OMGwyneth!

I went to the grand opening of the Fontainebleau Miami Beach last night and I met Gwyneth Paltrow!

I know – big exclamation point.

At first I was tickled to get in some questions on the white carpet. Her presence at the event reinforced the rumor that Madonna would be making a surprise appearance, so I was dying.

But then, as I looked for the somewhat-secret location within the hotel, where the “global icon” that would be performing for guests for the night (it turned out to be Mariah frakkin’ Carey) would be, I came across Gwyneth.

Oh yeah, we’re on a first-name basis now…I’d like to think.

I couldn’t resist and followed her outside to the valet station, where she went to wait for her car. She had a bodyguard with her, so I couldn’t hug her (even though we both knew I wanted to), so I sheepishly (not!) offered her a pen and asked her to sign a piece of paper.

And then I made Gwyneth beam.

She simply lit up when I told her that she was right, that Coldplay’s Viva La Vida is, indeed, quite “brilliant.”

“I know, right?” she said. “Do you like it.”

“Oh yeah. I just saw them last week. They were phenomenal!”

Then she smiled again, but this time it was different. I had made an obvious difference in that moment, a moment that otherwise would have been spent in likely silence with her assigned escort for the evening.

And off we went, Gwyneth to, I don’t know, get some rest, and I to find out via her autograph that she thought of me “with love.”