Jenna Fischer opens up on brutal paparazzi snub during The Office’s early days
Jenna Fischer has opened up about an embarrassing moment she once had with the paparazzi, though not for the reason you might think.
The star of The Office spoke to the Dinner's On Me podcast where she recalled the story from the early days of filming the hit comedy, which would end up running for nine seasons before coming to a close.
On this occasion, Fischer had been out with some fellow cast members of the hit NBC sitcom celebrating the success after the show was picked up for a second season.
“I have a very funny story from, my gosh, I think we were going back for season 2 of The Office,” Fischer recalled.
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“Me and Angela [Kinsey] and Kate [Flannery] and Phyllis [Smith] from The Office, we decided we were going to have a ladies’ lunch to celebrate getting picked up for season 2, and we were going to go to The Ivy.”
The Ivy in Los Angeles known as a restaurant where paparazzi sometimes lie in wait hoping to snap a picture of a celebrity out at lunch, and the cast were also it was a place 'where the paparazzi hang out'.
Things got off to a bit of a bad start with the lunch, with the group not getting the table they had hoped for.
“So we requested a room on the patio," she recalled. We got there, there was some problem - they put us in the back by the kitchen. We didn’t get our patio seat."
Nonetheless, the group had their celebratory lunch for the show being renewed, enjoying the moment.
And then sure enough, as they were leaving the restaurant after lunch there was a paparazzo approaching them.
“As we’re leaving, the paparazzi come running and we’re like, ‘It’s happening!’" said Fischer.
But in what might be described as the celebrity equivalent of thinking someone is waving at you but is actually waving at someone behind you, the photographer was not making a beeline for them at all.
"And then they just run right past us, down to take a picture of someone else,” Fischer said, realizing that the photographer was actually angling for a picture of Jason Alexander from Seinfeld.
Fischer remembered thinking 'Okay. Hey, Seinfeld, that’s a big deal. That’s pretty cool,' but Angela from the group was not quite done yet.
“And then Angela, bless her heart, she is like, she goes, ‘Well, we are from NBC’s The Office'," she said, but the photographer just ended up getting the wrong end of the stick, thinking they worked at 'the offices of NBC', rather than appearing on a show.
So instead of taking their picture, he had excitedly tried to network with them, with Fischer recalling him saying: “Are you serious? Are you serious! Can I give you my card? If you ever hear of anyone who’s out and about, will you please call me? Anybody from NBC that you want me to feature, you just let me know.”
Of course, The Office would go on to be a big success, running for nine seasons.
Topics: Celebrity, Film and TV, The Office, US News
Kit Roberts