Ok, after having grown up in Hollywood, literally on the street of the main gate to Paramount Studios, I have felt sort of immune to celebrity and have just thought of "stars" as regular folk. I’ve met gobs of them! However, today I met someone I consider to be our version of a part of the American royal family – Maria Shriver! Kendall’s 7th grade class had a field trip to the California Museum which Ms. Shriver had a huge hand in updating when her hubby became governor. I had been there before Schwarzenegger and now after and it is much improved and more interesting. I credit her in that positive change.
Anyway, when she was showing the First Lady of Mexico around, she stopped and Kendall’s teacher chatter with her. We’d actually seen her enter the building and I took a bunch of photos then too. But this was later and I love the sincere look of interest on her face when she was listening to our teacher. Shriver was replying about how she, too, was a Catholic school girl. The lady in the pink scarf to her left is Mexico’s first lady. When our teacher was done talking to her, the place was silent and I spoke up, caught her attention and simply said "thank you for endorsing Obama". She laughed and smiled as did several in her entourage. She made a surprise appearance at a rally-type event the weekend before Super Tuesday and she joined Oprah and her cousin Caroline Kennedy in endorsing my favorite guy. I wanted her to know that I really appreciated that. So here’s our First Lady…. she’s a skinny little thing! And stunning!
Later, she was talking in the museum foyer and she kept looking my way. I hope she didn’t think I was stalking her. I have just admired her family all my life and could not take my eyes off of her. The security was crazy plus after I left with my car load we had to leave by passing the front of the Capital and it was cordoned off, crawling with police, demonstrators (against Mexico’s policies) and photogs.