My wife and son attended this year's slayer convention in Oakland, and they have all kinds of giddy fangeek stuff to report. As far as actual news regarding the spinoffs, movies, etc...not so much.  Just what you have heard elsewhere by now.

 

James is very much interested in working with Joss again in any capacity. 

Tony's "Ripper" is looking like it will be more of a made for TV movie than a series...but it's gonna be awhile yet. 

No word on whether Joss will be directing X-Men 3. 

James is interested in playing the role of Gambit in X-men 3, but it has not been offered to him.  In fact, he's not even certain the character Gambit will be in the 3rd movie.

Danny Strong has been running marathons and gathering pledges to support the AIDS foundation.  Iyari Limon also heavily supports the AIDS foundation. The two of them got together and grabbed a Season 1 Buffy Boxed set that all the guests in attendence signed...except Nicholas Brendon.  The item was auctioned off for $2500 and all the proceeds go to ... guess where.  Yes, the AIDS foundation.  A guest asked Danny a question, and as he was attempting to answer it Iyari actually grabbed the microphone out of his hands, and began to answer the question herself...then stopped herself, apologized and asked Danny if he had something to say.  He basically told her that she had just ruined whatever he was about to say and there was no point in his trying to say it now.  (Sparks)

OK, that about does it for the news...now on to the human interest portion of the convention.

 

It seems my son has stolen the show.  He and Jonathon Woodward(Knox) have developed their own secret handshake.  Both Jonathon Woodward and Kelly Donovan(Xander's twin brother) have baseball caps signed to them from my son, and have been wearing them about the entire convention even during their photo sessions.  My son entered the costume competition dressed up as a little Angel, complete with spiked hair...and leather Duster.  He took 3rd place although the audience seemed to think he should have got better.  Still dressed as Angel, he had his photo taken with James Marsters, and had James pose in such a way that it looked like little Angel was about to stake him.  James was impressed with the pose, telling my son that he had never posed that way with anyone before.  So my son took advantage of the opportunity to ask James for a favor.  He told James, that his mother was next in line, and asked if he could kiss her.  (Rumors had run rampant that some convention goers had been kicked out for kissing James)  More on that later.  My son was the Mustard Man in the Once More With Feeling reenactment.  He rode the elevator with Tony(Giles) up to his floor ... talking with him the whole time.  He got Camden Toy to do a Gnarl impression for him...even though Camden refused to do it for anyone else, or even during his panels.  He danced with Clare Kramer(Glory) who seemed to think he was cute for awhile...before apparently thinking he was annoying, and leaving the dance to escape him.  Even Nicholas Brendon was nice to him, and talked to him a little.  During James Q&A my son stood on a chair and danced up and down until James finally let him ask his question.  Then he faltered, looked to his mother and said in a loud voice "What was I supposed to ask again".  All eyes turned to my wife, who happened to be holding on of those supposedly illegal video cameras at the time.  Everyone in the room including James chuckled at the embarrassing situation my 12 year old son had unwittingly just caused.  My wife answered back "Chosen One"...to which my son gave her a blank look and said "What?”  The crowd around my wife started chanting "Chosen One, Chosen One," until my son caught on and asked his question as articulately as he could.  "You know that thing, about how one of you will be chosen?  Is the chosen one Angel or Spike?"

"Andrew or Spike?" James asked amused.  But he relented and quickly let it be known that the Chosen One would probably never have been resolved, and due to that fact, he was declaring that it would be him.

 

My wife had many long and interesting discussions with Camden Toy, Kelly Donovan, and Jonathon Woodward.  She had a few encounters with Brigid Brannagh (Virginia... Wesley's girlfriend in Angel Season 2), some of which were pleasant, and others that resulted in my wife getting the finger.  She ran into and talked with James Marsters a couple of times and was patting herself on the back on her ability to keep her cool in his presence.  But when she went for her photo and he kissed her lightly on the cheek...she just about lost it.  She managed just enough composure to ask him what kind of pose he preferred to do, and he grabbed her from behind and pulled her towards him purring "close as you can darling" into her ear as he rested his head on his shoulder, draped one arm over her other shoulder and down to her waist, and held her around her waist with his other arm.  20 minutes later when she was describing the experience to me on the phone her heart was beating so loudly that I could barely hear her words.  The muscles in her body were simultaneously relaxed and stressed to the point that she was literally humming her words to me.  It quickly became apparent that I must never let her go to a convention without me again.  But enough about James; talking about him is beginning to effect my sense of security in my marriage.

