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Seems like forever ago. It has been so long since my last Twilight cast themed blog I actually had to look it up. June 26th, 2011. Seems longer than that. To be honest, when they were here last time there was such a lack of interest... I really was certain the fad was dead & buried. Seems however, the fad isnt completely buried yet. The 150 new twitter followers I gained in 24 hrs upon relaying the info that they were back here in Vancouver to do Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn II re-shoots can attest to that. The cast of the most successful movie franchise in Vancouver's history returned for another short re-shoot this week. It appears there are 4 main cast members rolling around the Lower Mainland for this re-shoot. Robert Pattinson is back to be Edward Cullen for 4 more days. His arrival was marked by about 10 or so people waiting for him. He speedwalked thru the calm & casual crowd of professional paps, autograph hounds & a couple casual fans to his waiting SUV while his over enthusiastic bodyguard Dean cleared a path for him. The Rob that most of us came to know back during New Moon who was casual, laid back & generally willing to stop and interact if you were that close to him is long gone of course, and now a zipping jaunt past the crowd is all you can expect when he is on Summits watch. If you manage to find him out and about, results usually are better, but as long as Summit is pulling his chain, he puts on this miserable fan-unfriendly demeanour. About an hour later, his girlfriend rolled thru with Michael Sheen. Kristen Stewart returns to be Bella, and nothing has changed with her. The generally miserable and anti-social anti-hero did her typical scurry thru the dozen or so people waiting. Like Rob, her attitude actually has become worse since the days of New Moon. Her demeanour went from "terrible" to "not bad" during New Moon, but then she left for a few months to do a Joan Jet movie, and returned as the most miserable person on the planet, and shes never goShe too got into an SUV and was soon off to her lovenest to meet up with the man who she hooked up with in the very hotel their romance seemingly started in. Michael Sheen (who I did see breifly, but did not have a chance to get any pics) arrived with KStew to resurrect his role of Aro. He DID stop & signed for those who opted to go over & wait for him in the terminal while Kristen snuck out a side door. Later in the night (actually early Monday) Ashley Greene would return to be Alice Cullen 1 last time. Ms. Greene was turning into a bit of a anti-social grump when she was here for the original Breaking Dawn shoot. Like Robert, she started off her time in Vancouver, pleasant and approachable, but soured during her long breaks in L.A. However, seems a few months away from the limelight has eased her ego some, as she was pleasant, willing to sign autographs again & all smiles on her return. Obviously, not being a fan of the movies, I am eagerly anticipating the day this franchise is done here. We have NEVER had a movie (let alone a group of them) here that has been so miserable, anti-fan, anti-interactive and all around hostile. Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn II re-shoots are scheduled from pril 30th to May 3rd. So any sightings of the stars are likely to be few, if any. Below is a few pics from Rob, Kristen & Ashley on their return. As with all my sets, if you re-post my photos, do so with proper credits & DO NOT remove the tags, or they will be removed from your site & the site may penalize you however their rules state for such infractions, which may include legal or civil penalties. If you want photos untagged for your site, images are for sale untagged, just inquire... as are autographs of the stars at the link tagged "Twilight autographs" on the left.                         
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So today actor/director Ron Howard posted a tweeted I was frankly shocked took so long. https://twitter.com/#!/RealRonHoward/status/16087886453 his daughter, actress Bryce Dallas Howard (Twilight, 50/50, The Help) and her husband Seth Gabel (Fringe) gave birth to a new baby girl. The girl Beatrice Jean Howard-Gabel was actually born 2 days ago on January 19th, but only now is news of the joyous moment making its way to the internet thru the proud grandpas tweet. I have met both Seth & Bryce many times & they are both classy as they get in the celebrity circles. In celebration of this event for the couple. Here is some pics of the proud papa that I took awhile ago that I frankly, forgot to post. Its Seth Gabel playing Lincoln Lee on the set of Fringe here in Vancouver. Unsure what the episode # for this is, but it was filmed November, 1st, 2011. Congratulations to Seth & Bryce on your new daughter.                       