| EVENT REPORT 09.20.06 9:00 PM |
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| Warner Brothers Goes Green for Blowout CW Launch |
| More than 1,700 guests swarmed the studio’s New York street set for a green-doused party celebrating the studio’s first network launch since 1994. |
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| “They started by showing me all the graphics for the new CW network and saying, ‘You’re going to be working with green,’” said Warner Brothers director of special events Hillary Harris, who planned the new network’s massive launch party for 1,700 guests on the New York street of the studio’s back lot. And did she ever follow the network execs’ direction: Harris worked with a mostly in-house team over a two-month period to produce the green-all-over party that matched the CW’s logo—and its target demographic, the young and young at heart. |
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PHOTO GALLERY |
 | | Warner Brothers glowed green for the CW network launch. |
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 | | More than 1,700 guests took over lounge seating and noshed on a vast menu from the studio’s food services division. |
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 | | A gallery of photos in a faux storefront celebrated America’s Next Top Model. |
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 | | A tower evoking Smallville’s kryptonite doubled as the central bar. |
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 | | The cinematic New York street was backdrop for the party. |
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 | | Female cocktail servers from Beautiful Bartenders wore neon green wigs. |
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 | | The party’s climax came when network execs flipped a switch to simulate turning on the network. |
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This was Warner Brothers’ first network launch since 1994, when it launched the WB (which the company combined with UPN to form the CW). And “this one was on a whole other scale,” said Harris.
From the parking structure where they deposited their cars, guests hopped on the studio’s trams (the same ones that take guests on the Warner Brothers’ V.I.P. Studio Tours) for short jaunts through the park, before drivers deposited them at the foot of a long green carpet. There, female cocktail servers from Beautiful Bartenders donning neon green wigs served mojitos garnished with minty green licorice.
Harris and her team transformed the New York street with faux shops and activities that promoted all 19 shows on the CW network. Guests got manicures from sponsor O.P.I. at the Girlfriends beauty boutique, played games at the Everybody Hates Chris arcade, satisfied their caffeine fixes and indulged in mini doughnuts (the scent of which permeated the entire party space) at the Gilmore Girls café, and checked out an exhibit of photos of the models from America’s Next Top Model. In the center of the party space, servers poured cocktails glowing with lit-up green ice cubes at a towering bar meant to recall kryptonite, in honor of the Superman show Smallville.
For the party’s climax, Set Masters helped fabricate a giant switch—based on an old railroad switch, with a big green ball on the end—to simulate turning the network on in a ceremony complete with performers from the Blue Man Group and more than 80 personalities from the network’s shows assembled on the main stage. (“One of the wrestlers from the WWE was seven feet tall and 450 pounds, and I’m like, OK you’re not going to stand on that riser,” Harris said.) In the manner of Times Square on New Year’s Eve, confetti canons exploded with green streamers and confetti at the big moment when the CW president of entertainment Dawn Ostroff and C.O.O. John Maata flipped the switch.
Stage managers immediately redressed the stage into a three-tiered lounge with modern furniture. Guests continued to nosh on samples from an eclectic menu that included Mexican and American savory and sweet favorites (they consumed more than 3,000 mini Kobe beef burgers throughout the evening), and DJs Life, Don Guapo, and the Rhythm Romancer spun for the crowd.
“This was really a total Warner Brothers special events show,” said Harris, who worked almost exclusively with Warner Brothers employees and resources for the launch.
Back in the trams at the end of the night, the driver asked the departing guests what they thought of the party, and we told him it was a spectacle. “That’s what everyone’s been saying,” he said.
—Alesandra Dubin
Posted 09.21.06
Photos: Nadine Froger Photography
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