What to do in Hollywood on Grammy night.

You can watch the shindig on TV or you can spend $500 on a ticket to the Nokia Center or... you can walk up to Sunset Blvd and hang out outside the Warner Music after party. Usually this doesn't work because security is as tight as Rihanna's gown. Even the paparazzi are not allowed, but somehow last night, Campbell, J and I sauntered past cops and a formidable security team and just blended in. We stood coolly right where all the limos and black Ford Escalades pull up to get checked in. Some of the talent got out there, others rolled down their windows. Over the course of a couple of hours, we got our fill of Grammy stars:

We saw Beyonce applying some last minute lip gloss, Bruno Mars stepped out for a smoke a few feet from us.  Seal, his window rolled down, literally sang for us as his limo crept by.  Jeff Beck hung out nearby. Producer legend David Foster nodded and smiled at J as if acknowledging a future star.

Neil Young - yes, the legend himself - walked right past us as I lamely cheered "Yay Ontario!" Not more than 5 minutes later he re-appeared from the party and we joked - "Great party, eh Neil?" He laughed, nodded and mumbled something, I think - "Best four minutes of my life." Then he and his entourage jumped back in his limo and took off.

Here's some other folks and bands we saw close up and personal:

Arcade Fire

Zack Brown Band

Vampire Weekend

Malan Akerman (27 Dresses)

Michelle Branch

Heidi Klum

Kathy Griffin

Florence and the Machine

Natasha Bedingfield

Black Keys
Jeffrey Ross

Eve
Paramore

Also plenty we recognized but couldn't place. And according to the security team - Christina Aguilera and the legend Quincy Jones passed by - damn those tinted windows!

Unfortunately, we could not take pictures - the price we paid for being allowed to hang out there and be cool with the security team, one of who complimented us for our stamina. "You guys are real troopers!"

After a while we went around the corner to Boa Steakhouse where a lone papparazzo started snapping pictures of our own J Hether. "Hey girl, how's it going, you're an artist, right?" She nodded and posed. "I knew it, I could see it."