Now that 2011 has expired, it is time to look back at the year that was. I didnt travel too much this year, but that was ok, as elite names were roaming the streets of Vancouver throughout the year... now only if I had ran into some of them. 20 - Ellen Degeneres I managed to get the talk show icon twice on her trip to Vancouver, including the 1st autograph I got in which I had to run 4 blocks to get after being given up to the second info on where she was. Few if any autographs I got this year took more energy out of me than that 1st 1 I got from her. Next day, she signed again and was happy to do it. 19 - Axl Rose For a long time, I had heard nothing but horror stories about the lead singer for Guns N Roses. So I was not eager to go for him. However, this past time thru Vancouver, not only did the band actually play the show they came here to play, but Axl was even a willing signer. Pretty much anyone that went for him here got him. 18 - Simon Pegg While here for Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol, Mr. Pegg was the most often seen of the films stars. Whether it was at the airport, his hotel or the movie theatre, the Hot Fuzz star signed whatever was asked more often than not. 17 - Henry Cavill The new Superman has been very good here so far. Although he is strict about limiting his autograph to 1 per person each time you see him, he has still been terrific in the interactions people have had with him. 16 - Cast of Sanctuary Never had a bad experience with this cast, this year was no different. Whether it was at the Leo Awards, the airport or a charity event, each member of the cast was exceptional.      15 - Cast of The Secret Circle This cast could have made the top 10, if it werent for 1 exceptionally bitter & sour life hating senior cast member of the show. That exception aside...the rest of the cast has been terrific with us. 14- Matt Barr & Aly Michalka I miss Hellcats. Not just because of the campy cheerleader drama storylines. But because 2 of the nicer celebs we have had in Vancouver in a long time left when the show did. While some other cast members were a lot less thrilled to interact with fans during the shows 1 year run, Matt & Aly were as accomodating & friendly as you can expect. Class acts. 13- Cast Of Supernatural Much like Ms. Torv from Fringe, the cast of Supernatural, whether its Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, Misha Collins, Jim Beaver or the recurring characters of the show have been quite good to us Vancouverites when we run into them. Long as the regulars respect the no asking them on set policy, they are more than receptive to signing and chatting with us away from set when we see them. 12 - Leo Awards This years award ceremony for BC film industry was not as spectacular as past ones I had hounded. Much of that was because of an unexpected change of venue & the loss of 1 or 2 shows since last year. Still, a list of names came out that made the effort worthwhile. 11 - Amy Adams I had heard that Ms. Adams was a very willing signer, but till I saw it for myself, I didnt understand just how good she was. She willingly signed for everyone till there was nothing left out there to sign. She did it too with a smile. Wish all movie stars could have that level of appreciation.      10 - Booboo Stewart, Myanna Buring, Julia Jones, Guri Weinberg This past year, the final installment of the Twilight Saga series, Breaking Dawn 1 & 2 was filmed here. In the years prior, some of the bigger names in the film were at times, pretty decent signers. This year however, there was VERY FEW great interactions with the cast. The names above were the very few I can say were outstanding. Considering how massive the cast was, its sad you can count the great experiences on 1 hand. Not to say ALL the others were terrible, but that they didnt neccesarily stand out as great. 9- Cast Of Fringe The cast of the hit FOX show Fringe is generally friendly (the occasional grumpy Mr. Noble encounter not withstanding) the true star from a fan interaction aspect is usually Anna Torv in past years. Despite seeing the regulars probably 100+ times combined over the shows run here, she still willingly signs for us, even at the absurd time of 5:30 AM. This season, Seth Gabel became a regular and skyrocketed up along side his Fringe co-star for terrific interactions. Joshua Jackson, Jasika Nicole & others are terrific as well. 8 - John Schneider Although from an excitement standpoint, getting Mr. Schneider wasnt overly high for me (I was a Dukes of Hazzard fan..but not a massive fan), it was how wonderfully personable he was each & every time that won me over. My 1st interaction with him was 1 of the rare "I wasnt expecting that" situations where we were at the airport for persons unrelated, and saw a sign for him there. Knowing he was coming in for an episode eventually, we waited to see if it was him, it was. He happily signed then. Seeing him 2 more times after, he was just as gracious each time after, even at the Smallville wrap party, where some of the bigger stars were nothing short of rude, Mr. Schneider was 1 of the ones that made the fans waiting out there happy. 7 - Cast Of Once Upon A Time Usually when new TV shows roll into town, odds are someone on the cast thinks more of themselves than they actually are. Not so with the cast of the new ABC fantasy drama Once Upon A Time. Each & every cast member I have met has been terrific with interacting with the fans & the pros. It was the overall attitude of this cast that made me hope for it to do well...I'm glad it is succeeding, this cast deserves it. 6- Sharlto Copley The District 9 star is simply, awesome. How awesome is he with fans? After a flight that was the better part of a day, he stopped, chatted with fans at the airport, did photos with, and even cracked a few jokes. So awesome he did an autograph session for a local African import store "African Breese Imports" just because they asked...and at the autograph session, he had no qualms signing stacks for fans, collectors or dealers alike. One guy plopped down 30 or so photos, Sharlto went thru the entire stack, not once groaning about doing it and thanked the guy for coming afterwards.      5- Callum Blue
