bonniegrrl | I Want My MTV at Skywalker Ranch

It's not every day that the crew for MTV's "Total Request Live" invades your workplace.
That's exactly what happened last week at Skywalker Ranch. To promote the upcoming release of Revenge of the Sith, MTV VJs, celebs and Good Charlotte flew out to Marin to do a special Star Wars edition of TRL.

As usual, I was there to report about the event for starwars.com. I had spent the day before that at our press junket joining folks from various newspapers and magazines as they interviewed George Lucas, Hayden Christensen, Ian McDiarmid, Rob Coleman, Roger Guyett, and Rick McCallum about the film. So I was more than prepared to interview the various celebrities and Good Charlotte about their love for Star Wars.

For the first part of the morning, I watched as Good Charlotte's crew attempted to do a sound check in vain thanks to the random rain showers. But before we knew it, they were good to play, the TRL audience was brought in, and the VJ started the show. It was interesting to be part of the crowd considering that we were told to stay back if we were 30 or older. (Yeah, I'm 32 -- so what?!) But I think I ended up in the shot anyway.

I made a point to pass out the stickers and pinbacks we made special for our teen campaign and they went like hotcakes. I knew those would be popular -- I just wish we had made more!

After Good Charlotte played in front of the Main House, the crowd walked slowly to the Stagg Theater to see a special screening of Revenge of the Sith. I had seen it for the first time the night before with the international press junket. Aside from some Spanish journalist kicking the back of my chair for the duration of the film, I was completely mesmerized. It's dark, sad and quite good. I don't want to give too much away, but I would suggest that all you Original Trilogy fans out there who think they're too
jaded for prequels -- YOU NEED TO GO SEE THIS FILM.

This second time around I watched for the background characters and "Easter Egg" type moments I had missed the first time around -- George and his kids' cameos, my boss Pabs' cameo, ILM crew cameos, original trilogy actor cameos, the Millenium Falcon, and so much more. It was even better the second time around.

After the screening, and a standing ovation for George who had watched the film with us, I headed over to the VIP party to interview celebs for the site and to pass out more stickers and pinbacks. In addition to my Ash pals Mark, Linda and her friend Lisa -- I saw Elijah Wood (Lord of the Rings), Seth Green (Italian Job), Danny Masterson ("That '70s Show"), Topher Grace ("That '70s Show"), Mila Kunis ("That '70s Show"), Josh Schwartz ("The O.C."), Peter Gallagher ("The O.C."), Michael Rosenbaum ("Smallville"), Donald Faison ("Scrubs"), Brendan Fehr (Final Destination), Macaulay Culkin (Saved), Good Charlotte, Death Cab for Cutie and others.

At the VIP party I could overhear various guests raving about the film, and squealing with glee every time they spotted Chewie working the crowd. Heck, that Wookiee makes a mean martini! At the party I managed to chat briefly with Topher, but since it was so busy I didn't get much of a chance to talk with anybody else. So afterwards I headed
to our Inn to interview Billy (who was super nice) from Good Charlotte and anyone else who felt chatty.

I have to say the best interview I had was with Michael Rosenbaum from "Smallville." He's such a passionate fan that it was fun listening to his theories about the film and why Star Wars strikes a emotional chord with so many people. (So look for the interview on starwars.com soon!)

All in all it was a great time and I'm glad I got to take part in it. Who knew so many celebs were so Force sensitive! Check out TRL on Friday, May 13 for the Star Wars Special.

Here's the day in images: