The Final Twilight Convention: Please Say It Isn’t Really Over!

I was so happy to attend the Twilight Convention this past weekend, but it was also very bittersweet to know that our 4 year journey is actually coming to an end. I realize that the Twilight fun will never truly be over (shhhh, don’t tell my husband that), but it’s never going to be the same again. Add to that the fire in Forks this past week and, well, cue the tears….

 

While this convention wasn’t a grand slam event featuring the full cast like last year’s Breaking Dawn convention, it still had many of my favorite Twi actors from prior conventions and was a great way to kick off premiere month. I had the most wonderful weekend soaking up the Twi-atmosphere with my dear friend @Twifixx. I’ve attended a lot of conventions over the past few years and spent way more money than I would ever admit (even if you tortured me), but I would gladly do it all over again in a heartbeat.

 

My favorite guest has always been Peter Facinelli and it made me so happy that he attended this last event. Other guests in attendance were Charlie Bewley, Alex Meraz, Tinsel Korey, Julia Jones, Gil Birmingham, Boo Boo Stewart, Bronson Pelletier, Rami Malek, and Brandon Price.

 

 

As you can see, I have quite a nice memory from seeing Peter (please forgive the poor photo quality. My scanner kept fighting me and it won)

Yes, he really is sitting on a Volturi throne

 

As always, Peter didn’t disappoint, telling many funny and revealing stories about his Twilight experiences and his life in general. He was very touched by all the fan support he’s received over the years and stated several times how lucky he felt to be a part of the phenomena. Over the course of the weekend, all of the actors got a little teary-eyed and said the thing they were going to miss most was the connection they make with fans and their fellow cast members at the conventions.

 

 

I wish I could remember all of Peter’s entertaining stories to share with you. I loved hearing about his experiences on set and seeing the loving way he speaks of other cast members. He’s such a great storyteller, whether he’s telling about pranks on-set, his experiences as Dr. Cullen, or the multitude of quirky things that happen in his daily life.

 

 

 

I also love it that he’s still an ordinary (yet extremely good-looking and charming) guy with a teen daughter that is not at all impressed that he’s in Twilight and who says his secret talent is the ability to immediately fall asleep on airplanes.

At one point he demonstrated the new dance craze he jokingly wants to start called “drive the car.” It was hilarious.

 

It was great seeing him so relaxed and in such a good mood, but you could tell that he was very tired. He said he'd flown back and forth betweet LA and New York three times in as many days. Sometimes he even forgets what city he's in right in the middle of a meeting and has to look out the window to remind himself where he is.

 

 



  

Part way through the Q&A session, Peter decided to forego the rest of the written questions and go out into the audience to give hugs and take questions live. The crowd absolutely loved it.

 

Later during autographing time, he got up and grabbed a microphone to walk around for awhile trying to get people to sing the first few lines of “There’s a possibility” into the microphone. Every single time, he’d first demonstrate the line, singing in an eerie, soft, high voice like on the soundtrack. So funny.
 

 

I’ll save my pictures of the other guests for a future post, but here’s a photo of the autographs I received over the weekend. If you haven’t bought “The Twilight Saga – The Complete Film Archive” yet, trust me… you need this.

 

And lastly, congrats to the winners of my first contest and thank you to everyone who entered!

Grand prize (Breaking Dawn 2 swag from Comic-Con and autographed Lee MacDougall CD): @katie_boberg

Runners up (Breaking Dawn 2 swag from Comic-Con): @CherylSab, @Robsessed_Fan, and @Smitten_Rpattz

 

 

Now that this phase of my Twilight life is sort of over, what will I ever do with my spare time? No worries, I’m sure I’ll think of something :)

TwiloveSue XOXO

Breaking Dawn Convention - New/Old Pictures of the Twifecta

Hello! I'm back again with more of the multitude of pictures I took at the Breaking Dawn convention last November in Los Angeles. Let me say, it's amazing how lucky one can get with a rented camera, second row seat and an itchy shutter finger. I hope you enjoy them!

Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner

(I know you already knew that, but it just seemed like the thing to say here)

You can't make me say the R word

(but I think 17foreverLisa is yelling it right now at all of us)

I highly recommend going to a Twilight convention if you have the chance, especially the Breaking Dawn 2 Convention that will likely be held again this November. It's a great chance to get a glimpse of cast members' personalities and hilarious to watch them interact with each other.

I can't look at this picture without wondering what JennyJerkface is going to say about how Rob's holding the microphone

This is one of my favorite shots

Is it just me or are these pictures starting to look alike?

OK, I'll admit it, they are kind of cute together

Doesn't it look like Rob's kind of surprised, yet pleased, by the giant boob right next to him?

