The smell of crazy in the morning

[cleolinda]

It's early; why don't we go ahead and get what happened at the SDCC Twilight panel out of the way, so we can deal with the rest of the Comic-Con awesomeness later? Short version: People are INSANE. And apparently raised by wolves.

Let's recap from yesterday, shall we? ‘Twilight’ Fans Stretch One (1) Mile Deep At Comic-Con, jump Hugh Jackman; Kicked Out of Comic-Con by Twilight Fans? This is Crazy!, in which a pushy Twilighter demands (and gets) FirstShowing.net's seats at the Fox panel.

The reason we're here this morning: SDCC 08: Summit Entertainment’s 'Twilight': "One young lady just stepped up to the mic and asked Robert Pattinson, 'How does it feel to be one of the hottest guys in [couldn’t hear over the screams], because I want YOU, baby, woo hoo!' As Pattinson struggled to answer, I couldn’t help but laugh my ass off watching my friend David Chen of /Film sitting beside me holding his head. That question was so awesome."

‘Twilight’ Fans Geek Out ‘OME’-Style At Comic-Con (I can't tell if "6500 Twilighters" is an exaggeration or not. If they were lined up a mile deep... maybe not); 'Twilight' Cast, Crew Reveal Extended Scene, Confirm Robert Pattinson's 'Lullaby' At Comic-Con:

A huge line of fans yielded questions such as: "I want to know what it's like to portray super-hot vampires," "How does it feel to know that the fate of your character has already been decided?" and "I just needed a reason to come up and talk to you, Robert."

[...]

"Is it boxers, briefs or nothing?" one particularly sassy fan asked Pattinson as the cast stayed quiet. "Kristen, do you know?"

Another fan asked: "Why did you put so many hot guys in the movie?"

"Because that's how I write them," Stephenie responded.

One of the best moments, however, may have been when a Twilighter screamed: "I love you, Robert!" and he coolly responded, "Good."

AICN: "The panel for TWILIGHT was louder than any rock concert I've ever been to.... Screaming. That's all I really remember. Every time the face of one of the male actors on the panel was flashed up on screen, there was screaming. So much screaming, in fact, that I think it freaked everyone out on stage. It didn't help that during the Q&A (all of the audience questions came from, you guessed it, ladies) a couple girls took the opportunity to let Pattinson know how hot he was. Some people after the panel said Pattinson looked baked, but to me he looked deeply embarrassed by all of the attention and lust being shot his way by the entire audience."

‘Twilight’ creates fan frenzy at Comic-Con ("‘It’s like ‘Harry Potter’ plus romance plus good-looking people,’ says one fan." O snap, Daniel Radcliffe): "Pattinson, 22, said he was overwhelmed by the attention the role has brought him. 'It’s kind of terrifying in a lot of ways,' he said in an interview. 'I still can’t really come to terms with it... As soon as one person started to recognize me, literally now I’m just freaking out the whole time.' "

At vysed's: Tons of links, pics and video (" 'I just want to know how it is to play a super-hot vampire?' asked one young woman, during noise-punctuated question-and-answer session. 'I don’t know if I am playing,' Mr. Pattinson said." Way to fan the flames, there. More audio interviews here).

And my favorite link, a video in which Pattinson seems somewhat shaken: "It's terrifying. It's like the sound you hear at the gates of hell."

While we're here, great moments in inappropriate fan behavior off the top of my head (share your favorite stories in the comments! Wasn't there one about James Marsters and a lollipop?):

>> I'm sorry you prudes are freaked by that nice box of sex toys we gave Michael Rosenbaum;

>> The LOTR Fan from Hell ("I have seen fans sleep outside pro’s hotel rooms, grab them by the crotch, proposition them, kiss them without invitation, go from door to door looking for their rooms, flash them, you name it, but I have never seen a toothless, middle-aged mother who gets fraudulent disability pay that she uses to fly around the country and stalk celebrities while using her young daughter as a lure, inducing her to weep on cue to get the desired response");

>> Gerard Butler fans are a little too forthcoming about the many uses of chocolate sauce;

>> Just this week, David Cook got hit with a double dose of crazy ("I'm looking for my last victim. Have you seen this man? With a picture of David Cook");

>> And then there was the "Twins Against Twincest" incident, where the Weasley twin actors were handed a sign and... well.

What I'm saying is... hire more security, Twilight cast. Or maybe this cat.

You're gonna need him.

Comments

[glenvorian.livejournal.com]

LMAO @ Robert's hair!

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA.

