CTU EXCLUSIVE: My Dinner with Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan

Every time something amazing happens here at CTU, something else seems to top it, so I am now a true believer that anything is possible in this world. My dinner with Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan last week definitely would fall in the category of the seemingly impossible, but it really did happen and as you can see on this post, I even have pictures to prove it!!!

Just to recap for any new readers…last week I went to Los Angeles, California to visit my best friend and while I was there, I hung out with ‘Stop-Loss’ director Kimberly Pierce, had a ball at the 2008 Teen Choice Awards, spent an incredible day with Chan’s mom Kay, and topped off my trip with a fantastic dinner at a local LA hot spot with Channing Tatum and his girlfriend Jenna Dewan (aka Chenna).

Believe it or not, the dinner almost didn’t happen, because I was supposed to fly back home on Tuesday, August 5th. As luck may have it, an extremely small and fast moving storm decided to hit my hometown that day, so I postponed my departure to Wednesday to avoid any potential run ins with mother nature. Because of that day delay, it thankfully allowed me to have dinner with Chan and Jenna Tuesday night.

I had spoken to Chan the day before when I was hanging out with his mom, and he told me to call him the next day so we could try to meet up before I left. I called and left a message and Jenna called me back to see if I wanted to go to a restaurant called STK. Ironically, this was the same restaurant that I had taken my best friend to a couple of nights before.

Although I didn’t know when I made my reservations weeks ahead to make sure we would be able to get in, I learned from Jenna that STK is actually one of their favorite restaurants. If you’ve ever eaten there, then you totally know why, because the food and service are amazing. I went both with and with celebrities in tow and the people there were awesome. I’d like to give a shout to David and Chad! They were the best host and waiter EVER!!! OK back to the story…

Jenna offered to make reservations some place else, but since my best friend and I loved the restaurant so much, I was excited to go again. It was beyond surreal to think we would be going back to STK with Channing and Jenna.

Jenna had made an 8 PM reservation, and we arrived first. When I told the host that our reservation was listed under Dewan or Tatum, he looked up with a smile and said “Jenna Dewan?” and I happily told him “Yes” (trying really hard to stay cool and hold in my excitement).

We decided to wait outside in the restaurant’s small, trendy courtyard until Chan and Jenna arrived. Just a few minutes later we saw Jenna. We hugged, and she told us that Chan was running a little late from the meeting he had with the Hollywood screen legend I mentioned in my previous post. He was on his way, so we decided to go ahead and get seated while we waited for him to arrive.

We walked to the table and although I don’t think Jenna noticed, you could tell that people recognized her. One table in particular kept starring at us (and when I say US, I mean HER). We later found out why, because they came over to the table before they left. Jenna was carrying a bag and wearing a necklace she had gotten at the 2008 Teen Choice Awards gift retreat a couple of days before. The table of people actually worked for the company that provided them for the awards show, so they were totally excited that she had chosen their gifts and was wearing them.

As we were ordering our appetizers, Chan called Jenna to say he was a few minutes away. Jenna pulled out her phone to answer it, and I couldn’t help but notice the photo she used for Chan. She also turned the phone towards me so I could see the nickname. Again to protect the innocent, I’m not going to say what the name was. That’s between Jenna, Chan, and her phone, but I’ll just say that it was REALLY cute. As far as the picture she used is concerned, it seems that Jenna has the same taste in favorite Chan photos as many of us, because ironically, she chose the gorgeous ‘Stop-Loss’ promotional still to the left that fans have been drooling over since the movie released it. Seriously, can you blame her?

We ordered our appetizers and not too long after we got them, Chan arrived. The restaurant was all abuzz and people stopped him to talk to him while he tried to politely make his way to our table that was in a back corner of the restaurant. Jenna got up from the booth so they could give each other a hug and then he reached out his arms so I could do the same.

