TVSquad

Sunday night, ABC closed their day of events with an all-star party, which was held at the same ballroom where lunch was served (kudos to the party planners to making the place more party-like instead of like a rubber-chicken dinner). Here's what I learned there.

When you're at a party or an event, the presence of a few celebrities will get noticed. But at something like this, where 100 people from various ABC, ABC Family and Disney Channel shows were present, everyone just blends and hangs out like normal people. Well, that's not entirely true. The celebs -- many of whom were dressed in their party finest -- talked to each other, and the critics -- many wearing the same business-casual garb they wore during the day -- talked to each other. When the worlds collided, it was usually when a critic tried to formally interview one of the celebrities, which was impossible given the crowd noise and the loud music.

More of what I learned after the jump.

Actually, I heard that the celebrity-critic mingling was better than in past parties. The stars really seemed to be enjoying themselves, especially as most of my fellow reporters got tired and left, leaving the stars to dance and hang out with each other. By the way, the show that liked to dance the most was Ugly Betty; Ana Ortiz, Becki Newton and Michael Urie seemed to enjoy bopping to the old-school and newer-school hip-hop being played. The person with the best moves: Kevin Michael Richardson, the big guy from The Knights of Prosperity.

Like I said, I tried to talk to a few people, but there was so much noise, that it was difficult. But the more casual I was (and the less obvious I was with my digital recorder) the more fun the interaction was:

I told Lori Laughlin that I felt bad that no one asked her anything during the session for In Case of Emergency. She shot right back with a smile: "Then why didn't you ask anything?" She had me there. We then talked about my encounter with her former Full House co-star John Stamos and how nice a guy he is.

America Ferrara -- who ended up winning a Golden Globe the next night -- still had her overcoat on while she spoke to me and another reporter. But, bless her heart, her name tag was out, in case anyone didn't realize who she was. She knew about the telenovela on which Ugly Betty was based, but she hadn't seen any episodes. What's coming up? "From here on out it's going to get really interesting. Up until now, the show has been introducing the characters, but I feel like it's going to be very plot-driven and its going to pick up." She was sweet and charming, and I really had to catch myself a few times to make sure I didn't sound like I was hitting on her. Can you tell I have a little crush?

Mark Valley and Rene Auberjonois of Boston Legal were standing and talking to each other with no one around them. When I came up to them, told them I liked the show (I do... no lie) and asked Rene if he's gotten any Star Trek questions (he was Odo on Deep Space Nine) he said, "You're the first person to talk to us." When I mentioned Benson, he told me a nice story about how when his son was little, the kid felt guilty about watching The Dukes of Hazard instead of a Benson episode, because he thought the Nielsen ratings would be affected. Despite the solid fan base the show has, neither Mark nor Rene was sure if they were going to get picked up for another season.

Abraham Benrubi of Men In Trees and his girlfriend really laughed when I went up to him and said "I loved you in Pizza Time!" (See this post if you want to know what the hell I was talking about.) He loved working on that pilot, apparently.

Despite the fact that The Nine was near death, a few of the show's stars showed up to the party. John Billingsley was very honest about why he thought the show failed. "It was marketed, and this is 20-20 hindsight, it was pitched as something more suspenseful, whereas in reality it is a personal drama about how people grapple in the face of trauma." He mentioned the drop-off in ratings during the pilot, which was a bad sign that things weren't going to go well. "What we had were a lot of people wanting an action-adventure show, and a quarter of them felt 'that isn't it.' So they didn't come back, and the remainder would have to come back every week for us barely to keep afloat."

I chit-chatted with Nicki Micheaux of ABC Family's new show Lincoln Heights for a while. I hadn't seen the show before, but she told me it was more "gritty" than the usual ABC Family fare. She was right; I caught a glimpse of the show at the hotel last night, and I actually heard the word "jerk-off" on it, which kind of surprised me. What also surprised me is that Nicki plays the mother of an 18-year-old daughter, considering how young she looks herself.

I was asked to speak to Madison Pettis, who is in Cory in the House on Disney. I couldn't say no to an 8-year-old without looking like a schmuck, so I asked her who she was most excited to see that night. Her answer? "Hanna Montana." Who did you expect her to say, Calista Flockhart?

And Sally Field... oy vey. You know what? I just decided that she deserves her own post. Check back later today for my five minutes of "fun" with the screen legend.

Anyway, before I went to the party, I was watching a Greg the Bunny DVD; I was preparing for an interview that I did with Dan Milano the next day (it was a blast... we'll post it next month). When I got back from the party, after rubbing elbows with all those celebrities (sometimes literally... it was packed in there), I watched more of the Greg DVD. Don't get me wrong: the party was fun and the food was fantastic. But guess which activity I enjoyed more? I guess that's why I write about TV and not for TV.