Are your middle school boys bothering you? Published 2007-02-02 under curious

I spent a wonderful week at the Sundance Film Festival this year. I have written about some of my experiences while in Park City, but I failed to mention one of my funniest encounters.

I was attending a reception after a panel discussion. The event was limited to those in attendance at the discussion, but I saw a group of teenage boys (middle school age) wondering about the entrance to the room where we were mingling. While I could tell that they were looking for something or someone, I gave them little notice.

Later, as I was leaving, I ran into the same group in the foyer. While I was putting on my jacket, I overheard them asking the ladies at the front desk, "Where can we see someone famous?". This comment made me laugh. They could careless who they saw as long as it was a star.

The boys had been running around for a while and pestering (in an innocent way) the staff at the event, so I was surprised to see the boys run out upon hearing the response to their question. Too curious, I had to ask the ladies what they said. I was expecting that they made up a lie and told them that Jennifer Lopez was up the street. Instead, the ladies had simply said "... I haven't seen any stars lately, but their is a gay and lesbian party upstairs". They then told me "after we told them of the party, a sense of discomfort came over their face and they ran out."

So now you know how to disperse a group of middle school boys.