Aw look, he's doing the heart thing with his hands

Twi-daughter Nicole and I made a spur of the moment trip to Hollywood a few weeks ago to see the Avengers premiere. We got a good spot for seeing the arrivals, but not so good for meeting celebs.

Unfortunately, this was the closest we got to Chris Hemsworth.

We finally got to see the Twifecta cement footprints at Graumann's Chinese Theater and, of course, I had to put my hands and feet in Rob's (to the great amusement of a group of Japanese tourists).

I have many, many more convention pictures to share with you over the next several weeks of Rob, Kristen and Taylor, plus Jackson Rathbone, Peter Facinelli, Alex Meraz, Ashley Greene and more, so please check back!

TwiloveSue XOXO

P.S. I imagine many of you are are trying to cut back on the time suck known as Twitter, so I've decided to start spending more time on Twitter to try to keep things in balance. I doubt I'll say anything very interesting, but I hope you'll follow me and say hello every now and then.
@TwiloveSue

A Look Back at the 2010 LA Twi-con Part 2: Do Your Best Bella!

In addition to heart palpitating appearances by Peter Facinelli and Kellan Lutz (you can check out the pictures and read part one of my post HERE), there were plenty of other Twilight cast members to keep us entertained over the three day weekend. And one thing you can always count on at a Twilight convention is that that there will be plenty of laughing.

One of the most fun guests that we’ve seen a few times now is Wolfpacker Alex Meraz (Paul). He was very charming and extremely good looking, not to mention quite a good sport.

We submited questions in writing ahead of time for the cast member Q&A sessions and my question for each person was to "do their best Bella." There had recently been a lot of discussion on Twitarded about Bella impressions and I figured what the heck. Of course, I put Twi-daughter Nicole's name down as the person asking (you didn’t think I’d put my own name down, did you?). Boy was I surprised when they chose "her" question for Alex to answer. I have to say, he was hysterical. He knew exactly what I was asking and did a fabulous Bella impression, very twitchy and blinky.

He also told a bunch of great stories and didn't hesitate to talk about his filming experiences and funny antedotes about fellow cast members.

Another “Wolf” that we saw was Kiowa Gordon (Embry). His panel had a whole different vibe for me cause it was like watching my teenage son up there answering questions. He was sweet, but all kinds of awkward.

Kiowa also performed with his band “Touche”. I use the terms "band" and "perform" kinda loosely cause they were every sterotype of a typical high school garage band and I have a feeling this may have been their first gig. I also suspect that the sound guy may have turned the microphones off completely for the last part of their performance. Still, you have to admire their enthusiasm.

They ended up asking "Nicole's" question to do his best Bella and I don’t think Kiowa completely understood the question, but it was still fabulous. He brought Nicole up on stage to act out the New Moon break up scene with him and it was SO funny! He kept running his hands through his hair like Rob while Nicole stuttered and blinked her way through it. Surprisingly she didn't kill me afterwards.

Chaske Spencer (Sam) told some really funny stories and had a killer smile. He was one of those people you instantly like and could just sit and listen to all afternoon. And who would have pegged him as a closet Lady GaGa fan?

I’m so sorry I can’t remember much about when Justin Chon (Eric) was on stage…

Or Justine Wachsberger (Gianna) either…

Tinsel Korey (Emily) hosted the Friday night karaoke and I’m pleased to report that she can sing! She was very likeable and great at answering the randomest questions with equally random and entertaining answers.

Charlie Bewley (Demetri) was interesting, because between his British accent and very offbeat personality, most people didn't know what to make of him.

He bounced around the room like a rubber ball and was extremely energetic and enthusiastic (and maybe just a little scary). He kept saying the word “banananana” in that delightful accent and cracking us up. True, we were an easily amused crowd.

Twi-daughter Nicole, Charlie Bewley, TwiloveSue

We also attended the Vampire Ball the second night (I dressed up as a human) and all of the day's Twi-cast members were there too. I was very impressed that Chaske stayed the whole time and danced with everyone (and by the term "everyone" I mean 12 year old girls). He totally made their day.

Throughout the convention they had videos playing on the big screens, trivia contests, various panels, dealer room, etc. We met all of the actors to get their autographs and it was especially fun getting Mrs. P’s avi signed by Peter Facinelli. I have to give him credit that he didn't seem surprised at all to sign a picture of a cartoon girl. He looked at me a few seconds like he was thinking about what to write and then wrote “To Mrs. P ♥ Mr. P”. What a doll. We also met the “Twilight Hands” lady who holds the apple on the Twilight book cover and she good naturedly posed holding Mrs. P’s avi (see left sidebar for photos).

