Comic-Con 2012: My Fairy Godmother Gave Me Exactly What I Wanted... Robert Pattinson!

In case you're one of the few people left on this planet who I haven’t forced to hear my story yet, last year at Comic-Con, a woman I didn’t know (aka My Fairy Godmother) gifted me with a wristband to a limited meet & greet with Rob Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner and Bill Condon. It was awesome - I had a giddy conversation with Rob, he gave me a smoldering look, I made him laugh, and tricked him into looking at my chest (you can read about the whole thing HERE). Honestly, one of the best days ever!

Anyway… this year at Comic-Con, Summit once again raffled off chances to fans in line to win one of 50 wristbands to meet Rob, Kristen, Taylor and Mackenzie Foy (the most adorable kid ever) and… I won!! I know, I probably should have graciously given the wristband to someone else since I’ve already met Rob a few times now, but come on…. ROBERT PATTINSON!!!!!

Resistance is futile

Once the initial feelings of shock and elation passed, I started panicking about what I should say to him. I wanted to think of something interesting and unique that would make him affectionately remember me always as the most delightful fan ever (or at least not completely embarrass myself). So, I turned to my Twilight mentors for guidance… the girls at Twitarded: Jenny Jerkface, Snarkier Than You, and Latchkey Wife.

Odds were I probably wouldn’t have the guts to ask whatever they suggested (plus I have the memory of a goldfish), but it was still great fun to get their advice. My favorite question for Rob was from Latchkey Wife, “What's the dirtiest thing a fan has ever said to you?” Oh. My. God. In case anyone has any doubt, let me say that LKW is a genius. I’ve never heard anyone ask him that before, plus can you imagine having him look right into your eyes and give you the answer?? Sorry to disappoint, but I chickened out. I truly didn’t want to become an infamous cougar story for him to tell on the talk show circuit.

Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take pictures during the meet & greet (in fact, they said that if they even saw a glimpse of a camera or phone that they would take away our Comic-Con badges and send us home), but luckily there were some members of the press there to capture the memory (photo sources are unknown).

We were taken into the room in groups of eight and given a poster to have autographed. Rob and Kristen sat at the first table and Taylor and Mackenzie shared the second table. I was able to stand and watch (ie: stare and drool at Rob) while they talked to the first four people.

When it was my turn, Rob looked over to me, smiled, and said hi while I walked over. Let me just say, he looked absolutely incredible and I swear I would run away and follow him around forever if he only gave me the slightest bit of encouragement.

Me: (world's biggest smile) Hi! I'm Sue and.... (BLANK!!)

Rob: Hello! (and just kept smiling and staring straight into my eyes)

Me: (embarrassed laughing) Sorry, I… um… blanked there for a second... it's just so cool to talk to you and I'm so sleep deprived from camping outside the convention center the past few days.

Then he laughed and asked me about camping out and I can't remember what I said, but apparently it made sense. He took the poster from me to sign and even personalized it!!

Let’s just pretend that he’s looking at me in this picture

 

 

Me: (trying to think of something… anything… interesting to say) I've enjoyed all of your movies and just want to wish you all the best as you go through the next phase of your career. I read Cosmopolis and I know you are going to be so incredible in that role.

Rob: Thank you! You read Cosmopolis?! What did you think?

Me: It was.... interesting.

Rob: (laughs) That's certainly true.

 

 

(I now must confess to you, my understanding friends, that I looked Robert Pattinson straight in the eye and flat out lied. I never read Cosmopolis. I tried. Really, I tried, but I just couldn’t get past the first chapter… I promise to make this up to him by watching the movie 17,000 times)

 

 

Me: And my daughter made me promise to ask if you like Dr. Who because she thinks all British people are required to watch it.

 

 

Rob: (looked at my Dr. Who shirt and smiled) I grew up watching Dr. Who and I love it! Everybody loves it.

Then Kristen was finished with the person in front of her and joined in the conversation.

Kristen: (in a British accent) I watched Dr. Who when I was in London. Great show!

The three of us talked about something else that I can't remember. I thanked Rob for doing the autograph signing and told him to take care and that I would see him later (whatever that means. I guess that's like the standard stalker warning) and then he smiled again and said bye.

 

 

Kristen signed my poster, also personalizing it. I was still in sort of a daze, so I vaguely remember telling her how much I enjoyed watching the Breaking Dawn 2 clips that they showed during the panel. I think I said something like I could tell she’s going to be a really “kick-ass Bella” and couldn’t wait to see the rest of the movie. She was very nice and gracious, and thanked me for my lame comments.

