And I thought my Informant adventures were over . . .

I thought I was done with anything Informant-wise even though they were to continue filming at the courthouse in Decatur on Saturday morning. My personal "informant" called me Friday to tell me. But I had a wedding reception which I was shooting at 5:00, so I decided I didn't want to spend my entire day in Decatur just waiting in hopes of seeing someone famous. Not that waiting isn't fun, because it's one of the biggest thrills I've ever personally experienced. Maybe that says how completely boring my life is, I don't know? But still, I've really really enjoyed the past week of celebrity watching like hugely.

So I still left my house at 3:30 to meet my bestie (a.k.a. my wedding assistant), Heather, at her house before we went on to the reception. Of course on my way to Heather's I had to stop for some coffee at Starbucks. That stop really threw off my next plan. Pure craziness, I tell ya.

While sitting in Starbucks drive-thru, I see a big tour bus.
I knew it belonged to someone in the Informant. Not sure who, but I had seen it on location at the shoots. So what do I do but follow the crazy thing. It ends up downtown where they were filming at the courthouse and there I see tons of huge tents set up and all the same trailers and trucks that were there on Tuesday.
So I called Heather and told her I wasn't coming to her house, asking her to please meet me downtown because I had some other important business. (hehe)

I park my car and just walk up to the tents. There are no other fans or "regular" people there but me and two other women. I see these two women standing near two men who appeared to be looking at a paper and talking.
I walk up closer and realize it is Mr. Steve Soderbergh and Gregory Jacobs. They look up, see me, see that I have a camera and ask if I wanted a picture. I was thinking "um, yeah!", but said, "yes, please!". One of the two women standing there said "I was next!" really snottily. Hmph! Well, I'm sorry but, the nice man asked me himself! It's not like I was budging in line. Of course I let them go ahead. Mr. Soderbergh and Mr. Jacobs obviously intended to stick around for a picture for me. . . and they most certainly did! I asked some bystander to take the picture, which was a total risk, but I felt it was worth it :c) And so here it is . . .

Steve Soderbergh (to my right) who is the director (and who has also won an Oscar and has directed all the Ocean's movies, Traffic, to name a few). And then on my left is Gregory Jacobs who is the producer and was the producer for all the same movies, Erin Brokovich and so many others. This moment was almost as big as Matt Damon . . . possibly bigger . . . well, maybe not? :c) Here's Mr. Director doing some taping himself:

He also signed my book for me. Heather called me a 5-letter "b" word for this one because more than anything this is what she wanted. Even though I love her, she'll have to wrestle me for it. :c)


I then decide to just wait around. In the meantime, Heather is on her way and just about there. She makes it in time to see Scott Bakula from afar and Matt Damon before he leaves. Here's Matt with a group of young girls. He really like the children which is really awesome. Doesn't he look adorable from the back?? :c)
At least I got to see him one final time in person.

A few minutes later Mr. McHale comes out. He comes over to see us. Only a few of us there. A total flirt he was and so adorable. I think he is my new boyfriend :c) He asked why I was so dressed up and I said because I was about to go photograph a wedding. So he signed my book and here's what he wrote (mine's on the left):

Which was much better than what he wrote to this chick (on the right). I even got a "'heart' Joel" on mine. :c)
He squeezes me. Yep, he's my new boyfriend.
Heather and Joel.

What a fantasy brought to life all of that was. It really was incredible. I wish more of my friends could have been there with me, really truly. But now it's time to get back to reality. The crew of the Informant are now on their way to Springfield, IL for 2 days of taping and then on to Hawaii (Oahu, actually) to finish. What a great way to end filming, eh?! The actual movie comes out next March. I absolutely cannot wait, and even if the premiere isn't here, you can guarantee I'll be going to the movies in a red carpet dress anyways.

Thanks for sharing in this adventure with me. I've loved the enthusiasm you've all had for me . . . with me. :c) Now back to my life.

