Who the f*ck is Charlize Theron?

This is a tale of politics and Hollywood. Of celebrity ego gone wrong. And of some lady named Charlize Theron, who apparently thinks an awful lot of herself. (I'm posting this at 4am Eastern time since Joe will kill me if he knows I posted this LOL)



Chris, Panayioti and I were with former Edwards blog outreach guru Tracy Russo over at the CNN Grill Tonight. Basically, the Grill is CNN's "hang out" at the convention - they rented out a diner and invite guests to come have free food and drinks, wifi, and watch lots of TV coverage of the convention. To CNN's credit, unlike most of the other media, they've really reached out to bloggers at the convention, and graciously offered us credentials to come hang out at their grill.

Anyway, we were at the Grill tonight, having drinks outside on the patio, when Tracy mentioned that Charlize Theron was sitting behind us. I have no idea who this woman is, but apparently she's a big movie star. Okay, whatever. Anyway, about an hour later, Anderson Cooper shows up, starts talking to some very hot guy who I think was sitting with Theron, Theron stands up, and watches Anderson talking to the hot guy. Well, I wasn't going to miss a chance to get a shot of Anderson (and hot guy, who was looking vaguely familiar), so I grabbed my new Flip video toy, shot a couple of seconds of video from like ten feet away (Theron, or whatever her name is, was barely even in my shot because I don't know who she is nor do I care). Anyway, all of a sudden, this polka dot woman, who was sitting at Theron's table, gets up and starts trying to block my view. Yes, apparently I'm now paparazzi (well, okay, I wasn't, but now I'm posting everything I've got because handler-lady ticked me off). Here's a still of my video, with Ms. Handler doing her interception.



I stopped filming with the Flip, got my camera out and took a photo or two of Anderson talking to the apparent movie star. Well, Ms. Handler would have none of that. She comes up to me and starts lecturing me about how rude it is to photograph a movie star sitting outside the CNN media tent at the Democratic convention talking to Anderson Cooper. I was like, uh, this is the Democratic Convention - you're sitting in the CNN celebrity media tent. You've decided to stand up and talk to Anderson Cooper. Now, to give you a flavor of the CNN Grill area where Ms. Movie Star was sitting, here's a quick video I shot of the same area earlier in the day.



Pretty public space, and intended to be. There are cameras everywhere, the cameras have been here all day, filming everyone in the place all day long. That's why the place exists - it's not a cubby hole, a secret hideaway - it's a very cool public place to see and be seen. The place is swarming with reporters because, uh, it's freaking CNN. But you come anyway, and you're deathly afraid that someone will take a photo. Are you high? Ms. Thang replies, exasperatedly, "she's here as a private citizen!"

Yeah, right. No was even interested in taking Theron's photo for a good hour until Anderson walked up. And even then, we were trying to photograph Anderson and hot dark guy, not Charlize Theron, or whoever she is. I don't know who Charlize Theron is, but I don't think I like her very much. Anderson, on the other hand, can do no wrong.

Anyway, here's the quick, like 5 second video, of shot of Anderson and hot guy, with Theron basically just an annoyance in the far left corner, and Miss Thang running to block the view of Theron, while I was filming Anderson.



PS Chris just googled, and it looks like hot dark guy is actor Stuart Townsend, Theron's bf.