They’re
adorable. There’s really no other way to say it.
Heather Matarazzo and Caroline Murphy, who recently
announced their engagement, were here to do the
ribbon-cutting at Same-Sex in the City: The Wedding
Show, a wedding expo for the gays that premiered on August
17 in West Hollywood, then makes its way to the Parker
Hotel in Palm Springs September 7. Posing for
photographers, petite Heather nestled against tall
Caroline like a contented cat.
The Palm Springs
encore boasts special room rates and other perks to lure
Angelenos to the desert. A joint venture of fund-raising and
special events company GBK Productions and event
design firm Rrivre Works, this event brings together
vendors who support us and want our business. Future
brides and grooms can shop for rings, cake, clothing, music,
and more, with a portion of the proceeds donated to
the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center.
The WeHo event
was in full swing by the time I caught up with Matarazzo
and Murphy for an Advocate.com interview. They were happily
sampling wedding cake against a perfect gay
soundscape: On one side an all-women string quartet
played “Anything Goes”; on the other a
DJ-for-hire rocked a house beat that shook the Armani
tuxes on their mannequins.
In a slightly
quieter corner, Heather and Caroline were more than eager
to share in their path to the altar, beginning with a little
walk down memory lane of the night they first met --
on New Years Eve, 2006.
“I went
outside to smoke a cigarette, and she came out, and it was
like this very across-the-room, time stopped --
”
“It was
soul-to-soul recognition,” Matarazzo added. “I
don’t think I’ll ever be able to explain
it, but it’s fun to try. It was like my soul knew
before my thinking self realized what was going on.”
Murphy resumed,
“And I was looking at [Matarazzo’s recurring
character] Stacy Merkin from The L Word. And I
was like really upset at some of the choices that that
character had made, in terms of upsetting the
veterinarian woman. So I was thinking, Damn you, Stacy
Merkin! And Heather came up to me and said,
‘Do I know you from somewhere?’ And I
said [gruffly], ‘Possible. Not likely.’
And I walked off! And I took a few steps away and
went, ‘What did I just do?’”