By popular demand (no, I am not kidding) here is a link to the Inside Edition/Hannah Montana piece on YouTube.

Here’s the story online.  They used a screen shot of me where, blissfully, I don’t look awful. 

Sarah and Cassie are mentioned in it, which is fun. Cassie called the house after she saw the broadcast and asked if Sarah told her classmates. Sarah said she didn’t tell anyone, to which Cassie replied, “I told EVERYONE!” So cute.

We just got done watching ourselves on Inside Edition.  We were all happy with the way it was edited, and what was said.  I was impressed that the editing did not make us look ridiculous, or exploit the girls.  It was all good, and the girls were thrilled to see themselves on TV.  Me, I have to work on that extra chin…

REALLY UPDATED!  Here’s a link to the segment transcript on the Inside Edition page.   

UPDATED!  They showed a preview of Tuesday’s show – looks like the Hannah story will be on then.  I was on in the preview, so it looks like they used some of our footage.

 If you’re here to read my story of how I was interviewed along with my daughter on the Hannah Montana/Ticketmaster controversy for the syndicated TV show, Inside Edition, these are the posts you want to take a look at.

Here’s the blog post that the producer saw that drove her to contact me in the first place.

Here’s part one of my play by play on the interview

and part two

and part three

Enjoy!

Continued – more of in which Little IT and I are getting ready to be interviewed by “Inside Edition” about the Hannah Montana ticket controversy…

7:42p – IT Boy, having been asleep since 6:30, gets put in his crib in his room. In the meantime, I meet Holly, the very nice AP who has a camera and sound guy with her.  She asks to use the bathroom, looking very tired from her day.  Everyone is very pleasant.  As they begin setting up, I panic, which seems to be my mode for the day.  Why am I doing this?  Is this some perverse desire for fame for me, or worse, my kid?  Have I become the Dina Lohan of Center Lane?  Am I selling her out in an effort to make her the next Britney Spears?  Do I really think I could get Hannah tickets out of this for Little IT?  Having Mr. IT scowling in the kitchen helps matters not at all.  I settle down with the knowledge that it’s just a fun thing for the girls to do.  Heck, maybe it will help my blog traffic.  Maybe we get tickets out of it for the girls somehow.  How bad could this be?

7:50p – Nice sound guy sets up the shoot with nice camera guy.  They want to shoot us in front of the newly de-cluttered dining room, on chairs.  But we have no chairs that fit the bill.  Mr. IT runs downstairs to find folding chairs.  As the guy puts the mike on me, Holly helpfully points out that I have spit up on my shoulder, and sends me upstairs to change, for the fourth time that day. I switch to a kimono sleeve cashmere sweater which R declares to be the best one of the day. I bemoan the fact that my hair was not done, and wonder how I can go on film that way. And, Julie’s words ringing in my ears, I reapply my lipstick.

Meanwhile, C’s brothers, A and S, who are part time DJs and all-around AV geeks, arrive with their friend K. K is wearing an iPod Nano shirt. The brothers start asking what kind of microphones they are using and what range they get. My geek peeps have arrived. I ponder how I much value I can gain if I update my LinkedIn profile to read Television appearances: “Unwrapped”, Food Network; “Inside Edition”, Syndicated.

7:55 – Little IT and I are in chairs ready to spill our guts about the Hannah ticket mess.  As Holly asks questions and directs our answers, I realize that she’s hoping I’m going to get mad…really mad.  Screaming irrational psycho parent kind of mad.  And I’m really not that way.  Yes, I’m disappointed I didn’t get tickets.  She keeps saying that parents are suing Ticketmaster, that tickets are going on some sites for up to $3,000, doesn’t that make me MAD?  Well, yes and no.  Mad at the scalpers for finding a way to do that.  Mad at Ticketmaster that I’ve been buying concert tickets for 25+ years now and this keeps happening.  Not mad at poor Miley Cyrus, who seems like a decent enough kid living well under a morality clause from the Disney Company. 

Then the producer starts refering to a web article that lists something about the Missouri AG who is suing Ticketmaster alleging fraud, and Ticketmaster suing some ticket broker who has found a way around their systems. All of which, unfortunately, is news to me. Reminded me of the time in college that I was giving a presentation on the PLO in my “Nationalism and Terrorism” course. Yeah, you laughed at me for taking that course in 1988, but now, really, who looks like a sage now? Anyhow, the professor for the course went easy on most kids in the presentations. However, unbeknownst to me, he was a nationally recognized expert on all things PLO. Who knew? He managed to stay awake through my whole presentation (he was the oldest tenured prof at the university at the time, so he took cat naps through most of the other students’ works) and asked questions every third sentence or so. At the end, he asked me what I thought about the latest skirmish between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Trouble was, I was a typical college student in the 80’s. No TV, certainly no Internet, and worse, because I was working so hard on this paper, I had no time to read any newspaper, much less one that would have told me a thing about this latest confrontation. So here I was, up to date on the Dawson’s Field hijackings almost 20 years earlier, but utterly clueless when it came to something that happened about 2 weeks ago.  That was a tangent, but it brings me to this point…How was I supposed to realize that I had Hannah homework?!?

