On television, the Logies’ red carpet looks stress-free and glamorous. The gowns, the smiles, the excited fans who welcome the celebrities as they calmly waltz in.
But… we have some stories about what really happens just beyond the camera’s glare.
Like the stressed-out PR people frantically running around corralling the stars like cattle.
Like the high heels tearing holes in other people’s dresses.
Like the star’s gown strap that snapped just before the show began…
Monique Bowley has seen it all. Listen to her red-carpet recap, here:
Like the shabby gravel taxi rank barely covered by the red carpet, and the spotlights illuminating the dark corners of Whiteman Street at night.
We see it all from the media pit, where photographers and reporters elbow one another for a spot at the front.
Yes, Mamamia were back this year with Stop Revive Survive, where we bring everything celebrities might need during the night to the red carpet. We’re armed with sewing kits, Hollywood Tape, breath mints and more.
And do we see some sights.
“Someone snapped their dress… right in front of me. We fixed the dress,” Mons tells Laura Brodnik in this week’s episode of The Binge.
Watch Mons in action on the red carpet:
One of the truly beautiful things you don’t see on TV? The sick children who attend the Logies red carpet dressed in their very best outfits.
“Kids in wheel chairs and kids with disabilities with their minders and carers there…. Some of the celebrities stop. I’ve gotta tell you this year, it was Carrie Bickmore that was there with them for such a long time taking photos, talking to them, crouching down with them, and then Sam the Wiggle spent a really long time with them as well. It is really, really nice,” says Mons.
When I was a teenager, my dad took a group of my country school friends and I to watch the celebrities walk into the Logies. Seeing Beau Brady from Home and Away walk in with sun-kissed tips in his hair was the height of excitement for me.
So I do have a level of understanding for the people who go to Crown to “have a cup of tea” in the foyer on the day of the big event.
“We go in the morning to pick up our media accreditation…and there’s just streams and streams of people just sitting in the foyer, just people-watching. Because the celebs are sort of coming, and going, and they’re in the lifts and they’re walking around the foyer, and they’re carrying in their huge dresses… all of Australia’s most glamorous people are in this one area at once. And there are people in the lobby having a casual cup of tea, losing their minds seeing Megan Gale and Jennifer Hawkins just walking their leggings or whatever.” Mons says.
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Logies red carpet 2016.
But the one thing that you are never likely to see happen on TV, is what goes down as the stars and the media file into the show. One minute you are looking at the Logies’ red carpet, the next, there are hundreds of people taking down the lights, ripping the carpet up from the tarmac, as teenagers swarm onto the stage to take selfies from the spot their celebrity heroes walked on literally minutes before.
“It was like a demolition site, the red carpet was still hot from having feet on it, and they were just like ripping it up…that’s kind of interesting too, you walk into Crown and you see this beautiful event, and then minutes after, it’s back to normal.” Mons said.
To hear more of Mons’ behind the scene tips, including her chat with Susan Carland about her husband, Waleed Aly winning the Gold Logie, you can listen to the full episode below. For more episodes of The Binge, find us in iTunes, subscribe to the Mamamia Podcast App, or download the show on your favourite podcast app.
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