Most inept management at NATPE: After this morning's keynote, I stopped to chat with Jordan Levin - the former WB President turned new media exec - and we walked over to see our friend MTV programming chief Tony DiSanto do a one-on-one Q&A panel.
Both of us are independently friendly with Tony and promised him we'd catch his NATPE chat, but when we got there literally four minutes late, we had to beg our way in! The guards told us that NATPE chief Rick Feldman had given them strict instructions not to let anyone in after the panels had started. They looked really scared over the whole thing too.
As we drew upon whatever limited experience we had at negotiating our way into nightlife hotspots to try to win over the door guards, Pauly Shore - I kid you not - came and joined our plea. The three of us banded together to tell them we were part of Tony's entourage, and finally got in. I think Pauly knows him from his earlier days at MTV, and I hear he kind of likes the tradeshow scene. Hmm…Anyway, it's a good thing those guards were so strict - two more people might have really upset the aesthetic balance, or, um, the feng shui of the NATPE chat setup. Ridiculous.
By Anne Becker
