(Part I: The Wayne Brady Show)

Before I get into my story I would like to say that I only took one picture of Donnie (well with Donnie) the whole day because he was so busy I didn't want to be flashing in his face. Secondly, Donnie and Kim contacted me a little while ago about the site and they knew I was coming to Los Angeles for the festival and that is why Kim contacted me on the 25th.


Ever wonder what it would be like to spend the day with Donnie Wahlberg? Well on Wednesday, February 26, 2003, I did exactly that. It all started the day before when I was contacted by his wife, Kim, to let me know that Donnie would not be attending the William S. Paley Festival on the 28th due to a scheduling conflict (he now had to be in NY on that day to do some publicity for the re-launch of Boomtown on March 2nd). My heart sank. I had been looking forward to seeing him for weeks. It seemed that once again I would be unable to meet him. However, then Kim emailed me back to tell me she was trying to get me tickets to see some shows that Donnie would be taping at noon and 6 PM. The problem was that I thought she meant Friday when she really meant Wednesday. My flight was not supposed to arrive in Los Angeles until after 5 PM Wednesday, so at 10 PM Tuesday night, I figured out that I could catch a 7 AM flight out of Houston and arrive in LA a little after 10:30 AM.

When I got to LA, I contacted Donnie and asked him what to do next. He told me to go ahead and check-in at the hotel and then meet him at the CBS Studios at 11:30 AM for the Wayne Brady Show taping. Of course by the time I got checked in and then caught a cab to the studios, it was 11:35 AM and I was so afraid that I had missed Donnie. However, my name was on the list, just as Donnie and Kim had promised it would be. I would later learn that Donnie was not there yet because he is always late!

I got my pass and then was told where Donnie's dressing room was…which stunned me because I was expecting just to be in the audience of the show...not in his dressing room! However, I followed the instructions and went into his dressing room. His make-up artist, Jamie, and one of his publicists, Amy, were there waiting for Donnie. I was very nervous because not only had I never done this before, but also these people were professionals and I was just some fan from Houston. However, both women quickly put me at ease. They were so friendly and nice! They never treated me as if I was beneath or below them.

After the introductions, I sat down and waited for Donnie. I seemed to be waiting forever when he finally appeared in the doorway. He was wearing a T-shirt (green, I think), blue jeans, a black leather jacket, sunglasses, and he had his cell phone to his ear. He quickly peeked in and said that he needed a few more minutes to finish his phone call. He put his jacket on the door handle before he retreated back into the hallway. He wasn't gone long when his jacket began slipping off of the door handle and so I grabbed it before it hit the floor and put it on the chair behind me.

A minute or two later, he came back with his sunglasses up on his forehead and said something to the effect of "Hey, Freestone, (he always calls me by my last name, for some reason) you're all grown up now." (I am still trying to figure out this statement unless he recalls meeting me back in 1992…) Then he hugged his makeup artist and then he bent down to hug me. Unfortunately, I have had a nasty cold for over a week and I had promised Kim that I wouldn't get him sick, so I began to pull away and try to keep my face away from him.

"Donnie, I promised your wife I wouldn't breathe on you!"

"Ah don't worry about it."

He then sat down in his makeup chair and began talking to Jamie. He then made sure I had met Amy and Jamie and asked what we had been talking about. Amy told him that we had been discussing how I had sprained my ankle recently.

"Yeah I remember that," looking at me, "You also had shoulder surgery not too long ago right?"

"Yeah."

When I offered to show him my scars, (everyone seems to want to see them for some reason) he declined saying that he recently hurt his shoulder. When Amy asked him how, he said he thought lifting weights.

When I advised him to say no to shoulder surgery, he responded that one should say no to all surgeries.

That is when an employee of the show came in and introduced herself. She reminded Donnie that they had spoken on the phone and then began to read back to him all of the questions and the answers he would be talking about on the show. (This just blew my mind because I just assumed that talk shows were a lot less structured than this.)

Since Donnie's stylist was out trying to get him some clothes for his Craig Kilborn Show interview and the interviews he would do in NY, he had to wear the clothes he came in wearing on the show. (Both Jamie and Amy agreed that it was a good thing that Donnie is naturally stylish, so he could do stuff like that.)

Then it was time for him to go into the "green room" and thus all but Jamie (who had another job to go to) followed Donnie out of the dressing room. Then he looked back at me…

"Your ankle is okay now though, right?"

"Yeah as long as I don't kill myself in these heels."

Then we ended up in the "green room," which is a big room with various foods and drinks for the stars. Donnie was about to sit down when another employee came in with some papers for him to sign so that they could pay him for doing the show. After he signed the papers, he was shaking his left hand with a pained look on his face.

"I hurt my thumb on the set."

He basically began telling Amy and I that all he could really sign was his name due to the injury. (I would learn later on how he had gotten the injury.)

Then he sat down and mentioned how American Idol was filmed on the same stage as the Wayne Brady Show. Amy then asked him if he had watched it last night. He responded that he had meant not to but had ended up watching it.

"Did you watch it?" he asked me.

"Nope, I have managed to miss both seasons."

