From Lesbohan to Lopez: Miro's "massive" adventure in NYC

miro helping anna wintour/getty

Back in July frockwriter wrote 'Uncross your legs Bryant Park - Miro is heading your way'. And head to New York Fashion Week Australian Fashion Week's Jason Bourne-lookalike seating director did. Miro Kubicek has just returned from a by all accounts gruelling 10 days in NYC, during which time he ran the limo-to-front row pap gauntlet day in-day out, escorting a gaggle of celebrities. More than one asked for his card, one asked him out to dinner and he was even chatted up - by a few "little stars". He noted, "Sometimes it felt like I was Kevin Costner in The Bodygyuard".


So how was New York Fashion Week?
Miro Kubicek: Yeah it was good. My role was totally different [to how I work at Australian Fashion Week]. Seating is taken care of by the PRs and such. They won’t let you touch it. I was basically managing the celebrities, making sure that they get into the room, where they are seated. I was basically part of Zach’s [Zach Eichman/IMG] media and PR team. Liaising with the PR companies, they would tell me who [ie the celeb] it is and find out when they are arriving, pick them up from the car, take them into the room, manage the media around them, take them to the designers, stop for pictures here etc...

Which celebrities did you work with?
Jennifer Lopez was one of the biggest, biggest ones. That was pretty cool. Uma Thurman, Maria Sharapova, Serena and Venus Williams, the girls from The Hills, Perrey Reeves from Entourage, Nicole Fiscella from Gossip Girl, Michelle Trachtenberg, Melissa George, Julia Stiles, Kelly Osbourne, Petra Nemkova, Eva Longoria.

It’s a nothing like Australian Fashion Week is it!
Nah – a lot of celebrities there.

Apparently the Diane von Furstenberg show was particularly manic.
There was lot of media. A lot of paparazzi. From my point of view, luckily I’ve got that personal protection background - I used to do personal protection. Without that, they [paparazzi] would just eat you alive. It would be very difficult. That saved me, apart from being well organised.

Any funny stories you’d care to share?
Serena Williams invited me for dinner. But it was more like, “Are you going to join us?” There were four people. It was the last show and I was due to finish.

What about Jennifer Lopez?
She was great. She’s absolutely gorgeous in real life. She’s very professional. She knows when to move. She knows how to handle herself. Some of the not-so-big celebs, they kind of make it very difficult, just stopping all the time, signing autographs etc when there’s really no space for it. When you’ve got like 300 paparazzi around you, stopping is like suicide.

Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson [at Charlotte Ronson] - that was massive. That was a frenzy, on the Saturday. As we were leaving, they [the PRs] told me the driver was there and we sneaked them out through the side door which nobody knew about, to the road. Then the paparazzi got onto us, chasing us through the park, knocking down the chairs. We get to the road - and there’s no car. And I’m like, ‘Wow’. There was just me and another security guard and all the paparazzis. I was like, ‘Why did you do this?’ And they kept pushing and pushing. I said, ‘Everybody just fucking back off’. Then people [punters] started stopping and taking pictures. So all of a sudden you’ve got a crowd of 300 people, they’re all standing on the road, the traffic stops on 42nd Street, cops arriving... And I’m just going, ‘Oh my God, this is like a nightmare’. And then all of a sudden the car appeared and I’m pushing them [Lohan and Ronson], literally using all my strength, pushing them through into the car and they’re off. That was like my second day and I thought, ‘Wow, this is hectic’. I was still jet-lagged and half asleep.

I’ll bet that woke you up.
Yeah. It was great. It was an experience. With the media [paps] you need to be really strict with them. They’re like animals. They just want their shot. Sometimes I just don’t get it. I’m thinking, ‘The flash has been going for three minutes, how many shots do you need?’ And then you tell them that that’s it and they want more. It blinds you. You walk outside and you cant see anything in front of you. [Inside the venue] I go to whoever I’m with, ‘Hold onto my arm, hold onto my shoulder’. She can’t see anything. She’s in high heels. That’s what they’re waiting for - for her to trip over.