Rachel Bilson Paparazzi

This past weekend my brothers and I were simply cruising around town checking out some of the sights of Salt Lake City.

I wanted to show them some cool "hole in the wall" stores, so I took them to a little place Candyce loves called "Decades." It's basically a bunch of really old vintage clothes and a few rockin flower covered suitcases.

So, I'm just browsing the merchandise when good ol' Rachel Bilson walks by me. I had what's called "instant face recognition" occur. So, I went and grabbed my brothers and told them who she was. It took them a minute to even know who I was talking about. Had I not been married and been forced to watch the O.C. with my wife, I would probably not have know who she was either.

Anyway, so we devised a plan to get some photos of her talking to us, without letting her know we were getting photos of her talking to us.

Zak was coordinating from within the store via his cel phone. Burke and I were on a conference call with him at all times. I was in the back seat of the car parked in front of the store. I had 300 mm zoom lens at my disposal. Burke and Tay were just outside of the front door. The plan was, that Burke would be talking on his phone about not knowing where to eat in this po-dunk town. And when Rachel walks out, Tay would walk up to her and ask if she was from around here, and if she knew any good places to eat. Zak's code for her going outside was "let's eat at KFC."

The plan was flawless in it's preparation, and equally as impeccable in it's execution.

We waited for about 30 minutes at our posts (Girls really know how to take their time while shopping). Rachel was with a small group of people that we referred to as her "Posse, Entourage and sometimes Clan." We had nothing better to do, so don't think we're too desperate. Well, go ahead and think whatever you like.

So, finally over the conference call we hear the words "Let's go eat at KFC. I repeat let's go eat at KFC!" I quickly started snapping off photos like my plane was going down. As she came outside, Tay approached her with surprising confidence and delivered his line without hesitation. She simply said she wasn't from around here, and put on some big sunglasses.

We watched them get into a car, and quickly pursued them. I have no idea why we were following her. What were we actually going to do? More than likely nothing. But it was still fun. Some of the people with her hopped into a BMW with no license plates and led the way to another store, while Rachel and the rest of her posse followed.

Anyway, after a minute of watching them again we decided we were pathetic and went to a movie. (We saw Disaster Movie. It is undeniably the dumbest film ever made). I'm not sure why people freak out over movie stars. Maybe it's the mystic, the unknown, or maybe it's the...ummm I can't think of anything clever to write, so I'll just stop right there.

So yes, it was an intense hour in an otherwise fairly mundane October afternoon.

Rhetty