Celebrity Sightings

I definitely learned a lot this year, which was my first experience at Comic-Con. Next year I'm going to check out the booth schedules more closely and look for people out on the floor. (We did get into Hall H for Saturday though, which was pretty fantastic.) The only famous person I got to meet was Bobak Ferdowsi after the Nerdist Science panel. Oh, and Ryan Penagos (Agent M, social media voice of Marvel) who I already knew.

Another way to get in is professional badges. If you're in a field even remotely related to entertainment/media, it doesn't hurt to try - that's how I got my passes. They have "Creative Professionals" and "Technical Professionals" - creatives get two free four-day-plus-preview-night passes and can buy a third, technical has to pay but still registers early.

Interesting, I'll keep that in mind. We do a lot of work with TV, so finagling pro badges might be an option if we lose return visitor status.

Actually, someone from my company was at the con this year to do coverage, but only tweeted, like, four or five times every day. Tsk.

punkysdilemma wrote:How do I figure out who it was I saw in an elevator at the Hilton being briefed by PR types on his way to a Hollywood Foreign Press event at Comic-Con?  Slim youngish Brit in a suit, which describes half of everyone around here.  Can't figure out what event it was.

I figured it out -- it was Tobias Menzies! We only know him from Game of Thrones, but we were watching the Outlander pilot and I was all like "That guy looks familiar" and then it was off to IMDB and then it was "Oh, that was THAT guy!" Mystery solved.

Oh, he's delicious. I might have been fangirly.

Second hand, but Vince Vaughn and Dave Franco are at my niece's dorm in Boston filming a scene for "Unfinished Business". She's very excited.

Daaaave! I'd be fangirling like crazy!

I forgot out this.

Around May, I was at the Liberty Hotel in Boston having lunch with a colleague who was staffing a meeting (I brought bagels so we weren't eating in one of their restaurants). If you don't know of the hotel, its an old jail that's been converted to a luxury hotel but it's kept some of the jail pieces and is basically a really, really cool building. We were sitting on the fourth level just outside the meeting room when I noticed this really nice looking 20 something staring at us. I figured he had a question or something so I asked him if he needed help and he wanted to know where I got my Diet Coke. I hadn't opened it yet and my friend already had one so we had an extra. I gave it to him and he just looked stunned. He had an accent but I really wasn't paying any attenditon to him. About two minutes later, he walked over, drew up and chair and was chatting with us for about 10 minutes. He apparently was waiting for someone and had been there awhile and was really bored. Just so you know, my colleague and I are both in our late 40s so this wasn't a chatup. I think (Hope)

We started talking about the hotel and how it had been a jail and gave him some information about Boston history. He was very lovely and really appreciative of our talking to him. Finally this woman came by looking for him and we said goodbye, shook hands and off he went. Forgot all about it until "The Giver" came out and I realized that Diet Coke guy was Brenton Thwaites. He was incredibly lovely and when I told my daughter about it, she was both insanely jealous and royally pissed that I didn't get his autograph.

Awww. I don't know who this actor is, but that's a really cute story.

Awww, what a great story. He's a cutie.

So cute and lovely in person? I can dig it.

I saw Rufus Sewell in London this weekend. He was coming into a restaurant in Kensington as I was coming out. I did a double take and he smiled at me with a kind of a "yeah, I'm who you think" look, but not a cocky one. He was dressed excellently and carrying a present for someone.

I tweeted about this over the weekend but I saw Jared Leto in SoHo on Saturday. He was wearing a knit cap to hide the green hair but I recognized his eyes. So pretty.

inversed wrote:I saw Rufus Sewell in London this weekend. He was coming into a restaurant in Kensington as I was coming out. I did a double take and he smiled at me with a kind of a "yeah, I'm who you think" look, but not a cocky one. He was dressed excellently and carrying a present for someone.

I just saw Rufus Sewell too, but in Vancouver. He came into my gym to work out. He seemed self-conscious and I didn't try to talk to him even though I've had a crush on him since the 1996 Hamlet.

I just saw Tony Kanal of No Doubt with his wife and adorable daughter. They're looking to buy the house right next door to my parents' (the one I grew up in), which was a meth den less than a year ago. Like literally, it was crawling with meth addicts that would be up all night fixing their cars and screaming at each other.

My Comic-Con life list:

* Peter Capaldi wandering around the Gaslamp letting people take selfies with him
* Sam Jones (Flash! Aaaaa aaaa!) heading towards a booth on Preview Night
* Seth Green wandering the show floor on Preview Night
* Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, and some other folks having dinner at Fleming's the night after the Con Man panel, with Eli Roth and Casper Van Dien at nearby tables
* Morgan Spurlock getting onto the elevator we were getting off of at our hotel
* Peter Mayhew at our hotel (multiple times)
* I think that was also Clark Gregg wandering through the hotel crowd?
* The cast of The Gallows (who?) leaving a cast party downtown
* Nathan Fillion again, walking somewhere from our hotel (will that guy, like, ever just leave us alone?)
* At dinner on Saturday: "Hey, is that the Sharknado guy over there at that table?" Yup, it was Ian Ziering at that table. (Though people of my vintage know him as the 90210 guy.)

I give lots of props to Capaldi for not listening to his handlers who wanted him to stay indoors and not get molested. Con people are pretty respectful if you, uh, don't act like prey.

Went to a con yesterday. My first one ever! It was totally fun.