I feel so bad for him though. He needs an army of bodyguards.

"‘It’s like ‘Harry Potter’ plus romance plus good-looking people,’

I'm not the HP fan I used to be, but I call BULL SHIT on that.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I think "minus the intricate plot and fantasy world-building" needs to be part of the equation in there. I mean, not that there's anything wrong with that. It's just more like... it's not really like "Harry Potter" at all. Except that some of the characters in both are under the age of 20, and some of them also go to school.

[akathorne.livejournal.com]

Could Robert BE any more hilariously awesome? I don't think so. I was kind of indifferent to him previously, but he's really winning me over with his wit and astonishment at his own coolness.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Could Robert BE any more hilariously awesome? I don't think so.

You say that, but he will find a way. He'll have to, if he's going to live through this. I don't want the fan crazy to get worse, exactly, but I hope he continues being awesome in the face of it, to the point where he just starts telling fangirls (politely, Britishfully) that they scare the hell out of him and they need to get lives. Honestly, between the hair and the stoner laugh and the stunned looks of terror and the propensity to just come out and say things, he's becoming one of my favorite celebrities.

[laurelin-kit.livejournal.com]

Oh my God oh my God. I wish I could mail him some more weed to make him feel better. But I think he's been mailed enough things for one lifetime. That poor, poor boy.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I know, seriously. I want to be like, "I want to hug him and bake him cookies and hide him from the crazy somewhere!," but... is that really any less intrusive than the girls ask about his underwear? It's not like he really wants to go home with either kind of fangirl, you know? These are the questions I ask myself when I get my sympathy squee on too hard.

[dreamingreader.livejournal.com]

Oh RP, never change. The constant Twilight snark is making my life.

[locked-door998.livejournal.com]

ontd_twatlight managed to give him the "Team Twatlight" t-shirt without being too creepy.

RP: Twatlight, what's that?
Twats: GOOGLE IT! *dash off*

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

omg did they really? Hoshit.

[wiliqueen.livejournal.com]

Wow. That's...wow. Not that I expected anything different, because it's exactly what I would have expected if I'd thought to expect anything. But...wow.

That said, young Mr. Pattinson seems to be on track to ride out the crazy intact. And it will be ride-outable. This is not a sustainable level of crazy, and as long as he and everyone else involved knows that, they should be okay until the locusts move on to the next flavor of the month.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I really hope he went home that night, or to his hotel room or wherever, and called up Daniel Radcliffe and asked him how the hell he's put up with it for so long. Because Radcakes might be the only person who has any idea what he's going through right now.

[gaminette.livejournal.com]

And my favorite link, a video in which Pattinson seems somewhat shaken: "It's terrifying. It's like the sound you hear at the gates of hell."

Poor bébé. The movie's not even out yet. O_o

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

The premiere is going to be terrifying, let me tell you what.

[padawansguide.livejournal.com]

Wow - that is some scary scary stuff. I wonder if those actors regret getting involved now. I bet they had no idea. Frankly, neither did I!

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I literally had no idea these books even existed until I saw something in the news about how the first book to hit #1 after Deathly Hallows gave up its death grip on the slot last year was the third Twilight book. And how it was a phenomenon of its own, and I was like, "Huh, really? Never heard of it." Somewhere in there a movie was announced, I keep up with movie news (obviously), I heard that Cedric Diggory was going to be in it (as it were), I kept an eye on it. And then suddenly it was like this insane fandom sprang fully formed from the head of I don't even know what. I mean, I'm sure it was simmering along there on various message boards the whole time, but... good God. Even SDCC veterans are like, damn.

OH I TOTALLY MEANT TO SHOW YOU THIS. Just from, uh, a costume geek angle. There's a couple of prom dresses described at the end of the first book, and they're kind of... well. Huh. So a while back, someone dug up a post on Stephenie Meyer's official site where she said that she actually based the dresses on runway fashions she saw (http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/twilight_faq.html#dress).

(From what I saw from the movie--it was blurry--I think Bella's wearing, like, a much simpler dress and a shrug or sweater or something. So no actual High Fashion in the movie.)

[oldfeatheryhat.livejournal.com]

It's totally not fair: I'd never even heard of Twilight until you started talking about it, and now I am filled with the guilty desire to go out and find this book and read it. Except I can't figure out how to do this while retaining my anonymity and good name, except for lurking near a high school and bopping some chick over the head and stealing her book, and that's probably not a good life decision.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Amazon.com, baby. I think the new book is only $12 (pre-order, of course).

