Almost Famous

By ERIC DEGGANS, Times TV Critic

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Tampa native Brittany Snow endures lights, cameras and a media blitz to get a taste of life as a network TV star.

PASADENA, Calif. -- 8:40 a.m. Wednesday: The Arrival.

Brittany Snow steps out of the back of a limo with the look of a typical 16-year-old: worn jeans, hair pulled back, sunlight glinting slightly off her retainer when she cracks a smile.

Her mom, Cinda, is close behind, balancing a stuffed purse and a freshly dry-cleaned dress. Ambling through the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel, the Tampa native seems light years removed from her early days doing TV commercials in Orlando. This time she's preparing to meet the world as one of the stars of NBC's highly anticipated '60s-era family drama, American Dreams.

And she'll do it by navigating one of the TV industry's most daunting obstacle courses: the summer press tour.

The Television Critics Association's press tour gives writers from across the country a chance to meet stars, producers and network executives through daytime news conferences and one-on-one encounters at nighttime dinner events.

But for actors such as Snow, the annual event unfolds as a blizzard of interviews, photo shoots and news conferences that drive home the enormity of the publicity machine employed to sell viewers on the network's Next Big Show.

American Dreams features Snow as a 15-year-old in 1963-era Philadelphia angling for a shot as a dancer on American Bandstand. Dreams has lots of Bandstand footage and songs, thanks to executive producer Dick Clark; critics say NBC hopes to snare adults with the nostalgia and young viewers with the fresh-faced actors.

Snow is so meticulous that she has already filled a sheet of notebook paper with adjectives about her character so she won't repeat them in interviews. But she seems about as calm as a 16-year-old could be on the verge of the biggest break in her life.

"Right now, it's all still fun," said Snow, her trademark enthusiasm intact despite waking up at about 4:30 a.m. the day before, her head buzzing with details about what would happen. "It's talking about the '60s that can be hard. I don't really know much (about that era), but I don't want to say I don't know much."

First stop: a wing of rooms rented by NBC for primping talent (that's what TV industry types call actors) and for conducting interviews. Once sufficiently coiffed and made up, actors step into different rooms for interviews with producers from CNN, Extra, Access Hollywood and many other shows.

Walking into a room with six lighted makeup tables, Snow plops into a director's chair facing her designated stylist. As her hair is pulled down and fussed over, co-star Gail O'Grady (NYPD Blue) sits down beside her; across the room, Dog Eat Dog hostess and onetime Baywatch babe Brooke Burns gets a touchup.

Cinda pulls out a small camera and starts snapping pictures, prompting an anguished cry from Brittany and laughs from the actors and stylists.

"Before we got here, she said, 'Don't embarrass me, Mom,' " Cinda said, laughing. "But that's what moms are supposed to do."