On the set of The Help

How exciting - I won a trip to the film set of The Help in Greenwood, MS on Oct. 10-12. Four other ladies won also - we'd all written how we were inspired by reading the book. Jack and I are pictured here with Octavia Spencer, who plays Minny in the movie. We had an amazing time. Our first night there, we were treated to an amazing dinner at the restaurant of the Alluvian, the hotel we stayed at. After we ate, we were thrilled when Octavia stopped by, along with Brunson Green, one of the producers. AND Minny brought her famous chocolate pie and we ate it up! (you just have to read the book!)

The next day we went to the set. We saw them film two different scenes, with Octavia (Minny), Viola Davis (Abilene) and Emma Stone (Skeeter). Viola and Octavia were wonderfully warm and everyone on the set was welcoming and friendly. Unfortunately, Emma Stone - not so much! She was "simply worn out" from coming from doing promo of her current movie, Easy A, and didn't want to greet us or talk to us. Funny that she is still not a big name in the biz, but felt okay snubbing us. Oh well - she's a kid! We had lunch in the "dining tent" - yummy meals prepared daily for the cast and crew. Jack and I sat at the table with Viola and Octavia and had a great time with them (Emma S. stayed in her trailer, she doesn't join the others for meals)

Me and Jack with Brunson Green, one of the producers.

The studio was selling everything (we were there on a Monday and they wrapped up filming on Thursday so it was all nearly over). This was some of the furniture used on the set, and there were shelves upon shelves of props, silverware, books, purses, shoes, etc. The prices on stuff were pretty good - but it was sort of hard to buy things to carry back on the airplane - ha! That is the director, Chris Columbus, on the far right.

Outdoors on the set. Star trailers, plus the makeup/hair salon trailer, the costumes trailer, etc. We did get to see inside the makeup/hair salon trailer, and talk to one of the ladies who did the makeup.

This is the street that our hotel was on. The Alluvian is an amazing, gorgeous hotel with an incredible restaurant - but it's out here in the middle of nowhere, on a cobblestone street in Greenwood, MS.

Annie was from Disney Studios, and was our "host" for our time here. Our package included this evening at the Viking School of Cooking which was directly across the street from the hotel. Viking provides just about all the jobs in this small town of 20,000. Here, I'm showing Annie how to make bruschetta (yeah, right), but I think she's more into the wine.

Jack wasn't too keen on our menu, so he left before the cooking started. After a yummy steak at the hotel's restaurant, he enjoyed having the TV and remote control in the room all to himself.

These are the tiropitas (cheese pies) and the lemon shrimp bruschetta. I never worked with phyllo dough before; it was fun to do something different, but you do have to move quickly with this super thin dough that dries out quickly.

We topped off the meal with a chocolate fondue - plenty of pound cake and fruit for dipping. And a GREAT time was had by all!!