Being a huge Dead Like Me fan, I still get a bit excited when I meet any of the cast. This past year, I had a 4th (or 5th?) chance to meet Callum Blue. He was in town reprising his Smallville role as Zod. What made this meeting stand out more than others prior though was how it went down. I first learned he was going to be coming back..I then contacted him thru a site I knew he was a member of that I too was a member of. He replied back with when he was coming. I then tried, several times, but without success, to cross paths with him naturally. So I gave him another message & he told me what day he would be off. So I tried that day, called his room & he answered & came right down. In the pouring rain, he stood, signed, and chatted with my friend & I for several minutes. 4- Chloe Moretz At 2010 TIFF I had Ms. Moretz high on my list of people to get...but she cancelled. This year however, Hit Girl was there, and made up for the year long wait. One of the best signers at TIFF. Even with volunteers telling her she had to go, she still kept signing. 3- TIFF - The 2011 Toronto International Film Festival Individually, several of the events from Tiff could make this list, and a couple I did list individually. But for the mostpart, the entire event of the Toronto International Film Festival falls under 1 event for me. So thus, why it is going here. This years fest was certainly my most successful from a star power aspect, and total wise, it was close to my best. Stars like George Clooney, Megan Fox, Madonna, Nicolas Cage & Ryan Gosling made the event quite successful for me. It was the newer names I wasnt as faimiliar with before going that made some of the more cool moments though, like Chris Pratt, Ezra Miller, Dominic Monaghan and Sarah Bolger who all made me fans of them with the way they handled their attention. 2 - Tom Cruise While I did get a disappointingly low total of 2 autographs from someone I was told "signs everything", a lot of that wasnt any fault of his or really mine either. It was just dumb luck. Still, I managed to get 2 from him, which was still 2 more than most hounds in Vancouver got from him. The 1 and only night outside the trade & convention center unfortunately turned out to be the 1 and only chance Vancouverites got to get the Mission Impossible star. He made the waiting worth it though, as Mr. Cruise strolled over to a crowd of 20-30 people (which swelled to 75-100 when extras & crew came over too) around midnight & did a 20-30 minute meet & greet with fans, taking photos & signing autographs. Each interaction he made feel special, he asked fans to make sure their photos turned out and even acknowledged autograph requests with a level of respect, and not just a "ugh, fine" mentality to it. 1- Madonna No disrespect to Mr. Cruise, but at the end of the day, a rare, hard to obtain signature is a bigger deal on average than a classy, easier to obtain star. Anytime you get someone of Madonna's level of fame, its probably going to make your best list. The Material Girl has been known for quite awhile as, at best, an unwilling signer. However, when you are promoting a movie you directed & has been panned by many critics, you are on your best behaviour. That is what fans in Toronto got when the pop icon was there to promote W.E. this past Summer for TIFF. Madonna signed probably 75-100 autographs on the red carpet, and signed at dinner a bit later after her event as well. Some honorable mentions should go out to the likes of Patrick Gilmore, Rose McGowan, Daniel & Henrik Sedin, Ben Cotton & Lyndsy Fonseca. So, that concludes 2011. Some amazing successes for me. Granted, there was some downright failures as well. I somehow never got Matt Damon despite him being here for 2-3 months. All my Saoirse Ronan autographs were ruined by an ugly fading silver sharpie. I missed Robert DeNiro AGAIN by mere inches, and same with Brad Pitt this time. Who will grace the list at the end of 2012? Going into 2011, there wasnt a lot of "sure things" I could see making the list. To be honest, most of the list is a complete surprise, simply because I didnt know going into 2011 these people would cross my paths. Day 6 was wrought with huge disappointments for me and others. Cancellations dominated the day as the likes of Jane Fonda, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Jennifer Lawrence were all absent desite being on the original guest lists.