We had already received our salads, but we realized they had given me the wrong one. I had not touched it, so before taking it back, the waiter asked Chan if he wanted it. One of the things learned from Chan last year when I visited him on the set of ‘Fighting’ was that he really did not like veggies. Jenna reinforced that by quickly letting the waiter know that he did not eat anything green. Chan made what my friend and I thought was a joke by saying he was going to order beef as his appetizer and beef for his entree. We were surprised when he did just that by ordering a filet appetizer and rib eye for his entree. Needless to say, he was quite full by the end of dinner. We all were, because the food was so good.

We talked about a lot of different things during dinner, from Jenna and her family to Chan’s projects and his meeting that day to reality shows we have watched and are way too embarrassed to admit, all while Chan and Jenna sat close, holding hands. I can’t believe I’ve gotten this far without mentioning they are just the cutest and most loving couple ever. Every now and then, they would just look at each other and it was like there was no one else in the room.

At one point Chan mentioned that he often turned down chances to do talk shows or interviews, because he feels it’s important that people keep Chan the person separate from Chan the actor. Sometimes if you know too much about a person, it can be difficult to really see the character they are portraying.

As some of you may imagine, hearing him say that kind of freaked me out for a second. If you’ve been reading CTU for any period of time, then you know the whole concept behind “Unwrapped” is to help people learn about Chan (the person AND the actor). I could potentially be a kink in his plan of anonymity, because of the nature of what I do everyday on this site.

Then it hit me. Unless this dinner was an elaborate way for him to “break up with CTU”, he’s obviously cool with what I do here, and I think we should all consider ourselves VERY lucky that both he and Jenna choose to connect with their fans through the site.

During dinner, I also learned that Chan is in the process of trying to learn Korean, because he is going to be starring in and executive producing the first Hollywood movie to ever film in South Korea. Sadly the technology gremlins struck again when he tried to install the software on his computer. Seems those gremlins never take a vacation when it comes to Chan. I may just have to get him a low-tech copy of a book that teaches Korean.

At some point, a hostess let us know that she had reserved a place for us in the exclusive lounge called Coco De Ville that is attached to the restaurant. It was getting late, but we decided to go to the lounge for a little bit after we finished dinner. The somewhat intimidating bouncer unhooked the velvet rope to let all of us in and my friend swears she saw Paris Hilton walking out as we arrived.

It was a lounge that played really great music, and we sat on an interesting bench that was suspended from the ceiling. We talked for a bit more, and I learned that Chan is currently in training for ‘Dear John‘, which is still scheduled to start filming in South Carolina next month. Jenna is also supposed to start filming her next movie ‘Virgin on Bourbon Street’ in September too.

We did not stay in the lounge for long. Chan, the gentleman that he is, asked us for our valet tickets so he could take care of them and we headed out to get our cars. As we walked passed the paparazzi right outside the restaurant, Chan and Jenna kept their heads down so we could walk past them without a hailstorm of flashes.

We were almost home free and then someone must have tipped them off, because they all came rushing after us. Like a scene in a movie, I just started seeing tons of flashes and hearing all of the clicks from the cameras. Fans came up to get autographs and photos with them, and they were happy to oblige. As you saw in my last post, both Chan and Jenna are so awesome with fans. They both gave me a big hug once our cars arrived, and we said our goodbyes.

I want to thank Chan and Jenna for inviting us to dinner and for taking the time to hang out with us. I can guarantee that I will never forget that night, and I definitely hope we get to have many more good times like that in the coming years.

One of the other things that I was really happy to learn at dinner is related to the new Rock4Change benefit concert that Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan have decided to support. It was great to hear about it, because one of my goals for CTU this year is to get involved with one or more charities.

Rock4Change empowers & inspires a new generation of activism through the entertainment industry, and in doing so will raise funds and awareness for important social issues that need our attention. Each one of us has the opportunity and the responsibility to use our voice to make a difference. Partnering with the biggest names in music, film, television, and sports, the organization shines a spotlight on worthwhile causes to motivate people across the globe to do their part to affect change. They invite all of us to be a part of the worldwide movement and know that together we can rock to change the world.

