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SVU Seminar November 28, 2000 |
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Fruity I met up with Elisa about 5:45pm in front of the building. And slowly, more of us started showing up and gathering, unorganized, in front of the door. Considering that there was only one person there before us, Ing decided there was no need to stand in the line that was forming. When time came to let us in, everyone pretty much rushed through the one door and this woman behind us was complaining loudly about how unfair it was and how unorganized the crowed got. We all lined up inside and she complained even more because there were 11 of us in front of her and she thought she and her son/husband should be ahead of us. I don't know why. Anyway, they let us in 10 at a time to fill in the seats. Before the panel began, everyone talked and laughed and we noticed that most of the audience was over 50! As Ingrid, Christina, Beth, Elisa and I joked, I noticed that those two complainers kept staring at us...as if we had nothing better to do than talk about them. So, first, the panel's significant others filed in and took their seats in the reserved area. Then Meloni came down the steps, he looked tired and was wearing a slate green shirt and black leather pants. He sat down in the last reserved seat but the usher pulled him up and put him down front. Hargitay, Merkeson, Wolf and Orbach came down afterwards, Hargitay also wearing black leather pants with a black nit scoop-neck sweater and matching scarf. The moderator talked a little, showed a few clips of L&O and SVU then introduced the panel. He said that Wolf has appeared at these events the most and Wolf said no, it's Tom Fontana! Hargitay got up first, then Meloni, Merkeson and then Orbach (who got the loudest applause). Beth has excellent and legible notes on the Q&A so I don't have to go into that right now. I do remember that the annoying woman got the first audience question. Leener got to ask one and I got to ask one. Meloni was a big ham, as tired as he looked, he still had the energy to crack a lot of jokes. While answering a question, Merkeson suddenly looked out into the audience and shouted out, "Arthur, is that you?" and that became a running joke, as well as jabs at the FL ballot counting. After the panel discussion finished, we all went down to the stage but there were a lot of people in the way! I got up the nerve to approach Mr. Orbach and shake his hand then while everyone did their thing with Meloni, I stood in the sidelines with Ms. Sherman Williams. I had already met Meloni so I really didn't want to intrude on everyone else's time with him and just joked with Sherman about all the girls leaving "their mark" on Meloni's cheek. Afterwards, though, I was surprised that he noticed me in the mess and reached out his hand to me, "Hey! How ya doin?" By that time, I had to go to the bathroom really bad, but everyone was heading up to the doors to get secret pictures of Meloni. When we were all berated by the museum officers about that we all left the auditorium for the bathroom. As we exited the women's bathroom, Meloni was coming out of the men's bathroom and Nadine got an unauthorized pic with him as well. Then another officer came down and stood in front of Meloni and Nadine telling us to stop taking pictures but Meloni wrapped his arms around Nadine and pulled her to the side, making faces at us to keep taking them! Finally, not wanting to be associated with them, I went up the stairs to go smoke. Meloni came up behind me chuckling and put his hand on my back as we walked up. I remember thinking how paternal that gesture was, as if he were afraid I'd fall down. I went outside to smoke then the stars came out afterward, Meloni's car was right in front of me, so I clicked off a couple of pics of him. We all gathered in front of the building and when we saw Meloni and Sherman in the car waiting to get out into traffic, we all made faces and waved at each other, all the while Sherman laughing and shaking her head. Afterwards, we all reeled in the excitement and had dessert and coffee. |
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