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- <f1><c000> COLLECTORMANIA 2
- MILTON KEYNES
- <f0> Felice meets the stars
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-
- Many of you will be fairly familiar with the concept of the UK -
- based computer fairs and shows, which were reviewed in Maggie,
- Alive and other diskzines over the years. However, even for the
- UK, a film fair was something different altogether.
-
- The chance to meet Hollywood actors and actresses has always
- appealed to me personally, particularly in the right kind of
- settings. Usually however, these personalities tended to be a
- collection of 'has-beens' from the days of old, such as crappy
- seventies television shows, the likes of whom passed a very long
- time ago.
-
- However, CollectorMania 2 was so different, much more refreshing -
- and deservedly so. While making a regular visit to Rutger Hauer's
- web site I found a link to the fair itself. It turned out that
- Rutger himself, yes, in the flesh, and a whole host of other stars
- would be making an appearance at this event. As Milton Keynes in
- itself is not too far away from where I live it made for an ideal
- afternoon away.
-
- First impressions of the fair itself was that it was quite big.
- Filling the whole of the Middleton Hall (those who were at Alt
- Party or the (unmissed) Mekka 2002 parties will be aware of the
- size of those places). There were stands of varying descriptions,
- piled high with film-related stock on sale. One had a large
- collection of material related to the Lord of the Rings trilogy,
- consisting of replica swords and also an appearance from the guy
- who played the role of Sauron in the film. He, along with Rutger,
- was with the other celebrities in the signing area.
-
- Rutger's stand - this was mainly why I had made the visit in the
- first place - was huge. He was promoting his 'Starfish Foundation'
- charity, which seeks to raise money to help people living in the
- Turks and Caicos islands who are suffering from AIDS. In total, he
- and his helpers raised around a quarter of a million pounds, which
- they were all very pleased with. It took a while to queue to see
- the big man himself - he was actually taking a break when I got to
- the front - but he soon appeared in a short time, looking very
- well and healthy. This was also a chance to meet Jan, one of the
- ladies behind the charity function, also Rutger's daughter Ayesha,
- and a number of the women who formed the UK branch of Rutger's
- unofficial fan club.
-
- Rutger himself welcomed people with plenty of gusto. He was
- genuinely pleased to see his real fans, who told him how much they
- enjoyed his movies over the years. This was actually Rutger's
- first and only (at the time of writing this) scheduled appearance
- to the general public in the UK. I got the impression that he
- intends to do more of these at some stage and also on a worldwide
- basis, as previously he had been a relative stranger to film
- fairs.
-
- A small bit about the other celebrities now. UK readers will
- remember an actor who played a famous teacher called 'Mr Bronson'
- in the kid's TV favourite soap, Grange Hill. He made an
- appearance, but on the Friday when I was at the show he didn't
- seem to have many people visiting him. I did think initially of
- going to see him, but after wandering around the fair for around
- 3-4 hours my legs were getting quite tired of standing up for so
- long a period. The stuff I bought at the fair itself was mainly
- some stuff related to Joanna Pacula, that was rare but cheap as
- she isn't that well known here, also I picked up some DVDs of a
- couple of new films, Steven Seagal's newie, Exit Wounds, plus a
- copy of Lake Placid, one of Meredith's more recent pictures. They
- are both good films in my opinion, maybe one or both of them will
- be shown at EIL #3 as part of the planned video show.
-
- I enjoyed this film fair very much. It was great to meet Rutger in
- the flesh for the first time. He was able to tell me that Joanna
- is also well and busy working, they have some PR calls coming up
- in the new year to promote a new film they starred in together.
- Hopefully that'll come through soon.
-
- A surprise at the fair itself appeared in the shape of Daniel
- Radcliffe and Rupert Grint, with Emma Watson arriving a little
- later on. These three child actors play the relevant parts in the
- Harry Potter series of films, as Harry himself, Ron Weasley and
- Hermione Grainger. While I didn't get to meet them personally, you
- should have all heard the screams that came from the hordes
- visiting the fair when they turned up ! The new Harry Potter film
- had not yet been released at this stage, but I have seen it since
- and enjoyed it. Hopefully it'll also get a showing at EIL.
-
- All in all, the fair itself was excellent. I hope to attend
- more of these in the next years to come.
-
-
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- CHOSNECK team contact us:
- growin' up with atari community greymsb@poczta.fm
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