For the first time in ten years, the MTV Video Music Awards will take place in Los Angeles and the biggest names in music will descend upon Hollywood for the festivities. With all of the amazing talent together in the same city Rock4Change has decided to produce the ultimate party with a purpose. The goal of the event is to raise awareness and financial support for two incredible non-profit organizations who are doing life saving and life changing work in Africa, specifically to help end the atrocities in Darfur and Uganda.

The event will bring together some of the biggest names in music, TV, film and sports for a once-in-a-lifetime celebration of music, dance and the power of the human spirit. Rock4Change will feature performances by Grammy award winning artists, an original piece on the evolution of dance by award-winning choreographer Shane Sparks, video presentations from the charities, an awards presentation and many more surprises.

Jenna Dewan & Channing Tatum are going to be presenters at the benefit concert and together will introduce an incredible piece that EMMY nominated choreographer Shane Sparks (”America’s Best Dance Crew” & “So You Think You Can Dance”) is putting together on the fusion of African dance & Hip Hop.

Channing will film his public service announcement (PSA) on Friday, and I will post it on the site soon. You can watch Jenna’s PSA for the event below with Ludacris, James Franco, Flea, and Greg Grunberg:

If you are going to be in Los Angeles, California on September 4, 2008, then I encourage you to join Channing, Jenna, me, a long list of celebrities, and other supporters at the Rock4Change Fall concert event. One hundred percent of the net proceeds from ticket sales for the star studded benefit concert will fund the reforestation project in Darfur through “Aid Still Required” and the work “Hands Across Nations” does to support some of the 1 million children who have been orphaned by AIDS in Uganda. You can CLICK HERE to buy your tickets to the event.

Thanks to Rock4Change I am able to give away two FREE tickets to the concert to one lucky Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan fan. If you can attend the event and would like to win the tickets, then here’s what you need to do to enter the contest:

1) CLICK HERE to quickly signup for the Channing Tatum Unwrapped newsletter where you will get a daily email with any articles I have posted in the last 24 hours. If you don’t want to miss out on any juicy Channing Tatum and/or Jenna Dewan news, then the newsletter is the best way to go. If you are already subscribed to the newsletter, then you can skip to step #2.

2) Send me an email from the address you used to sign up for the newsletter to contests@channingtatumunwrapped.com with “Rock4Change” in the subject, your mailing address and phone number in the body of the email, and an explanation of why you would like to win the tickets. I have another contest running right now, so it’s important that you have the correct subject on your email.

Each fan can enter the contest one time. Please do not submit multiple entries, because only your first submission will be used. The winner of the contest will be announced on this Saturday, August 23, 2008, so please submit your entries by the end of the day on Friday, August 22, 2008 to try to win the prize. Good luck everyone!!!!

CTU EXCLUSIVE: Learn About Channing Tatum Through the Eyes of His Mom Kay

If you’ve been reading CTU for a while, then you know it was a little over a year ago when I received a surprising and extremely sweet email from Channing Tatum’s mom Kay thanking me for the site and letting me know that the family read it to keep up with Chan’s career. It was so incredible, flattering, and unbelievable, and Kay even started sending in Pictures of the Week, baby photos, and exclusive info on Chan’s upcoming projects both before and after Chan made CTU his official site.

Through all of our emails over the past year, I’m glad to say that Kay and I formed a friendship, so one of the things I was most looking forward to on my recent trip to LA was to finally meet Chan’s family in person. As I write this post, it’s hard for me to stop smiling, because my day with Kay and my dinner with Chan and Jenna the next day were hands down my favorite parts of the trip. Teen Choice was awesome, but for me, what really made the trip was to be able to spend quality time with both old and new friends.

