Brushing Fame

A little late but I thought I'd give a quick rundown of my last 48 hours in LA.

Sunday morning was slightly problematic timing for several of us. The time change confused Jewel and Matty as they rushed through their breakfast only to discover that they were early when we ran into them on the corner of Hollywood and Highland. One of our morning panel was still hungover (but when is he not? Oh, right, when he's plastered). Still, he managed to get to his LA storage unit to pick up some "prizes" for us, thereby lightening his load of things requiring moving to NYC. We were a quiet bunch which again left it up to a few of us to keep throwing out inane, and sometimes amusing, questions/comments. The "prizes" were awarded for answering trivia questions about the folks on stage as well as for particularly interesting questions and extraordinarily witty comments. I won a book, a screw (seriously), and a pair of NYC subway handles. I kept the first two and donated the last (pictured below) to Jen and Lynn.

The ladies (not that Rose isn't one) were next and the trash talking continued, this time with Christina jumping into the ring with great enthusiasm.

When asked which Muppet they would be, Christina answered Janice and Jewel said The Count while Morena was informed by Jewel that she would be Oscar. "Why," she asked,"because I live in a garbage can?"

"No," interjected Christina, shaking her head,"It's because you're grouchy. Really grouchy."

The subject of fan fiction was brought up and Christina was fairly innocent about the extent of the adventures that their Firefly characters had gotten up to in the minds of the masses.

"I think our characters have hooked up a lot in fan fic," Morena said to Jewel.

"What about me?" asked Christina,"Have I hooked up?"

"I'm sure you've hooked up a lot," commented Jewel.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Morena,"Just spit it out."

"What? That she's a whore?" remarked Jewel.

"Oh, whore," exclaimed Christina,"I was just thinking pretty."

The talk would probably have continued for a long time in this vein if they hadn't been so rudely interrupted by a backlit figure from the back of the room asking,"Excuse me, ladies, but do any of you know what it's like to make out with Nathan Fillion?"

Cheering and applause erupted as folks recognized their captain (although someone's sure they heard Jewel mutter,"S**t") and he bounded to the stage and leaped onto the women present. Being Nathan, he immediately took centre stage and took control of the questioning. If Firefly were still on the air, where would you live now? What would your character wear? On (insert new program actress is working on), who is your Captain? Does he or she wear pants as tight as mine? The energy level in the room had spiked.

And yes, it was asked,"How much?" in reference to Nathan's shirt. His response? "If you have to ask, you can't afford it," which was amended to,"The shirt's the rental. My usual shirt's in the shop."

Jonathan came out at one point with a bottle of champagne and four glasses, saw Captain Mal and gave a WTF? expression. "Ah, Jonathan Woodward! Let me guess, he's hammered," commented Nathan.
With Nathan there, Jewel and Morena asked him whether he thought Joss would mind if they revealed Inara's backstory. (This had come up during the Saturday Q&A where Jewel and Morena had gone back and forth on it several times before Morena decided that she needed to get Joss' explicit permission first. I believe her exact words were,"He will punish me." When pressured to call him, she said that he wouldn't pick up her phone calls. She didn't seem to believe us when we promised not to tell if she told us. :o) Anyhoo, Nathan didn't think that they should but he did call Joss for us. At least he acted like he did.

My theory is that he called and pretended to talk to Joss except that it was to the machine. He got off the phone and told Morena,"Joss says no and that I get to smack you."

Morena, looking up at Nathan with an adorable expression, said,"Okay!"

Smack = kiss on the cheek apparently.

Suddenly, Nathan's phone rang and it was Joss phoning back to tell them that they couldn't reveal Inara's backstory but they could reveal Book's... and that Nathan gets to smack all the ladies on stage. "Okay!"

Book's backstory (invisi-typed for those of you, like Ron Glass, who would rather not know: Turns out that our good shepherd was not an Operative. Not even an operative. He was a high-ranking and very dirty Alliance police officer. It all makes sense and yet leaves us with more questions. Was he found out? What made him change? Why is his identification still treated with respect by Alliance members? Damn you, Whedon!

Oh, then Mark and Adam had a Q&A. That was fun but it's kind of hard to follow an act that includes Nathan.

And that should've been all my celebrity moments for the weekend (and for the next couple of months) but, as I sat in the LAX boarding area awaiting my flight on Monday morning, I suddenly found myself surrounded by tall guys in matching tracksuits. The LA Galaxy soccer team were travelling up to Vancouver on my plane to play a friendly match with the Vancouver Whitecaps on Wednesday (0-0 draw, btw). David Beckham was the major draw, of course. He sat opposite me for about 40 minutes and was unfailingly polite to all the people, big and little (see right), who came up for photos and autographs. The little girl in the picture was having a tantrum as her mother wheeled her up for an autograph but went very quiet when suddenly face-to-face with Becks. The other players also tried to make her smile. It was very cute to watch as these professional athletes made eye-contact with the toddler and complimented her on her hair-do and doll. I had nothing relevant to sign (boarding pass? laptop?) so I had my picture taken with him instead. Several students and one staff member (interestingly, all female) have since informed me that they hate me. Once again, the nature of celebrity confuses and eludes me. And, if it's news to any of you, other women are weird. Me, I'd be more impressed by my picture with Adam Baldwin.