Comment by Stacy Saldana on June 25, 2010 at 7:32am

Pat is going to be signing here in Chicago soon but this makes me not want to bother.

Comment by Stephen Duncan on July 16, 2010 at 1:02pm

I am hearing the rules are NO DIFFERENT, as Pat Benatar continues to jump from state to state signing autographed books.

Comment by MS9 on August 23, 2010 at 7:56pm

Thanks for the heads-up. Ms. Benatar is doing a book signing this Sunday in Boston. I've met her two times previously, both at her tour bus for concerts. She would gladly sign one thing for me each time (first CD, then 8x10 photo), but would make sure to personalize them. Actually for that 2nd autograph, she ran on the bus and let someone else take it in for her. She would never do a photo with me, though. She just doesn't do it. She avoids cameras wherever she can. So I just did an Internet search to get an idea if she would possibly be taking photos at her signings. Found this article. Guess not. Oh well, I will call the bookstore tomorrow to be sure, but I'm doubtful at this point.

Comment by A.B. on August 24, 2010 at 12:34pm

Will anyone attend one of her signings and would get my an autographed copy?
I would get one on my one, but she won´t come to Germany ;-)
Thanks for your help!

Comment by MS9 on August 31, 2010 at 7:52pm

sounds typical Pat. she can be very friendly, but just doesn't like pictures. the trick for such signings is to get in line early, but you are right, with only 25 books left and arriving late, she should've just finished the rest! and you are also right, you can take pictures out back, even if security says no. Pat won't like it, though. but if you're mad, well... anyway, thanks for writing this. it further justifies my not going. i'm happy i made the right choice at least.

Comment by MS9 on August 31, 2010 at 8:04pm

also it's funny. when i called the bookstore on 8/24 to ask about the signing rules, they said you could take pictures of her, but just that she won't pose with anybody. i was skeptical even about that first part, though, knowing Pat, so didn't even really believe the bookstore when they told me that. and now turns out bookstore was completely wrong after all!
they also had said no limit on #books, and that doesn't sound fair for those people who came just after you guys, say.

Comment by Priscilla on September 1, 2010 at 8:01am

Clarification -- the last guy to bought the book at the 8/29/2010 Pat Benatar book signing was wearing a Tom Petty shirt, not a REO Speedwagon one. Also, I checked the time of the pictures I took when Pat left the store, and they were exactly at 2:00pm. However, from the time she stopped signing the books, I had time to go downstairs, stand in line behind 10 people, returned my book. My friend and I idled in the front of the store. Oh, I'm going to re-post my original comment with the corrections so it'll be easier.

MS9, I'm glad to hear that you saved your time! Time is precious! You absolutely made the right choice. When Pat came out the back door of Borders and she saw me with my tiny camera, she ducked behind a tree.

Comment by Priscilla on September 1, 2010 at 9:43am

I was at the Borders store in Boston this past Sunday, August 29, 2010, for the Pat Benatar book signing that was supposed to start at 12:30pm.

Customers who wanted to have the potential opportunity to see Pat Benatar were required to purchase her book which was $27.61 ($25.99 + $1.62 Massachusetts state sales tax).

I had a friend visiting me from out of state and the bookstore told her she had to buy Pat Benatar’s book if she wanted to stand in line with me to keep me company. The store told us that it had only three more books left, so if we wanted to see Pat Benatar, we should buy the books before another customer bought them.

At 1:01pm (according to the purchase receipt), my friend and I both purchased a book and we were instructed to walk to the other side of the first floor to get our yellow paper bands.

The guy who purchased the last book was wearing a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers shirt.

The groups with the blue bands and the red bands were ahead of us. The book signing was on the second floor. The yellow group had to wait on the first floor until an employee made the announcement that it was now time for the yellow group take the escalators upstairs to stand in line. The line snaked around the bookcases, and one customer mentioned that these book signings are disruptive to the store’s business. The way the line snaked around the cases, a person was unable to see Benatar.

While we were in the line, an employee kept shouting, "No pictures, no pictures!" However, my friend and I didn't see any cameras or flashes from anyone in line.

