A MOMENT CAPTURED ARRIVING IN STYLE, AND COMFORT

Tiffany Brown, Las Vegas Sun

Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2007 | 7:41 a.m.

The parking garage at Mandalay Bay featured women dressed in their tightest brightly colored dresses. From left were Patty Garay, Patricia Morales and Griselda Gonzalez, 30-something Hispanic women from Los Angeles. They came prepared, in flip flops.

The three had come to Las Vegas this month for a chance to be seat-fillers at the Latin Grammy Awards. They would sit in for celebrities who didn't show, or who got up to accept an award or to perform. Producers of these shows want no empty seats on camera.

"We get to see everybody that we know," said Garay, a mother of four boys and a photographer in Los Angeles. She blushed at the thought of seeing Ricky Martin. The other women were hoping to see Shakira.

The sandals? "We do it because we get so tired," Garay said. "As soon as we go in, we get ready in our heels."

Most important, the trio agreed, is for those heels to be "the highest you can handle" - they make you look taller and slimmer, of course.