If a tree falls in the forest & no one is around to hear it...

A couple of weeks ago, I was watching the Today Show on my slingbox, and the hosts started talking about their 60th anniversary special.  They invited viewers around the world to let them know how they watched the show, and on a lark, I sent them a picture of the Eiffel tower and a quick email saying I watched from Paris.

A few hours later, I got a call from one of the show's producers and he asked if I would be willing to be filmed for the segment.  I'm pretty shy and my first response was No, but we talked for a while and he said to just think about it and get back to him.

That night, I was telling Chris all about it while watching Royal Pains.  In that particular episode, one of the characters was obsessed with promoting their company on the Today Show, and he was stalking Matt Lauer.  They ended up getting a short segment on the show in the end, and the randomness of it all convinced me that it was a sign from the universe to go ahead and do it.

So a few days later, I found myself at Chez Françis with their Paris producer and her cameraman. I had suggested Café de Flore, but they chose the location because of its great views of the Eiffel Tower - because as we all know, in TV land it is mandatory for any shot of Paris to include the Iron Lady.

It ended up being an interesting hour or two - both of them had met all kinds of fabulous people, and I really enjoyed hearing about their various experiences.  In the meantime, they took a lot of shots of me watching the show from the café from all different angles, of me getting out of the metro and sitting down, of me walking along the Seine, etc.  It was actually pretty neat, and funny to see how people reacted to seeing a cameraman following someone.  Like "Who is that girl and why is she being filmed?  Should we take a picture of her just in case?"   And then that was followed by a short interview with questions such as "How/why do you watch the show?" and "Who's your favorite host?" etc.

That night, I met up with a friend for a drink, and she immediately noticed something was different and then asked why on Earth I was wearing fake eyelashes on a Monday. So I explained what the whole story, but asked her not to mention it to anyone. She found my request completely ridiculous - like why would I agree to be on one of the most-watched shows in the US if I didn't want to be seen?!  And of course I understand that makes no sense whatsoever - but I'm still shy and I had justified it to myself by saying that no one I know watches the Today Show, so it wouldn't really matter if I was on it anyways. 

And it really didn't - they chopped all that film down to about 20 seconds, and the only people who saw it were my cousin's wife (who's on maternity leave) and one dear reader of this blog.  And that suits me just fine - it was a fun experience, but I am quite okay with the fact that my 15 seconds of fame went largely unseen by my friends and loved ones.  Does that make me weird?  (Sophie, don't answer that).