London Film and Comicon: 02/09/07

We had a dangerous start to the day! We were in the outside lane, doing about 90 miles an hour when one of the front tires blew. Luckily Jay's a good driver (he says it's thanks to lots of hours playing racing games) and he just got us over to the side of the road. Poor Alun got stuck changing the tire because Jay's got a bad back and I was wearing white trousers. (Plus, I'm a GIRL.) It actually didn't slow us down that much, though. Even after circling Earls Court because we missed our parking lot, we got there just a half an hour after the convention started.

Well, we expected it to be bumping and it was. Good thing we get that gold pass, otherwise we'd have been screwed. Of course, Alun had the gold pass this time so when it came to the Heroes lot and Patrick Stewart, I had to pretend to be his wife to go up with him. (Sorry, Alun, but you're not my type!) Jay said he didn't mind because his back was paining him and he just wanted to sit down for awile. It was a good thing he didn't go through the queues because he would have FLIPPED at the way we were being treated.

The Showmasters crew-or shall I say the Hitler Youth-were being unbearable. Go here, go there, don't take pictures, step to the left, step to the right, don't take pictures, get closer, move forward, DON'T TAKE PICTURES. I wanted to punch someone. How dare they treat us like a bunch of naughty school children? One person actually said to us, "If you can breath, you're not close enough." Tick, tick, tick, tick....I was about ready to blow. I think Jay would have. I nearly got into a punch up with another crew member because she got ratty with me about taking three photographs when I was only having one signed (and two of my own). I was like, EXCUSE YOU? I PAID for three, I'm TAKING three. It almost turned nasty.

One volunteer said to me, "It was always going to be crazy today. We're all stressed out, just be as nice to us as you can." Um....You VOLUNTEERED for this job. If you don't like it, don't volunteer. I PAID to get here so KEEP YOUR F**KING HANDS OFF ME.

(Humph.)

We took a nice little break half-way through the day again and wandered into Fulham. I was just too wound up from dealing with the Showmasters crew and had to get out. We had a nice little break where we watched some random people doing a strange scavenger hunt (it involved finding the number of a prostitute-no, not me! I was wearing decent clothes!) and headed back.

Jay bought me a pressie while Alun and I were doing the Heroes bit. He kept teasing me through the day, trying to make me guess which hand it was in before I got it. I guessed wrong EVERY time. He threatened to find a beautiful lady to give it to in the end. Lol. He finally gave it to me when I got home. (His mum and i ganged up on him. Lol.) It was LOVELY. It's two dragons with their tails wrapped around each other in a heart shape and a read heart dangling between. :) Isn't that sweet?

He bought himself a pressie too and we got some dvds but otherwise kept it small. (Because we spent so much money on autographs.) I'm not happy that we couldn't take photos of so many stars. I understand no posed photography. I don't understand no photography at all. That's just being deliberatly awakward for the sake of being awkward. Get it together, Showmasters.

The FUNNIEST part of the convention happened almost at the end of the day. We were standing out of the way when this big, big guy came up to Jay and was all, "Hey! How are you doing?" I couldn't believe it when I turned around to find Ken Foree standing there! LOL. Jay was so excited. It was such a nice surprised for him! Apparently Ken Foree was busy this weekend at a festival in Manchester. He said Jay would like that convention more because it was more personal. Looks like it'll be awhile before we see Ken Foree again, though, 'cause we're off to Amreican in October and he's off to Japan. I'm jealous, really...Japan is suppose to have an amazing autumn, isn't it?

JACK COLEMAN
Even though he wasn't given the time to chat, Jack coleman was lovely. It's a shame that they were so rushed because I think he would have been really funny if you could actually engage him in conversation.

MILO VENTIMIGLIA
All business, eh, Milo? Milo Ventimiglia seemed so serious and so get-it-done that he didn't seem to be enjoying himself at all. Kind of puts you off. Or, maybe he was just distracted because it was so busy? Who knows.

ADRIAN PASDAR
Adrian Pasdra had this oldies' crooner haircut going on. He smiled and seemed nice, for the whole thirty seconds we were allowed to talk to him.

HAYDEN PANETTIERE
Maybe after a few hundred guests fawning over you and tossing money your way, maybe after a day of volunteers waiting on you hand and foot, you get sick of it. That certainly seemed to be the case with Hayden Panettire. She acted like she just could not be bothered. It's a hard life, huh?

