My Berlin Page

~ Shirley in Berlin ~

My Story

Malibu Beach at sunset ... magic hour we call it in the movies ... it's that time of day between light and dark, that always makes me wonder who I am and where I fit in ... HEY - waitaminute ... that's someone else's story - WHOOPS!! :) But I'm ALSO gonna tell you a story that changed my life .. it didn't happen in Malibu Beach though (unfortunately) but in Berlin, Germany on 18 February 1999, magic day we call it ... over here, the day I 'MET' SHIRLEY MACLAINE !!! :)
Okay - in the bottom of my heart I'm a Shirley fan ... or friend .. or whatever you wanna call it - someone who loves Shirley MacLaine. So - right after I got the information from the SWEET SHIRLEY ONELIST that she will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Berlin Film Festival this year, it was clearer than clear that we were going to Berlin to look for Shirley... or AT LEAST to be in the same city as she is (you know aura - wise ) !!! :) Very quickly I noticed a synchronisity in our planning for this trip - everything seemed to fall into place! :) I live about 7 hours away from Berlin and wedidn't seem to know ANYONE there - the problem was that you were only able to get tickets for the 'Hommage to Shirley MacLaine Night' right THERE in Berlin, no reservations, no nothing. Until about a week before a friend appeared from my distant past who all of a sudden seemed to study in Berlin!! I didn't talk to him in about 3 or 4 years - but ... he stood in line for our tickets for three hours - what can I say ? My friend Sundra, who is, of course, also a Shirley addict (actually she made me one) was able to get tickets for the Shirley movies which where shown during our visit there. So we already had tickets for four movies and the hommage night.. Do you have ANY idea how we looked forward to those three days????? We arrived in Berlin, Germany on the 17th, Shirley was nowhere in sight - I wondered what I had gotten myself into. Well, we took a cab to our hotel and all of a sudden we drove by a HUGE poster of Shirley next to a theatre which said "Hommage to Shirley MacLaine" - then we knew .. this dream was real!!! In fact there was a poster like that on every second corner - pure Shirley heaven!! :)
The "Berlinale", how the festival is called, turned out to be a pretty "big" festival - with people looking for so- called movie stars in every street. I had no experience with all that ... and the only one I wanted to see was Shirley anyway - so we asked two women who looked like they were pretty used to all that stuff , whether they would maybe know in which hotel Shirley is staying. It seemed to be the clearest thing in the world to them - "Intercontinental, right over there - that's where she's always staying!" Okay - Intercontinental it was, we went there, but the only one who was there was one guy of the Kelly family and a couple of screaming girls who actually looked like the Kellys themselves! After a lot of thinking and walking around we decided to sit down in the hallway and just ... wait for her. Later a guy who sat next to us told us that Shirley JUST left about 15 minutes ago! What?? While we were watching the Kelly Family ???? Talk about disappointment! But .. believe it or not - we didn't have wait to long - about half hour later the door opened .. a couple of black dressed bodyguards came in and after them .. Shirley MacLaine - herself!!! And she didn't wear any of her Greta Garbo - disguises, she even LOOKED like Shirley MacLaine :) But ... as we jumped up with excitement and wanted to just chain ourselves on her - the bodyguards looked at us like we had just robbed a bank and didn't want to give them half the money or something .. and with a deep, loud voice one of them said: : "NO AUTOGRAPHS TODAY !!! MAYBE TOMORROW .. NO!!" I can tell you that's kind of a tough one when you have your idol walking two feet in front of you!!! And Shirley?? She turned her back at us and just walked down the hallway to the elevator! Boy - Sundra must have done something in one of her past lives that we deserved THIS!!! But .. on the other hand .. I was even happy to walk in her aura .. even if it was just for a couple of seconds :))
The next day ... was even BETTER !! We got up and had "Used People" for breakfast at 11.00 am - it was gorgeous! You know being a fan in Germany is not always the greatest as you can imagine. Most of the time we have to watch German - dubbed movies which means that you are not able to hear Shirley's voice ... which basically ... just sucks!! I haven't seen any of the movies they showed during the festival on the big screen so far and .. as an extra they showed the English - version .. all I can say is WOW!! :) Yet we had to leave after an hour 'cause by accident (oh wait - I don't believe in accidents anymore) we read an article in a newspaper the day before that Shirley is going to sign the guestbook of the city of Berlin at 12.30 am in the town hall. So now what was more important ? A gorgeous Shirley movie in the theatre or Shirley live?? YEAH - Shirley live .. so we jumped into a cab and it drove us to that town hall. Again we didn't have to wait long .. she arrived about 5 minutes later! Not many people where there .. I mean .. like real PEOPLE. Thousands of photographers and tv-people where holding up their cameras ready to put them right into Shirley's face. And so they did ! She got out of the car and there was just no chance for us to get near her - physically impossible. Anyway, for us .. it was closer than EVER!! She was wearing her famous whole-face-sunglasses which looked just too cool! Those cameras didn't seem to bother her though .. she smiled and was as nice as anyone can imagine. (I'm not just saying that 'cause she seems always nice to me - the reporters literally praised her like mad the next day in the papers) Even when all of us stumbled up the stairs .. TV-cameras practically ON her nose .. she said to them "BE CAREFUL .. YOU'RE GONNA FALL" .. more than once!!!!! She was just ... a nice person!!! Then when she reached the top of the stairs she disappeared for a while with the mayor of Berlin - at that time I myself had already fainted TWICE. I didn't even notice that we were alone on those stairs two minutes later - Sandra did - and she found the place where they all went to - a room in which we - as real people - for SURE weren't allowed! But who cared .. it seemed like Shirley was expected there so IN we went!! :) About 15 minutes later she came in - sat down on a chair .. the mayor got up and began with his speech . Don't ask me what he said - I don't have a clue - all I saw was Shirley sitting there right in front of us. And we were lucky (do I still believe in luck - hmm ?? ) to stand on the right site of the room - kinda hard to describe .. well .. all you need to know is that she looked in our direction almost the whole time! :) Then she got up - also gave a lovely speech (she really has a way with words) - and walked to the table where she was supposed to put her name down. First she looked for the page she had signed about 40 years ago when she first came to Berlin! Then while the cameras took gazillions of pictures she signed the book:

"Love & Light and much admiration for your lesson in unity - past & present Shirley MacLaine" Do you wanna read the best part of the story and see pictures of it?? Then click right here!!!