The news that Kellan Lutz, the actor who plays vampire Emmett Cullen in the hit Twilight films, was staying at the Inbal Hotel in Jerusalem sent some young fans into spasms of celebrity stalking, camping out on a blistering hot Shabbat afternoon for a glimpse at their hero.
I know this because we were there too, but not to check out Lutz. We had walked my mother back to the hotel where she was staying (on her first visit ever to Israel, at age 79 – but more on that in another post).
The small gaggle of chattering, cell phone-addled girlhood had been waiting more than an hour for a Lutz sighting but to no avail. We didn’t care much until we ran into an old friend who had driven up all the way from Yavne with her 14-year-old daughter to sneak a peek.
Lutz was in Israel, along with actor Miguel Ferrer, Columbian singer Carolina La O, and Cuban performer Didier Hernandez as part of a trip sponsored by the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, Americas Voices in Israel, and El Al Israel Airlines.
America’s Voices in Israel, which is the prime mover behind this and other celebrity journeys, brings media and entertainment personalities to Israel with the aim of spreading more positive messages about the country. Previous visits have included stars from TV’s Full House, Ally McBeal, 90210, House and Raising Hope.
On the current trip, Lutz was the only participant to have been to Israel before. He told Arutz Sheva that “I’m amazed at the scope of history here. In the US, there is 200 years of history and here we are talking about thousands of years of stories and tradition that truly fascinate and amaze me.
Back at the Inbal, we left without seeing Lutz, but a Facebook posting later that day by our friends who’d driven up from Yavne breathlessly revealed that the vampire had indeed shown up and was quite generous with his teenage fans, posing for pictures and being a real sweetheart, albeit a blood sucking one. But hey, these days we can’t choose our friends. Vampires work for me.