BCBG: Waiting For Ashlee Simpson
It's the first day of shows, 10 am. Technically the shows started at 9 with Nautica, but no one famous gets up that early. (As one guy standing nearby said, "I had to go. Nautica is really big in Florida.") BCBG at 10 am is advertising international lip-synching superstar and Jessica Simpson-sibling Ashlee Simpson as their main draw. At 10 am, Huffington Post was seated in the fourth row, and this is what transpired.*
10:02
In the front row is "America's Next Top Model" judge (and noted fashion photographer) Nigel Barker, thus far the biggest star here. Standing in the aisle, Nigel is conspicuous but friendly and it must be said, hot as hell. He chats, poses for pics, and keeps standing.
10:05
A flash by the door and a minor paparazzi scrum. Is it Ashlee? No. It appears to be "socialite" Olivia Palermo. She stops to pose and grant interviews. Don Trump Jr. and his wife Vanessa, in a floaty top over post-baby body walk by from the backstage area.
10:10
Nigel is still standing.
10:13
Nigel sits. The photographers circle again to get pics of him in the new, seated position. There is an aisle of seats up the middle of the runway with placarded seats, most from publications like the NY Post, Daily News, Allure, and celebrity weeklies.
10:14
The Trumps talk to an Extra camera crew, Vanessa nods and smiles at her husband as he speaks.
10:17
Another photo scrum. Camera crews and notepad-wielding wrenches talk to a blonde a few seats down from Nigel. Is it Ashlee? Further neck craning proves no. Not Ashlee, but familiar looking. It's British singer Natasha Bedingfield according to a friendly usher. Sad.
10:19.
The standing room audience has filed in and filled around the edges, but a third of the seats are still empty.
10:20
Nelly Furtado? The biggest scrum yet around a brunette with her back to the crowd. Can't tell. She turns slightly. Not Nelly, Sophia Bush, She's tall and beautiful.
10:21
Ashlee!! A blonde standing by a seat with mini braids going back to a low bun and a ski-slope nose is suddenly the center of a camera storm. Multiple tv cameras and a dozen others are leaning in for a word of wisdom. Foiled. it's "Hairspray" actress Brittany Snow. She's short.
10:23
A girl in a tan hat stands talking to one print reporter in the aisle. Word is it's Ciara. No photographers seem to care.
10:25
Eight people in a cluster speed walk from backstage towards a seat by Brittany and Nigel. In the middle, head down, long hair and hoops, she arrives and plops down. Ashlee! No sign of Papa Joe, but the nose looks good. No Pete Wentz, either.
10:26
Cameras go crazy. total feeding frenzy. Ashlee stays seated, prohibiting photographers from a good shot of her standing up or posed like she's friends with her neighboring seatmate. Two of the people from her entourage continue to mill around her, protecting. Blocking. The press backs up.
10:29.
The seats are almost full and the photographers have had to clear the aisles. The only empty seats in the center have placards that read Allure, The Washington Post and Jessica Pasteur (stylist for the Simpson sisters, among others).
10:31
Someone sits in Jessica's seat. It's not Jessica. It's a well-coiffed woman of a certain age, so it's doubtful it's someone who works for her, either.
10:33
A friendly usher plucks a tall, striking woman with an afro from the third row and seats her in the Washington Post's prime seat in the middle, where cameras will pick her up.
10:34
Lights down show begins.
10:45
Lights up, shows over. Twenty-one ethereal models mostly in pretty, muted, floaty dresses have done two turns around the runway each. Twenty are white, one is Asian. Ashlee squeezes in a few pictures and is taken out backstage. As Huffington Post walks out, Olivia is conducting another tv interview by the door in front of a seat marked "Trump (Plus 1)".

Sophia, Brittany and Ashlee look on

That is not a Washington Post reporter
* (Maybeiveblogs will work in the future, but the wireless wasn't acting up)






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Huffington Post Entertainment | September 5, 2007 05:05 PM