Young fan treated like a star on Hollywood trip

Local News

Discussion

Welcome to our online comments feature. To join the discussion, you must first register with Disqus and verify your email address. Once you do, your comments will post automatically. We welcome your thoughts and your opinions, including unpopular ones. We ask only that you keep the conversation civil and clean. We reserve the right to remove comments that are obscene, racist or abusive and statements that are false or unverifiable. Repeat offenders will be blocked. You may flag objectionable comments for review by a moderator.

comments powered by Disqus

July 24, 2010

Jamie Jones Dalton Daily Citizen

DALTON — As a member of the Dalton Dolphins swim team, second place isn’t always the best finish for 10-year-old Alex Mashburn.

But being runner-up, this time in a radio station contest, was just fine.

Alex and his mother Mendy recently returned from a three-day, two-night trip to Hollywood to tour the iconic town and meet the cast of the Nickelodeon children’s show “iCarly.” Alex entered an online contest, put on by 96.5 FM The Mountain in Chattanooga, by updating his status on the social networking site Facebook. The person who won the contest wasn’t able to travel on such short notice, so the Mashburns were elated to be next in line.

How excited was Alex to be going to Hollywood?

“Very,” said Alex, a student at New Hope Elementary School.

They received the news last Tuesday, then prepared to leave Sunday morning out of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta. Alex has been an “iCarly” fan since the show debuted in 2007.

The show follows Carly Shay (Miranda Cosgrove) as she films a program she broadcasts on the Internet called iCarly along with her best friends, Freddie and Sam. “iCarly” may not be a household name like “The Cosby Show,” “Friends” or “American Idol,” but the show has become one of cable television’s more popular shows, often placing in the top 25 of the cable Nielsen ratings.

“It’s funny,” Alex said. “And totally random. They have a web show they do every week. They have people who try to stop it, people who try to improve it.”

The Mashburns received the red carpet treatment. Airfare and lodging (a hotel on the Sunset Strip) were included. After arriving in Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon, the Mashburns threw their bags in the hotel closet and walked to Hollywood. There, they toured Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, the Kodak Theatre and Madame Tussauds’ wax museum and saw several historic homes. And on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Alex discovered he has the same shoe size as famed movie producer Steven Spielberg.

“We got back just exhausted that night,” Mendy said.

The next day, mother and son joined about 60 other winners and parents on a behind-the-scenes tour of the “iCarly” set. They were treated to a private viewing of a never-before-seen “iCarly” episode, then had lunch with the stars of the show.

That’s when Alex chatted with Cosgrove, the most popular character on the show. The two talked about Alex being on the swim team, the show and most importantly, “She actually said I was cute,” Alex said.

When Alex returned home Tuesday and went back to swim practice on Wednesday, he was the center of attention.

“You would have thought he was the star,” Mendy joked.

The trip was the highlight of the summer for Alex. He and his mother were both struck by how gracious and accommodating the actors and actresses were, especially Cosgrove.

“She was very, very nice,” Mendy said. “She sat down with each of the winners — there were maybe 30 winners, 60 total including parents — signed autographs, had conversations with them, then we got back on the bus to Nickelodeon studios and got to tour the set. While we were on the set, some of the cast members came out and talked to all of the kids, took pictures. They were actually nice enough to send them (her two daughters) video hellos on our little Flip video recorder.”