(You can see more of my pictures from yesterday at my flickr account.)

Putting Matt aside for a moment . . .

Some exciting stuff happened yesterday in this toddler potty-training home.

Maia went all day in her big girl underwear with NO accidents! Poo and pee all in the POTTY! I can just (not) hear it now . . . no more "cha-chings" at the cash register buying diapers!!!

I thought potty training was hard with Noah; he wanted to do it when he was ready and that seemed to take for-EVER. For Maia it's been back and forth, back and forth. And that's been tiring, hard and just frustrating. But what we did was stop buying diapers all together (minus night-times) so it's not even an option and suddenly, suddenly (!) she wants to be a "big girl"!! Night time is another story, but I know we'll get there. At least there is hope. 5 years with diapers and I may may may actually be done (knock-on-wood)!! WOW. :c)

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Noah is a tiny bit sick. He isn't "acting" sick but he's been infected (very very mildly) with the Chicken Pox! (He thinks a rooster pecked him in the night!) Yes, he's had the vaccine, but there's always still the chance you can get whatever it is. And he did. Actually, most of his school has. I knew it was just a matter of time before we got it here. He has 6 spots. And he's doing fine. He can go back to school on Wednesday, pending there are no more outbreaks on him, just in time for his field trip to the zoo which his mommy is excited about :c)

Back to Matt. Susan, from WBNQ in Bloomington (101.5) has a blog and apparently she has been tracking Matt as well. She's got some great info and great pictures! And I read there that George Clooney is coming to town this weekend. (Really?! Seriously?? Oh please please!) I have a reception that I'm shooting downtown, and not till 5:00 . . . Heather and I may be doing some stalking beforehand! (It's not like we have anything better to do!) And I also read that the cute body guard who I have a few (dozen) pictures of, his name is Mark. And apparently Mark is normally Will Smith's body guard. Kinda. . . exciting :)

Off to work . . . lots of proofing to do. Check out VWC Photography's blog for the latest! (That is, if I can ever get anything done. Matt is all-consuming. He needs to leave town soon so I can get back to my REAL work!)

Informant fun facts (and observations)

Holy cow! I can't believe all the visitors to my site the last 24 hours. It's funny how it's all getting passed around, but then again, Matt is the Sexiest Man Alive. Too bad he didn't look like this on Tuesday:



I found that I've been linked by a Matt Damon Column, which is why I'm getting all this traffic. Kinda fun, eh? Welcome to all of you from the Matt Damon Column and to those I've seen referred to me through Google images and Google blog search! It's not normally that interesting around here unless you're looking for photography pointers :c) Thanks for stopping by and I'd love it if you commented and told me you were here.

Here are some personal observations from the two days among other facts:

