Hanging Out With Cameron Diaz

Ok, so the headline is a little bit misleading. I wasn't actually hanging out with the Hollywood a-lister. I didn't even really meet her. In fact, I chanced upon Miss Diaz entirely unexpectedly. I was just walking down Market Street minding my own business when I stumbled across the Shrek The Third premier at The State Theatre.Following my recent rants about the artificiality of the celebrity world, I thought it would be interesting to hang about and watch all the action unfold. It was certainly fascinating to witness how the whole red carpet senario works. The Hollywood celeb is led from interiew to inteview surrounded by security and 'their people' and is rushed from pillar to post where they are obliged to smile and politely answer the same inane questions over and over again. Because she was the only star of any note to attend this premier, it took Diaz over an hour to walk the very short distance from car door to theatre entrance. It must be pretty exhausting for a person to wear a perma-smile and be genial for that length of time, while hundreds of cameras are fixed on them.So, what did I learn tonight from my hour spent watching Cameron Diaz doing her duty? Well, not a lot, other than the fact that when you are a celebrity everyone wants their two minutes with you, and you really are obliged to give it to them. Still, this particular celebrity earns enough per movie to put up with an hour or so of dull interviews and a few waves to the crowd.

To be fair to Diaz though, she took plenty of time to mix with the public, going off-route and crossing over the road to sign autographs, only stopping when she was ushered back onto the carpet by her people when it looked like she was getting behind schedule. Her public persona seemed very close to her onscreen characters. She seemed fun and smiley. Oh, and very tall.