Belated White Room Report
Nov. 3rd, 2004 12:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lonelybritBefore I start... Yes. I am very jealous of the lucky souls who went to see Kane in concert last night. I really couldn't have made it, but still. Getting squished against Nathan Fillion, for example, you can't put a price on that :)
Okay, I suppose I'll do this by day, this being Friday's. It won't be very detailed as I'm going solely by memory, and the brain was kind of frazzled by the whole thing...
FRIDAY: "You... wanna come hang out with a bunch of crazed fans?
It did not get off to the best of starts. I had to work that day, and by the time I finally boarded the coach for London, the Halloween traffic was in full swing. Took nearly double the expected time to reach the Thistle Hotel, and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gingerpig arrived even later. Although, thank God, neither of us missed the all important...
The Opening Ceremony
The room was slightly more buzzed than normal as all the stewards and indeed Sean Harry had told us that there would be some 'surprise guests'. And we started out with the first of what turned out to be three.
David Denman (Skip on AtS) - came out to much good-natured cheering and squeeing. I liked Skip, and it was clear that I was not alone. He grinned, looked a little unsure what to make of nearly 700 screaming fans, but said 'Hi' and such before retreated backstage once more.
Carrie Grace (Assistant Costume Designer on AtS) - a lovely looking lady with turquoise hair. Full of smiles and giggles, this was her first convention. She looked nervous, but she seemed genuinely pleased to be there and left us with promises to tell us the gossip and such.
Jonathan Woodward (Knox on AtS) - gorgeous. Walked out on stage, was funny, clearly insane, and you could feel the room warm to him at once.
Dayne Johnson (Make-up Supervisor on AtS) - came out with that trademark deadpan grin to a very, very warm welcome. He's an old hand at these Starfury events, and is always great entertainment. We were all delighted to see him again.
Morena Baccarin (Inara Serra on Firefly) - a simply beautiful woman. She came out, oh so elegant and gracious. Said hello to the crowd and withdrew. I've never watched Firefly, so had no idea who she was. But the room was ecstatic to see her!
Summer Glau (River Tam on Firefly) - a small delicate lady. She smiled, also looked a little unsure of the large, very vocal, crowd, but said a very pleasant 'Hello' before skipping backstage. Again, I didn't know her from Firefly, but did know her as the ballerina from Waiting In The Wings.
Christian Kane & Stephanie Romanov - (Lindsey and Lilah on AtS). As Sean said, you couldn't really separate them on Angel. And you couldn't separate them now, and they came onstage together. Christian delightedly informed the fans about Stephanie's pregnancy, hastily adding "It's not mine!" Stephanie really was glowing, and it was clear that they were both delighted to have an excuse to spend some time together. The room went wild. There was screaming, squeeing, etc etc. Just what you'd expect really.
J. August Richards - (Gunn on AtS). The moment he was announced, the music kicked in, a strong groovy beat blasting out from the speakers around the hall. J came out dancing, doing a neat twist and such. The phrase 'Too cool for words' came to mind. He spoke a few words of the 'Hi, hope you're ready to party' variety, and then made to leave. But the music had stopped.
JAR: *deadpan* Where's my beat. I cannot do an exit with a beat.
The beat returned, and J grooved his way backstage.
Then the final guest was announced.
Nathan Fillion - (Captain Malcolm 'Mal' Reynolds on Firefly). Yes. I don't watch Firefly. But some recent pictures have made my slashy heart like this guy. So when he walked out, I squee-ed along with the best of them. The room just went nuts. It was fantastic :)
NF: So, I was sitting next to Sean last Friday and he said... 'So... You doing anything for Halloween?'
*tries to look nonchalent* 'No.'
'You wanna come hang out with a bunch of crazed fans?'
*considering expression*"
ROOM: **goes wild**
NF: **after much deliberation.. nods**
Not much to report after that. The guests left... kind of. GP and I went and ate.
GP spotted CK, who was still wearing that brown woolly hat thing, giving hugs to some girls who was trailing after him. She actually 'guh-meeped' out loud. It was amusing.
Then we returned to check out the 'party' going on in the main hall. On our way out, cos it was that good, we ran into a small gaggle of girls with Woodward in their midst. They kept on asking to hug him, and then squee-ing out loud. The man was starting to look alarmed, reaching back to Carrie Grace with a pathetic 'Carrie, help me!'
