Press-tour party’s most popular guest: a complete dummy

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/01/2010 (5730 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The stars of the science/nature/reality/lifestyle-TV universe were out in full force the other night here in Pasadena, at an elaborate outdoor party celebrating Discovery Communications’ (which includes Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Science Channel, Planet Green and others) 25th anniversary.

The talent roster for the event, which was held inside and outside of a huge white tent erected on the back lawn of the Langham Pasadena Hotel, included Paul Teutul Sr. and son Mikey from American Chopper, Stacy London and Clinton Kelly from What Not To Wear, Mythbusters underlings Kari Byron, Grant Imahara and Tory Belleci, Storm Chasers Reed Timmer and Sean Casey, LA Ink’s Kat von D, Little People Big World parents Matt and Amy Roloff, as well as Bill Nye the Science Guy, ocean explorer Philippe Cousteau and eco-celeb Ed Begley Jr.

Barbecue chef Myron Mixon of the smokin’ new TLC series BBQ Pitmasters had his mobile smokehouse unit parked out back and was serving up some very impressive down-home ribs, brisket, pulled pork and chicken to an enthusiastic crowd.

At the front entrance to the part, a small zoo-like enclosure allowed guests to get up close and personal with a baby giraffe named Stanley.

But inside, where foodies were serving up some weird food-of-the-future concoction and cast members from TLC’s Cake Boss were racing to complete a couple of huge, elaborate Discovery-themed birthday cakes, the most popular guest at the party — based on number of photo ops observed — was Mythbusters’ beaten, burnt, bent and broken crash-test dummy, Buster, who was perched quietly on a sofa in one corner of the tent.

Up close, Buster — or, at least, this version of him/it — is a mess — badly charred, shredded toes on his left foot, broken digits on the right hand, and missing the entire back half of his head — but pretty much anyone who wandered by and spotted Buster immediately concluded that he/it was pretty darned photogenic and sat down to have a snapshot taken.

Unlike most famous guests at these press-tour clambakes, Buster didn’t tire of the attention and didn’t seem the least bit camera-shy.