FIRSTLY: An important message from Christian, we've been asked to pass it on to people we know on the Internet. Anything you may have heard about Stephanie claiming to be part of the Russian royal family is COMPLETELY UNTRUE. She's never said that, she's never even heard of the person she's supposed to be claiming to be related to. So if you could just pass on the message. Thanks :)
I fall out of the taxi on Friday night at 6.50 feeling very, very sick and very, very nervous. Why the hell did I agree to this? We pick up tickets and I discover I'm to go to a cocktail party to 'mingle' with Stephanie, Christian and Thomas Burr (who played Lee.)
The room is absolutely freezing, and I'm starting to feel very, very ill. Thank God we met Caroline and Pretti who 'adopt' us. It's their first con too.
The guests all show up together. Stephanie waves in our direction. Back to blonde hair and bangs- think 'Untouched.' She's very, very pretty and very, very smiley. She gets around to our table and surprisingly (It could be the Bacardi talking) I don't get tongue-tied. She said she gets really nervous doing the meet 'n' greet thing and she wants more drinks (she was only allowed one before coming in.) She's also chewing gum. Her engagement ring is absolutely massive- it's a diamond shaped diamond rock thing if that makes any sense. She also tells us she's been here for two weeks, visiting London and Paris. We question her about the weather and how awful and rainy it's been. Quote: "There was one sunny day and I slept through it- shit!" She's incredibly bubbly.
Christian didn't get to our end of the room. He only flew in that morning and was presumably very jet lagged. Though my sister, Danni saw him on the stairs on her way to the toilets and they said 'hey' to each other.
Thomas Burr is next. I'm absolutely thrilled because I love Lee and didn't know he was going to be there. He's very nice; he sits down with us and chats for ages. We talk mostly about his theatre company, a bit about Lee and how jet lagged he is also.
The party ends and we go to the disco (after a few very excitable phone calls to my parents and my friend, Claire.) We go to the toilets over there and Stephanie is washing her hands. Again we have a quick chat, mostly about Danni's necklace. Danni decides she is now Stephanie's number one fan (and to give you an idea of how nice she is, two hours previously Danni was dubbing her 'the antichrist' that's how much of a turnaround.)
I finally get to bed at 2.00 a.m…
The alarm goes at 6.15. Shit. I don't get up this early for just anyone! Breakfast at 7.30. I really don't feel like eating. Dr. Becky diagnoses some sort of nervous, excited exhaustion.
I buy my ticket and queue for the group photo with Christian, Stephanie and Thomas. Special thanks to Roddy for keeping us sane in the queue (Mr. Kane and Ms. Romanov show up fashionably late.) I don't know if it's me looking nervous but as I stand between Tom and Christian Dad in the queue declared: "I have to stand next to her!") But Christian's first words to me are "Come on. Give us a hug." And so we do. At the same time Dad gets a hug from Stephanie- awww.
We say thank you and go on our merry way to Tom's talk. He's an amazing speaker. He's very smart and talks a lot about theatre and books. People ask questions about Shakespeare and he can answer every one. He even sings us a bit from The Wizard of Oz. He's not a bad singer at all.
Then onto Neil Robert's talk (of 'Charmed' fame. He played Rex Buckley.) most of the jokes are about Shannen Doherty… heh. We end on group karaoke of 'Oh Mandy.' He was so damn fantastic, absolutely hysterical.
Dad forces half a tuna sandwich down my throat. I still don't feel like eating. We watch the Buffy pilot- interesting.
Then its time for pretty much what I'm here for. The Christian and Stephanie talk. We get a little montage of Lilah and Lindsey moments. They announce the guests and everyone's screaming. No Stephanie and No Christian appears. Cue plays again. I really wish I could remember everything that was said. Guys, you have to get the video. They played off each other like crazy. Loads of anecdotes. Embarrassing moments on set- oh yes, they've had a few. Here were the best quotes that I can a) remember and b) that were really awww worthy or funny. A few are a bit spoilery so skip on past if you don't know about season 4 or whatever.
Christian: There was so much sexual tension between Lindsey and Lilah… in real life too.
Christian: Stephanie has a nice ass.
Stephanie: I should come back (to the show) as his wife.
Christian: They're so fucking crazy of they don't bring her (Stephanie) back.
(This was the opening bit)
Stephanie: How cool is it Christian's here?
(Pause for applause and more screaming. Christian looks over at Stephanie.)
Christian: Well I'm only here because my most favourite person is.
Stephanie: It's a love fest.
Stephanie: I told Sean he should get Christian to come to a convention. He said he could never get hold of him. So I said I'd call him. I said 'Wanna come hang out with me in Europe for a few days?'
Christian: And I said 'Absolutely.'
Stephanie: I can't stop touching Christian's arms… in a platonic way of course because I'm married.
Christian: Stephanie Romanov is married- how much does that suck?
Stephanie: Chris is a great kisser.
(On Lindsey's prosthetic hand)
Christian: Stephanie would say 'You wanna run lines?' and I'd be, 'No! I can't even wipe my own ass!'
Stephanie: I would've wiped your ass for you.
Stephanie: Hey! Look! We're sat down, we're the same height!
Stephanie: We should auction off a spanking of Christian… I can outbid you all.
Christian: She's so easy to make laugh.
They're the ones I can remember for now. I really hope they do a video, they're filming everything. They're clearly very, very good friends, very cute together.
Then it's time for autograph. The queue for Stephanie is very long. People to thank for keeping me sane: Michelle, Tracey and Annikki. She likes to chat and have cigarette breaks. *Cough* I didn't say that. We get near the front and her phone rings. She picks it up and it's of course her husband. Awwww so cute- 'I love you so, so much honey.' How sweet is this girl? When we get there she's as lovely as ever. She asks me where I got the pics. I tell her the Angel magazine and she says she hasn't seen it yet. She signs her name with a heart and writes in pink pen. Everything about her makes me want to say 'bless.'
Then Thomas. Charming as ever. He signs with the message 'Look out behind you.' This guy is so friendly.
Then onto Neil who is very chatty, lovely.
The uber queue for Christian begins (he flies home Sunday morning so he needs to get 330 done today.) We talk about how long ago the pic was taken. He signs with a X X O O.
Then a meal. Again I don’t wanna eat.
Pick up group photo. As you can see (It's on the bottom of all of this) there's a serious deviation on my part to the right ; ).
Then Kane's first UK gig. It's fucking amazing. Chris is so relaxed, warm and funny. his band buddy, Steve is lovely too. Despite being warned about no video recorders Stephanie decides to film the entire thing. "Look at Romanov!" "It's not me, baby." Bless. Kane continues, Stephanie gets more ambitious with her camera angles, crawling along the floor at the front of the stage. If you can imagine, everyone's sat on the floor with an aisle running down the middle (which is a hazard zone with tonnes of cables.) The first thing I see is an elbow, then Stephanie's nose. She lies down on her stomach in the aisle next to Danni. Schindler's list springs to mind suddenly.
The set ends. I was skeptical of this country thing, but Kane kick butt!
I don't really have a concluding paragraph. Only I'm totally convention hooked. I had such a good time, the guests were all so warm and friendly.
I think I remembered most things- but ask me those specific questions :)