Uh, unless you didn't want to pay for it. That puts a crimp in the anonymity thing.

[ipomoea.livejournal.com]

These people creep me out, especially the excessively loud, obnoxious ones who look older than my mother (like the Firstshowing seat thief). Get a life, ladies. Or a cat.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I cannot tell you how skeeved I was when I realized that the fan who asked him about his underwear was a Twilight Mom and not a teenage girl.

[sucrelefey.livejournal.com]

I now label them fangits instead of fangirls.
This is all just ludicrous.

[notashamed.livejournal.com]

I don't really know how to feel about RPattz's acting skills but his hair is THE BEST HAIR IN ALL OF CREATION.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I know! I love the "gates of hell" video, where it looks like it's actively keeping a lookout for more fangirls, like a very alert dog or something. "No! No! Don't push me back down! I have to watch your back!"

[apetslife.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this! And I was actually present and a first-hand witness of fan asshattery towards James Marsters.

I was at one of Marsters' shows in LA, at a small club. He was incredibly sweet, coming out afterwards to take pictures and sign things and generally chat and be awesome with his fans.

The crowd was pretty tight, but people were being cool about it, waiting their turns, and so on. And then suddenly he yelled "HEY!"

Someone had grabbed his ass. Not just grabbed, but seriously pinched, he said.

He asked everyone to be quiet, then pointed at the girl who did it. "She grabbed me," he said, and he sounded pissed. "I'm a person, not just a thing that you can grab whenever you like. Go to the back of the line." The girl, looking shifty, sort of chuckled uncomfortably and just stood there, like, "hey, good joke." He kept staring at her. "No, really, get to the back. Everyone let her out."

He kicked her to the back of the line.

Apparently that was the last time he came out and just hung out with the crowd after a show. I don't blame him a bit.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

OH WOW. I kind of wish more actors would regulate like that. Maybe fans would rein their crazy in if people would make it more clear that it's unacceptable, rather than just being polite and pretending to laugh it off.

[wendyzski.livejournal.com]

I have worked as security at a couple of conventions, and it' really embaressing. At one point it was my job to follow Gates McFadden into the bathroom to make sure NO ONE ELSE DID! Seriously - even some of my fellow Ops people were pushing it.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

That makes me so sad, because I completely believe you that it was necessary.

[wmetoile.livejournal.com]

Christ. This Twilight bullshit is like When Virgins Attack.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

See, but there's a huge contingent of "Twilight Moms" involved as well...

[roseredhoofbeat.livejournal.com]

....Wow. I really wanted to go to the Borders midnight thing for the book, because I mean I lived through books four and five of Harry Potter and they weren't so bad, right, but now.... I'm not so sure. The other ones were basically a bunch of people ages eight to forty-six milling around drinking coffee and talking about the books, but I'm pretty sure this one is going to involve more shrieking than I can handle. Maybe I'll go with one of my friends and make her buy me two while I wait outside.

[bigeyedrabbit.livejournal.com]

I think I am getting old, because yes, Robert Pattinson is a very pretty man, but sometimes I look at him and I just want to make him a cup of tea. Maybe I've still got him frozen in my mind as Cedric Diggory.

Also, I predict that Salvador Dali is going to be the brand-new favorite artist of very many young girls after the gay!Dali film hits the theatres. Probably they will stand up in Art 1001 and say, "Because of the time he DID IT with Lorca! And it was like SUPER HOT!"

[ipomoea.livejournal.com]

If that happens I think I will choke them.

(Though if they could just work the "... besides, it HURTS"/"arse of the divine Dalí" actual Dalí quote into the film somewhere, I will probably fangirl them because that was pretty much one of the best hysterical/egotistical things of all time anyone has ever said about themselves.)

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

What I don't get is where people get off thinking that some of this is socially acceptible behavior. It's the 10% who act like raving maniacs that give the rest of the fans a bad name. They wonder why actors don't like doing cons and the like, well, it's because of THIS. And they ruin it for everyone else too. I can tell you that I'm very shy. For me to go talk to an actor, especially one I like, would be something that would take me working up a momentus amount of nerve. Imagine the celebrity in question is brusque or rushed or whatever because they've had to deal with some deep insanity all day. I'd be crushed.

And is it more acceptible for women to act like this or what? Maybe it just seems like they get away with it more. I'm sure there are plenty psycho male fans of stuff, but it always seems like the fangirls are the ones who are sort of creepy en mass. A male fan does some of the stuff they do to a female celebrity and they'd be escorted out by the police. Is this just a perception I have on my part?