And Mrs. P also met the Hillywood Show! She was just as impressed with Hillywood-Jacob’s abs as we were.

Don’t forget to go Walk with Mrs. P today!

TwiloveSue XOXO

P.S. You didn’t think I’d leave you without a picture of Rob, did you?

A Look Back at the 2010 LA Twi-con: In the Kingdom of Cullen, Peter is the King and Kellan is a God

The first Twilight convention that I attended where I had close enough seats to take a photo and actually recognize the person in the picture afterwards was in Los Angeles in March 2010. The convention was hosted by The Hillywood Show (they are awesome, by the way!) and guests were Kellan Lutz, Peter Facinelli, Alex Meraz, Chaske Spencer, Charlie Bewley, Kiowa Gordon, Justin Chon, Tinsel Korey, and Justine Wachsberger (don’t feel bad, I didn’t know who she was either). Out of the three day event, the last day was the absolutely best by far because we saw Peter and Kellan.

Our first glimpse of them was at the photo op, which was incredibly intimidating. Peter is extremely handsome (extremely), but I have to say, Kellan is absolutely gorgeous (seriously, we're talking Adonis). Of course, it didn't help my concentration that I had recently seen him in his underwear (come on, you know which pictures I’m talking about).

TwiloveSue, Peter, Twi-daughter Nicole, Kellan (do we look height-impaired or what?)

After the photo op, they each did 30 minute Q&A sessions individually and then another 30 minutes together. They were absolutely hysterical. Since it’s now been over a year since the convention and I have a memory of a goldfish anyway, it should come as no surprise that I remember very few details. Plus, you have to realize I was in a bit of a stupor having them both right there in front of me.

Sorry, I know the lighting is terrible…

As you know, it’s important to have one picture in which Kellan is looking directly at me.

Actually, I do remember Kellan talking about a movie role he had just accepted in which he was going to play the Greek God Poseidon with a lot of shirtless scenes (Immortals opens later this year!). He also joked about his plan to thwart the papparazi by wearing the same clothes every day while out jogging with his dog. He figured they wouldn’t be able to sell new pictures if he always looked the same and eventually they would just leave him alone. He also told funny stories about how his dog Kola kept getting lost from his yard and girls would always find and return her, like it was all just a big coincidence. He just had such an adorable, humble way about him and I know every person in that room was so hooked.

I honestly can’t remember anything specific about Peter’s Q&A session… sorry!! We’ve seen him several times now and I can’t remember what he said at which one and I think you’d figure it out if I started making stuff up. Anyway, I can say for sure that he was super charming and we laughed a lot.

The pictures are pretty to look at, though, aren’t they?

Peter and Kellan together were hilarious. You can tell they’ve spent a lot of time together and were very good friends. They teased each other and told lots of funny stories about one another and other cast members.

Let’s all just agree that Peter is looking at me in this shot.

Unfortunately, Kellan had other obligations and had to leave before the autograph session started, but they gave us each a pre-autographed picture from him. Mine said “I love you, Love Kellan” and obviously it was meant just for me (shhhhh, don’t burst my bubble).

Nicole and I both had Peter sign our group pictures from when we had seen him a few weeks earlier. He asked us where they were from, so we talked about the event a little and I told him how much I admire him for hosting charity fundraisers. He is just so modest and genuinely a good person.

We also teased Peter about his voiceover comments on the Wii Twilight Scene-It game. Nicole chose to be "Waylon" when we played it once (she's weird) and then when she got a correct answer, Carlisle’s voice said "Waylon, you sparkle like a diamond" and that really cracked us up. We tried to get him to say it last time we saw him and he said he was too embarrassed, but this time he covered his eyes and wouldn't look at us and said it in a really dreamy voice. It was so funny. On Nicole's picture, he wrote "Nicole, you sparkle like a diamond." On my picture he wrote "My darling Sue, XOXO Peter Facinelli" and I blushed like an idiot.

I don’t know if the Twilight cast will continue to do these kinds of conventions for many years like Star Trek actors still do, but I am so glad we at least have this small window to enjoy them. I hope it comes across in my posts that I find these conventions highly entertaining and a great opportunity to meet and get to know the cast members just a little bit. We’re all caught up in this indescribable Twilight wave together and might as well enjoy it to the fullest while it lasts.

And I’ll end with one of my favorite Rob pictures from awhile back that makes me want to re-read "The Office". Since it’s in black and white, I'm thinking I snagged this one from 17foreverLisa’s blog (thank you, Lisa!)

TwiloveSue XOXO