It was mid June in 1999 and Wild, Wild West. starring Will Smith, Kevin Kline and Salma Hayek was due out in a couple weeks. I already had some really bad luck with a beautiful portrait of Will Smith but I'll get into that story another time.
I loved Kevin Kline in the movie, "Love You To Death," where he played an Italian-American-Gigolo-Cheater, but my decision for this premiere was to paint Salma Hayek. Of course as we all know, she is one of the world's most striking women, and that in itself, puts an additional pressure on me because my style of painting. I can paint a man's face with broad strokes of the brush and it just makes him look more rugged... but if I do that to a woman's face, she'd probably want to slap mine. So I had to take extra care in not giving her face any harsh lines and with the way I paint, this was going to be something relatively new for me.
I looked and looked for a picture of Salma Hayek at the shops down in Hollywood that sold celebrity head shots but I just wasn't able to find one that struck me. I finally came across a magazine cover that I really liked and chose that for my painting. I spent a week painting her portrait and that still left me about a week before the Monday, June 28, 1999 premiere at my favorite theatre in Westwood. The Bruin Theatre, located at 961 Broxton was in the heart of Westwood and just a block away from the UCLA campus. The reason the Bruin Theatre was my favorite is that everything just seemed to great for me there. At that one location over the years, I was able to get Steve Martin, Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Costner, and Hilary Duff, all to sign my portraits there.I was happy enough with the way my painting of Salma came out but still a bit nervous to meet her, as always.. but that's part of the fun. The premiere was to be on Monday, but she was now scheduled to be on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno on the previous Friday, June 25. I thought, What the heck? I'll go there and that will give me an additional chance to get this autographed, just in case she ends up not signing at the premiere. I started work at 6am so that gave me plenty of time in the afternoon to head down to Burbank to try to catch her at the Tonight Show. The foreman that I worked for at the newspaper, Buck Davis, was always very supportive of my hobby so if the end of the workday wasn't loaded down with all kinds of pressing business, he'd let me slide out of the door maybe a half hour early or so, whenever needed, to get me to my destination in time and this day was no exception.
I got down to Burbank a couple hours before showtime and I was hoping that I hadn't missed Salma's arrival, but getting there in the middle of the day, I just never know. I always work with security and I know where they like me stand and where they don't like me stand, so I always work within their rules to keep from being asked to leave. After a few years, the security staff got to know the guy with the paintings and they knew that I stayed out of their way and didn't cause them to have to come tell me not to do this or that, so by this time, they pretty much left me alone, knowing I'd stay within their rules. It was getting to be late afternoon and the limos were starting to arrive for the several shows that were taping on the lot at the time. Of course when they come up with their heavily smoked or blacked out windows, I have no idea if Ms. Hayek is in this car or the next one, or the one after that... so I just treat all the cars the same and act as if she's in each one of them. I have my little "zone" that I was stand in and it works out well for me and the security. The limos are starting to pour in and I hold up my painting to the window and yell, "SALMA!!! WILL YOU SIGN MY PAINTING?" not knowing if she's even this car or not... but that limo just continued on it's way. Here comes another car and here I go yelling the same line again at the new car's blacked out windows.. and it doesn't stop either. A third limo pulls in, a fourth and sometimes a fifth. I can't recall now how many limos pulled in that day and I yelled my line at each one of them, only to have them keep driving past me.. so I wait patiently for the next one. As each limo pulls in past me, I turn my attention back to the street so I'm ready for when the next
one pulls in.
With my attention now back on the street, I can hear a woman's voice screaming something way off in the distant background somewhere. At first I didn't think anything of it because the sound was so far away from me, but her insistant yelling made me finally turn around to see what all the commotion was about. I was beyond stunned when I saw that it was none other than the gorgeous Ms. Salma Hayek, standing up in her stopped limo with the top half of her body sticking out of the opened sunroof, waving her arms at me to get my attention as she kept yelling, "HEY!!! I'M SORRY I DIDN'T SEE YOU WHEN I PULLED IN. WAIT FOR ME THERE AND I'LL SIGN IT FOR WHEN I LEAVE!!!" in that beautiful, ever so dreamy, ever so perfect Mexican-American voice of hers. I don't want to be politically insensitive, and I'm not sure if the correct term this week is Hispanic, or Latina, or Latin American, or whatever else I'm maybe supposed to call it but let's face it, someone with an accent from Mexico is probably different than someone from Spain, or Cuba or any other Spanish speaking country.. and whatever she has going for her.. well it just works out perfect.. and it's no news to anyone that that's another thing about her that makes her so charming.
Huh???? Salma Hayek told me to wait for her??????? I'm never leaving this spot. "OK, I'll WAIT RIGHT HERE!!!" I shouted back to her. Looking around, left and right, and smiling from ear to ear... I was looking for anyone that might have witnessed me just having a conversation with Salma Hayek.
Figures... there was no one there, but that's ok, I know it was for real and I'm waiting here for her until the show finishes taping.
It's usually about another hour and 45 minutes before they come back out after taping the show; they arrive about a half hour before the show, tape for an hour, then another 15 minutes will pass before they leave. When Salma's limo arrived, I was the only one there which would have made it very easy for her to sign my painting if she had only seen me a few seconds earlier, but since she didn't, I knew there was going to be a much bigger autograph seeking crowd of people waiting for her when she leaves the show.