[roseredhoofbeat.livejournal.com]

Nope, I get that impression too. I cannot imagine someone asking, say, Kristen or Stephenie the underwear question and not being asked to leave. It's the double standard that women are supposed to be creeped out by sexual attention and men are supposed to love it, no matter what.

[apey1013.livejournal.com]

Oh god. As exceedingly hilarious as that is (the Gates of Hell, indeed) I now feel really bad for those Twilight actors. They just wanna act, have a paycheck, and have some fans supporting their career. No one really wants that level of terrifying crazy.

I must say, though, Pattinson's always been good with using that wit to get through his discomfort. Good on him.

[dives.livejournal.com]

I live in Portland, though I go to school out-of-state; I filled out that extras thing for March or whenever because it would've been LOLARIOUS to been in some random scene of the movie when I don't even care about the books. I got a call for one of the-- biology class scenes, I think it was? They wanted people to be extras for what amounted to my spring break, so I was like "EXCELLENT" but then it turned out they wanted you through the end of April, and I had to go back to school.

Truly, truly a lost opportunity.

Regarding crazy-ass fans: I think whoever made those PhotoShop manips of Merry and Pippin in compromising positions, and then gave them to Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan at a premiere, deserves a mention.
And I remember hearing about crazy LOTR woman exploiting her daughter!

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Oh God, I remember that. I seem to remember Dominic Monaghan actually talking about similar Merry/Frodo manips with reporters (talk show hosts? It was someone).

(I'm so sad you didn't get into the biology class scene(s). You could have been one of the people Edward thought about killing!)

[mamapduck.livejournal.com]

Back in 1989 I was working Baycon and was asked to escort a really nice older guy around on the grounds that I had no real idea who he was and he could therefore spend the time with someone who wouldn't SQUEE at him constantly. In my 14 year old fog I enjoyed his company and never did get around to asking about his books.

Mr. Bova seemed to find the whole "I don't know who you are but you're nice" thing amusing. I didn't get until years later why that was.

[elbales]

OMG you worked Baycon '89?! Do you remember any of the guests? Besides Mr. Bova, of course.

Seen this?

[mamapduck.livejournal.com]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080725/ap_en_mo/france_brangelina_bustup

I'm REALLY disturbed that the police are taking a "we don't care" attitude toward MEN IN CAMO trespassing in a private garden. I don't care how famous you are, you have a right to not have strangers playing ninja in the backyard.

[zoniduck.livejournal.com]

That LotR fan is a menace, without a doubt.

One of my other LotR favorites though, were the two crazy German girls who interrupted a press conference to give Elijah Wood a gift bag that included a very disturbing manip of him and Dom Monaghan. And then insisted that he open it right there. There is actual video of it out there somewhere. I'll have to see if I can find it. As I recall, the girls were pretty much shunned until they disappeared, at least off of LJ.

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

Back in the 80s, Harlan Ellison sent a form letter to a lot of people in the SF community — writers, artists, actors — asking for their craziest fan stories. The answers ranged from simple thoughtlessness and weirdness (who mails a valuable gemstone to someone without telling them, “By the way, that’s not just a pretty piece of glass”?), to theft, to outright assault (someone threw a cup of vomit onto Alan Dean Foster). He used the replies as the basis of guest of honor speech he gave at a con, and then published it as an essay titled “Xenogenesis.” It’s terrifying, and the worst part, as he points out, is that the people most in need of the message are the least likely to get it.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, is it online anywhere? I would really like to read that.

[oohasparklie.livejournal.com]

Whoa. The more this goes on, the more my hatred for that book and the craziness it inspires over nothing grows, apparently. Just more proof that the more inane something is, the more people love it. (How else do you explain "Hey Ya" or "The Macarena" or George W. Bush?) It's funny to watch, but those poor kids. I don't think they really had any idea what they were getting into. This is getting into dangerous territory. Even HP fans aren't this bad.

I can't believe someone gave Michael Rosenbaum a sex toy box. How utterly presumptuous. Fandom really needs to learn its place. It's out of control.

Edit: I'd like to add msallegro to the long list of creepy fan behavior. She had an entire group of people believing that Dom Monaghan and Elijah Wood were in a long-term romantic relationship, when nothing could have been further from the truth. Faked proof, lies galore, the whole nine yards. Super creepy.

[dives.livejournal.com]

Heeeeeey, "Hey Ya" is a fantastic pop song! No need to insult it by comparing it to GWB, now. ;-)