I’ll cover my dinner with Chan and Jenna tomorrow, but in today’s post, you all get to hear about my awesome day with Mama Kay…

On Sunday, I was getting ready for the Teen Choice Awards and realized that I had missed a call on my phone. Turns out, the message was from Kay and it was great to hear her adorable southern accent for the first time. With butterflies in my stomach, I called her right back so we could make plans for the next day. Once we started talking, the butterflies were replaced with total excitement, because like Channing, she has this ability to make you feel like you’ve known her forever. It obviously runs in the family, much like their gorgeous green eyes and their love of the simple life.

The next day Kay picked me up and it was so great to finally see her in person. We gave each other a big hug in the car and started what ended up being a 10 hour gab fest on Chan, his girlfriend Jenna Dewan (who they all rightfully ADORE by the way), his family, his career, my family, my life, the site…I think you get the point. We talked about everything, and I loved every second of it.

Sadly, Chan’s dad Glenn and his sister Paige were not able to join us. Glenn had promised to help a neighbor that day and Paige had to work. Even though Paige was not able to come with us, she used her connections at a local museum to get us passes to tour around and look at the exhibits while we talked. At one point, we realized that we were doing a lot more gabbing than looking, so we grabbed a snack at a café inside the museum and stayed there until they almost had to kick us out.

After the museum, we headed on over to the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica to have dinner where (you guessed it) we talked some more and visited a local bookstore. I’m sure you’re all dying to know what we talked about for so long. To protect the innocent (or not so innocent in some cases), I can’t divulge everything, but I can share a few things I learned.

Chan’s family is very close, so his parents moved out from Florida to California a few years ago so they could be near Chan and his sister Paige. Growing up in Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida, Chan was an extremely active child who played and loved practically every sport, except basketball. Before the age of five Chan had had more stitches than his mom could count, but surprisingly has never broken a bone (knock on wood).

To channel all of his natural energy, Kay and Glenn enrolled Chan in karate when he was young. He was so good at it that he was able to earn his blackbelt by the age of 11. Kay also confirmed that Chan has some serious Gremlins when it comes to technology and that she’s personally seen a perfectly new Ipod plain outright refuse to work after Chan got a hold of it.

With the success that Channing has achieved in such a short period of time, it’s surprising to know that acting was not originally in the plan. Chan was hooked after he did his first international commercial for Pepsi where he plays a DJ in the famed Copacabana and has continued to hone his craft ever since then. He truly loves everything about it, immerses himself in it to learn everything that he can, is ready to flex his producing muscles with projects he has lined up, and is also writing a script with Jenna.

Not surprisingly, he’s a big old softy and Kay told me a cute story about how Chan wanted to do something special for director Anne Fletcher before he started filming ‘Step Up‘. He got it in his head that he wanted to make Anne a spirit stick for the first day of filming. Chan knew exactly what he wanted it to look like and described it to his parents so they could get everything he needed while he was in rehearsals for the movie.

Kay and Glenn being the supportive parents they are went around Baltimore finding all of the materials, but could not find the kind of stick that Chan really wanted. At some point, Chan saw what he thought would be the perfect stick on the banks of the Baltimore harbor. It was slimy and yucky, but after a bath in bleach, they are able to salvage this perfectly crooked piece of wood and make the spirit stick Chan wanted.

Chan has had a lot of great people in his life that have helped him get to where he is now. People like Sting’s wife and ‘A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints’ producer Trudie Styler who invited studio executives over to her house just to show them footage of Chan as Antonio in ‘Saints’ before the movie was even done, which put him on the path to getting his role in ‘Stop-Loss’.

Along the way, Chan also had a very supportive acting coach who believed in him so much, she trained him without taking payment. Once he got his first big paycheck, Chan not only paid her for all of the free classes, but he asked his mom to have a special quilt made with a phrase that the teacher often used embroidered on it and to stuff the quilt with the payment. Kay had the quilt made and she and Paige stuffed the money inside so Chan could deliver it to the teacher that supported both he and Jenna as their stars were rising.

