SOHH On The Scene

Hello from Hollywood. Monday festivities kicked off for the 2008 BET Awards and I was on the scene at The Shrine Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles to document it all.

After picking up my credentials for the main BET red carpet, I headed over to the Fire and Ice gifting suite to see what kind of free stuff they were giving away. In addition to New Balance sneakers and Sean John shades, vendors were on hand with vodka, cognac, $5000 gift certificates for VIP Smiles dental visits, massages, jeans and all kinds of good stuff.

Anthony Hamilton was in the gifting suite when I stopped by. He grabbed a hat and took advantage of the massages.

Now that I think about it, this Debra Lee's 'My Black Is Beautiful Dinner'
was pretty eventful.

So we're halfway through red carpet arrivals and I see Ashanti and Nelly making their way towards me. They split up to do separate interviews and Nelly comes up to me first.

Ashanti and Nelly

Remember when A Tribe Called Quest's Phife Dawg said, "My man Al B. Sure, he's in effect mode/used to have a crush on Dawn [Robinson] from En Vogue?"

I felt the same way until I saw her at the 2005 VH1 Hip-Hop Honors. "No, you're never gonna get it?" Shoot! I don't even want it no more. And judging by the "used to" reference, neither does Phife. It's not that Dawn Robinson was busted. It's just such a dissapointment to hold a star in high regards, finally meet her and think, "that's it?" Makeup, photoshop and airbrushing can work wonders. Fellers, I know we all have Top 5's, ladies too. I know ya'll have met women/men in your Top 5 before and thought, "umm, I may just have to kick her/him out now." I now don't' feel I can put women in my Top 5 unless I've seen them in person. The let down is too much to bare.

Gabrielle Union at Debra Lee's 'My Black Is Beautiful Dinner

Gabrielle Union

In retrospect, a SOHH/Robin Thicke interview was never in the cards. We were slated to interview him in Las Vegas during the NBA All-Star weekend, but his plane got delayed in Cleveland.

We finally caught up to him at Debra Lee's My Black Is Beautiful Dinner in Los Angeles last week.

Robin Thicke and T.I. at Debra Lee's Black Is Beautiful Dinner

The SOHH team was on hand at Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium for the BET Awards yesterday afternoon (June 26).

Red carpet arrivals took place during the sunny afternoon, so my dark ass got an unecessary tan. The good thing is I got to meet Lauren London. The bad thing is I now look like Akon.

Me and Lauren London cheesing