Kevin's Excellent San Diego Adventure

Man oh man, I have been a bad blogger. But I'm here now, ready to blog--hopefully on a more regular basis--and for this particular entry, I'm taking a cue from my fellow Cool Kids and talking about my personal Comic-Con experiences. Now, I've worked a number of conventions before, but this one really took the cake for a number of reasons, a few of which I will list below. So come join me as I go back in time to my weekend at Comic-Con International in San Diego!

CELEBRITY SIGHTINGS
Part of the whole San Diego experience is running into celebrities. As a reporter, it's hard not to geek out when I talk to someone that I really adore or who influenced my childhood in some way, shape or form. For example, I recently interviewed Lisa Henson, the daughter of Jim Henson, and it took all my energy and composure to not suddenly shout out, "I totally love the Muppets and everything your dad did totally rocked my entire childhood life! I still own a Muppets blanket and I'm going to see the theme to Muppet Babies right now!" At conventions, it becomes a little easier to geek out a bit because I'm usually lost in a crowd as they take the stage. But with a convention like San Diego, you're just as likely to see a celebrity on stage as you are standing around the hotel lobby--as evidenced by Kiel's post where he was lucky enough to run into Charlie and the Waitress... that bastard. I kid. Kiel's awesome.

Anyway, so here are some of my cool celeb moments. Thursday was officially my day of the con. That day, after doing my usual comic panels, I made my way into Hall H. I got there early, so I was able to get into the RED panel and get a good seat up front. For those who don't know, RED is an upcoming movie based on the graphic novel by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner. The movie stars Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, Mary-Louise Parker, Karl Urban, John Malkovich and Morgan Freeman. Willis, Mirren, Parker and Urban were on the panel and let me tell you, it was glorious. Helen Mirren is the Queen, so what more can I say there? Urban is a new guy to the field, but I've loved him in everything he's been in, especially his recent role as Doctor "Bones" McCoy in Star Trek. Mary-Louise Parker, I mean, how can I not have a crush on her? She is stunningly beautiful and looked just as amazing in person. However, the real cream of the crop for me was Bruce Willis. Die Hard was the first Rated-R movie I ever saw, sneakily viewing even though my parents told me to go to my room as they watched it downstairs. Willis was extremely cool and laid back on stage. He definitely seemed like an awesome guy, which made me happy.

After that came the Expendables panel, another joy for this little blogger as on the stage was Terry Crews, Steve Austin, Stallone, Dolf Lundgren and Randy Couture. I'm a huge fan of Terry Crews--as his roles are always completely insane and hilarious. Thankfully, he's apparently just like that in real life. He walked out onto the stage, opened his shirt, got up onto the table and started making his pecs dance. It was exactly something you'd expect him to do. The best part of this panel though was seeing Stallone work. I'm a huge fan of his and watch Rocky pretty much religiously. Heck, the Rocky theme is on my iPod for when I go to the gym. Besides seeming like a totally nice dude, Stallone was HILARIOUS. He cracked a lot of jokes and got along really well with the guys on stage. I really wish I could have met him in person, but I feel like that would be one of those moments where I'd lose my cool and start gushing. Then he's probably punch me out. But then I could tell everyone Sylvester Stallone shattered my jaw. Hmm... Note to self, fight Sylvester Stallone the next time I see him.

Alright, so back to reality. Right after the Expendables panel came the panel I was probably most excited for: Scott Pilgrim vs the World. Now, this got me crazed with excitement for a number of reasons. First of all, I love Scott Pilgrim. It's probably one of my favorite comics ever... EVER. Secondly, Edgar Wright. I love his films and love his friendship with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. I always felt those guys go everywhere together and this panel sort of proved me right. More on that in a bit. Finally, I probably have the biggest crushes ever on Anna Kendrick and Mary Elizabeth Winstead--and BOTH of them would be on stage for this panel. It's literally more than I could ever ask for from one panel. So, yeah. The panel was filled with a number of guests, pretty much the entire cast came out. However, at one point when introducing the panelists, Wright--in his awesomely British accent--said that Simon Pegg and Nick Frost would also be in this movie. Sure enough, Pegg and Frost walked out. It was a very, very awesome moment. And while I later found out they were here to promote "Paul," I still like to believe that they'd have come to San Diego anyway just to chill with Wright. Anyway, Wright corrected him and said that they were also not in the movie, and the two walked back off stage dejectedly. As for one last note, Brandon Routh is a giant, giant man. I know that he played Superman and Superman is a big dude, but Routh TOWERED over the rest of the cast. It was pretty ridiculous. They looked like children next to him.

That was it for Thursday as far as celebs go. Over the rest of the weekend I saw one or two here and there. On Friday, I was standing outside my hotel and noticed a huge crowd next to me. I look over and literally right next to my shoulder is Ian Somerhalder. I was like, "Is that freaking Boone??" Ends up it was the cast of Vampire Diaries just hanging outside the hotel, taking pictures with fans. Later that day, I was walking toward the elevators with my buddy Jim Gibbons and he was like, "Hey, it's Guillermo Del Toro." I moseyed on over and debated running up and saying something to him, but I ended up chickening out. For those wondering, I probably would have sounded something like this: "Holy crap, dude! Hellboy! Pan's Labyrinth! The Orphanage! Those movies rocked! And now Haunted Mansion?! My friend Amanda freaking LOVES that ride since she was a kid and she officially pooped herself in excitement when she found out!" It probably wouldn't have gone over well. Saturday, I experienced a sexy sighting as the show floor began to shut down. I had sneaked my way over to the Marvel booth to say hello to Ben, but there on the giant golden throne of Asgard was Adrianne Curry dressed as Leeloo from the Fifth Element. That lady loves to pose to pictures, let me tell you. Sadly, I did not have my camera on me, but the fifty other gentlemen around me did. Lastly, on Saturday night, I was chilling at the Hyatt bar drinking with my buddies when someone bumps into me. I turn around and I see walking away Joel McHale from the Soup. I was a little sad he didn't apologize for bumping into me, but then again, I'm glad he did because now I can tell that story. Also, he is a very tall and lanky man.

Well, that's it for celebrity stuff. It was pretty awesome to be able to see a lot of people that I'm very big fans of and one day, hopefully I'll be famous enough to hang out with them--especially Anna Kendrick and Mary Elizabeth Winstead. They're adorable. In part two of my San Diego memories, to come very soon, I'll hit on more Scott Pilgrim and my own personal favorite aspect of Comic Conventions.