Question Celebrity
Whatever hassles you're having flying the friendly skies this holiday season, at least you can rest assured that we all travel under the same security restrictions, no matter who we are, right? Ha! Alert reader Vicki Wilson from Bethesda spotted Salma Hayek on a late-night United flight from Los Angeles to Dulles International in October and got a quick lesson in the perks of fame. Take it away, Vicki:
"I was tickled to see, from my front-row Economy Plus perch, Salma Hayek heading for First Class." Wilson was even more tickled when, during the in-flight showing of "The Devil Wears Prada," Meryl Streep's character mentioned Hayek -- a nice little verite experience of fame.
"When we finally landed around midnight," Wilson continues, "I was the first to deplane, and as soon as I walked off the plane, I spotted him. What is it about security guards? Do they all get the same wardrobe-and-stance memo? Bald, stocky, turtleneck sweater and sport coat, hands clasped behind his back -- I just knew he had to be there for our in-flight movie star. A sleepy-looking Salma walked off, her eyes and face lighting up as she saw her man. 'Am I happy to see you,' she said in that pouty, Latin accent we've all heard in the movies. (I am not bragging when I tell you I can do a dead-on impersonation of it -- just ask my kids.) 'Because I had to come all by myself.' " Wilson watched Hayek instruct her guard to "please make [her Louis Vuitton luggage] come right away" while she waited outside and smoked.
"Here's what I want to know," Wilson writes. "I thought the new rules prohibited anyone without a boarding pass from getting to the gates in the airport. How come Salma was able to get [this] treatment?"
Answer: the airlines. According to a Dulles spokesman, the airlines can, with advance notice, issue their own special gate passes to anyone they deem worthy. The greeters still have to go through the airport's gate check, but they don't need boarding passes like the rest of us. Hayek's people, meanwhile, confirmed to us that the actress did indeed travel to Washington, on the date Wilson flew, to lend her support to a domestic-violence awareness event. What cannot be confirmed is why the famous are not able to make their way to baggage claim all alone. Salma Hayek? At midnight? Safely ensconced in a Dulles people-mover? Seems as though she could have handled things herself for a few hundred more yards in the paparazzi-free banality of airportworld, watched only by a curious but respectful stargazer or two.
E-mail: celebrity@washpost.com
