We all see countless red carpet images after a huge awards ceremony, but what happens backstage? What do the stars do as they wait to present or receive their award? How do they calm their nerves or kill time, these award ceremonies can seem to take forever! Here is an exclusive look behind the scenes.
Bellafortuna CEO and Founder Anita Thomson was given the task of keeping celebrities such as Halle Berry, LL Cool J, Jamie Foxx, Common, Samuel Jackson happy and content for hours before the prestigious awards aired live on NBC.
The first step is to create a stunning backstage retreat lounge, so the Bellafortuna Lounge was created with the help of leading design team Joannes Van Laer and Lucas Schelkens, two of the world's leading interior decorators, owners of Joannes Lucas in Culver City, they supplied unique furniture pieces from around the globe that are hundreds of years old, plus they enrolled their client, world renown sculptress Cybele Rowe to provide her sculptures which are displayed in museums. Halle Berry, one of the presenters at the NAACP Awards, is familiar with Rowe's art, as she is already a collector. Leading skincare Kiehls provided gifts and charity wine ONEHOPE was poured in the elegant lounge. Superstar Harry Belafonte was overheard saying it was one of the "most elegant rooms he had ever experienced at an awards ceremony."
To keep the celebrities busy and spoil them a little, Anita Thompson created her Bellafortuna Gifting Lounge with the help of Santa Monica's peakPRgroup. Ulimat Vodka set up interactive muddle bar for celebrities to make their own fresh fruit cocktails, Heineken provided beers, and kindly gave celebs such as LL Cool J a year of free Heineken. smartwater, coca-cola, Honest Ade provided the soft drinks, refreshments complete, now onto the gifting element.
The Gifting lounge main sponsors were the USPS, who provided a giant beautiful Rosa Parks stamp that all the celebrities signed on entering the lounge. Samuel Jackson, LL Cool J, Kerry Washington, (who won three awards on the night) her leading co-star in winning show Scandal, Tony Goldwyn all happily signed the stamp. Nerium skincare shared lounge sponsorship, one of the world's leading anti-aging creams, Nerium had a stunning booth which provided skincare tips to the countless celebrities who gladly accepted their Nerium gifts. Samuel Jackson was extremely pleased with his brand new version of the much coveted SodaStream machine, as was Eddie Cibrian, who attended without Leann Rimes. Eddie also stopped by designer Jonathan Meizler's TITLE OF WORK ties and chose a beautiful tie, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, LL Cool J, Tony Goldwyn, Samuel Jackson all loved their ties. Relaxation and getaway treats were provided by Tikkun Holistic spa in Santa Monica and Chaka Spa, in Beverly Hills.
Leading hair product company, celebrity favorite Paul Mitchell were certainly a hit amongst the guests, so much so they ran out of all their luxury products at the end of the night, luckily stars such as Kerry Washington and The Good Wife star Archi Panjabi were able to stock up in time. Ugly T shirts a spiritual based brand, provided the glamour with their tee shirts. Good Planet Media, were also on hand to educate all VIP guests on its products, Samuel Jackson spent a lot of time hearing from CEO Michael Kalinski on how to make film and commercial sets planet friendly. Chico bag, Hint Mints, Sip N Go water bottles and Pretty Hot Candles were a big hit.
The NAACP Awards was a huge success and the NBC show aired with millions of viewers. CEO of Bellafortuna, Anita Thompson kicked off her shoes at the end of the night and said, "We made them all happy, I was so proud to provide the best gifts, refreshments, alcohol, comfort and design, it was a huge success, now I need an Ultimat cocktail, and where is that $28,000 Joannes Lucas couch!"
For more information on Bellafortuna please go to:
Comments