PATRICK STEWART
*sigh* I could rant for hours about Showmasters here. I'll try to restrain myself. All I'll say is this: If Patrick Stewart couldn't committ to at least one FULL day, he shouldn't have come at all. To get there and realise that he was only signing until 2:00 (1:55 by MY watch), and he was LATE...I was disgusted. Patrick Stewart was the person I was looking forward to meeting the most and the one I was most disappointed with. LOADS AND LOADS of people were disappointed. So many people came from so far away and never even came close to meeting him. Alun was good with this one lady and took her three kids through the line with his goldpass. I think she was pretty grateful.

Patrick Stewart was like a machine. He wouldn't have looked up if I hadn't shoved a pen in his face. I don't think he liked me one jot. I know our autograph pens and I KNOW they smudge so when he signed Alun's poster and it started to roll over atop the autograph I was like, "Agh!" and grabbed at it. I think Patrick Stewart took offense because he gave me a look that clearly said, "Who the hell do you think you are?" Which very much resembled the look I got from the Showmasters crew member who tried to take my cast photo off me after Patrick Stewart signed it. I just gave him a dangerous look and said, "NO." Like I'm gonna let someone else touch an autograph that's worth hundreds of pounds? F**k off.

WILLIAM MAPOTHER
Best personality of the convention, by far. William Mapother was a riot. My favourite comment of the whole convention was "The conversations you two must have." Lol. We got started talking about why men's names always come first when dedicating autographs. Jay said it was probably a british thing and William Mapother said it was the first time he'd ever heard that one. (He put my name first on the autograph, btw.) Jay was being dirty ("I don't mnind coming second.") but he didn't take any offense at all. He just said, "YOu must be a very patient man....and you must be a very patient woman." Too true. ;) I liked the "Ethan ain't evil" graffetti on his table.

ROBERT ENGLUND
I think Robert Englund must have been having a hard convention. He didn't seem as peppy as normal and he certainly sounded rough. When Jay asked him a question, he sounded very tired. Even so, and even though the sign said no posed photography, everyone in front of us got a posed photo. That's how you play the game.

LOUISE FLETCHER
Or shall we say the Oscar winning actress, Louise Fletcher? Lol. Eh, who cares about a little award when you're on Deep Space Nine? Lol. Louise Fletcher had one of the only southern accents that I don't completley annoying. It was really soft and gentle. She loved our autograph pens (they always do) and asked where we got them. I gave her one of the extra pens I had in my bag and she kept thanking us. Isn't that nice?
MICHAEL GROSS
Michael Gross seemed like a happy, cheerful guy. Don't really have much else to say about him. Jay was pleased with him as well.

BILLY WEST
Billy West looked tired too. He kept blinking and rubbing his eyes. When I said I could understand, what with all the flashing cameras all day long, he said it was probably just the jet lag. And, I couldn't help but suggest, maybe the British food. Lol. But, Billy West said he found British cooking excellent and he'd move here in a heartbeat. Funny, we're looking to move out! It's strange, I never get comments anymore about my American accent.

HUGH MITCHELL
"They want you too, Malachai." Sorry, I just can't look at Hugh Mitchell without thinking of Malachai from Children of the Corn. It was so cute to see him sitting a the table holding hands with his girlfriend. Awww. :)

EMILY DALE
Wow, I wouldn't have guessed that the trendy girl on the other side of the table was the same girl from Harry Potter. She looks so different. But she was all smiles and cheeriness. It was great.

ANDEE FRIZZELL
I think Jay was getting a bit antsy while we were waiting for Andee Frizzell. There was a group of girls in front of us and they looked like hard core fans. They were laughing and chatting and having a good time with Andee Frizzell

WILLIAM HOYLAND
We had a little chat with William Hoyland about the lack of decent photos and he explained that, yet again, Showmasters screwed it up. I kind of felt sorry for William Hoyland and the other Star Wars lot because they were stuck by themselves in a corner (certain the most well-lit area, though) and no one was bothering with them. It's not their faults. It's Showmasters habit of adding twenty or so lesser known actors just to bulk up the guest list. (You know, third storm trooper from the left and all.)