My brush with fame and how I lived to tell about it

What do you get when you take a famous Korean actor, thousands of screaming fans and utterly unprepared security, and put them all in one place? This:


This was Yoo Ji-Tae arriving at a public press conference in downtown Busan on Saturday, as part of the PIFF (as mentioned previously). We had no idea what was going on, but it seemed like word was spreading that he'd be arriving, and the crowd grew quickly behind the massive stage set up in the middle of a small intersection of the city's biggest shopping district. We rushed Cate away from the scene and made sure everyone was safe. Then . . . I headed back in.

With camera in hand, I braved the mass of school uniforms and trendy haircuts, determined to get a glimpse of whichever massive, important star was about to arrive. As two black vans rounded the corner about a block away, all hell broke loose. Elbows, kicks, screams. It was all fair game. As Yoo fought his way through the crowd I thought, "Okay, who is that? Seriously guys, where's Gwyneth? Or Brad? Or even Pauly Shore . . . don't tell me that's the guy we've been waiting for." I panned frantically, waiting for something more - but - to no avail. That was it.

In the video, notice the guy with the baby in the middle of the crowd. He's clearly thinking, "how the bloody hell did I get myself into the situation?!" For the record, he made it out alive - with his son.