Putting It On the Line for Keanu

Every weeknight, The Line forms in Burbank.

Make that every morning.

The Brown sisters--Cassondra, Camille and Catrina are right up front--and they should be. They’ve been waiting outside NBC Studios at 3000 W. Alameda Ave. since 6:30 a.m. to be in the audience for the 5 p.m. taping of “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.”

“We came here to see Keanu Reeves,” said Cassondra, 20, a student at Cal State Long Beach. “My sisters love him.”

Love?

I admit there’s some measure of devotion to be found in standing in line for 10 1/2 hours to watch a 10-minute interview with a man you don’t know and probably never will.

But love?

For that, we must wander a little farther down the line. Past the mere “Tonight Show” fans who couldn’t care less about Keanu. And more importantly, past the awning that protected all but a few hopefuls from an unseasonably cold rain.

All the way to the back.

Here we find love. Or at least love’s sick cousin, infatuation.

It comes from Aimee Shen, 22, who claims to have seen Reeves’ hit movie “Speed,” five times, and even more incredibly has paid good money to see his band Dogstar not once, but three times.

“She’s the Keanu-fanatic,” said Charles Huan, 24, a UCLA student and one of three friends who stood shivering, without umbrellas, in the downpour with Shen. “She’s why we’re here.”

Even more impressive is that, unlike the sisters Brown, Shen and company had no guarantee that they’d even make it into Thursday night’s show, which also featured appearances by actress Jennifer Beals and comedian Jeremy Hotz.

In the middle of the line were your more typical “Tonight Show” fans, like vacationers making their way down the L.A. to-do list. You know, the same way people like to go see that other guy with that other show in New York.

Here, in the middle of the line, were your honeymooners from Minnesota, your schoolteachers from New Mexico and your spring-breaking college students from pretty much everywhere else--everyone anxious to partake in something synonymous with Southern California.

If you’re not lucky enough to be on the guest list, there are two ways one can get in to see the “Tonight Show,” said NBC publicist Jennifer Barnett. Both are free and require a good deal of patience. You can write in for tickets in advance, but you’re still required to wait in line. Or you can just show up on the day of the show in the hope that the 360-capacity studio won’t fill up with those who already have tickets or are guests of NBC employees or those appearing on that night’s show.

But it’s not all about who you know.

In fact, patience is not only a virtue when it comes to waiting in line for Leno. It’s actually rewarded.

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Remember Cassondra, Camille and Catrina?

Front row!

And not only that, but Leno brought each of the sisters onto the stage and posed for photos with them during his warmup.

Yes, in a surprising display of democracy, those stiffs who went to the trouble to write in for tickets and to wait in line all day actually got better seats than those on the guest list.

“We think that’s only fair,” Barnett said.

During the warmup, Leno was dressed in blue jeans and denim shirt and cracked jokes with the people he called up onto stage.

At one point an attractive college woman from England told him she was interested in a career in television.

“We have an intern program very similar to the White House here,” Leno quipped.

Warmups out of the way and Jay now in a suit, taping began and soon it was Keanu time.

Dressed in a charcoal suit and black boots, the actor strode onto the stage, took a bow and flashed some sort of surfer “hang loose” hand signal.

The screeching was reminiscent of that which I associate with Beatles concerts in the 1960s.

It continued well after Reeves had sat down and begun speaking with Leno. Finally, a production coordinator had to turn and face a particularly noisy pocket of the audience, raise both hands and mouth the word “Quiet.”

Then, after plugging his new film, “The Matrix,” and a few minutes of chitchat, Keanu was gone.

But just before exiting the stage, he turned and gave the audience a big smile and a wave goodbye. The gestures seemed to show the actor’s genuine appreciation for his fans.

Reeves’ appearance was nothing special to the likes of NBC’s Elise Schecter. For her, it’s another day, another show.

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Schecter’s in charge of patrolling the sometimes unruly line of those hoping to get seats. They’ll try anything, she said. Cutting, sneaking, even trying to peek over her clipboard at the guest list and then reciting a name that’s not theirs.

Then, inevitably, comes the same familiar plea.

“We came all the way from blah, blah, blah,” the 24-year-old New York native says feigning a whiny voice. “Well, what they have to realize is that the whole line has come all the way from blah, blah, blah.”