Check inside for an account of today’s taping of Zac’s guest appearance on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno”. WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS.

Morning:

7:15am- I head to Burbank to get same-day tickets for the show at the NBC box office pick up.

7:55am- Staying true to form, I’ve managed to get turned around and done two large circles and ended up lost at the Studio One lot asking a security guard for directions to the box office. He wishes me luck noting that “they open in 5 minutes.”

8:05am- With only a very brief 5 minute wait, I obtain set #1 of the first two standby tickets.

Afternoon:

12:50pm- Dee picks me up at the Hollywood Renaissance Hotel and we head to Burbank.

1:00-4pm- During our wait, we encounter an aggressive tour director who insists the line begins after she and her group, we chit-chat with one another, and the best part of the wait? Seated right beside us were a mother and daughter from Florida who won tickets to the HSM3 premiere and were excited to see Zac in person for the first time. She’s a regular at ZF and knew both Zefron and the ZA Angels blog (noting ‘Oh! I know this site!”) when I gave her a business card. Very cool.

Other fun moments in line:

• Seeing lots of Entertainment Weekly magazines and all the energetic fans that came out in support of Zac’s appearance.
• A woman’s wallet/check book with THIS photo of Zac laminated to the front.

Taping:

4:00pm- Everyone with blue official mail-in tickets have been escorted inside. The ushers do another headcount. Just when we think we’re going home without a sighting, Dee and I are the last two guests ushered inside and told…

Only one of us can go in to the studio to watch the show and that the other can watch from the green room.

I exclaim “This is too hard, you’re going to make us choose?”. Filming starts in just a few moments and given that I will be at tomorrow’s premiere, I tell Dee to go watch with a warning that “she’d better enjoy every second.”

She’s lead one way and a Leno staff worker takes me to the green-room letting me know I can help myself to the food and drinks inside. Upon arriving in the room, I realize I’m surrounded by two Disney execs, Zac’s manager, Drew Barrymore’s publicists, Barry Bond’s publicist (more on that in a minute), and the Leno talent agent. To say I’m ‘out of my element’ is the understatement of the century.

Casually, I ask if one of the recliners is taken and have a seat . I won’t go into detail about what was said, but some high-lights were:

• Zac peeked through the window for a moment. I just sort of looked and said ‘that’s Zac Efron’s head…’ to myself!
• The Disney execs declared that Ashley Tisdale (aka Sharpay) steals every scene she’s in and that her portrayal of the spoiled twin is amazing.
• The publicists seemed to be smitten with Zac’s manners and charisma- which they all noted.
• Members of his family were in attendance (but not present in the green room).
• The premiere tomorrow is HUGE. Disney has built a special screen so that neighboring buildings and complexes cannot view the film illegally securing that only invited guests and fans will see a special pre-screening of the movie.

Zac’s segment highlights *Update: He’s 2nd, after Drew* (without giving away too many spoilers since it will be on YouTube in a few hours):

• He wore a black suit, black tie, and a blue shirt.
• There’s a never-before-seen clip of a young Zac, as Santa Claus, singing in a play.
• A new HSM3 opening sequence basketball clip is shown featuring Troy and Jimmie’s character (I got goosebumps!)
• Zac discloses that his father will be in attendance at his birthday “celebration” this Saturday along with close friends and family. A later party will take place after HSM3 promotion wraps.
• He does talk about drinking and playfully tells Jay how he’s going to react to his “first drink” in front of his dad. His beverage of choice? “Definitely a beer.”
• Zac announces that “it’s on” w/Vanessa in an embarrassing-revelations-during interviews-type ‘war’.
• 3 photos of Zac meeting Barry Bonds are shown (hence why his publicist was in the greenroom).
• Zac telling Jay “you have a terrible singing voice”.
• “Crazed fans” and “firm grip[s] on the wrist” don’t necessarily occur in quite the exact age group you’d think!

I’ll miss my “missions” with Dee at tomorrow’s Los Angeles premiere, but I promised I’d do my best to get us into today’s show and I think I did fairly good on my word, right?

Zac’s segment airs tonight on NBC.

Photo taken by Audrey

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 15th, 2008 at 6:52 pm and is filed under Gossip Talk, HSM, Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.