For me, a person’s true character is what they do when people aren’t looking, so I really loved the stories that Kay was telling me, because they are one of the many examples of who Chan is as a person when the cameras are not rolling. With Chan and Jenna, what you see is what you get. They are the two most non-Hollywood celebrities that you will ever find. In today’s world, it’s refreshing to know that people like that do exist, and they have their family backing them up every step of the way.

Chan told me at Teen Choice the day before that he had a couple of meetings on Monday, but we would try to have dinner. While Kay and I were at dinner, he called his mom to apologize for not being able to meet us. Incredibly, his meetings had gone so well that day that he had a follow up meeting with a Hollywood screen legend that has written a script, is planning on directing it I believe, and is considering Chan for a role. When that kind of thing happens, it’s important that actors do their homework and learn as much as they can about the person they are going to meet with, so I completely understood why he could not come to dinner that night. Chan’s mom handed me the phone so I could talk to him and it was so cute to hear how excited he was about the potential role and meeting the well-established actor that you all would recognize in a heartbeat.

It’s always great to see how Chan is not jaded with this kind of stuff. Every new milestone is met with excitement, because he’s so humble about everything. Before we got off the phone, he said that we would try to meet with me the next day before I left, so I kept my fingers crossed.

After almost 10 hours and numerous phone calls from Glenn checking on Kay to make sure I had not kidnapped her (just kidding), Kay finally dropped me off back at my bestfriend’s house. It was really late, so Glenn called one more time to check on Kay, and he told her to thank me for everything I do here at CTU.

In Kay fashion, she tells him that he can tell me himself. She hands me the phone, and he proceeds to do just that. I was so surprised to hear his slight New Orleans accent and was touched by what he had to say. I’m warning you people right now, if Chan’s parents disappear one day, he should know exactly where to check. I’m not kidding when I say that if I had enough room in my suitcase for them to comfortably fit, they would have made an unplanned trip to Houston.

I can’t thank Kay enough for spending so much time with me, for sharing her stories and her family with me, and for letting me share mine with her. I truly treasured the entire day with my new friend. I saw a kindred spirit in her and fell in love with the fact that she’s such a proud mom and that Chan’s family is so supportive of him. That support definitely goes both ways, and I’m not surprised, because he learned from the best.

In my next and final post on my incredible trip to LA, you will get to hear all about my fabulous dinner with Channing Tatum and his girlfriend Jenna Dewan.

This is post #3 in a series of 4 articles about my trip. You can CLICK HERE to read the first article that recaps my visit with ‘Stop-Loss‘ director Kimberly Peirce, CLICK HERE to read all about my adventures at the Teen Choice Awards, and CLICK HERE to read all of the articles from my trip.

And don’t forget to CLICK HERE and skip to the end of the article to learn how to enter the most recent CTU contest where you can win a VIP pass autographed by Channing Tatum and the goody bag I received at the 2008 Teen Choice Awards last week.

CTU EXCLUSIVE: Channing Tatum and Girlfriend Jenna Dewan at the 2008 Teen Choice Awards

In the first of 4 articles recapping my 5-day trip to Los Angeles, California last week, you all learned about my awesome visit with ‘Stop-Loss’ director Kimberly Peirce.

Today’s post is all about my amazing experiences at the 2008 Teen Choice Awards on Sunday, August 3, 2008. Before the event, my best friend and I had breakfast at a popular Santa Monica farmer’s market, went home to get ready, and then took part in an age-old awards show tradition of getting my makeup done before we headed over to the venue.

As I mentioned before, getting tickets to this particular event is really difficult because of the popularity of it. In the end, I was able to get a ticket from my best friend’s company and 2008 Teen Choice Awards sponsor, Neutrogena. They had 65 tickets in total, and from what I understand, ten of them were VIP. Once we arrived, we had to meet up with the person who had what I thought was going to be my general admission ticket to the event. For whatever reason, when I opened the envelope, it had a VIP pass and ticket inside instead. Can’t even explain how excited I was!!!