My wife made posters to give to the stars.  The posters contained cut outs of some of her favorite quotes for each character, and some of her favorite screen caps.  When she was standing in line waiting to give her gifts and get her autographs, Tony noticed what she was holding and took them from her, looking at them one by one and giggling.  Others in the line got a bit upset at her, because she was holding up the line, but Tony did not seem to notice just asking her questions like "Now when was I fighting a skeleton?”  When she got to Nicholas to give him her poster, he rather gruffly accepted the gift, put it on his stack of presents, signed hers, and reached for the next person in line.  (Maybe he was simply trying to make up for the gap in the line Tony had caused.).  Clare Kramer was very happy to receive a present of any kind, so happy in fact that she came around and gave both my wife and my son a hug.  (Note this was before the dance where my son pretty much stalked her the whole time.)  James was very gracious and kind about the gift, even though his stack of gifts was already crowding him at the table.  He started looking through the quotes, but the convention organizers told him to move it along, so he told my wife that he was sure he would read through it and enjoy it for the next few months.  Alexis(Wesley) was very kind and reportedly has the cutest little smile.  When my wife pointed out that among the screen caps, she included a picture of Alyson(Willow) and Alexis together, he immediately personalized the gift by drawing a little heart over her head.  Of all the guests, Alexis was the most open about talking about Angel, and was the only one who did not seem relieved when his Q&A session was over.  In fact, he stayed and took 5 more questions until the convention organizers had to ask him to leave because James was waiting.  He was very loving and respectful of Alyson, whenever her name came up he had nothing but praise for her.  In some ways my wife respected Alexis more even than James...because James seemed to focus more on his female fans, whereas Alexis accepted questions from either gender.  However being a female herself, she decided she does not mind so much that James focus on the ladies, and she has admitted to falling deeply madly in lust with him.  (I think she is really trying to give me a complex here, and how did I wind up talking about him again?)

 

The convention wrapped up with a pajama party, during which my wife happened to have her sharpies...so she and my son got some final autographs on her shirt from Camden Toy, Clare Kramer, and Iyari Limon.  (Which thrilled my son and his emerging hormones, because Clare had forgotten to bring pajamas, so she was only wearing a camisole and jeans.)

 

There were a number of interesting things that came up that did not directly affect my wife or son.  For instance does anyone know what a porno name is?  I don't really, but it seemed to be an important topic because all of the actors seem to have one.  (I wonder what they use it for.)

Tony: Stuff Church

Alexis: Morgan Roy

Nicholas : Ross Vintage

James : Shiver Simple ... actually we are not certain about the word simple.

 

 

There was a bit of talk about future projects in which the following tidbits were dropped.

James : Currently nothing.  The Macbeth funding fell through, so although he is still working on it, there are no funds for it.  Joss has been so busy with his movie, and his family that he and James have not spoken in months.

Stephanie(Lilah) : The Final Cut ... should be released in October

Clare(Glory) : Quite a bit actually, but we cannot remember what.

Everyone else : No comment

 

Random notes:

Tony was a bit upset at the beginning of his Q&A because he had been accused of missing many engagements he had not even agreed to do.  He really was quite upset about this at first...to the point of nearly threatening to never do another convention again. 

James was asked who was the finest person to kiss, and he mentioned that he had kissed a lot of women but Emma Caulfield (Anya) was easily the best.  It was brought to his attention that Emma had said the same thing about him, and he just grinned.

It was also brought to Nicholas Brendon's attention that Emma had said James was the best...Nicholas did not seem to like that very much.

When Tony heard about it, he simply said "well I would be a bit disturbed if I found out she said me."

Alexis was also asked who among Charisma, Stephanie, and Amy had been the best kisser.  He voiced displeasure at this question suggesting that no woman in the room would be happy to be compared like that.  To which many of the women replied that they would be happy to give him a chance to compare them, so he jokingly suggested they form a line.  One attendee finally dispelled the tension by suggesting that his answer should be Alyson, to which he responded that he had never kissed Alyson on screen, but that yes, she was his one, his only, his everything and she was the best kisser in the world.

James was asked what is the craziest thing a fan did to you.  He thought for a moment, then he said that.  A few years ago a lady kept pressuring him to take off his shirt and he got fed up with it so he told her to get herself up on stage and take her shirt off.  So she did, and she was not wearing any bra.  He got into some trouble with the convention organizers for that one.