ONLY ROBERT

MY SYDNEY ROB ENCOUNTER – BY GEORGIE

Hubs and I arrived in Sydney on a beautiful sunny autumn day. After checking into our hotel only one block away from the State Theatre, we went for a walk up to Pitt Street Mall and along the route of the red carpet, where security and assemblers were busy preparing and setting up barricades. There were a handful of people at the closest end of the red carpet that had set up fold-up chairs and we later learned some had camped for the night. While this buzz of activity was taking place, I learned from twitter that Rob and Reese were conducting media interviews along with an elephant, and hubs recognised the background as being around Luna Park.

All decked out in our formal gear, we headed out at just before 5pm and checked out the red carpet. It was in the middle of Sydney’s busy Friday night shopping and we were amused to hear people say “I think it’s a film premiere….that vampire guy’s in it…Reese Witherspoon is attending apparently…”  The crowd was growing - it was Friday night shopping – but still most of the red carpet length (at 300m it was the longest in the world) had no people lined up (see photo) – and this was only one hour before Rob was due to arrive!

We went and had a coffee and something to eat to kill time and at around 6pm started hanging around where the red carpet started – unsure when we were supposed to make our way down in order to be seated in the theatre by 7.15. There were quite a few of us standing around dressed to the nines, and security ushered us to the other side of the carpet and made a separate enclosure just for ticket holders. Rob was due to arrive any minute, so the anticipation was building. I was right at the front and hubs was behind me with the iPhone set to video. I had my Patty Porn scrapbook and RM souvenir photo ready (both fit easily into my evening purse) in case Rob came close enough to sign.

There was a flurry of security and media people waiting around near us. Then at 6.20pm a black car pulled up and I heard some cheering and sure enough it was Rob, wearing a blue suit. He was flanked by BG Dean.  He briefly acknowledged the crowd at the beginning on our side of the carpet but was then led straight past us to waiting media in an alcove off the red carpet just out of our sight.  When I first saw him I couldn’t believe that I was actually laying eyes on Rob after drooling over 2 dimensional images of him for the past 2 years – he looked drop dead gorgeous and had this shiny aura about him – he was impeccably groomed, his hair looked styled and his suit fitted perfectly - very tall and lanky. Next to arrive was the director, Frances Lawrence, and then Reese - she stopped and made her way slowly along the crowd signing things. I didn’t have anything for her to sign so I held back a bit. She is tiny and also looked meticulously groomed and gorgeous and was friendly.

Security made us wait about 10 minutes and then we were let out to walk up the red carpet. There were lots of people around Rob as he was making his way along the crowd lining the carpet – mainly media, publicists and security.  I got a bit of garbled video of Rob when we passed him on the red carpet – we were made to move on rather than linger. There wasn’t a lot of screaming, which just goes to show that Aussies are rather more laid back. I saw Rob bend down to talk to a girl in a wheelchair who was in the crowd. It was fun walking down the red carpet – there were some circus performers who posed for photos with us. It was a very jovial atmosphere and I called out to some of the crowd who were waiting for Rob to reach them: “he’s wearing a blue suit and he looks gorgeous” which attracted an enthusiastic response!

We eventually got to the theatre – most of the crowd was female - had a glass of bubbly in the foyer and made our way to our seats at about 7.15. Each seat had a copy of Famous magazine, some choccies and a bottle of water. Ironically Famous magazine claimed they sponsored the premiere, when over the years they have printed so much garbage about Rob! We met Carolyn and her husband from Melbourne sitting in front of us and the 2 hubs joked about being dragged to Sydney because their wives were obsessed with Rob! Carolyn pointed out some other women sitting nearby whom she met on Robert Pattinson Australia. We discovered later that we had a convo on Robsessed once and follow each other on Twitter – small world!

At about 7.40pm a publicist came out on stage and introduced the director who spoke for a bit and then introduced Reese followed by Rob. Reese did all the talking and thanked everyone for coming – Rob only made a brief comment to something she said which I didn’t hear. I thought Reese was going to hand the mike over to Rob but that was it, and they just walked off. The crowd cheered but didn’t scream which was a relief.  Then the movie came on and it was wonderful! There was a bit of a cheer when Rob first appeared, cheering when August got his just desserts and applause at the end of the movie!  All in all, a fantastic experience to be a part of and one I’ll never forget!  I feel sorry for those in the audience who didn’t even get to see Rob apart from when he came up on stage – that was all I was expecting, so it was a bonus to actually see him up close – albeit briefly.  The ones who probably got the most out of tones he night were the who lined the red carpet only a short time beforehand and were lucky enough to get a close encounter with Rob!