WHAT: The WB Network's 2001 All-Star Party
WHEN: Saturday, January 6, 2001
Celebrity arrivals begin at 7 pm

WHERE: Il Fornaio Restaurant
One Colorado Blvd., Old Town Pasadena

WHO: Celebrities from such shows as "7th Heaven," "Angel," "Baby Blues," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Charmed," "Dawson's Creek," "Felicity," "For Your Love," "Gilmore Girls," "Grosse Pointe," "Hype," "The Jamie Foxx Show," "Jack & Jill," "Nikki," "The Oblongs," "The PJs," "Popular," "Roswell," "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" and "The Steve Harvey Show."

From "Buffy":
Nicholas Brendan
James Marsters
Michelle Trachtenberg
Emma Caufield
Amber Benson
Joss Whedon

NOTE: THIS IS NOT AN INVITATION TO ATTEND.

I would go but a 13 hr flight is a wee bit too much, even for Amber.

Alas, I didn't bring my camera. If I'd had a little more advance notice I would have brought my digital camera home from work. It's small and easily carried. As it was, I only had my big 35mm, and I didn't feel like enough of a fanboy to lug it through Old Town Pasadena.

Anyway, there was quite a crowd. The WB stars didn't really start arriving in droves until almost 8:00, and the Buffy folks were among the latest arrivals. By 8:30, which was when I'd left, I had only seen three - David Boreanaz, James Marsters and... Amber!!!

Okay, important details first. Amber was wearing this simple but very nice black dress - not the stereotypical "little black dress," but one more conservative, with longish sleeves even. It did have a low scoop neckline, though - umm, not "low" in a slut-way, but still her shoulders were bare. (Hey, I'm a guy, remember? What do I know about describing clothes...? ) The sleeves had these iridescent sequins on the ends, and the belt had matching ones.

My overall impression of Amber is that she has this wonderful geekish charm. I just hope Hollywood doesn't beat it out of her in time. Her skin is so pale, too! It looked even paler than Aly's looked when I saw her at Long Beach last spring - although admittedly I saw Aly on a warm April day and Amber on a cool January night. Oh, and for those who are fans of Amber's lips, they stood out very prominently thanks to some bright red lipstick that gave a nice contrast to her skin.

As for the two vampire boys, David looked somewhat shorter than I expected and James was wearing his hair in the 70s-New York-subway-Spike style. James had a woman on his arm, but David and Amber were both going stag.

As for the other WB folks, the Sheriff from "Roswell" was there, as well as the dad from "Seventh Heaven" and a number of people from "Gilmore Girls" - including the two Gilmore Girls themselves (they're both cuties, too...). All in all, it was a nice evening of fandom.

Then I waited and waited and finally the stars start to walk down. First I saw Amber. WOW, bob did a good job describing the dress. The bottom of the dress was shorter on front and longer in the back. She had huge high heels on. She was way taller than me which she wasn't at the Santa Barbara signing. So the photographers are taking a million pictures. She's posing as she walks down. When she starts to get close, I start to yell, Amber, Amber, Amber. So she turns to me and I say hi and she says hi. Then I wished her a happy early birthday, extending my hand. She smiled and thanked me and reached for my hand. Then they were ushering her down the carpet. She looked at me and said, "your hair has grown so much," and I was dumbfounded and speechless and I said oh yeah. Then she waved goodbye so she could pose for more pictures. Fantastic! She looked gorgeous. Hair down peeps.

I also saw David Boreanaz (he was just like I pictured him, even wore a long coat, light brown),James Marsters (he had a woman with him, they were taking lotsa pictures together and he looked bigger than I had imagined him to be), Nicholas Brendon (I told him I loved Buffy and shook his hand). I saw Michelle Trachtenberg. She looked fantastic. Simple sweater and tight black pants. And she was real friendly. I told her i loved Dawn and she smiled and thanked me. I saw J. August Richards, Gunn, as well. I didn't see Emma or Joss. I saw a ton of people from Popular and Gilmore Girls and well name a wb show, someone was there from it. All and all a great time. Amber was great!

Oh, Xita mentioning Amber's hair reminded me - Amber's hair is still dark, although it didn't look as red to me. Then again, it could have just been the light.

(kidding of course April).
Xita that's great (Bob for you too of course, but Xita got to toucha touch her as well), I wanna see pics as evidence of course.

Good for you Xita. So does this mean we get more lurid stories about how great Amber looked then? Tee hee....

You know, one of these days I'm going to move to the states for purely 'star spotting' reasons.....