Hollywood PrivacyWatch: All-Coachella Special Edition: UPDATED
[Due to the flood of late entires to this accounting of Indio's temporary celebrity population this weekend, we're bumping this back to the top of the page.]
This special edition of Hollywood PrivacyWatch celebrates the famous individuals who briefly chose to mingle with the common folk at Coachella last weekend before disappearing into the VIP area or backstage, where they could better commune with a trough full of prescription painkillers in the more rarefied company of their favorite musicians. Enjoy.
· while eating my english muffin this morning i overheard dorothy lucy on fox 11 report that rumors were circulating around various tabloids that cameron diaz & justin timberlake were to be married in the south of france this past weekend. [Ed.note—As many have pointed out, everyone thinks that Diaz and Timberlake are getting married this weekend, not last.] well, let me assure you they were not as i saw miss diaz & mr. timberlake at the coachella arts & music festival on saturday during a rather tight performance by weezer. you see, when the set was finished i looked over to my right & noticed a woman who quite resembled cameron. i didn't immediately believe it was her because said woman had scarring on her face (it seems i can confirm the hdtv rumors, too). however, when she smiled & pushed past me i knew it was her & upon noticing she had a justin timberlake attached to her arm i was firmly convinced. an acquaintance who was covering the festival for a smallish fashion mag also said she had seen her in the vip section & miss diaz declined having her photo taken saying she wasn't done up properly.
· I saw some "interesting" celebrities at the Coachella music fest. First off was Scott Speedman walking with a non-celeb friend. He is totally cute but needs to cut his hair and his butt is really big for a guy. Seriously, it would take 4 hands to grab that butt. Also saw J.C. Chasez with an entourage and a huge bodyguard. He was walking around like he was the coolest person there but had the ugliest mohawk (if I could even call it that) I have ever seen. People seemed to be laughing AT him as he walked by. My friend spotted Justin Timberlake & Cameron Diaz in the VIP area and I heard that Ashton Kutcher & Demi Moore were there as well.
· saw super hot scott speedman at coachella with a man bag! didn't realize he went that way? i couldn't help myself, needed to find out the story, so i went up to him to find out what the deal was... turns out it was a goodie bag which read "dkny jeans five finger discount" apparently he was at a party for dkny jeans and jaguar i loved the sunglasses which he ended up giving me!
· Two interesting sightings rocking out in the desert. Staying a couple doors down from us at the delightfully seedy and faux-stone encrusted La Toscana Spa and Hotel in Desert Hot Springs was Shannyn Sossamon, probably
checking up on new music for her DJ gig. Apparently unaccompanied, ate in the hotel coffee shop (try the Paradise Scramble!) with the rest of us hoi polloi. Actually, I'm assuming she was there for Coachella, she may have
just been vacationing. Also, in the crowd watching The Arcade Fire, Alia "Maebe Funke" Shawkat.
Looks exactly the same as on TV, part of a similarly-aged entourage, appeared oblivious that some folks were having an Arrested Development encounter.
Bonus material: A paranoid concert-goer thinks something strange was afoot during The Bravery's set:
this is just the weirdest thing that has been on my mind since I watched the bravery at coachella. I am very very suspicious and am trying to lure some other folks out to maybe cement the facts and or dispute it, but the bottom line is that I think The Bravery gave a canned keyboard/synth generated show playing lightly over their heavy sound system... it was just toooo weird and if you saw it, you’d agree that something was seriously amiss with the band... onwards to the fact at hand...