My day started off confirming Lawrences absence and speculating heaving that JDM was also a no-show. However, I was still hopeful he was maybe in Toronto for the premiere and just somehow wasnt at the press conference. I showed up to the premiere for Peace, Love and Misunderstandings hoping for the man who played John Winchester to be in attendance, and worst case scenario...at least I would get Jane Fonda. As it turns out, NEITHER of those situations happened, as both of them were no-shows. Instead, we were mistreated to the incredibly unfriendly Chase Crawford and shockingly unfriendly Kyle MacLachlan, who between of them signed maybe 10 autographs and spent less than a minute interacting with the fans. I dont know what company is dishing the $ out for P,L&M but I can assure you, the cancellation of the movies 2 biggest names and absolute neglect from itsw 2 second tier names likely unsold many tickets that night. The public relations team for this film must have had heart attacks when they checked the next day for fan on the street reactions and saw plenty of negatively worded responses. One of the reactions I saw in person was a gil, maybe 15ish who word for word said "fuck Chase. He NEEDS our ticket sales, we dont NEED his acting, theres lots of other guys to follow". Thisw blunt, factual and quite attentive response to being slighted by the tv actor is the type of thing that will over time hurt his star power. Hes replaceable, theres dozens of prettyboy faces out there, and some casting director is going to 1 day pick a nicer, more personable, more fan friendly 1 over him. The casting director of PL&M probably wishes they had that prior insight. I attempted the Jennfer Garner red carpet. Had Alicia Silverstone signing near me, but was unable to get close enough to the fading star to get 1 of the limited autographs she tossed out. Jennifer Garner was just as bad, even statign 9according to a source who actually has admited to having bad hearing...but her body language did convey the same message) "I dont like you" as she skipped over my item, which seemed odd for someone that had prior to that moment only seen me for a total of 20 seonds in her entire life, back in 2007. and no words or actions were exchanged in that meeting. After the shitty start to this day, I decided I better go for what SHOULD be a slam dunk. A premiere at the small Isabelle Bader Theatre. It was the only premiere the theatre had this festival that I worked, and it was...ok. I managed a couple autographs from Sarah Bolger and Scott Speedman as well as 1 from Lily Cole. Sarah Gadon was also there and signed willingly, I just had nothing for the budding star. It broke my shutout slump..even though I had hoped for at least 2 more autographs from that carpet, it was a start. I contemplated quitting the night there & cutting my losses, but instead took the short walk over to the Windsor Arms for the InStyle party. A plethora of C & D list names populated the Canadian version of this party. I was disappointed to miss Covert Affairs stars Chris Gorham and Piper Perabo, both of whom walked right by me. I managed an autograph from Anton Yelchin and 1 from Jessica Chastain, before |I opted to call it a night. A few other names went to the party. Ashley Greene of Twilight fame went there, snubbed the crowd, and got loudly booed for her disrespect. This girl will be doing TV Movies of the week within 2 yrs. She has little to no talent, and a sour attitude and the Twi-fame is about to be done...and she seems oblivious to it. The Trailer Park Boys also showed up, and greeted, signed and took pics with anyone who asked. They have always been terrific at fan interactions, this time was no different. Kim Cattrall was seen leaving the party and snubbed most requests, although she did sign 1 autograph, most of the requests for the aging star were ignored. All toll, considering how abysmal the day started, getting what I did in the end seemed like a small victory. GRADES A+ Trailer Park Boys A- Sarah Bolger A- Sarah Gadon A- Christopher Gorham B Scott Speedman B- Jessica Chastain B- Lyndsy Fonseca C+ Anton Yelchin C Lily Cole C- Alicia Silverstone C- Piper Perabo C- Kim Cattrall D+ Jennifer Garner D Ashley Greene D Chase Crawford D Kyle MacLachlan TOTAL autographs 7 Some pics of Twilight Saga Wolfpack cast while in Vancouver for filming Breaking Dawn 1 and 26/26/2011 Here are some pics of various Wolfpack members for the Twilight Saga, as they were in town for Breaking Dawn 1 & 2 this past spring. Due to a computer problem a few months ago, a lot of my older blogs got passed over for awhile....so now I am catching up, and tada...for you Twilight Wolfpac fans...heres some of the pics I had for their past shoot here. Kiowa Gordon, Julia Jones, Alex Meraz, Bronson Pelletier & Booboo Stewart are featured in this lot.                                 