He enlisted director Larry Torro -- a freelance artist-filmmaker and former set painter for Warner Bros. who would only give his age as "in his 40s." Magid had seen his feature film debut, "Jimmy 9 Lives," at the Hollywood Film Festival in 2006.
The filmmakers hatched a plan to infiltrate all of Hollywood's major awards shows. Weiss would be the face man. Magid and Torro would be his backup team. They would call the documentary "Crasher."
They kept their expectations low. "We thought the movie was going to be 90% him getting turned away and getting humiliated," said Magid, who has contributed freelance articles to The Times.
As a dry run, in July 2007, Weiss tried to crash a celebrity-packed party at the Geffen Contemporary museum that Tom Cruise threw for soccer superstar David Beckham. On his first attempt, Weiss was turned away by security. But by pretending to be a lost guest, he bluffed his way in and used a small camera to take "grab shots" -- photos of him mugging next to someone famous -- alongside Queen Latifah, Beckham and his wife, Spice Girls singer Victoria Beckham.
Weiss was now ready for his first major event -- the Emmys in September 2007. But this time, the filmmakers got organized. They outfitted a Chevy Suburban with party-crashing aids and props: wine glasses, a police scanner, colored paper for parking passes and clipboards, and a laptop computer and laminating machine to gin up fake badges.
Outside the Shrine Auditorium, Magid surreptitiously photographed one of the event's production badges, and within 20 minutes Torro had Photoshopped a convincing fake in the SUV they had parked nearby.
With his necklace-cam recording his view of the caper, Weiss cruised into the auditorium and grabbed a seat. Later, at the event's Governors Ball, he posed for grab shots with celebrities, including Sally Field, Hayden Panettiere and Stephen Colbert.
The photos serve as more than just souvenirs: They are proof of Weiss' conquests.
The filmmakers began to believe there was no stopping them. Which is precisely why they got busted.
The next big event -- the Golden Globes -- wasn't until January 2008. Doing reconnaissance, Weiss posed as a "Star Trek" convention organizer interested in renting the Beverly Hilton ballroom. That's where the Globes would be announced at a news conference (the celebrity-studded show was canceled because of the Hollywood writers strike).
