Last weekend I was invited by TNT to attend their Armchair Detective Weekend press junket in Beverly Hills for a chance to put my armchair detectiveness to the test, as well as sit down for interviews with cast members from several of their crime dramas, including Major Crimes, Rizzoli & Isles, Perception, and King & Maxwell. Needless to say, it didn’t take very long to respond with a resounding YESSSSSS!
One of the perks of attending the event was being able to watch the season premieres of several shows which haven’t aired yet. One of my favorites, hands down, is newcomer King and Maxwell. Based on David Baldacci’s award-winning books, the show is fast paced, laced with humor, and the dynamics between Jon Tenney and Rebecca Romijn are sizzling. The series premiere is Monday, June 10, at 10pm ET/PT following TNT’s hit drama series Major Crimes.
I took my daughter along for the trip as a birthday present, and we were greeted by our driver at LAX and swept away to the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. Some of you may remember the hotel from the movie Pretty Woman. Once home to Elvis Presley and Warren Beatty, famous guests include Elton John, Al Pacino, Michael Douglas, Angelica Huston, Farrah Faucett, and more recently, Robert Pattinson. Over the weekend, it was rumored that Jordin Sparks and Carlos Santana were spotted there, and while I can’t attest to that, I can say that we saw Saudi Arabian rally driver Yazeed Al-Rajhi — a guest at the hotel, get into his $2 million Pagani Huayra (illegal in this country I might add) and drive away. Welcome to Beverly Hills.
The event was attended by 70+ radio DJs from across the country and four bloggers, myself included. We were treated to private parties that were attended by actors from each of the shows, and the weekend also included a murder mystery hosted by Keith & Margo’s Murder Mystery USA. Every detail of the weekend was perfect, from the celebrity-studded private parties to the hour-long massage in the hotel’s famed spa. Ahhhhhh. But I digress.
We were briefed about the murder mystery at dinner in the Royal Suite with instructions to “trust no one.” After dinner, we headed to the rooftop for a party that included a cigar cutter, bourbon tasting and a forensic artist doing sketches from guests’ descriptions of loved ones. Trying to describe my daughter in detail was hard enough, I can’t imagine how difficult it would be to try to give details about a perpetrator you only caught a glimpse of.
Major Crimes actors G.W. Bailey (Lt. Provenza) and Tony Denison (Lt. Andy Flynn), were two of our co-hosts for the weekend. We were assigned teams at breakfast Saturday morning, given clues at various events over the weekend, and left to our own devices to figure out who-done-it. It was a great way to break the ice, because the only way to get to the bottom of the mystery was to talk to everyone and try to determine the culprit and their motive. You learn a lot of interesting things about people this way.
Also on Saturday was a press junket, where I conducted interviews with several cast members from each show, including Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander from Rizzoli and Isles; Mary McDonnell, G.W. Bailey, and Tony Denison from Major Crimes; Eric McCormack and Rachael Leigh Cook from Perceptions; and King and Maxwell‘s Jon Tenney. I’ll be posting those interviews in the next week. As a side note, for those of you who have been wondering if there will be a Will and Grace reunion, be sure to check back for my interview with Eric McCormack. Eric portrays Perception‘s schizophrenic Dr. Daniel Pierce with aplomb, and this show will definitely be in my summer lineup.
Bailey and Denison, as well as other cast members from Major Crimes, Rizzoli and Isles, King and Maxwell, and Perception, attended the Hollywood party at Boulevard3 Saturday night, where more murder mystery events unfolded.
The whole case was resolved Sunday morning at breakfast after each team turned in their best guesses answers. For the record, my team was runner-up, but only because we missed writing down one crucial fact prior to turning in our synopsis. The funniest answer was from one of the other teams: “Andrea the blogger and Jessica the waitress (my daughter) did it.” It was a fun weekend with lots of interesting people. Check out what our pals at Betty Confidential, Ausxip and Rizzles Unlimited had to say for another perspective on the weekend.
Major Crimes and King and Maxwell air Monday nights on TNT starting June 10th 9/8C. Rizzoli & Isles and Perception air Tuesday nights on TNT starting June 25th at 9/8C.
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