Earlier this past spring, the cast of the Twilight Saga series returned to their unofficial home, Vancouver, BC to finish off the epic series. The filming of Breaking Dawn I & II was completed up here & of course, that meant a plethora of old familiar faces...and some new ones. A computer crash I had back in April prevented me from posting some of this stuff more recently....so better late than never, right? Below is a mixture of some of the cast I came across while they were in town. Joe Anderson "Alistair", Tracey Higgins "Senna", Casey LaBow "Kate", Judi Shakoni "Zafrina" & Guri Weinberg "Stefan" rolled into Vancouver to join the likes of Jackson Rathbone "Jasper" & the rest of the regulars like Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Kellan Lutz, Peter Facinelli & Ashley Greene. Dont forget you can get autographs of many Twilight Saga stars in my gallery to the left marked "Twilight autographs" or click on this link http://canadagraphs.weebly.com/twilight-autographs.html So below is a few pics of the newcomers to the franchise...along with veteran Mr. Rathbone.                       Last night was the Gala event for the 13th annual Leo Awards. The best of British Columbia's TV & movie industry gathered to hand out their top awards. This years event was held at the Hotel Vancouver, after a scheduling change prevented them from holding it at their usual place, the Westing Bayshore. With the change in venue came a few challenges. The most notable challenge was the red carpet set up on Georgia street. In the past, at the Bayshore, the carpet was set up along a very quiet and spacious sidewalk along side the hotels convention centre. This set up was great for everyone involved, as it was spacious & well lit with natural light when it is sunny. This year however, the red carpet was set up on the sidewalk of a mains treet that dozens of people use every minute. The carpet itself took up about 2/3 of the sidewalk, leaving a slim 3-5 ft ledge for fans & onlookers, uncredited media, autograph hounds & passer bys to navigate, with a lane of a busy thoroughfare just behind them. Thankfully for the awards there was no incidents with traffic hitting any people, despite many people, myself included, occasionally using the 1st lave of the street to walk in. The cast of "Sanctuary" was the front & centre draw of the television side of the awards for the mostpart. With the loss of "Stargate Universe" this year, the gang from Sanctuary made up a lot larger portion of this years TV representation. SGU did have 1 representitive there, Jennifer Spence, a nominee for Best supporting actress in a drama, but failed to win, losing out to Lucia Walters from "Life Unexpected" in their 1 & only nomination as well. Ryan Robbins did bring home a solo award for the Sanctuary cast in the Best Supporting male category. Many of the more notable Vancouver based shows won some awards as well. Fox sci-fi hit "Fringe" lead all TV shows in wins with 3 (tied with Sanctuary) for Cinematogray, Production design & best guest actor for Michael Eklund. "Supernatural" won for best visual effect. "Smallville" won for best program in its final season. "Human Target" won for best stunt co-ordinator. Smaller shows like "Blackstone", wich won 2 awards walked away with the more notable awards for TV acting. Carmen Moore won the best actress award. The best actor went to Callum Keith Rennie from "Shattered" In the movie side of the awards, "Gunless" walked away with 4 awards including best prgraom, cinematography, production design & stunt co-ordinator. "Altitude", "Transparency" & "Fathers & Sons" won 2 awards each, the latter taking home best supporting actor Jay Brazeau. Several movies snagged 1 award each, including "Life, Above All", "Amazon Falls" which April Telek took best lead actress, "Tucker And Dale VS Evil" which Tyler Labine took best lead actor & "Repeaters" which Alexia Fast took best supporting actress for. Other notable winners were Paul McGillion for best lead actor in a short drama movie "A Fine Young Man" (which lead the way with 4 wins in that section..including best program), Shirley Broderikc for best actress in a short drama "The Closer You Get To Canada". "Mighty Jerome" won 4 awards, including best documentary program. "The Haunting Hour" won 4 awards as well in best youth or childrens program, including best show & best performance for Richard Harmon. "Hiccups" had 5 wins, including best comedy program & best performance for Nancy Robertson, that was the most of anyone at the awards. Below are some pics of the presenters, nominees & winners as they arrived for the awards. Pictured "Blood & Chrome" & "Hellcats" star Ben Cotton. "The Listener" star Lauren Lee Smith, "Robson Arms" star Gabrielle Rose, "Intelligence", "Smallville" & "Alice I Think" star Michael Eklund, "Tucker & Dale VS Evil" & "Reaper" star Tyler Labine, "The Killing" & "Tucker & Dale VS Evil" star Brandon Jay McLaren with "Whistler" & "Tucker & Dale VS Evil" star Jesse Moss, "Wolf Canyon", "Harpers Island" & "Health Nutz" star Ali Liebert, "90210" star Dustin Milligan, "Smallville" star MacKenzie Gray, "Robson Arms", "Supernatural" & "Amazon Falls" star April Telek, "Stargate Universe" & "The 4400" star Jennifer Spence with "Kingdom Hospital" star Ben Ratner, "Twilight Saga Eclipse" "Kingdom Hospital" & "Dead Like Me" star Jodelle Ferland, "Charlie St Cloud" & "Whistler" star Amanda Crew, "Sanctuary" "Stargate SGI & Atlantis" star Amanda Tapping, "Sanctuary" "Dawsons Creek" & "Dead Like Me" star Robin Dunne, "Sanctuary" & "Dan For Mayor" star Agam Darshi.                       |
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