Yes, I am alive... alive and very well, thank-ya-thank-ya
a.k.a. A movie star has my e-mail address!
So, kiddies, it's been a long break, but now the blog is all sorted out, the links are added, and the archives have not been lost. Yay for my half-baked attempts at and successes in reconfiguring the HTML code provided for me by Blogspot.
Also, for those of you waiting with bated breath, I am working on two reviews at the moment. One for the memoir (of sorts)
How to Lose Friends & Alienate People by hip Britster Toby Young and one for the unfortunate experience known as Justin Timberlake's
Justified. Hopefullly I'll get to bash JT in the
Campus next Wednesday for all of you with access to that! (On second thought, all of you who have access to this, have access to that because here's the
link.)
Without further ado... the business at hand: my celebrity encounter!
Yesterday was one of those days that began in the depths of the abyss. As we all know, I like my sleep, but when you sleep in late enough, it's not long (in England, especially) before the dark rolls back on in, and before you know it, you're living life in an Ibsen play (rainy, gloomy, dark, suffocating, maddening). Anyhow, when I went to meet Em, Vicky & Luke at 3:50, it was already getting dark. I wanted to cry. When I did meet them, they noticed my dour demeanor (marked mainly by uncharacteristic silence) and were sort of trying to cheer me up. But when I'm in a funk, I don't want to be lifted out of it, I want to "progress" out of it (if that makes any sense).
The good news, however, was that Em got two tickets for
The Tempest with none of than
Ben Silverstone, the adorable and charming star of
Get Real (one of my many British gay films and very likely a large component of my forthcoming Thesis--capital T--eek!).
Anyhow, the play itself was... well, it was
The Tempest, and as we were sitting up in the nosebleed section, I couldn't really see or hear that well (especially with them "talking British"). In short, I didn't get much out of it, but I'm glad that I've seen a staging of it because I'll be studying it this Spring for "Shakespeare's Comedies & Romances" at Middlebury.
Back to the story... After the show, I made Em come with me to the stage door and was, of course, a total dork about it because I'm like that. I got into my starstruck little girl mode. But with Em's encouragement, we went to the reception and asked them if the actors came out there. Alas! We were almost fooled! The woman said they were doing a Q&A session and would be a long time coming out. Almost about to leave, some random backstage guy (a sign from Allah, no doubt) asked us who we were waiting to see, and I said Ben Silverstone, and he informed us that Ben wouldn't be doing the Q&A and would be coming out pretty quickly.
Well, pretty quickly wasn't exactly accurate, but he does have half of his body covered in blue for his role as Ariel in the show, so no hard feelings. Anyhow, he finally came out, and I did my whole, "I saw
Get Real" thing, and there was some awkward backstage banter. Luckily, I didn't have anything to sign, which I think might have made me less like a drooling starfucker. Eventually, he had kindness in his heart and a sparkle in his eye, and asked us if we wanted to join him (and the cast) for a drink at the pub they go to after each performance.
OF COURSE WE DID!
We go to the pub very close by (and right across the street from Jon's place, the Alibi). He gets a Guinness, Em gets a Coke, I get my standard vodka and lemonade, and the guy asks me if I want a double, and I'm like, "Sure?" (I'm growing quite fond of the double over here in England, so watch out when I come back, America!)
Anyhow, we talk about all manner of things:
Get Real,
The Tempest, acting, accents, American/British TV, the South (of the States), my spot as Hollywood Minute reporter on UEA's student radio, my thesis, my aspirations as a journalist/writer of fluff, etc., etc. The nice thing was that it wasn't like me interviewing him (which is sometimes how actors make you treat them); we were having a real conversation, and he seemed genuinely interested in and amused by me. Em left midway through, and normally I'd feel like I should leave with her, but I figure I should prolong this gift from the gods. What's more, I don't really feel scruples about not allowing him to be with his castmates because, frankly, he sees them every day, and this is
his once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet
me!
So, that's about the gist of it. Eventually, the pub was about to close, and reality set in (as did my urgent need to urinate since I hadn't gone since before the play started probably 4 or 5 hours before!). We walked briefly until our paths forked (as they do), and I said, "Well, if you ever come to New York"--because we had talked about it before--"feel free to look me up. Oh wait, you don't anything about me but my name..." At which point, he actually asked me for my e-mail address. I don't know if he's going to keep it and doubt he'll ever actually use it if he does, but what a nice gesture. He could have easily been like, "Yeah, too bad that." We did the whole hug-and-kiss thing, and he asked me if I was going to be fine getting to the bus (because it was almost 1 a.m. at that point), and I said I would. I toyed with the thought of saying, "Unless you
want to walk with me 10 minutes out of your way," but I couldn't think of a sexy way of saying it quickly enough, so I'll just write it off to leaving myself mysterious.
So... I would say, "I'm in looove," but then I would sound like Tracy Turnblad from
Hairspray, and I don't want to paint myself with that brush today. As I'm sure you'll notice by the scads of italics, that it was a truly exciting and heartening event for me. And for the record,
I totally would have made out with him.
