Thanks to reader Andrew for sending this in:
I was at the WWE Summerfest event in Venice, CA on Saturday and was in the middle of a major incident between Maryse and a paparazzi jackass. Me and my friends Jared (is in a wheelchair has cerebral palsy) and my other friend Charlie drove down for the event. We went last year and it was a blast. We found out the hotel a block away where they run everything last year, so we figured why even try to fight the thousands of fans to see anything or even try to get an autograph and just hung out at the hotel all day.
We met everyone from Miz, to Dreamer, to Eve, to Candice etc. and really didn’t have any problems all day, except there was this paparazzi guy constantly hounding us and the wrestlers. It finally came to a head as Maryse was preparing to leave and go home.
I was standing just inside the lobby of the hotel having a conversation with Maryse telling her about my friend Jared in hopes she would take a picture with him. (I met her last year so I wasn’t interested). In the middle of our conversation, as she was starting for the door to come out and take a picture with Jared, this paparazzi guys comes into the hotel and shoved his video camera in Maryse’s face causing her to grab her bag and run around the corner. At this point the WWE PR people went haywire.
This guy had already supposedly gotten into another of the diva’s face earlier in the day and now he was out of control. He was ordered off of the property and the police were called. He refused to stop recording and leave. He even went as far as to make the remarks that why doesn’t she come out and take a picture with this guy in the wheelchair. The WWE people made it very clear that she wanted to, but he needed to turn off the camera first. He refused saying it was his right and asked why doesn’t she just come out.
The WWE people repeatedly asked him to just let her come out and take care of this fan but he got rude and distasteful. At some point Maryse did come out, crying by now, jumped in her limo and left. The paparazzi literally chased the limo down the street. When it stopped at the Stop sign, they stood in front of the limo snapping pictures.
I have heard all kinds of stories about the paparazzi, and can now say first hand it’s all true. This idiot all day was hounding us obviously trying to get the story of this kid in a wheelchair meeting all the stars. We didn’t have a problem, even gladly gave him some video messages. It became very obvious as the day went on, he was hoping he would get snubbed by someone and he would have a story. Well when it was obvious he wasn’t going to have his story he decided to make one. It didn’t ruin our fun, but definitely made for a less festive mood.
On an interesting side note, Chris Masters showed up about mid- day. He lives in LA and was there visiting his friends. He was a very nice person, gladly signed many autographs for everyone, and posed for pics.
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
