Pretty much everyone you meet in LA who isn't at law school is working in 'TV' or 'Film'. Every time I take a taxi, the driver is a small time producer or an aspiring actor or director. It gets old pretty quickly and I've had to consciously stop myself from rolling my eyes heavenward when I meet someone and they say, 'I'm in TV.' Which is why it's lucky that Portia met Paul, who works at Fox producing...dum dum DAH....NEW GIRL! (What's New Girl? Oh, you know, just my favourite sitcom EVER.) Because Portia met him first, and because Portia is a sweetie, they chatted and made friends, so that by the time I arrived, she had already established that he worked on New Girl and we just started quoting all of our favourite lines from the show - all three seasons of it. If you know me, you know that I could probably keep going on that tack for a good long time. Anyway, clearly we sufficiently demonstrated our fangirl status, because Paul invited us (and by 'us' I really mean Portia, who invited us along with her) to go and visit the New Girl set. Pause. THE. NEW. GIRL. SET.
This is the crazy stuff that happens when you're living in LA. I can basically die happy. Well, no, not yet because I still need to meet Johnny Depp.
People. I sat on the couch. THE couch. And on Jess's bed. And on Coach's bed. I stood in the kitchen! The New Girl KITCHEN that we see on TV every Tuesday! I just can't even. I literally died.
Here are some photos of one of the coolest missions so far (in order, left to right):
The loft; Winston's room; me in Coach's room; Fox; a photograph of Schmidt in his room (the one he's presently sharing with Nick); me in Jess's room!; Portia in Jess's closet having a Jess moment; on Jess's bed; outside the loft; me with the photo of Jess and Cece in Jess's room; the cafe place they hang out at sometimes; Portia at Nick's bar; a picture of Nick in his room; Nick and Schmidt's room; me in the New Girl kitchen. I have a pic of all of us on the couch, but that has to wait because it containes a spoiler. Sorry folks!
I'll be honest, it was a little bit weird being in this place that I've seen so much of. It's very much a stage. The details were very cool though. For example, all of the actors have decorated their rooms - Jake, who plays Nick, brought in his own records and posters. So did Winston and Schmidt. Coach's room is full of all this sport equipment. There are real bottles of wine.
Here are some fun facts: in the show, they live in Downtown LA, in the Arts District (one of my favourite spots, incidentally). They used to film in Downtown but all the residents got irritated, so they stopped. Their facades are modelled on real places in LA. The real version of Nick's bar can be found in Los Feliz, in LA. Jess has a whole lot of wool and knitting kneedles in her room. Also, this coming season will focus on her job more, so they're putting together a school stage.
Definitely one of the coolest things I've done in LA thus far! Thanks, Portia, for taking me along!