• by Kelly Samardak , June 22, 2010

Broadway Walk Of Stars Gala, The NASDAQ Building, New York
June 21, 2010

Imagine you're a hard-working actor living in a rat trap apartment in New York, waiting tables at night, dog-sitting in the morning, and auditioning whenever you can. Suddenly you're an understudy on Broadway and your... study has contracted a mean case of mercury poisoning, and bink! You're a star. Then come the sit-com deals, the sit-com-to-movie deals, the movie-to-Broadway deals, and then we've come full circle. So then why, when your heart, body, and soul have been in New York, should you have to aspire for a star all the way to the left in Hollywood? This is what Arlene Dahl, one of the first Hollywood Walk of Fame honorees, thought when she began developing Broadway Walk of Stars.

The foreground was Times Square and the backdrop was the NASDAQ building, that rounded, scroll-and-light-covered thing on the corner of 43^rd and Broadway. Inside, tall and short tables were draped with suits or slender, aloof women. The vibe was different from a media/adverparty. I mean, I could almost smell the silver screen. As I rounded the outside loop of the "drum," I saw the cutest thing ever. It was Dr. Ruth. Dr Ruth?! This is the second time she and I have revolved in the same party circle. Maybe she's doing biz dev for a healthy sexy-time blog network. Either way, there she was, scooping up mini burgers left and right.

Tara Vetro of RAPP, an agency that takes 1s and 0s and turns them into $$$, was busy arranging RAPP CEO Bob Horvath and others into a huge group shot when I arrived. And you know what I just realized? When Arlene Dahl thanked "The rap group, who created the promotional materials" I thought she meant a rap group. She meant THE Rapp Group. I later found Tara with Kristin Mengel and Norbert de Laclos, also RAPPers.

As Arlene Dahl grabbed the microphone and fiddled with it, a grey-haired fellow floated in with briefcase. WEll, it was none other than Mr. Reach For the Stars himself, Buzz Aldrin. So let's recap for a minute - now my night consisted of meeting a world-renowned, mini-burger-chowing sex doctor and an astronaut. My life is complete now that it contains that sentence. Oh, and at one point, Robert Osborne, host of Turner Classic Movies, was in between Dr. Ruth and Buzz Aldrin, making it one of the most bizarre people sandwiches I've ever been privileged enough to photograph.

So, this gala situation with its showtunes pumped in, an astronaut, Tommy Tune, and a spattering of agents and legends, was being held to drum up further support for Broadway Walk of Stars. Dahl is passionate, no doubt, and she's not giving up in the face of New York bureaucracy and hoop-jumping. Dr. Ruth sweetened the deal with a promise of "great sex for the rest of their lives" for those who help Dahl's efforts become a reality.

It's hard to imagine, looking out on the overly crowded Times Square streets, the addition of yet another something to slow the flow and create more people pile-ups. The significance of Broadway itself is not lost on me, I get it, but maybe the red tape would be thinner in a different location?

Thank you, RAPP, for the invitation, and The Saxton Group for the event that made my life and hopefully yours just a little more surreal.

Tomorrow night I'll be at Kabin covering The Wrath of Cannes 100% in French.

Send invitations to kelly@mediapost.com!

Photos from last night's event are up on Flickr!