So yes, he and the lady are officially an item. And a very sweet couple they make too :)
Anyway, I didn't want to go up to him considering that a) his fiance was there, and b) I didn't want to be deemed a squee-ing fangirl despite the small problem that it is precisely what I am. I did manage to have a brief chat with his fiance, of course.
LB: So how you liking it so far?
CG: Oh, I love it! You guys overe here are just so much fun.
LB: ...
CG: I mean, you're all so chatty!
LB: **running through words usually used to describe the brits** Chatty?
So thank heavens for GP and the influence of alcohol.
We trailed after Woodward when he got drawn aside by one of the Jedi Chefs. He happily donned the chef's hat, the jedi robe, and had great fun posing with a loaned lightsabre. He was a blast :)
Afterwards he stayed around the bar for a while, chatting wtih the occasional brave/drunk fan. One of whom turned out to be GP, who finally lost her patience with me and wandered on up to him. He had his hands behind his back as he talked to someone, but when she put her hand in his, he held it and gave her 'hand massage'. His way of saying, 'I know you're there, and I'll be right with you when I've finished talking with this other gentleman.'
He won GP's heart at that point.
Anyway, she leant up to him and said something. I was temporarily distracted by someone recognising me, so I missed it. But in essence she said: 'Can I ask you a favour? Can you say hello to my friend, cos she's very shy and very British.'
Next thing I know, he's standing in front of me, smiling, holding out his hand. 'Hello, LB, I'm Jonathan...'
Cue the hug, my brain turning to mush... and really not remembering much else. Apparently this was his first time back in London since he filmed Wit years ago with Emma Thompson. And that's all I can recall. Oh, and the hug. He was nice and warm...
GP and I wandered off again after that, both grinning from ear to ear, and, in my case, spontaneously squeaking and/or squee-ing every ten paces or so.
Later on in the night, after yet more alcohol, we found ourselves on the dancefloor, watching J, Morena and their friend grooving away to 'Hey ya'.
When they left, so did we.
We wound up back at the bar, where J, wearing a longish black coat/jacket, was chatting to another fan.
GP this time barely paused for breath. She walked on up, stroked, yes, stroked his upper arm and asked him the same thing.
Cue second hug. Cue second brain short circuit. All I remember about that is that he was very gentle, and his coat was some kind of wool mix and oh so very soft...
After that, we were done. GP and I retreated to our room, and waxed on lyrical until the early hours. It was a good start :)
Okay, I suppose I'll do this by day, this being Friday's. It won't be very detailed as I'm going solely by memory, and the brain was kind of frazzled by the whole thing...
FRIDAY: "You... wanna come hang out with a bunch of crazed fans?
It did not get off to the best of starts. I had to work that day, and by the time I finally boarded the coach for London, the Halloween traffic was in full swing. Took nearly double the expected time to reach the Thistle Hotel, and
gingerpig arrived even later. Although, thank God, neither of us missed the all important...The Opening Ceremony
The room was slightly more buzzed than normal as all the stewards and indeed Sean Harry had told us that there would be some 'surprise guests'. And we started out with the first of what turned out to be three.
David Denman (Skip on AtS) - came out to much good-natured cheering and squeeing. I liked Skip, and it was clear that I was not alone. He grinned, looked a little unsure what to make of nearly 700 screaming fans, but said 'Hi' and such before retreated backstage once more.
Carrie Grace (Assistant Costume Designer on AtS) - a lovely looking lady with turquoise hair. Full of smiles and giggles, this was her first convention. She looked nervous, but she seemed genuinely pleased to be there and left us with promises to tell us the gossip and such.
Jonathan Woodward (Knox on AtS) - gorgeous. Walked out on stage, was funny, clearly insane, and you could feel the room warm to him at once.
Dayne Johnson (Make-up Supervisor on AtS) - came out with that trademark deadpan grin to a very, very warm welcome. He's an old hand at these Starfury events, and is always great entertainment. We were all delighted to see him again.
Morena Baccarin (Inara Serra on Firefly) - a simply beautiful woman. She came out, oh so elegant and gracious. Said hello to the crowd and withdrew. I've never watched Firefly, so had no idea who she was. But the room was ecstatic to see her!
Summer Glau (River Tam on Firefly) - a small delicate lady. She smiled, also looked a little unsure of the large, very vocal, crowd, but said a very pleasant 'Hello' before skipping backstage. Again, I didn't know her from Firefly, but did know her as the ballerina from Waiting In The Wings.