You’re probably asking what is the difference between a General and a VIP ticket. Well, I now know that there’s a world of difference! The people with General tickets enter the venue from the front door and are restricted from entering in certain areas in the arena (generally the ones where celebrities are sitting or congregating).

On the other hand, VIP ticket holders get to enter the venue from a guarded back entrance with celebs, get to walk the red (blue in this case) carpet if you want, get to hang out with the celebs outside before they take their seats, get to go into the heavily-guarded pit-o-celebs at the foot of the stage where you all saw people sitting on the white couches on TV, and most importantly, get access to the ever-popular, goody-packed gifting retreat that you see Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan in with American Idol’s Randy Jackson on the right.

When we arrived, we decided to bypass the blue carpet. We figured the photographers would not be too interested in us no-celebs and decided to save us all a little embarrassment when their cameras would have gone silent as we made out way down the carpet.

Once we entered the outside backstage area, I started spotting stars like Minka Kelly form “Friday Night Lights”, Josh Duhamel from “Las Vegas”, Hayden Panettiere from “Heroes”, Mandy from the M&M Cru, Jon M. Chu and the entire ACDC crew, Selena Gomez from Disney’s “Wizards of Waverly Place”, and the list goes on. It was like I was standing smack dab in the middle of an issue of US Weekly. I was loving every bit of it and still not believing my luck with the VIP pass!

Not knowing when Chan and Jenna would arrive, I decided to go inside the venue. I took a short video from my seat in the Gibson Amphitheater at Universal City to give you all an idea of the atmosphere of the event. You can check it out below:

Although there was a lot of activity, it took awhile for the show to actually start taping. In the meantime, I was able to star watch as the celebrities continued to arrive at the event and sit in the white couch area in front of the stage.

From Fergie to Will Smith and his kids to Zach Efron and Vanessa Hudchens to David Beckham, Posh, and their kids to the Gossip Girl cast to Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan, the stars were showing up in droves and the fans in the audience were screaming for all of them like crazy.

If you even looked like you were going to say the words Miley or Jonas Brothers, the crowd erupted into eardrum-piercing screams. The energy in the room was insane and contagious!

The show finally began with Miley singing her new hit single ‘7 Things’, and I have to say that I was even singing along to it. It’s what happens when you have a 3 and an 8 year old that watch the Disney Channel 24/7.

Later on, Mariah Carey also performed her song “I’ll Be Lovin’ U Long Time” to the delight of the very excited crowd. How she did not fall in those insanely high yellow heels, I’ll never know, but the performance was great.

As I mentioned in a previous article, your hard work and votes helped Channing Tatum win Choice Dramatic Actor for ‘Stop-Loss‘ and helped his movie ‘Step Up 2: The Streets‘ win Choice Drama. Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan’s M&M Cru also won the BIGGEST online dance battle known to mankind. Although we did not get Choice MySpacer, thanks to everyone who took the time to vote for all of the categories that Channing was nominated in, and as far as I’m concerned, 3 out of 4 is nothing to sneeze at!!!

During one of the commercial breaks, my magical VIP pass allowed me to cross the sea of stars sitting on the white couches to get to Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan. With Will Smith and his kids sitting in the couch in front of them and the Beckhams not far away on their right, I honestly felt like I was in an alter-world or something.

Chan saw me and bounced off the couch to give me a big hug and kiss on the cheek (I’m looking into how to preserve my face at this time). I was even more excited, because after emailing for months, I finally got to meet Jenna Dewan in person for the first time, and she gave me a big hug too. We did not get to talk all that long, because I had to return to my seat before the commercial break was over, but we did make plans to meet for dinner before I left LA (more on that in LA-recap post #4).