Now by the time that previously mentioned hour and 45 minutes had passed, there was no doubt a lot more autograph seekers than when she arrived. As promised though, her limo exited the gate and she had her limo driver pull over so she could sign for her fans. Being that my paintings are 22" x 28" and surrounded with a wooden stretcher bar framework that holds the canvas, it is almost a weapon when it comes to standing in a crowd of people that are pushing and shoving each other. That being the case, I usually try to stand back a bit for a short period of time to let some of the people that only want one autograph to get to her window, get her signature and then get on their way. This is usually my plan but the problem is; the bigger the star, the longer the crowd stays there and it never seems to dwindle. Salam Hayek being such a big star, there were lots of professional auograph guys there. They are called "pro's" because that's what they do for a living. They will have a stack of 20 pics or so of the star and when she signs one, they just slide it underneath the bottom of the pile, exposing a new pic waiting to be autographed. They then take these newly signed pics to the souvigneer shops in Hollywood and sell them to the stores. If they get $30 for each celebrity signed pic and they just got 20 of them autographed, that's an easy $600 for a few minutes work. Then they are off to the next event of the day to get more. I'm not a "pro" and I don't sell my paintings, but most of the time standing in the same bunch, waiting for the signature.
Salma was busy signing and signing. She had only rolled her backseat driver's side window down maybe maybe half way and the pro's just kept feeding her their stack of never ending Hayek pics.. and she kept signing them. Because she was so busy signing, it's my guess that she didn't realize that the same 4 or 5 pro's were there feeding her their pics and they weren't runing out of Salma Hayek pics anytime soon.. so she kept signing and signing. Finally she yelled out of the window, "Where's the guy with the painting?" Stunned again, I replied, "I'm right here Salma and I'm not going anywhere!" I still wasn't able to step up to the car becuase the crowd of pro's and fans all jockeying for their best position was still too unruley and if I'm in that mix and someone on my left bumps my painting, it gets pushed to the right and no doubt into someone's head.. so that's why I stand back a bit. Ms. Hayek kept signing away and the crowd still wasn't thinning out any so after a few more minutes, she yelled out again, "I WANT THE GUY WITH THE PAINTING!!" One of the pro's being a funny guy asked in return, "Do you want the guy... or the painting?" He gave the perfect thing to respond to him with, I answered him back with, "What did she say, buddy? She wants The GUY... WITH the painting!!!" we all got our due laughs and that was fun but the crowd still wasn't getting any smaller.
The limo driver obviously listening to all that was being said, quietly got out of his car, walked back to the rear of the car where the crowd around Salma's window was and he tapped me on the shoulder, and without saying a word, he was giving me that "follow me" motion with his index finger as he kept walking toward the back of his limo. I followed his example and didn't say a word back to him, I quickly left the back of the pack of autograph seekers and immediately followed her chauffer. He got to the back of the limo, made a left turn and kept walking, looking back to make sure I was following him, He then walked across the back of the limo and was now on the passenger side of the car and he turned left again. I quickly caught up to him and he now had his hand on the passenger side rear door. I looked at what he doing and I couldn't believe it. He opened the door for me and with a wave of his open palm, he motioned for me to enter the car, as if to say without words, "There you go, my friend, here she is!" Wow, another one of my very lucky moments was taking place this instant and I certainly knew it. Sometimes I'll look back at the events day and realize later what a lucky moment I had.. but not this time.. I knew it right when it was happening. Everyone else was busy trying to force their items to be signed in her window, not realizing that I'm now just on the other side of the car with her door wide open and waiting for me. I handed her my painting and she thought for a few moments about what to write. You can see the crowd on the other side of the car, still sticking their pics of Salma in her window, completely oblivious to what was now taking place on the passenger side of the car. She was amazingly sweet, she wrote, "Randy, you are very talented and I thank you for thinking of me Love, Salma Hayek." As she was signing my painting, I took my little instamatic camera from my pocket and snapped this pic. She immediately looked up and said, "No pictures please" I apologized and asked her if she wanted the film from my camera and she said No. She was so nice to sign it for me and with so much thought about what she wanted to write on it, I sure didn't want to upset her by taking a photograph.. but I only took the one pic and it was left at that. She handed me back the paining and we both thanked each other and I also thanked her driver. He undoubtedly knows what a huge favor he just did for me. Now I have a newly signed autograph from the one and only Salma Hayek!!!! Oh yeah, and I shouldn't fail to mention that I WAS IN HER LIMO!!!! Well, I never actually got into her car but the offer was there and the moment there was special enough for me as it was.
That was Friday evening and the premiere for Wild, Wild West was on the following Monday, June 28. I decided to go to the premiere to see if I could get Salma to pose with my painting for a quick pic. I got there hours before the event and waited all day until the movie ended.. then it was time for the stars to walk down the street to go to the after party. I didn't need to be near the front of the pack this time because she had already signed it for me so I just positioned myself along side the red carpet somewhere between the theatre and the party, a short block away. The stars were taking their stroll down the street on their way to the party and some were signing autographs along the way. Salma Hayek was on the red carpet and walking toward me. When she approached where I was standing, I held up the painting again which she of course recognized from the other night. Neither of us had said a word yet and she looked at the painting and then at me with a puzzled look on her face that said, "But I already signed this." I asked her, "Can I take a picture of you holding my painting?" She took the painting from me and she absolutely olbiged me again. This is sort of thing that stars can do to win over fans for life.
Thank you Salma Hayek and thank you Mr. Limo Driver
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