Christian Kane & Stephanie Romanov - (Lindsey and Lilah on AtS). As Sean said, you couldn't really separate them on Angel. And you couldn't separate them now, and they came onstage together. Christian delightedly informed the fans about Stephanie's pregnancy, hastily adding "It's not mine!" Stephanie really was glowing, and it was clear that they were both delighted to have an excuse to spend some time together. The room went wild. There was screaming, squeeing, etc etc. Just what you'd expect really.
J. August Richards - (Gunn on AtS). The moment he was announced, the music kicked in, a strong groovy beat blasting out from the speakers around the hall. J came out dancing, doing a neat twist and such. The phrase 'Too cool for words' came to mind. He spoke a few words of the 'Hi, hope you're ready to party' variety, and then made to leave. But the music had stopped.
JAR: *deadpan* Where's my beat. I cannot do an exit with a beat.
The beat returned, and J grooved his way backstage.
Then the final guest was announced.
Nathan Fillion - (Captain Malcolm 'Mal' Reynolds on Firefly). Yes. I don't watch Firefly. But some recent pictures have made my slashy heart like this guy. So when he walked out, I squee-ed along with the best of them. The room just went nuts. It was fantastic :)
NF: So, I was sitting next to Sean last Friday and he said... 'So... You doing anything for Halloween?'
*tries to look nonchalent* 'No.'
'You wanna come hang out with a bunch of crazed fans?'
*considering expression*"
ROOM: **goes wild**
NF: **after much deliberation.. nods**
Not much to report after that. The guests left... kind of. GP and I went and ate.
GP spotted CK, who was still wearing that brown woolly hat thing, giving hugs to some girls who was trailing after him. She actually 'guh-meeped' out loud. It was amusing.
Then we returned to check out the 'party' going on in the main hall. On our way out, cos it was that good, we ran into a small gaggle of girls with Woodward in their midst. They kept on asking to hug him, and then squee-ing out loud. The man was starting to look alarmed, reaching back to Carrie Grace with a pathetic 'Carrie, help me!'
So yes, he and the lady are officially an item. And a very sweet couple they make too :)
Anyway, I didn't want to go up to him considering that a) his fiance was there, and b) I didn't want to be deemed a squee-ing fangirl despite the small problem that it is precisely what I am. I did manage to have a brief chat with his fiance, of course.
LB: So how you liking it so far?
CG: Oh, I love it! You guys overe here are just so much fun.
LB: ...
CG: I mean, you're all so chatty!
LB: **running through words usually used to describe the brits** Chatty?
So thank heavens for GP and the influence of alcohol.
We trailed after Woodward when he got drawn aside by one of the Jedi Chefs. He happily donned the chef's hat, the jedi robe, and had great fun posing with a loaned lightsabre. He was a blast :)
Afterwards he stayed around the bar for a while, chatting wtih the occasional brave/drunk fan. One of whom turned out to be GP, who finally lost her patience with me and wandered on up to him. He had his hands behind his back as he talked to someone, but when she put her hand in his, he held it and gave her 'hand massage'. His way of saying, 'I know you're there, and I'll be right with you when I've finished talking with this other gentleman.'
He won GP's heart at that point.
Anyway, she leant up to him and said something. I was temporarily distracted by someone recognising me, so I missed it. But in essence she said: 'Can I ask you a favour? Can you say hello to my friend, cos she's very shy and very British.'
Next thing I know, he's standing in front of me, smiling, holding out his hand. 'Hello, LB, I'm Jonathan...'
Cue the hug, my brain turning to mush... and really not remembering much else. Apparently this was his first time back in London since he filmed Wit years ago with Emma Thompson. And that's all I can recall. Oh, and the hug. He was nice and warm...
GP and I wandered off again after that, both grinning from ear to ear, and, in my case, spontaneously squeaking and/or squee-ing every ten paces or so.
Later on in the night, after yet more alcohol, we found ourselves on the dancefloor, watching J, Morena and their friend grooving away to 'Hey ya'.
When they left, so did we.
We wound up back at the bar, where J, wearing a longish black coat/jacket, was chatting to another fan.
GP this time barely paused for breath. She walked on up, stroked, yes, stroked his upper arm and asked him the same thing.
Cue second hug. Cue second brain short circuit. All I remember about that is that he was very gentle, and his coat was some kind of wool mix and oh so very soft...
After that, we were done. GP and I retreated to our room, and waxed on lyrical until the early hours. It was a good start :)
