The Office star Jenna Fischer, aka Pam Beesley, just blogged about “finally” being stalked by paparazzi. Here’s how it went down:
My sister Emily came in town for Presidents Weekend. We like to do a “Sisters Only” weekend once a year. We had a great time. We got tea with [pregnant costar Angela Kinsey]. We got manicures and pedicures. We made dinner with my friend Jennifer (writer of the famous Project Runway blog) and played “I Love the 80s”…which is a great game.
ANYWAY, my sister and I were at Bristol Farms grocery store in Beverly Hills. (This is not my usual store. It just happened to be on our way.) The store was really crowded and I was getting grouchy. Lots of congestion and carts and people stopping in the middle of the aisle…you know how it goes.
After we check out, I load up my arms with bags so we don’t have to deal with the cart. I’m dying to get out of the store because I’m starting to get a cold and I’m getting crabbier by the minute. I walk outside and a photographer pops up from behind some cars and points this HUGE camera in my direction.
My first thought was “Whoa! There must be a really famous person shopping here!” I turned around to see who it was. That’s when I realized the famous person was me. I freaked out. My instinct was to duck and run. I look over my shoulder and my sister is stuck behind 4 people. She’s decided to put the cart away…so I give her a look like, “Ditch the cart! Hurry up!” She’s all confused thinking, “Why is my sister running and why does she hate this cart so much?”
I’m half hiding behind a pillar and feeling pretty stupid at this point. The bags are heavy and I’m annoyed that I don’t have the cart. I’m thinking two things, “Hurry up Emily we have to get out of here before they photograph us!” and “Hurry up Emily! You have to stand next to me because it would be so cool if you are in my first paparazzi moment!” My sister finds me and says, “Why are you slouching behind a pillar and why didn’t you want me to put the cart away?” I tell her what happened. But now I can’t see the photographer and I look like a total idiot. I’m embarrassed and fairly certain he WAS waiting for someone else.
We walk to the car and sure enough he comes running up out of nowhere, sprints ahead of us and takes a bunch of photos as we load the car. It was crazy. We didn’t know what to do. So I started smiling. And then my sister started smiling. Like, big stupid smiles. Because that’s what you do when you load groceries in your trunk right? You smile! Because loading groceries is SO FUN! YAY! Look at how much we LOVE to load groceries everyone!
We get in the car and she immediately tries to call her husband. He’s not there. We try calling my parents…no answer. Emily says we should have told the photographer she was my sister because now if she is in a magazine it will say “Jenna Fischer and Friend”. I tell her I’m not sure how that works.
There you have it! Now I hope it never happens again.
We start back to work on The Office the week of March 3rd. We are doing 6 episodes. The sixth will be an hour long finale. Our first episode back is The Dinner Party. Michael and Jan throw a dinner party for a few of the Dunder-Mifflin couples. It’s HILARIOUS. We had just started filming when we got shut down. I don’t know anything else from there. I’ll be curious to see how the writers condense the stories with only 6 episodes left this season.
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Pictured is Jenna doing a reenactment of the smiley car loading moment and her sister being disappointed that they couldn’t find anyone to call.