Later in the night, I made another venture into what I affectionately call the “Celeb Pit” to finally meet Jon M. Chu and Adam Sevani in person. Jon was awesome and very nice. And if you watched the “So You Think You Can Dance” finale this week, then you know that ‘Step Up’ and ‘Step Up 2′ executive producer Adam Shankman (who was also at Teen Choice) announced that Jon will return to direct ‘Step Up 3-D‘ and that Adam Sevani will also be starring in the film. I want to send out a huge congrats to both of them!!!

After the show, most of the celebs headed home or to other destinations, but before he left, Channing and numerous other celebrities at the 2008 Teen Choice Awards autographed Texas Instruments gear for City of Hope, a leading research and treatment center for cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases. The autographed TI-Nspire graphing calculators will be given to patients at City of Hope for use in their math and science courses.

The rest of us walked to the show’s after party at a place called Jillian’s in Universal City. At the party, they gave away blue Teen Choice Awards cooler bags with swag from sponsors Dr. Pepper, Neutrogena, Fox, and more.

Although you all may not have been able to attend the event with Chan, Jenna, and I, one lucky CTU reader is not only going to be able to win the bag that you see me holding in the photo on the left, but I also had Channing autograph the all-important VIP pass that allowed me to rub elbows with the celebs at the event. It did not hit me until after I got home from LA that I should of had Jenna sign it too, but I promise I will not make that mistake again.

If you would like to win the exclusive, autographed VIP pass and 2008 Teen Choice Awards goody bag, then here’s what you need to do to enter the contest:

1) CLICK HERE to quickly signup for the Channing Tatum Unwrapped newsletter where you will get a daily email with any articles I have posted in the last 24 hours. If you don’t want to miss out on any juicy Channing Tatum and/or Jenna Dewan news, then the newsletter is the best way to go. If you are already subscribed to the newsletter, then you can skip to step #2.

2) Send me an email from the address you used to sign up for the newsletter to contests@channingtatumunwrapped.com with “Teen Choice” in the subject and your mailing address in the body of the email. I have another contest that will start in a few days, so it’s important that you have the correct subject on your email.

Each fan can enter the contest one time. Please do not submit multiple entries, because only your first submission will be used. The winner of the contest will be announced on this Saturday, August 16, 2008 (the 1 year anniversary of Channing Tatum making CTU his official site), so please submit your entries by the end of the day on Friday, August 15, 2008 to try to win the prize. Good luck everyone!!!!

I had an amazing time at the 2008 Teen Choice Awards. My only regret is that I completely forgot to go to the gifting retreat, and I heard that they had some really awesome swag in there. Let it be known that I will NOT make that mistake twice.

I know that Channing and Jenna have plenty more awards shows, premieres, and sets that they will be involved with for many years to come. If given the opportunity, I hope to be able to cover some of them too so I can share the experience with all of you. Well, that’s it for this show, but fans can CLICK HERE to check out tons of photos from the event.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post where I will recap my awesome day with Channing Tatum’s mom Kay. Yet another one I promise fan’s won’t want to miss.

CTU EXCLUSIVE: Hanging Out with ‘Stop-Loss’ Director Kimberly Peirce

 

As most of you know, I just returned from a world-wind trip to Los Angeles, California where I had a ball living life LA-style for 5 days thanks to my best friend Natasha, ‘Stop-Loss‘ director Kimberly Peirce, the 2008 Teen Choice Awards, Channing Tatum’s mom Kay, and of course, our favorite couple Chenna (aka Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan).

Because I have so much to recap, I’m going to break my trip up into four different articles. For article #1, I’m going to highlight the first couple days of my trip where I got to catch up with Kimberly Peirce at her home/office in Malibu and learn more about what the director’s been up to lately. I have a lot to cover, so let’s get started…

My trip to LA was jammed-packed pretty much from start to finish. When I arrived last Friday afternoon, my best friend and I grabbed a quick bite to eat before we went home to get ready for dinner at a local sushi place called Tangu. After dinner, we went to a launch party for a new stylist and then we headed over to a luxury hotel in Santa Monica called The Viceroy to meet a few of her friends before we called it a night…and that was just the beginning.

