Not to self: One must not arrive fashionably late to the annual William Morris party at the Four Seasons.
After arriving at seven o'clock on the dot and looping the block in my heels to kill a little time, I entered the pool room section of the fabled restaurant. Or, at least, I tried to–the bodies were already backing up out the door. It was 7:10.
A server offered me a glass of wine from her tray with a knowing nod. "Better take it now as you don't know how long it's going to take you to get the to bar, " she advised.
After weaving through the swelling room and securing a safe spot on the steps, I surveyed the impressive crowd. Ben Silverman, Steve Mosko, Dan Abrams, Dave Howe, Bonnie Hammer were in attendance, to name a very limited few. Hands were being pumped, cards were being exchanged, and barbs were being tossed to and fro. This was a room–the room–of the night for those of us in the TV industry.
As the guest continued to multiply at an almost impossible rate–an agent told me the guest list was roughly 1300 people– I listened to two men behind me take bets on whether or not someone would topple backward into the pool in the center of the room. In the bar area at the top of the steps, several cast members of The Office were making the rounds. We stopped Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson in real life) and asked him about the NBC Upfront.
"They paraded us around like slabs of meat," he dead-panned in character to my colleague.
