Sunday March 19th, 2011 goes down as 1 of great accomplishment and great disappointment to the legion of fans, crew & cast of The CW hit show Smallville. This was most certainly the day many of the crew & cast would see each other for the last times during the shows amazing 10 year run. They may go on to cross paths over the years on new projects, they may possibly never cross paths with some of these people again. But on this night, a whos who of the people who made Metropolis come alive on the TV screens had 1 last hurrah together, it was the final Smallville wrap party at the 98 year old Vancouver Club.
While the hordes of crew & friends entailed the majority of the guests, there were certainly some cast, old & new there as well. The event did not start till 8 PM, and it was not too long after that the first guest of note arrived.
With the party not starting till later evening, it should be no shock the first cast member to arrive was Connor Stanhope, the 13 yr old who portrays a young Lex Luthor arrived with his mother. He signed autographs for the people who asked, took photos with and went into the party. As someone thats seen a few child actors in the past few years with some very overly protective parents, it was actually a relief to see his mother not just seem excited about all of it, but made the effort to get out of the way when the photographers there wanted a couple photos of young Connor arriving.
The next to arrive was the man who played 1/2 of 1 of TVs most iconic brother pairs off the hit 80s show The Dukes Of Hazzard. John Schneider, the man who plays Jonathan Kent was next to arrive. I had seen Mr. Schneider earlier in the day, and just like he was then, the man was a class act. He signed for everyone, took photos, chatted a bit, then strolled into the party.... he would turn out to be 1 of the shortest staying guests.
Alessandro Giuliani was next to arrive. However, the man who plays Dr. Emil Hamilton in the latter seasons was noticed too late for the crowd to really react, and he managed to get in without being asked by 1 single person for anything.
Next up was the man, the myth, the legend, The Blur. Literally, the blur zipped by. Tom Welling arrived with 2 or 3 friends (didnt note who was with him, but since I know your going to be asking, I do not believe his wife was 1 of them.). Clark Kent arrived wearing a suit...with a hoodie over top & a cap pulled down and probably took like 6 steps from the cab door to the top of the stairs in his mad dash to avoid interaction. One fan moved in a few feet towards him at the staircase & Tom didnt even slow down, just simply did a 1/2 step away from her to suggest "yeah, dont bother" & was shortly there after, inside.
While Welling was arriving at the party, Schneider was leaving. He claimed it was because of the loud music... I think he just didnt want to be in the same room as Welling (thats NOT a real assumption by the way... just me being a smart ass.).
Keri Lynn Pratt, the actress that portrays Cat Grant was next to arrive & signed for those who asked.
Next up was Cassidy Freeman, aka- Tess Mercer. Like Welling, she avoided coming over to the crowd of 17 people. Unlike Welling, she at least acknowledged the crowd by waving at them & smiling before heading in.
Erica Durance & her husband, former Stargate actor David Palffy arrived. While Durance signed for the crowd, I had a chat with Mr. Palffy over some things I have said in the past about him that had been misconstrued by someone close to the couple to sound far worse than they were intended. After talking with him I can certainly say he was a very rational, civil & personable man. Not everyone would give someone a chance to explain themselves, but he did. He even told me he would talk to Erica inside about signing for me on departing the party as she opted not to sign for me, clearly showing me thru her actions that yes, she was dissatisfied with what she had heard/read about/from me in the past. Any issues you the fans have with David, I can assure you, are very likely over exaggerated or wrong. I'm not going to go into details of what was said, but he was quite open & blunt about several things. He was actually a far more personable man than what I interpreted him to be a year ago... and this is not me trying to kiss up to them. It does me no good now to "pretend". The show is over. I'm also not the type to try & make nice with people just for PR reasons as I am sure any regular readers of my site know. I call it just as I see it, plain & simple, and to me, Mr. Palffy was fair & reasonable.
While Durance was signing, 2 other Smallville stars also came in.
Justin Hartley, the man who is the Green Arrow & Oliver Queen strolled in and shockingly did not stop for the group. Over the past year I have seen him get a bit more limiting on autographs, but he was always good about stopping. Tonight however, even with several people calling to him only 15-20 ft away, he didnt make the effort to come over. Sorta shocking to me.
Kristin Kreuk, or as you know her Lana Lang from the earlier seasons arrived with them as well. With all the attention on Durance & Hartley she managed to sneak in with few people even noticing her. much of the talk lately has been about whether she will or wont be in an episode. My feeling on it, I think she is. My friends & I caught her coming back to town recently in mid-week while she was working on another project in LA for a 2 day stint here. Sorta random to come in mid-week for only 2 days. Then on top of it, she comes to the wrap party? She is the only person who arrived that isnt part of this seasons shows if she isnt actually in it..... so read into it what you want. I already have. Perhaps I am wrong, guess in a few weeks I will know eh?
Not long after that, some of the crowd dispersed, and a slightly more manageable 10 or so people waited it out.
Jessica Parker Kennedy was next to leave. The girl who plays Plastique was very nice & signed for me as she waited to get into a cab. She is currently in town working on a TV pilot "Secret Circle".
Next to depart was Cassidy Freeman. Even though this time she had to walk right past us, even so close she patted me on the arm as she was passing, she refused to sign. I've never seen her refuse before, and considering she came that close to where we were, I am even more shocked. She didnt really say why she couldnt, just that "I cant tonight, sorry". Not sure what her reason was, but I cant be too hard on her, shes been great with us several times prior. Just shocking still though.
Kristin Kreuk, Erica Durance & David would be next to leave. While Kreuk came over & signed for the crowd, David spoke to Erica & she came over to me & signed for me. I apologized to her for anything that she thought was said by me in the past, she said its water under the bridge in her mind & signed. I had to frantically scramble to find my items too as I was caught at a moment of attempting to re-organize my items when they came out, because of this, I ended up getting Kreuk on my cast logo photo, instead of a single photo of her as I had intended...still, happy to take it, as she is at times an unwilling participant in signing autographs. The trio left together from what I recall. Little did I know that was going to be the last autographs I would get that evening.
Last to be spotted leaving, at 1:20 AM... Connor Stanhope. Seriously. The youngest guest there (no one else was even CLOSE to under 19) was the last cast member spotted leaving. Not long after that, security was locking up the building & then we started to get a bit concerned about if Tom & Justin may have snuck out the back. We knew there was that chance all evening, but no one wanted to make the sacrifice of checking it out. When a waitress from the event came out waiting for her cab, I asked her in a way that made it assume that we knew people were left in there still how many were left, which she replied "sorry, but theres no one left in there but cleaners". In my line of work you hear lots of lies, so you always read between whats said, but she said it with such sincerity & seemed unaware why we would even be waiting that we believed her. That was the official end of the evening.
If Tom & Justin were still in there, they outsmarted the crowd outside, and the crew inside. Only notable people that werent there. Allison Mack & Annette O'Toole (the latter who left that morning). Was also a bit shocked Michael Shanks wouldnt come since he lives here. I am sure if Jensen Ackles had not left that morning, he too would have probably come. Only non-Smallville person I did see was Thomas Dekker, who is in town doing a CW pilot show.
So that is it Smallville fans. Your show, all the moments & memories it has brought you end this week...at least in the filming side of it. Tonight was probably bittersweet for many of the crew & cast as it is the end to a large piece of their recent lives. Luckily, you still have a few more episodes to soak in before Tom/Clark & flies (possibly) off into the sunset.
EDIT- For a few pics from the night, check out another locals blog here...
http://www.lindsaylovesherbike.com/2011/03/smallville-wrap-party.html?spref=tw
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