His look told me that he didn't quite believe me, but then Amy asked him if he ever agrees with Simon.

"Oh always."

He then began talking about how he thought that the guy with the curly hair the night before wasn't as good as everyone thought he was.

Then he looked at me again and asked, "You watched it last night, didn't you?"

"No, Donnie. I really didn't."

So then he went back to saying how this season isn't as good as last season. He was still discussing this when another employee came and got him to go out on the stage for the show.

I was then left alone with Amy in the "green room". We talked about how long I have been a fan and stuff and then Donnie came on the TV above us. We began to quietly watch him talk about how growing up he and his siblings had had to ride in a refrigerated truck that his father drove in order to get places and how they would pray for a red light so they would stop getting bounced around the truck. He also talked to Wayne about how Wayne had been an extra on the "Wildest Dreams Special" during Danny's segment (however Wayne incorrectly thought it was Jordan's segment) on the beach. I couldn't hear much more after that because some of the other guests filtered in and were talking too loud for me to hear.

After the interview was done, Donnie came back and we all went back up to his dressing room. That is where I met his stylist Vincent, who also turned out to be very nice and cool. He had brought some clothes for Donnie to try on for the various shows that he was going to be doing that night and tomorrow. Donnie went into the bathroom to put on the suit he wore to the Craig Kilborn Show, but he wasn't sure he wanted to wear it because as he said,

"I really don't like blue."

Of course I was wearing a baby blue sweater so I jokingly said I was going to go back to the hotel and change.

"No baby blue is fine."

Then Vincent tried to get him to try on a red shirt and Donnie responded that he didn't really like red. So then Amy asked him what color he did like.

"Black," he answered as he went back into the bathroom to change.

Then he tried on the black sweater he wore on the Regis and Kelly show underneath the suit that he wore on the Craig Kilborn show, but nobody really liked it.

Then I said that I thought that the shirt was too plain for the suit. And he was like, "Really? Okay."

So, then they decided that he would wear the black shirt with another shirt under it because Donnie likes to have a collar.

It was so cute to watch him flex his muscles in the black sweater because it made him look muscular.

The coolest thing though was how nice Donnie was. Even if he really didn't like something, he would try to say it in the best way possible so not to hurt Vincent's feelings.

After he got changed back, he came out to put his shoes on and he sat down beside me.

"What's happening Freestone?"

"Nothing much Wahlberg."

So then I asked him if he could drive me back to my hotel, he said he wasn't sure if he could because he had a meeting he had to get to.

We both followed Amy out to the car that was waiting for him, and Amy told him that he needed to do his phone interview she had set up for him as soon as he got in the car. He just kind of nodded.

Then she looked at him, "I mean it Donnie. You need to do that interview. Don't spend all your time talking to her."

"Talking to who?"

Amy pointed at me, "Her!"

I just smiled, "Yeah I am just his little shadow, don't mind me…"

So then Donnie told me to go get in the car, however when I got to the other side of the car, he realized the door wasn't open so he made me go back to the other side and get in.

Then he asked the driver, "Could you drop this young lady off at her hotel?"

I gave his driver my hotel address and we were off. We were in the car maybe a minute when Donnie kept his word to Amy and called someone for an interview.

I tried very hard not to listen, but this guy was talking so loud that I heard every word. Eventually Donnie nudged me and made a funny face to make me laugh.

Most of the ride, I was just looking out the window because this was my first trip to LA. I think this concerned Donnie because he then nudged me again and mouthed, "Are you okay?"

I didn't quite understand him so I mouthed, "What?"

And he mouthed again, "Are you okay?"

So I nodded and smiled at him, "Yeah I'm okay."

It was during this interview that I learned how Donnie had hurt his thumb. According to what he had told the person he was talking to, he was doing a scene in which another actor was playing a drug addict that Donnie (as Joel) was interrogating. So during one of the takes Donnie accidentally cut the other actor's forehead with his watch. However during the last take of that scene, the actor tries to get away and Donnie has to grab him around the neck and pull him back. Well this time when he tried to do so, he caught his thumb on the actor's head and injured it. It swelled up after that, but was back to normal when I saw him.

He also talked to the interviewer about being a Boston Celtics fan and that is why he couldn't buy Laker's tickets because that would be sacrilege, and thus that is why he has season tickets to the Clippers instead. He also said that he waits all year for the one time a year that the Celtics play the Clippers.

The interviewer also asked him about Dreamcatcher and if Stephen King ever came up during the filming.

"He never did while I was there."

The interviewer also explained why they changed Col. Kurtz to Curtis in the movie, which Donnie said he hadn't known.

Then Erin called me to let me know that she and her husband had gotten into LA and were catching a cab to the hotel. I tried to keep my conversation as short as possible because I didn't want to disturb Donnie and I was pretty sure the guy he was talking to could hear me.

Not long after that, we got to my hotel. As I was about to get out of the car, Donnie grabbed my arm and mouthed, "I'll see you later."

I nodded and said "Okay."

That is when I went upstairs to meet Erin.

My Day with Donnie: Part II