At around 1:40pm (perhaps slightly earlier), with about 25 people left (possibly less – a guy next to me said he counted about 20 people), a Borders employee made the announcement that Ms. Benatar had stopped signing books and had to go. There was a collective groan, and a male customer asked, “Are you joking?” Someone else said, “You’ve gotta be kidding!” People didn’t move from the line for a minute. The Borders employee said he was very sorry, but the book signing was over. It was time to go. Many people had dressed for the occasion – several had old Benatar concert t-shirts. One lady had 1980s-era colored feather earrings. One woman had on matching Michael Jackson t-shirt, bag, and bracelet – I guess she was aiming for the same era.

My friend and I went back downstairs to the first floor and we both returned our books to get refunds, as did about the many other customers who did not get their books signed. The sales associates apologized profusely, and we told them it wasn’t their fault.

According to the return receipt, I returned the book at 1:48pm. I figured if I really wanted the book, I can buy it brand new for $17.15 at Amazon. The book is also selling brand new through other vendors for $8.00 (with $3.99 shipping). Several people in line returning the book said they wouldn’t buy the book at any price after Ms. Benatar’s behavior. People were not blaming the bookstore. They expressed their viewpoint that the problem belonged to Pat. However, I won’t be buying the book, even when it goes down to .01 used in the future.

Several of the customers who were standing in the return line were expressing their disappointment with Pat Benatar. Pat Benatar has gone to many book signings before -- she should plan her time better and allotted more time. A few people said they would post this on Twitter or Facebook or a blog.
Benatar had a concert in Boston that evening at 7pm, so she probably has to do sound checks before the concert, but she couldn’t spare 5 or 10 more minutes to sign the remaining few books that people spent their time and money to buy.

She was signing books for about an hour -- if it was even that long. Several people stated that the book signing started late. My friend and I walked out of the Borders front entrance which is on Boylston Street. I said I bet Pat Benatar leaves at the back exit on Newbury Street. By this time, though, neither of us cared. I was feeling bad that I dragged my friend over to the Borders bookstore.

Borders had the poster for the Pat Benatar signing hanging on its front window for months -- since the late spring. Each time I passed by the store, I made a mental note to attend the signing. I had been looking forward to this event. Borders probably knew about Benatar’s proneness to having short book signings, so maybe the bookstore should not have put that poster on its windows for so long. It would have been better for fewer people to show up.

My friend and I were heading over to the Marc Jacobs store on Newbury Street, which is directly across from the back exit of the Borders store, so we figured if we saw Pat Benatar, then it was on our way anyway, and not something we would go out of our way for. We had already wasted an hour and fifteen minutes at the Borders store that day.

My friend walked around the store to the back exit and we saw a silver car with black windows for only the back doors. There was a car driver, dressed in a black suit, standing outside by the car. My friend and I knew we found out the car that Pat Benatar was going enter. I took out my camera, and I said, "I'd like to see someone say no pictures to me while I'm standing on the public sidewalk." The car driver walked towards me in what my friend perceived to be a menacing way, and I said, "There is nothing he can do to us because we are on a public sidewalk."

After I said these words, the driver backed off, and walked back to his car. At 2:00pm, Pat Benatar comes out of the back entrance of Borders with a security guard saying, "No pictures, no pictures, no pictures!" The whole scene was funny because no one was standing by the store except for my friend and me, and a small street band. There was no crowd -- it was just your average Sunday afternoon scene of people strolling the sidewalks.

I said to my friend, "Who does she think she is -- Steve Perry?" Pat Benatar is not that big of a star anymore. (By the way, Steve Perry is nice to his fans.) The way she acted that day, she lost many fans. If it weren’t for me taking pictures outside and the security guard shouting, “No pictures!”, no one would have paid any attention to her.

When my friend and I went into the Marc Jacobs store, a sales associate saw both of our yellow Borders paper bands and exclaimed, “No! Don’t tell me it was today!” He said he planned to go there during his 30-minute lunch break. After we told him the story about Benatar not signing all of the book and also how long people waited for her, the sales associate was glad he didn’t waste his time.

Since she stopped signing at 1:40pm and came to the car at 2:00pm, I am surprised it took her that long to come out. From the time she ended the signing, we had time to go downstairs, stand in the line at the cash registers, return the book, stand in the front of the bookstore talking, walk all the way around to the back of the store from Boylston Street to Clarendon Street to Newbury Street, wait for five minutes in front of the car. I believe if she wanted to, Benatar had enough time to finish all the signings and still leave at 2:00pm.

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