My brush with P. Diddy — the very definition of a Hollywood tale

Tonight’s assignment as a suited and booted security guard with Pro Active Security in Hollywood was at an MTV Awards after party being thrown by the rap artist and music producer variously known as Puff Daddy, Sean ‘Puffy’ Combes and/or P. Diddy. The location was a Bel Air mansion that had been specially rented for the occasion. The MTV Awards were being held in LA this particular year and the guest list for the after party comprised a who’s who of major celebrities from the worlds of music, film and sports.

We’d been instructed to meet up in a quiet side street on the edge of Beverly Hills, where Hal, one of the two owners of Pro Active, broke out the radios and gave us a rundown of what to expect when we arrived at the venue. There were only eight of us working this gig, which clearly was a very small squad to work what was in anybody’s language a high profile Hollywood event.

It all made sense later, however, when Hal informed us that five different security firms had been hired to provide security for this particular gig. In recognition of our quality, he went on to stress, we were assigned the all-important task of controlling the entrance. If the desired motivation involved in telling us this was to get us all fired up, it worked — or at least it did if the puffed out chests and clenched jaws that…