What was I thinking when I ‘popped the question’ to supermodel Cindy Crawford? Why would a globally-recognized beauty queen even consider marrying a local news reporter/anchor working in Dothan, Alabama and Panama City, Florida? I know. It doesn’t make sense to me either, but Cindy did not say no.
I had trouble embedding the video so click here to watch the story.
Planet Hollywood was opening in Nashville, Tennessee, in June of 1996. The Music City was certainly not within my market coverage area nor was it part of the mission of WTVY News to cover entertainment news. My boss allowed me to go on my own time. It was about a six-hour drive from Dothan and I had a friend in Nashville, where I could stay. That would save on any possible expenses which was handy since the station wasn’t covering such costs other than allowing me to use the gear.
The Short-lived Planet Hollywood History
Planet Hollywood, the movie, television and music-themed restaurant chain was launched in New York City in 1991. It was backed by some of the stars I was able to meet and greet in-person, such as Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and others. Additional celebrity endorsers like Wesley Snipes and Danny Glover were there as well. The company was successful in fits and starts for a few years but declared bankruptcy shortly after 9-11.
The fun before the end of the “Planet”
My friend and accomplished photographer Frank Lee Roberts accompanied me on the adventure, and we dragged my friend since childhood, “Nashville Mike,” along as part of the crew and for good times.
The plan was to start shooting video earlier in the day in order to beat the crowds, but the parties started early and the entire day was frantic.
As we were moved through streets crowded with revelers, jockeyed for position on the elbow-to-elbow red carpet and each bathed in our own sweat, I told my “crew” that this will be a much better memory. We laugh about it today because we didn’t even have time to actually enjoy the experience while getting what was needed for a story.
The first celebrity experience came in the afternoon with Bruce Willis. He and Demi Moore were still married and I asked where she was. Bruce replied, “She’s in New York for the premiere of Striptease; the one where she takes all her damn clothes off.” Bruce would later stop to promote his then-upcoming film with Christopher Walken, Last Man Standing. Meeting Bruce was exciting enough but I would have gone mental if Walken had been there.
I don’t remember the exact order of who walked the carpet and when, but I recall people like George Lindsey (Goober on ‘The Andy Griffith Show’), county music artists Mindy McCready and Billy Dean, Ashley Judd (whose mom I met in the early 80s while I was working as an extra in Living Proof; the Hank Williams Junior Story) and others. Planet Hollywood business partner and superstar Sylvester Stallone also stopped by. I first bumped into Sly around 1991 on the backlot of Universal Studios as he was filming the movie, Oscar. A fire destroyed his movie sets at Universal, so filming had to resume at Disney-MGM Studios the next month.
Luke Perry
Luke Perry practically bounced-along the red carpet fresh off of his white-hot run on Beverly Hills, 90210. He worked in film and television from childhood all the way to just before his death. His most recent work was Quentin Tarnation’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. His passing in March 2019 at the age of only 52, saddened me while also allowing a moment to reflect on seeing the talented actor in-person 23 years earlier. His many fans treasure the life of a remarkable man as well as his prolific and diverse career.
Amy Grant
Musician and the “Queen of Christian Pop” Amy Grant stopped to chat but she seemed totally disenchanted to be there. Perhaps it was something I said or asked her. I do know I played her pop hits ad nauseam in my radio days.
Lisa Hartman-Black and Clint Black
Actress and award-winning singer Lisa Hartman Black and her husband, award-winning country music star Clint Black walked the glamor walkway together and were generous with their time. They both seemed genuine and quite comfortable chatting with me.
“Proposing” to Cindy Crawford
My microphone was shoved in quite a few faces that day and I was getting tired of asking the same questions. Then, through the throngs of celebs and their handlers, supermodel Cindy Crawford appeared. As she has with billions of people on the planet, she caught my eye. Although I had grown weary of the repetition, I couldn’t let Cindy “freakin’ Crawford just walk by me without some interaction. A funny wedding proposal would throw her off and break up the monotony for us both, I thought. It did. She took it like a sport after a split-second of figuring out whether I was joking or if she needed to have her security team tackle me. Her playful slight shove was a nice touch.
“You have been erased!”
Arnold Schwarzenegger walked the red with Vanessa Williams together as they were promoting their new film Eraser. The movie pulled in a quarter of a billion dollars but garnered a mixed response from the critics.
I couldn’t decide who I wanted to talk to more. Obviously, Arnold has been part of my whole movie-watching life, but Vanessa has it all. She is the most famous (and even infamous for a while) Miss America ever. In 1983, she was the first black woman to be crowned Miss America and the first Miss America to be dethroned. She relinquished the title weeks before the end of her reign after a controversy surrounding nude photographs of herself.
Three decades later, as she served in the role of head judge for the Miss America 2016 pageant, the organization’s CEO made a formal apology for what happened in 1984. Despite the scandal, she is arguably the most commercially successful Miss America in the program’s history.
As Vanessa and Arnold plugged the movie, I asked her to look into my camera and say the tagline to the number one movie in the theaters. She smiled, locked eyes with the camera, and in a shock to me, she imitated Arnold’s accent and dropped the line, “You have been erased.”
When I asked her to deliver the line, I was thinking about putting the story together next to Cindy’s clip to make it seem as if I were a schmuck (that part can still be true) who just got two wedding proposals rejected within minutes. It was a creative way, I thought, to put together a light entertainment piece. Let me clarify, such manipulation would never be acceptable in a serious news story. This was more of a Daily Show or late-night talk show theme. It was a fun feature.
It’s a wrap!
I don’t cover star-studded grand openings and I’d rather report on the midday traffic than anything having to do with dreadful red carpet coverage. Still, this was a fun and exhaustive day I’ll always remember.