On Saturday, we went to an insanely hard hour and a half long yoga class at Maha Yoga in Brentwood that had me using muscles I did not know even existed (until they started to hurt really badly a few days later that is). After class, I was really happy to find out for sure that my best friend’s company and 2008 Teen Choice Awards Sponsor, Neutrogena, was going to be able to give me a ticket for the show (more on the show in a later post).

Believe it or not, it’s really hard to get tickets to this particular event, because it’s so popular. If you saw the show, you know that practically every big name in young Hollywood was in attendance. Chan, Jenna, and Kay all tried to get me a ticket to no avail, so I really lucked out that my best friend worked for one of the major sponsors. You’ll find out exactly how lucky in a later post.

After yoga, I was really excited when I got an email from Kim Peirce confirming that we could meet up with her that day, so we went home to change and headed on over to Malibu. If you have not checked out Kim’s official site, then you should definitely go to KimberlyPeirce.com to learn more about the talented director and her past, present, and future projects. The site is really cool, because it’s centered around her home office that has the most fabulous views of the Pacific ocean.

Kim was so nice to us. She took the time to help me learn a little more about the industry, let us take a walk on the private beach behind her home where she sometimes plays volleyball with friends like Matthew Mcconaughey, and even let my best friend borrow one of the DVD’s she had just watched to research her next project.

One of my favorite parts of our visit was when she allowed me to look through all of the still photography from the set of Channing Tatum’s Iraq war drama ‘Stop-Loss‘. You can check out a few of the high quality photos and an unreleased poster I found below:

 

Interestingly enough, I learned that Kim collects Barbie dolls from other countries and that she had just seen Chan at the resent ‘Pineapple Express’ premiere that both Chan and Jenna Dewan attended the Thursday before I arrived in LA.

And although an official announcement has not been made yet, she was excited to tell us all about a new film that she had just successfully pitched. The movie’s story board was propped up against her fireplace in the middle of the living room showing a scene by scene breakdown of the entire film. It was really cool to get an insiders perspective on that part of the movie-making process.

Because they are still in negotiations, I can’t tell you the title of the film yet (so excited to know something before it hits the pages of Variety). What I can say is that it’s going to be Kim’s first journey into comedy, and it’s a romantic comedy at that. Not something you would expect from the director of dramatic films like ‘Boys Don’t Cry‘ or ‘Stop-Loss‘, but you won’t want to miss the film that is patterned after her own complicated romantic life.

She is currently working on the first draft of the script, and I believe the goal is to start filming the movie in the next year or so, so Kim is on a very short time table as far as Hollywood movie-making is concerned. I definitely wish her luck with her new project and hope that everyone will support her whenever it releases.

Since the theatrical and DVD releases of the film around the world are coming to a close for the most part, Kim has pretty much wrapped up most of her promotional duties for Channing Tatum’s ‘Stop-Loss‘. As far as the movie is concerned, Australian fans need to be on the lookout, because the film will have it’s theatrical release in your country on August 14, 2008. The movie will also release on DVD in the UK on August 18, 2008.

I truly enjoyed my visit with the extremely talented director, and I want to thank her for her time, for all of the Hollywood scoop, and for sharing a bit of her life with all of us.

After we left Kim’s we headed home to get ready for dinner. I had made reservations at LA hotspot STK weeks before and my friend also made reservations for us at the popular celeb hang out called The Chateau Marmount. I had my first random celebrity sitings at both places, because David Spade and his party ate dinner in a booth near us and amazingly, Sharon Stone sparked a conversation with me in the bathroom of Chateau. Needless to say, it was a very fun day and incredibly, it only got better in the days to come.

Stay tuned for my next three posts that will cover my LA adventures at the 2008 Teen Choice Awards, my day with Chan’s mom Kay, and an amazing dinner with both Chan and Jenna at their favorite restaurant.