• Joel McHale is actually quite cute, very goofy and as tall as Neil. He reminds me A LOT of Neil, but Joel is a little more "expressive"!
• Matt Damon is as cute as I imagined him to be, maybe even a bit cuter. But that may also be because he touched me and he has nice hands :)
• Matt Damon is very gracious. He took out loads of time for each person waiting to see him. He signed autographs, had his picture taken over and over, even took time to joke around. He spent extra time with those people with young kids and handicapped folks. It was about 40 minutes that he stood signing autographs and having pictures taken. (That's amazing.)
• Matt Damon's crew is very cute :c)
• Matt's wife is very very pretty. She is Argentine and according to my friend, Jo, the owner of It's a Girl Thing, she speaks to Isabella in both languages (is it Spanish or Portuguese?). It reminds me of my friend, Beth, who husband is from Brazil and they speak to their son in both languages. It's pretty awesome.
• I didn't know who Scott Bakula was at all until I overhead someone say he was on Quantum Leap. Then I remembered! I think my mom and dad watched that show! :c) Was it good?
• Hollywood spends a lot of money to put on a movie. For instance, I know that they "leased" the entire parking lot of the Decatur Club for their equipment and vehicles. They also had to pay the city to have extra security, to block streets, to use buildings, to rent parking spaces, to take city things down (like parking meters), etc. They also paid residents of Decatur $75 an hour to use their cars. They also paid the "extras", and I'm assuming even if they didn't actually work because they had to stand around all day long. And all that, of course, is on top of the actual props, all the crew (I would guess 50-ish crew members), and of course the actors.
• Hollywood people are like you and me. Luciana had on flats, jeans and a tee. Crew members wore Nike's and jeans. It's nice to see.
• Matt really likes Starbucks. This was the 2nd time I saw him with Starbucks coffee.
• Matt does not have as much security as I thought he would. He always had at least a driver and a body guard in the car. When he got out of the car, the body guard never followed him. Police weren't around him; just at certain "spots". Scott and Joel never had security with them - that I saw.
• they actually say "cut" and "that's a rap!". They also say "Rolling!!".
• Luciana knows what the sex of the new baby that she is carrying is. And the only other person in the city of Decatur that appears to know, other than Matt, is Jo, the owner of It's a Girl Thing. Luciana bought clothes for the new baby and she made Jo swear she would not breath a word what the sex of the baby is. And she's not! HOW COOL IS THAT?!
• My father-in-law worked for the same company as Mark Whitacre and was an executive at the time as well. I just found out last night by my husband's mom that the FBI came to their house for questioning. Kinda cool. It's especially cool because Neil's dad had nothing to do with the price-fixing. Phew!
• Neil works with Kirk Schmidt who is being played in the movie by Eddie Jemison (he was in all the Ocean's movies). Eddie looks nothing like Kirk which is pretty funny.
• I also learned that i could very easily become one of the paparazzi. I would do it in a heartbeat, actually. I really enjoyed snapping pictures of these people. I enjoyed the excitement and thrill. I totally understand why people do it for the money!! I'm now considering moving to California :c)
• Matt and the crew really like to eat at Bijou and The Beach House.
• I also just learned that they're going to Hawaii next for some taping for the show (not sure why?). That would be a great way to end traveling to Decatur, I suppose ;)

The big question of the day is . . . will the premiere of the movie be in Decatur?!?!

My 2-day Matt Damon journey

I'm still on this huge high! It almost doesn't seem real that I saw all the filming that I did and that my determination paid off with getting to see and meet a huge celebrity. Wow, what an AMAZING moment.

Here's a little bit more about the movie and the characters in it. A really big lineup of celebrities!

This taken from cinematical.com:

"There have been some questions raised about the accuracy of Kurt Eichenwald's account of Mark Whitacre and ADM, but whatever might be the truth, The Informant should make for a pretty darned entertaining drama. Imagine a man who becomes the highest-level whistleblower in US history, switches sides to work for the FBI for three years, defrauds his company, lies, and ultimately reveals that he suffers from bipolar disorder.

Paul Greengrass' film already has Matt Damon signed on to play Whitacre, and now The Hollywood Reporter posts that more cast have hopped onboard -- all of which, surprisingly, have notable comedic work. The new players are: Scott Bakula, Joel McHale (The Soup), Mike O'Malley (Yes, Dear), Andrew Daly (Semi-Pro), Adam Paul (Hollywood Residential), Melanie Lynskey (Two and a Half Men), and "comedian-actors" Tom Wilson, Rick Overton, and Tom Papa.

If you think this looks like more comedy than could possibly be coincidental, you'd be right. A source told THR that Soderbergh wants the thriller to have "dark comedy elements. He chose comedic actors who haven't been overexposed on film, planning to have them play their roles seriously and have a humorous tone emerge naturally."

Bakula and McHale play FBI agents working with agri-business insider Mark Whitacre (Damon) to stop a price-fixing scam. Eddie Jemison plays Kirk Schmidt, a guy my husband, Neil, works with! It's crazy in a really cool way!

{ I took down the slide show because it was just slowing things down here. You can still see all pictures at my flickr. }