Being a big media-whore, I absolutely jumped at the chance to be on television, no matter what the show. A few days earlier I'd gotten a call from my friend Larry at Clockwerk Productions. Larry works with New Line Cinema's promotional department, and they needed young girls to help them hype up the new Adam Sandler flick Little Nicky. Apparently, what they really wanted was a bunch of young vacant girls, but I'm trying not to be too insulted by the fact that Larry thought of me.

I had worked for the friendly people at New Line Cinema once before, dressing like a vampire and standing in the background of the Today Show. That time they were hyping the Jonathan Lipnicki movie The Little Vampire. Fifty dollars in exchange for listening to Kathy Lee Gifford "sing" (she was performing on the show to promote her new CD) was nearly adequate compensation, and I couldn't imagine Total Request Live being quite as bad as that. Given a choice between Britney Spears and Kathy Lee, I have to admit I prefer Miss Spears. Hey, at least that "Oops" song is kinda catchy.

So, I went to New Line's office and got fitted up. My "costume" was a black baby-T with the words "Nicky's Angels" written in red across my chest. Kinda cute, and I got to keep it. I was in the company of a throng of girls, all fairly dumb, but with GREAT hair, each one wearing an identical t-shirt and a seemingly identical pair of tight black pants. I had searched around my closet for the lipstick that I had worn when I was in middle school, in order to be "MTV appropriate" (yes, they have a 70 page contract detailing EXACTLY what people must be wearing to make it on the air . . . exceptions made only for the requisite "freak" from each cast of the Real World). I joined the Nicky's Angels army, pretending that I watched TRL as religiously as they did.

In all honesty, I HAVE been known to watch TRL on occasion. When I was home sick, back in high school, I would sometimes watch this show, aired daily on MTV. For those who have a bit more taste than I do, TRL is a showcase of the top ten music videos of the day, as chosen by the show's viewers. Host Carson Daly announces the videos in order, and has chatter and celebrity interviews/performances between clips. It's basically a chance for 'NSYNC and The Backstreet Boys to duke it out, in the form of votes from their fans. However, it has been years since I've seen it, so when I went to be in the audience, I had no idea which videos would be shown, or even which bands to cheer for.

For that matter, I still don't. Rather than be inside, among the studio audience, the group of us (I'd guess nearly 50 girls in all) stood with the other fans out in the cold, blocking off huge sections of sidewalk outside MTV's studio in Times Square. The people inside got to see the good stuff, Carson's interview with Adam Sandler, some band's performance (I heard it was No Doubt, though I can't be sure), and, of course, the top ten best music videos of the day. We on the street got to see camera men with walkie-talkies wave at us, while laughing at the signs people had constructed.

People held up all sorts of signs, from "Hi Mom" to "I love you, Carson". In an attempt to get invited up to the cushy indoor seats, people were writing their cell-phone numbers on the backs of their signs. When the amused tech crew decided to call them, they made all sorts of offers in exchange for being brought up. Alas, it was all to no avail. The only person who I saw make it from the yearning masses down below to the comfortably reclining studio audience up above was someone who was nailed in the head by a falling light. In exchange for not suing, he got to be a mere 15 feet from the majestic Carson Daly and guests!

I ended up leaving fifteen minutes into the show, after being convinced that I had made it on the air (the camera with the red light was aimed at me for a few solid seconds, while I bounced up and down screaming and feigning excitement). But before I left, I did get to see a group of three pudgy black men dressed as the Powerpuff Girls, which was quite a sight. And I got to join in when the entire group (my fifty girls, plus an additional 200 or so people who were there of their own free will), started chanting "Hanson sucks" in unison. Someone had a poster claiming "Say bye bye bye to all those boy bands with the same dancing and the same singing, cuz Hanson is back". This was enough to unify the rest of the crowd into asserting, in a show of brotherhood, that "Hanson sucks." The implication that the boy bands were better is one that I chose to ignore, as I was swept up in the moment.