8:15 – Having failed with me, Holly turns to Little IT. Meanwhile, A and K make a run for it, but S wants to stay. Now, whose who know Little IT know that she’s no shrinking violet. However, when the camera turned on her, she became quiet and shy. They really tried to work in some questions that could be answered coherently, but Little IT didn’t give them much to work with. C’est la vie.

8:25 – Holly decides to get some other shots for B roll footage- Little IT and C dancing in front of the TV to a Hannah Montana DVD, the three of us doing homework at the dining room table (look out for the Dummies product placement here), and the girls putting on their identical Hannah Halloween costumes in Little IT’s bedroom. Holly made the girls repeatedly say how much they love Hannah and, in unison, “Hannah Montana, please help us.” I start feeling a little icky and look at R. R with one look says I don’t need a shower, and it’s kind cute. I worry that I am exploiting my child, who has no concept about boundaries, and isn’t that what I am there for? To stop the madness. I don’t, thinking if it’s really all that bad, Mr. IT or R would have stopped me. The person who may have had the best time of all was S, who got to hold the boom mike and talk with the sound and camera guys about how they do what they do. He’s still talking about how much fun it was.

8:50 – Everyone leaves, and I am left with Mr. IT and Little IT. Mr. IT says that they’ll never use any of the footage, because I didn’t get screaming mad on camera and he was proud of me for that. Awww…that made me realize that I probably was doing the right thing all along, and if my moral compass really was challenged, I wouldn’t have let it go that far.

Holly said the story will probably air either tonight or tomorrow. I will tape it – if they edit it so that I look crazy or the girls come out as spoiled brats (which they are not) I won’t let Little IT watch it. R still has the dream that somehow someone will come through with tickets for us. I’m kinda past thinking about that, unless another show gets added to the schedule.  

 What did I learn?  I’m still pondering that.  I guess because my motives for doing the appearance were never solidified, I don’t feel like I accomplished any goal.  Hopefully, Little IT will be excited to be on TV.  And so will C.  If they did end up getting tickets, great.  But as I emphasized to the producer, we didn’t get tickets, but life goes on.  There will be other things for her to get excited about.  It wasn’t the end of the world then, and it certainly won’t be now. 

Here’s an interesting article in the WSJ.com about the Hannah Montana tour controversy.  They make a good point about why the ticket sellout is getting so much press:

People involved in the tour say that tensions are running particularly high over the Hannah Montana tour because many of the parents who are trying to secure tickets for their children are buying their first concert tickets in years, and thus are unaware of how difficult the Internet has made getting tickets to hot concert tours. On top of that, many parents are wary of disappointing children to whom they have promised tickets.

I have to say, in the past 3 years, I’ve gotten tickets to Yankee playoff games, Bruce Springsteen, The Police, and U2…yet I come up short with Hannah. Plus, little IT never knew that tickets were a possibility.  So the last paragraph doesn’t really apply to me.  The whole thing still boggles the mind, tho.  Ticket brokers getting better access, tickets going on sale on sites like stubhub.com moments after they sold out at Ticketmaster…unreal. 

There was also an article in the NY Times today about the same issue.  A reliable source tells me “Inside Edition”will also be doing a story about it tomorrow or Tuesday.  More about that in my next blog entry…

Anyone with a daughter aged 6-12 knows how popular Hannah Montana is.  Recently, Hannah/Miley Cyrus concert dates were announced.  Many parents of my daughter’s friends were all abuzz about getting tickets, planning which date was best, figuring out what venues were most accessible, etc.  I partnered with a friend and we decided to join MileyWorld so we could get a pre-sale code and buy tickets early. Great plan, huh? Except within 5 minutes, the pre-sale sold out and we were without tickets. We then set our sites on the sale to the general public. I never thought of it, but my friend pondered going to our local Ticketmaster outlet and getting a lottery number, but figured that online would be faster, better and in the end, more productive. In the end, we were left without tickets. I got a “no seats are available that meet your request” 2 minutes after the sale started. I had two computers going, but still, no luck. Other parents reported the same luck. However, our friend who went to the Ticketmaster outlet got tickets at 10:10, a full 10 minutes after they went on sale. So who was smarter? Who learned a lesson? I did. Old school can sometimes be the way to go. Next time, I’m sending the Mr. to Ticketmaster to camp out, and I’m going online to hedge my bet. And I will remember that the computer and the Internet is not always the answer to everything.

On the bright side, I don’t have to go hear Hannah/Miley. Plus, the kids never even knew we had this plan in action, so there is no disappoint them.