Star-struck fans join paparazzi with their cameras in Park City
"I didn't expect him to look like he did," Abbott said about bumping into Farrell on Main Street here.
Jon Swenson snapped a photo with his Nikon of one of the Olsen twins.
"I got either Mary-Kate or Ashley," Swenson said. He wasn't sure which twin.
Cameron Carson goes for autographs on glossy photos he prints out from sources he won't name. "I can't give you that."
Those are just a few local folks, Utahns ditching their everyday responsibilities to be among the not-so-everyday types roaming the streets here during the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.
They — along with the paparazzi and, at times, other news media — care less about the films than the swirl of celebrity that blows into town this time of year.
Wendy and Heriberto Gonzalez have flown in every year for the past seven years from Lake Tahoe during the festival for skiing and independent film screenings. They're the types who fit best into festival founder Robert Redford's mantra — focus on film.
While Abbott and her mother, Angie Whimpey, aren't afraid to approach a star like Kevin Sorbo, who once played Hercules on TV, they do have their standards, which they wish the omnipresent paparazzi on Main Street also had.
That sounds about right to freelance photographer Gustavo Caballero, in town from Miami to shoot for Getty Images.
"If you're nice to them, they're nice to you," Caballero said about photographing celebs on the street. He likes to ask for a shot before shooting, "and they say, 'Thank you,"' he noted.
Whimpey likes what she calls the "excitement" surrounding the festival and the sales in the shops that line Main Street.
"I just like taking pictures," Swenson said.
He took a recent day off work to shoot. He planned to come back with his wife for more of the same, hopeful to add more images to his Web page.
For Swenson, collecting autographs (he doesn't sell them) is something he has enjoyed since childhood. He's elbow to elbow with all the pros and paparazzi like TMZ, jockeying for that special shot that usually puts a celebrity in the worst light possible.
"I don't think we're approaching this any different than we do a normal day of shooting and reporting," TMZ publicity assistant Leslie Harris said in an e-mail.
Even if in Redford's mind the hearts of TMZ and the star-struck aren't in the right place, at least they've come to the right place. And there should be plenty to see until the festival's end on Sunday.
E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com
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