#AdaTIFFmems - Beware of Sophia Loren fans

Yesterday's story was certainly one of my most harrowing volunteer experiences, but as devoted as Johnny Depp's fans are to him, they are no comparison to Sophia Loren.

In 17 years of volunteering, I have never seen more crazed and determined fans than that of Sophia Loren's.

This is another tale from the early 2000's at the Elgin.  I was already captaining by that time, but in those days we had stationary jobs on/near the red carpet.  The set up in then included a small autograph hound area right next to the carpet (for those who are familiar with the venue, we had them crammed into an area between the carpet and the gazebo, where the step and repeat is now, opposite the press photographers).

The night Ms. Loren was coming, the autograph bay was packed from early on.  Fan of all ages were holding large posters and photos.  There were a lot of people trying to cram into a very small area, tempers were starting to flare even before stars began to arrive.  One aggressive fan didn't like another fan shoving a poster around in front of him, at one point he ripped the other fan's poster. There was also some shoving in the back, I didn't see it, but heard an uproar that one fan spit on another.  We had to get the paid duty cop to standby in the area to keep the crowd under control.

Then... the limo pulls up, Sophia Loren gets out, and it's absolute chaos. Flashbulbs blind us all, the fans start shouting and pushing forward, and the cop has to deal with them.

I'm somewhere near the bottom of the carpet, I see that Sophia Loren has moved to the fan area and towards the first set of doors and the area of the carpet I'm standing is clear.  I'm facing the street/pedestrians when I see a short older man in a dark suit, face lit up in joy at the sight of Sophia, jump over the stanchion and go running up the carpet.

We are not to touch patrons or anyone (and I'm all for that) so I hold up my arms as if to signal "stop", and I say as much (not that anyone can hear anything over the roar) but because he has a running start and I'm just standing there, his arm gets caught in mine and he nearly knocks me over.  In the entire time he's still just overjoyed shouting Sophia's name as I'm inadvertently pulling him back, at the same time trying to get untangled from him. Thankfully around this time security came up to remove him.