American Idol sighting (TRIP REPORT)

[private joker]

Sunday night in Los Angeles, I went with my girlfriend to Todai for dinner at around 7:30/8:00. It's right at the Beverly Center, a major shopping mall in West Hollywood (they say it's in Beverly Hills but it isn't).

Seated at a table for 4 were Sanjaya, his sister Shyamali, Chris Sligh, and Phil Stacey. Nobody else.

For those who don't know Todai, it's a Japanese seafood buffet place where you pay an all-you-can-eat price and then just take multiple trips up to a sushi bar to load up on little cuts of california rolls, yellowtail sushi, eel, spicy tuna, etc. Then there's a hot food section with tempura and crab rice and noodles and udon, also miso soup, salad, crepes, and a ton of dessert.

Sanjaya was wandering around a lot, just sort of looking at the food but never really taking much. Sligh was hardcore into the hot, fatty stuff like the rice and noodles. I only saw one piece of sushi on his plate.

When Sanjaya went to the back to hit the head, he plowed forward head down to try and not be recognized, but it didn't work. A table of Korean girls nearby us were freaking out for some reason. Also another table of dudes whipped out a camera surreptitiously and snapped a shot of the Idol group from across the restaurant.

This just in: Shyamali's rack is enormous.

Anyway, the funniest part of this encounter was when we were leaving. My gf and I were walking out the doors and we passed Sligh and Shyamali, who were lagging behind at the front. Me and the gf exited the doors and walked around the corner. When we got to the exit for the parking garage, I turned to the right and saw Sanjaya and Phil hidden behind a concrete pole waiting to scare the other two. Since we came out first, they thought we were them, so Sanjaya goes "RRAAARRRRGHH!!!!! at me." Then he goes "oops!" and Phil laughs and they pull back to wait.

Then Sligh and Shyamali passed the same exit and again Sanjaya leaps out and goes "BOOO!! RAARRRGH!" with these tiger claws at his sister. Neither Sligh nor the sister were scared at all, and Phil was doing nothing but laughing at all of them.

My gf and I split apart when we took an escalator to our car, and the AI group kept walking along the sidewalk, with Shyamali looking back at us with a smile at feeling sort of embarrassed for her lame brother.