Then I heard Taylor call out “Sue!! How’re you doing?!” Let me just say, if I were a young teenaged girl, I would totally be Team Jacob. He just so likeable and handsome.

Let’s pretend this is Taylor looking at me

Me: (dope that I am) Hi! How do you know my name?! Never mind… duh. (looking down at my name on the poster).

Taylor: It’s because we’re old friends and we just have this connection, ya know? (motioning back and forth several times between us and smiling).

We chatted a bit about Comic-Con in general and I asked him if he’s ever been able to go around on the convention floor to look around through all the madness. He said no, but that he really wanted to, so I told him about how we always hear afterwards about which celebrities wore costumes and walked the floor completely incognito. He thought it was pretty funny that Johnny Depp was a giant squirrel one year and Justin Timberlake was Ernie from Sesame Street. He laughed and told me, “Next year…”

Mackenzie Foy was insanely cute and I didn’t want to distract her while she painstakingly signed my poster. I think I just said hi and that I was looking forward to seeing her in the movie. She’s so young, but handles herself with such grace while still being refreshingly kidlike.

Then I took one last fleeting and wistful glance at Rob (while security glared a warning at me) and left the room.

And here they are saying goodbye to me (yes, I live in my own fantasy world)

Is this fabulous or what?!

And I have one more bit of super exciting news: Lee MacDougall is going to sing at a small party I'm hosting this fall! (He keeps referring to it as a "private event", which makes me want to snicker inappropriately). He also agreed to do a TwiBite interview (so we'll have to come up with some interesting questions!) and I'll be sure to record some video to post for you. If you don't know who Lee MacDougall is, please refer back to my post "I Just Can't Resist a Cute, Witty Brit with a Fabulous Voice and Killer Smirk" or check him out on youtube. I promise, he's awesome. 

TwiloveSue XOXO

@TwiloveSue

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

Comic-Con 2012: Let the Madness Begin!

Yep, it's true. I'm living the hobo lifestyle once again, camping out in the line for Comic-con. It's been great fun so far (other than the freight trains that barrel through all night, every hour on the hour) and hopefully I'll have lots of great pictures and stories for you soon!

TwiloveSue XOXO

Rock of Ages Premiere: Tom Cruise Owes Me a Diet Coke

Yes, I know that Tom Cruise doesn’t technically fit in with the subject matter of this blog. But, in my defense, Mrs. P never fully explained the rules when she gave me my own set of keys to the mansion, so I think this is one of those times when it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission. Come to think of it, that applies to most of life’s situations, doesn’t it?

But, just to show meager effort on my part, I consulted the Oracle of Bacon website to find a way to justify Tom Cruise’s presence here by connecting him to our patron saint Robert Pattinson in 6 degrees or less:

Tom Cruise --> Knight and Day --> Maggie Grace --> Breaking Dawn --> Robert Pattinson

Tom Cruise --> The Firm --> Hal Holbrook --> Water for Elephants --> Robert Pattinson

Tom Cruise --> Rock of Ages --> Paul Giamatti --> Cosmopolis --> Robert Pattinson

Well, if that doesn’t prove Tom fits right in here, than I don’t know what else would. Do you want to see more examples? (please say no). Besides, I think he at least earns a guest visit because he’s been in a vampire movie, right? Good. Moving along…

Last week I found myself with an afternoon off and no real pressing responsibilities, so I did what most people would have done… I drove to Hollywood to attend the Rock of Ages red carpet premiere at Grauman’s Chinese Theater and try to meet Tom Cruise. Makes perfect sense to me. Twi-Daughter Nicole came along too (because apparently I’m raising her to embrace my own skewed version of reality) and Twi-Daughter Megan (Twifixx’s lovely offspring) met us up there.

There were a fair amount of fans already there when we arrived, but we still ended up with a pretty good spot about 1/3 down the block-long barricades. After a few hours of baking in the hot sun, we realized whose star along the Walk of Fame we were practically sitting on: Tom Cruise!! Coincidence? I think not.

Doesn’t it look like they got part way through his name and

realized they were running out of room?

I also killed time by visiting the cement handprint/footprint area to pay homage to Rob’s feet.

Honestly, he has HUGE feet! Yes, I did stand in his footprints.
(Pfffft. Like you had to ask)

We discovered that Tom’s reputation as being good to his fans is well-deserved. Imagine my surprise when he was the first star to arrive (a few hours early!) and then went down the entire fan line, taking his time signing autographs and posing for pictures. In fact, he had two assistants with him that we could hand our cameras to and then they took the pictures of him with us. I was so impressed.

