Celebrity Red Carpet Escort Dude Tells All

Meet Chris Gaida, professional red-carpeteer. He baby-sits celebrities at events because he can work a tux and knows where the bathrooms are, basically. Gaida’s escorted Mariah Carey, Taylor Swift, Julia Roberts, and Reese Witherspoon. And oh, does he have stories!

Writes the Daily Beast:

During one of his first gigs, when he was assigned to escort Cyndi Lauper to the VH1 Divas show in Las Vegas, the limo driver dropped them off at the wrong entrance. Gaida soon found himself lost in the middle of the MGM Grand with a celebrity by his side, and not a red carpet in sight. It didn’t take long before a crowd started gathering. What happened next is a scene straight out of a movie: Gaida and Lauper running through a sea of slot machines frantically trying to escape a mob of screaming admirers. “It was scary,” recalls Gaida. “Fans can get really excited and don’t necessarily know their limits or realize they’re intruding.” (Eventually, Lauper made it in time for the event, and without a scratch.)

Oh, thank God. We were really worried there for a second.

Gaida has long worked as a film industry dogsbody — his credits include “Protester” in Contact and “Flood Victim” in Deep Impact. He attended American University, and started escorting while interning at MTV. (Nothing that interesting ever happened at any of our internships. It was all trips to the mailing center and reading slush, interspersed with moments of great excitement when we triumphantly identified a typo in a page proof.)

For those interested in connecting the dots between “escort” and, well, “escort,” the Daily Beast points out that Gaida 1. Works under a professional name (“Chris Laslo”) 2. Provides celebs with “high-end pampering” and 3. Gets booked by Queen Latifah whenever she “needs a good escort during a particularly stressful night.” Stay classy, Beasties.

Also, Sharon Stone’s a bitch:

Sharon Stone asked him to walk three steps in front of her and never look back. At first, Gaida wasn’t sure he heard right. But then he realized his hearing was not the problem. He spent the rest of the evening walking around The VH1 Vogue Fashion Awards like a modern-day Lot.

And Casey Affleck once “threw a hissy fit” when he spotted chicken sandwiches in a green room. (Affleck is vegan.) Seriously? Over 125 events in ten years’ work, and this is the best gossip he’s got? More likely, Gaida is saving up his best stories for the tell-all he’s (inevitably) shopping — because he’ll certainly never get to keep Queen Latifah warm on another red carpet anytime soon. Gaida says he won’t talk about “infidelity, drugs, and I won’t out anyone,” which promisingly suggests that he knows a few things about each topic! He told his college alumni magazine that he is also developing a reality show — while working at Keller Williams by day. Just another young man, doing what he needs to get by in Hollywood. Live that dream, Gaida.

Confessions Of A Red Carpet Escort [The Daily Beast]
Profile: Chris Gaida [AU Alumni]