I have to say, Hooray For Hollywood, when it comes to getting your money's worth. For $10.00 you can park all day just a half block from Hollywood Blvd. where all the action is. You can walk the streets and take pictures with superheroes like Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman, or Rambo (a guy who I am sure really was Sylvester Stallone posing as an actor posing as Rambo), you can put your hands and feet in the impressions of your favorite stars at Mann's Chinese Theater and you can walk the Walk of Fame or the same steps that nominees and winners follow as they enter the Kodak Theater for the Oscar ceremonies. I bought a t-shirt I couldn't be happier with for only $3.00 and turquoise sunglasses for $12.00 right next to shops that I wouldn't consider entering because I couldn't afford to buy a pair of sox from them.

So as my sister and I drive in from Long Beach (a 45 minute drive), she asks if I think we will see any stars. I said yes, because I had tickets for us to see "Will and Grace" taping later in the day, but no sooner had we parked and rounded the corner than we saw cameras and crowds and I said, "Here we go!" It was Patty Duke getting her star on the Walk of Fame. Now it's pretty bad when I tell this to people and they say, "Who's she?" I give them a variety of choices: She played twin cousins, Patty and Kathy on THE PATTY DUKE SHOW; she played Neely, the alcoholic, pill-popping actress in THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS; she was Helen Keller in THE MIRACLE WORKER for God's sake!!! And they still can't place her. Then I tell them that next to her was her son, actor, Sean Astin, and of course they know he was Rudy in RUDY and more importantly, he was Sam, Frodo Baggin's right-hand man in THE LORD OF THE RINGS movies. So now we've got 2 stars and we've only been in town 3 minutes.

We continue to walk and take pictures and make the purchases I mentioned and then Kimmy, my sister, says, "Lets eat." We decide on an old Hollywood haunt called Pig 'n Whistle and no sooner get seated then who takes a seat 2 booths away from us? Kevin Costner. That's right, we had lunch with Kevin Costner. He's not a very big man, he's probably just a little taller than me but he certainly weighs less and is built better than I am! Well now we turn into complete tourists and pull out our cell phones and call everyone we know... We decide to let him eat in peace (we think he was with his son - no chicks in his party), but it took all my strength not to say something to him - DANCES WITH WOLVES is one of my all-time favorite movies.

So now we go to the taping of WILL AND GRACE, which is the #2 most popular comedy series second only to FRIENDS, and we go through the whole warm up routine and find out it's going to be a super-sized 40 minute episode and besides Harry Connick Jr. being included in tonite's show, there's a super-sized surprise guest that will also be appearing. Someone from the studio audience said they heard it was Janet Jackson and someone else said Paris Hilton but the warm-up comic would not confirm or deny he just told us we'd have to wait and see and so we did. Now a 40-minute episode takes over 5 hours to film. During the time in between takes they actually have a dj and a live, really funky band that plays music, and then they have Q&A time and some contests where you can win WILL & GRACE "merch." They also give out chocolate - Hershey kisses, Snickers, Reese Cups - to keep you energized and interested. They film each scene at least twice. After the first shoot the writers, who are all on hand (hey have 12 on staff) re-write/re-work some of the lines. Jim Burrows is the director (he also did TAXI and CHEERS) and he okays everything. The actors go over the changes and they shoot the scene with the new material and then move on. You, of course, get to see the bloopers live and you also get the choice of watching the actors right in front of you or watching the tv monitors which show you how it will look when you watch it on tv. So the big surprise guest was Jennifer Lopez. I'm not a real fan of hers, but people went crazy when she appeared and she is beautiful. She has a noticeable butt but her stomach is absolutely flat. She was prepared and even funny. Afterwards a page escorted us to our car and told us that her husband Marc Anthony was in her bungalow and that Harry Connick's wife and 3 daughters were in his.

What a day!

So there you have it - DEB DOES HOLLYWOOD!