexis Denisof (annoying anchor guy on HIMYM, Mr. Alyson
Hannigan, best known as Wesley from Angel) – got a chance to chat with him as
his wife was busy talking. He was gracious in our compliments to him saying what big fans we were (this
past year, he was in Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing) and he didn’t mind at
all taking a picture
- Josh Radnor (HIMYM’s Ted) – turns out my friend used to be his travel agent; I mean, how cool is that? He did a great job emceeing the event and was always nearby but seemed somewhat unapproachable – even though lots of people did ask for a picture with him and he always obliged
- Jason Segel (HIMYM’s Marshall, movie star, extremely tall dude) – possibly the highlight of my night was Jason tapping my elbow and asking me to grab a pink gift bag with wine that was next to my foot. After handing it to him, I smoothly said, “Here you go Sir!” I still question why I referred to him as “Sir”. Ugh.
- Bob Saget (HIMYM narrator, Full House’s Danny Tanner, also very tall) – couldn’t believe how much older he looked but he was cracking jokes making Jason & everyone else around him laugh hysterically
- Cobie Smulders (HIMYM’s Robin, SHIELD agent from Avengers,
brunette cutie) – after we donated to the Giving Tree, we turned around and,
BAM, there was Cobie. As if though we were long lost friends, I casually said, “Hi
Cobie! I’m Rodney” – she thanked us for our donation and was totally down for a
picture together. With nobody was around to snap a shot, she suggested we take
a three-way selfie.
As she sent us on our way, we could hear her introducing her husband to a former HIMYM costar… - Taran Killiam (Cobie’s husband, SNL funny man) – Did you guys know this currernt SNL featured player is married to Cobie? No idea. Some of his SNL characters are disturbing but he’s hilarious.
- Nazanin Boniadi (former HIMYM costar aka Nora aka one of Barney’s serious love interests) – I only bring up seeing her because she looked absolutely GORGEOUS. Yes, I’m happily married, but I’m not blind. This woman was stunning and if I had gone up to her the only thing that would come out my mouth would have been “blehrrrrrrrr”
- Scott Foley (from Felicity aka ex-husband of JenniferGarner) – this guy. Man, looked skinny as heck. He walked in with us and was next to us for awhile in MacLaren’s Pub. While I wanted to say something to him, it got to the point where it would have been awkward to start a convo. Totally lost our window of opportunity. But thanks to IMDB, learned his wife is an actress too…
- Marika Dominczyk (Mrs. Scott Foley aka actress in random stuff) – wish I had gotten a better look at her the other night but turns out she was in 40 Year Old Virgin. She played Bernadette - the girl who Seth Rogen's character hired to replace Steve Carrell's character in the stockroom. I swear, I remember the oddest things.
- Kevin Weismann (Marshall the tech geek from Alias) – randomly standing around, Kevin and I made eye contact, face to face, in MacLaren’s Pub. I, of course, had to introduce myself and told him
how awesome I thought he was on Alias. We chatted a bit about his new show with Stephen Merchant cuz that’s
something I noramlly do on Saturdays – ya know, talk casually with a Hollywood actor about
his current projects. No big deal.
- Lyndsy Fonseca (the "daughter" on HIMYM listening to Ted's stories aka Alex on Nikita) – well, we didn’t see her but saw a picture of her at the event on Instagram. Wish we had seen her since she’s a badass on Nikita.
So that was it. Lots of good food and drinks. Saw someone figure out the hard way that MacLaren Pub's bathroom isn't really functional. And, even though I was sick, the trip down was totally worth it - a great cause and a memorable evening.
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