Dateline: Los Angeles, where the temperature (at 3 p.m.) is 70 degrees and regular unleaded gasoline costs $4.66 a gallon.

I reached my hotel (the Beverly Hilton, home of the Golden Globe Awards) after a thrilling, 2.5-hour sightseeing tour of obscure LA neighborhoods, courtesy of a shuttle driver who spent the trip flirting desperately with a Brazilian model. The TV Critics Association (TCA) summer press tour was already underway, and my delayed arrival meant I missed BBC America (boo!) and the Hallmark Channel (shrug).

But I was just in time for E!, Style and G4, sister networks owned by Comcast where everybody seems to have way more fun than they ought to. In fact, you could argue that the folks at E! and G4 (the game and tech channel that targets young men) could actually be stoned most of the time. (I’m just saying.) I had the strongest latte in history, and although I may never sleep again, it was a nice way to ease into my stay out here.

And Style introduced what looks like a fascinating reality show due this fall, “Ruby,” following 500-pound Ruby Gettinger as she makes a last-ditch, life-or-death effort to lose weight. But this show will definitely not be grim, because Ruby is a real charmer, with a great sense of humor. I scheduled an interview with her to run when the show debuts.

But you’re waiting to hear me tell about my backup-singing gig with Natasha Bedingfield, I guess. Fuse — the digital cable music channel, heavy on videos — brought her in for a concert attended by, at most, 100 people. She kept making us all come closer and closer, clap along, sing along, do the whole arm-wave thing, and it was pretty easy to get into it, because honestly, she’s fabulous. She had a keyboard player, a guitar player and two (real) backup singers and did about eight songs, in what she called “stripped down versions” that honestly sounded better than what you hear on the radio. She ended with “Unwritten” and completely wiped that ubiquitous Pantene commercial out of every mind.

The picture above shows Natasha performing at the Fuse party. That’s “me” on the right.

Wednesday will be my first full day, beginning with “Mad Men” (the set visit follows next week) with the whole cast, including star and St. Louisan Jon Hamm. Panels continue with the MTV networks (including George Foreman for TV Land and Margaret Cho for VH1), National Geographic (with a rehabbed Michael Vick pitbull) and A&E (Benjamim Bratt for his new series, “The Cleaner”). Check back during the day, when I’ll be live-blogging what I’m up to, and also post any questions you may have. (But no: I’m afraid I can’t get you Jon Hamm’s phone number.)