Tom and Sue

... and Nicole

 

... and Megan

After watching his movies for so many years, it was very overwhelming to see him in person. While he was right in front of me, I think I blurted out something really dorky like, "Oh my God, Megan, that's really Tom Cruise!!" and then he smiled at me, laughed, and kicked my drink over. He immediately apologized, but I was in such a Tom-induced daze that my brilliant response was, “What drink?” He pointed it out to me and seemed genuinely sorry, apologizing about three times while I kept telling him that it was OK. (Note: when I told this story to 17foreverLisa, her response was, “I'm sure had it been Diet Pepsi, he would have been more careful.” Right.)

I think I also told him it was such a pleasure to meet him and that I enjoyed his movies and he thanked me. It really was kind of a blur cause that was Tom Freakin’ Cruise in front of me!! As soon as he left, my first impulse was to rush home and watch all of his movies, but we stuck around. My hands were literally shaking like I had OD’d on caffeine or something. Tom (I can call him by his first name now since we’re friends and all) was just SO nice and extremely handsome in person.

 

 

There were a ton of other celebrities and 1980's band members at the premiere, but not a single one ever came over to where we were. Most didn't sign at all or only did a few token autographs and then ran off to go down the press line. That was very disappointing, but we still watched them get out of their cars and wave to the crowd. There were lots of big-haired-leather-wearing guys who were obviously in well-known bands, but I was a total fail at trying to figure out who they were.

All in all, it was a very fun day and we’re already plotting out what premiere we can attend next!

TwiloveSue XOXO

P.S. Here's your Rob pic of the day :)

True Blood Season 5 Red Carpet Premiere: I Cheated on Twilight and I’m Not Even Sorry

I hope I’m not in danger of losing my Team Edward card when I confess that there are other vampires in my life besides the sparkly residents of Forks, Washington. Sure, maybe that makes me some kind of a FangSlut, but whatever. I mean, have you seen the vampires and werewolves in Bon Temps?

Not the Cullens

Definitely not the Cullens

I’m vastly entertained by the outrageous happenings on True Blood and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see two of my favorite cast members, Alexander Skarsgard and Joe Manganiello, in person for the 5 red carpet premiere for season 5.

Waiting in line with the gang – Twifixx, ZAnyMouse, me (TwiloveSue), LuvsMeSumEdward, Twi-daughter Nicole

We didn’t get there early enough to snag a spot along the front of the small, barricaded fan area and ended up behind a group of extremely tall “Autograph Guys.” Luckily they turned out to be really nice and a total Godsend in helping us collect autographs and get pictures.

 

Alexander Skarsgard (Eric)
My humblest apologies to fellow Breaking Dawn Tent City residents who recognize someone else in this picture

It was very exciting to meet Alexander Skarsgard and it totally made my day to have my picture taken with him. I was so impressed with how he took his time going down the fan line to sign autographs and take pictures with everyone. He even went around the back side of the barricades to greet fans.

I Spy TwiloveSue, Twifixx and ZAnyMouse hiding in this picture (photo source unknown)

Carrie Preston (Arlene)

 

 

Sam Trammel (Sam)

Kristen Bauer (Pam)

 

 

My other favorite actor in the cast is Joe Manganiello and I wasn’t at all prepared by how intimidatingly handsome he was in person. My hands were totally shaking, but he was so nice. He bypassed the media interview line to visit fans first and was a total sweetheart even going down  the line twice to make sure he got everyone.

Joe Manganiello (Alcide)

Oh my....

I know I'm short, but he really is tall (6’5”)

Denis O'Hare (Russell)

Deborah Ann Woll (Jessica)

Todd Lowe (Terry)

Nelsan Ellis (Lafayette)

Kevin Allejandro (Jesus)

Jim Parrack (Hoyt)

Michelle Forbes (Maryann, also Ensign Ro for all you Star Trek geeks like me)

Twi-Daughter Nicole was beyond excited that Michael Emerson (Ben from Lost) was there to support his wife Carrie Preston. Her one goal for the evening was to meet him and he very graciously came over and took a picture with her even though he hadn’t planned on going through the fan line. To be honest, he scared me a little.

I was disappointed that Stephen Moyer and Anna Paquin arrived late and didn’t sign autographs, but it was cool that their publicist at least came over to apologize to us.

Oh, and I’m no expert, but it just seems like it’s not good parenting to let your young, teen daughter hold up a sign in public that says “VILF.” Just sayin’

We had a great time and I’m definitely going back again for the Season 6 red carpet!

TwiloveSue XOXO

P.S.  You know I couldn't not include a picture of Rob from the Cosmopolis press tour, right? (thank you to DangrDafne for finding this gem!)