First things first: Hellboy group! My sister went specifically to see Doug Jones, who's primarily a movement/special effects actor who works with Guillermo del Toro a lot--he was the physical Abe Sapien in Hellboy, the faun in Pan's Labyrinth, stuff like that. My sister LOVES him for whatever reason. So we go in and it's Ron Perlman, Jones, and Selma Blair in a row at tables. Of course 43828 people are there to see Ron Perlman, but we just went right up to Doug Jones and he was so. damn. nice. Just, like, a tall, impossibly thin guy with the soul of Bob Ross. He talked to us for probably five full minutes and hugged my sister (and me) a lot. My sister was like "I came just to see you!" and he seemed really pleased--"Really? No. [exaggerated stage whisper] But Ron Perlman is right there! RON PERLMAN!" He couldn't have been more awesome. I'm glad my sister was so happy. RP walked in as we were meeting Jones and he was super cool--played to the crowd, seemed experienced and professional and like he was having a great time. (Classic thing: shorter than I thought. I'm 5'9 and he was about my height or shorter, and not especially physically imposing, which makes his entire career that much more impressive, really!) Selma Blair...had no one at her table and impressive bitchface. I kind of felt bad.

Sons of Anarchy panel: Drea de Matteo, Ryan Hurst, Emilio Rivera (Alvarez) and Timothy Murphy (Galen the IRA dude). Emilio Rivera was awesome, outgoing and chatty and really kept the panel going. It bordered on awkward a lot. The moderator wasn't great. Ryan Hurst totally looks exactly like he did on the show in real life. Like, beard, beanie, vest, jeans. Timothy Murphy is very, very good-looking.

Lou Ferrigno: looked exactly like Lou Ferrigno.
Barbara Eden: was very busy signing. She looks amazing.
Kristy Swanson: had her name spelled wrong on her sign. She also had on a dress like your hippie aunt would wear, and looked a little freaked out.
Christy Carlson Romano: was insanely popular and being a really good sport even though there were a lot of super creepy dudes hanging around her.
Jodi Lyn O'Keefe: chatted with my sister and her friend, was apparently super sweet, told them Prison Break is getting a new season somewhere.

I did not get through the crush of humanity to see Ming-Na Wen, Alex Kingston, or Karen Gillan. (SO MUCH Tenth and Eleventh cosplay, btw. Definitely the winning percentage, followed by Heath Ledger Jokers).

I got a close-up look at Jason Momoa through a gap in a photobooth curtain because I was stuck there for a moment! He really, really is that hot and looked like he was having a great time.

Oh that sounds like a great experience!

I recently finished a binge watch of SoA, and loved it! I had no idea that the cast did cons though!

One of the saddest things about the gaming geek store where I worked imploding a few weeks before we were supposed to host a mini-con was that the owner had made contact with Doug Jones at a horror con in Tacoma a few months earlier and was getting him to come to our store. He had nothing but praise for Doug for all the reasons you mentioned.

I only recently found out that Timothy Murphy is Irish. He's from Tralee for crying out loud! Which is a lovely town but it's more known for the Rose of Tralee annual pageant. Though it's beautiful scenery in that part of the country too.
To be honest, I didn't even know his name until recently. I knew him from playing bad guys on TV but I had no idea who he was.

I'm sorry that Selma Blair did not get anyone coming to her table at that point in the con but, and I hate saying this because it can seem like the usual 'oh the guys are great, boo to the women' attitude, but I never cared for her portrayal of Liz in the movies. Whether that was her or the direction or the script or a combo, I've never quite figured out. Liz on paper is a very interesting character but I never thought Selma Blair quite did her justice.

Gallifrey Girl wrote:Oh that sounds like a great experience!

I recently finished a binge watch of SoA, and loved it! I had no idea that the cast did cons though!

It was great! Yeah, I guess SoA does do cons--Theo Rossi (Juice) was also supposed to come but canceled, and Kim Coates and Tommy Flanagan (Tig and Chibs) came last year. Apparently they all really are friends (Ryan Hurst totally slipped and referred to Charlie Hunnam as Chuck at one point, which, awesome) and Mark Boone Jr. is basically exactly like his character. Drea de Matteo got hilariously animated when she talked about doing her sex scenes with Charlie Hunnam. "NO, no, NO. Like, there are stickers everywhere. Stickers everywhere that you don't want stickers, and otherwise you're naked, and they had to tie a little fuckin' bag around his balls [everyone was on the floor at this point] and if anything slips you have to start all over again and like, fix the ball bag or the stickers or whatever. It is NOT like what it looks like."

laddical, if he was a tenth as nice to everyone else they got a great experience. He even complimented me for being such a thoughtful sister and taking their picture and holding the bags and stuff. He was really kind and just sort of gave off this Buddhist-monk-like calm. Definitely a great first celeb encounter.

QueenSix, just...very good-looking. And well-dressed and seemed very confident and articulate. He seems to like playing bad guys. And yeah, I never liked Selma Blair...well, in general, really, but in Hellboy especially. I mean, the look on her face tho. I wouldn't have wanted to go near her even if I were a stan. I hope it was just passing and she got lots of people later.

I saw Emma Roberts and Peter Evans looking like a disheveled and unhappy duo at a Madewell store this past Sunday.

Candy Spelling keeps liking pictures of my dog on Instagram.

That moment when you realize the dad you see at school sometimes isn't some J Mascis wannabe - he IS J Mascis.

Haha, Naughty Zoot, that's amazing. When I was a youngin' going to Pearl Street every week and Dinosaur Jr. was popular, every single dude I knew thought they could be J.

At a cafe in my home town (town is stretching it, village is definitely more accurate) I asked Jamie Dornan if I could have the menu from his table. I only realised who it was as he was handing it over. In real life, the beard is enormous.