Maybe it was my level of intoxication, but the heat did not melt the Bravery’s equipment at Coachella on sunday. Someone threw a water bottle that landed at the bottom of their keyboard, obviously causing some damage down there.. After playing a few songs the bottle was thrown between songs and when the keyboard couldn’t play, they locked up and it felt very very weird. They completely stalled! It was as if they could not play without their keyboard. Everyone was acting a bit nervous cracking jokes and they threatened to sing cover songs 2 times, but then kept busy for a while longer, fidgeting and speaking nervously. It was funny because for the drunken state that the Sam Endicott appeared to be in for the first few songs wandering around stage, he sounded pretty coherent during the mix up. They finally got it fixed and then finally started playing. It was really uncomfortable. Another thing that I noticed was that when Sam first came out he screamed into the mic, but nothing came out as it was not on... I mean maybe it was supposed to be on, but who sounds checks and then turns the mic off? I felt like all the music and vocals were coming from the keyboard and the band was playing lightly over the music. On a number of songs I could clearly hear a vocal track underneath everything... and there was one moment, where Sam turned around and walked back to the drums and an “OH!” could be heard from the vocals, but it wasn’t him. Also during the soundcheck I remember seeing them sound check every guitar, but I did not always hear the guitars on the speakers...
UPDATE: Some sightings/loose ends from some stragglers:
· Damn, I wish I'd known you were doing the Coachella sighting list. Could have added Vincent Gallo, looking like Vincent Gallo. Anthony Kiedis (sp?) and an attractive taller woman. Nicole Richie and a posse of cool kids. The drummer (Gary) and guitarist(not Pete or Karl) from the now defunct Libertines.
· Also Pedro from Napolean Dynamite introduced Rilo Kiley but his mike wasn't working. We did catch him make some joke about baking them a cake becuase he liked them so much. He then stood backstage with a top hat. Also The Bravery set was totally fed up and I wouldnt be surprised if there was some lip sync issues something def was not right. They also proceeded to cover U2's Electric Co. and it was awful.
UPDATE 2: The late sightings keep rolling in:
· Chris Kattan? Hello, how can we skip that one? Very small and well-formed as his acting people are, with a small and well-formed lady friend (I didn't say he was cute, just well-formed). My friend swears to god he saw Danny DeVito, which I will file under "strangest sighting." And Nicole Richie? Sister needs to eat a cheeseburger and dress herself in the morning, but was all smiles and friendliness.
· I saw Giovanni Ribisi for the second year in a row (my second, I'm sure more for him) in VIP. Also there were many Danny Devito sightings. And my friend went up and talked to his idol, Vincent Gallo, after Gallo was done talking to Chloe Sevigny, and he said he was the kindest motherfucker on the planet. Michael Pitt was also there. And Gwyneth Paltrow was there, of course. But overall, it seemed lackluster compared to last year. Damn Radiohead.
Oh and on a different note, regarding that person's email about Sam from Bravery's mic not working, I was talking to the New Order sound girl for about 45 minutes Sunday night and she said how they in fact don't get to properly sound check the gear at Coachella. They test it, of course, but she said the first song of every set is literally just guessing. Things are always bound to go wrong in the beginning. Which is why Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite's mic didn't work when he was introducing Rilo Kiley.
· Turns out everyone loves Del Taco! On Sunday before Coachella, my friends and I stopped by our favorite faux-mexican fast food in Palm Desert when lo and behold, who was piled into a back booth but none other than Jenny Lewis and Jason Boesel of Rilo Kiley. Sitting with 'em was America's favorite sad man-child, Conor Oberst (aka Bright Eyes) and some other not famous dude. They were finishing up what looked like a sizable Del Taco adventure, but apparently it was too much for Conor who wrapped up his leftover burrito, and as far as we could tell, took it with him. Dude makes maaaaaaad money and still wrapped up his $1 burrito! Ya gotta love a thrifty man. Oh, not to mention both Jenny and Conor were wearing sunglasses inside. Oh celebrities, the sun never stops shining on them - even in Del Taco.
Oh, we also saw Giovanni Ribisi twice. Once, coming in the gates and again later walking around. He was wearing baggy maroon/red velvety looking pants, we think.
· All those celeb sightings and nobody's mentioned CHRIS KATTAN in the VIP area? Also Carlos D from Interpol who I hope took some lessons from New Order and Gang of Four.