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Beware of AUTOGRAHPS...From J.M.S.

>>Paul Harper wrote:
>
>>> Can we all say "forged autographs"? Yup, the same old shenanigans as
>>> well.
>>
>>_That_, I rather think, is a criminal offense.

That was one of the major concerns that I had based on the last Wolf con I
attended, there seemed to be a fair amount of this going on, and an attitude
that seemed almost to encourage such things.

Case in point (one of a bunch)...there illegal, counterfeited items in the
dealer's room when we had given specific instructions (and had received
elaborate promises) that no such items would be present. I ended up
personally going around and confronting many of the counterfeiters because the
Wolf people would not do so.

The worst of this was the sheer amount of fake autographed material. At one
point, Mira Furlan came to me, profoundly upset, because there were cards that
were being sold supposedly with her autograph but which she never signed. So
again I had to go down into the dealer's room myself. Stupidly, the guy doing
the selling didn't know who I was when I asked about the cards (Mira was
standing behind me, unseen by the guy, which is easy to do given our relatives
heights).

I asked about the cards, as though I were interested in buying them, and he
said that he had personally overseen the autographing, that the autographs were
absolutely authentic...then I stepped out of the way, and let Mira come
forward. "Are these your autographs?" I asked.

She looked them over and pronounced them total forgeries. Suddenly the guy was
saying that he didn't acually oversee the signing, that it was "some fellow in
the States" who sold them to him.

I complained vigorously to the con organizers, and initially was told "well,
we'll ask him to take them off the table." Take them OFF THE TABLE? They
didn't want to offend him. Finally I made it clear that if this wasn't handled
right now in the proper way, the way ANY convention would handle it, I was
gonna call the cops.

So they finally ejected the dealer from the con, which solved that one problem
but left the others selling bogus merchandise unresolved.

Subsequent to this, presumably to make amends to the dealer, they put the word
out to other dealers and people that "Joe just went nuts on a dealer for no
real reason," that I was being a bully and unreasonable...never mentioning the
counterfeiting part of it. In my view, the concern seemed to be far more with
maintaining good relations with the dealers who were fleecing the fans, than in
protecting the fans from the very real prospect of spending a great deal of
their money to obtain something that was a complete fake.

I had to work hard to overcome a lot of the badmouthing that came out of this,
but thankfully there were many, many witnesses.

jms
--------------------------------------

That's why I only get mine from the actors official site
laugh.gif




------------------
"Faith Manages"
 
I'm usually pretty skeptical about purchasing items that have claimed to have authentic signatures from any celebrity. It's great how JMS actually caught someone and confronted him about it. I hate people who do stuff like that. At least that guy got what he deserved, it's just too bad that everyone else can't be caught.

------------------
All my life I've had doubts about who I am, where I belong. Now, I'm like the arrow that springs from the bow. No hesitation, no doubts. The path is clear.
-Ambassador Jeffrey David Sinclair, War Without End
 
crazy.gif


I agree. I only wish that JMS had called the cops...

------------------
"Expect me, when you see me."
 
Can you imagine that scene... I would loved to have seen it. JMS standing aside, then Mira coming forward and condemning the man, Delenn style! And the whole room watching...

I just have funny visions of Delenn telling this guy off, in the way she does those wonderful speeches.
laugh.gif




------------------
Dreg: "Most beauteous and supremely magnificent one, this dark spell I hold in my worthless and scabby hand is our gift to you, most tingly and wonderful Glorificus..."
Glory: "Please, call me Glory. And get up, looking at you is hurting my neck."
Dreg: "Forgive me, shiny special one. I beg of you to rip out my inadequate tongue."
Glory: "Gimme."
 
Antony,

Speaking of Delenn's speeches, Mira can do really good ones too. Here is her Open Letter to The Press that was published in 1991.
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Zone/7474/b5mira.html

------------------
Ivanova is always right. I will listen to Ivanova. I will not ignore Ivanova's recommendations. Ivanova is God. And if this ever happens again, Ivanova will personally rip your lungs out.
 
Wow thanx Ivanova hadn't read that letter before, Mira really has a lot of style about her, hoping she'll appear in at least 1 Ep of the Series if it goes ahead
smile.gif


------------------
John Simpson
http://users.bigpond.net.au/spectre
Nighthawk on #babylon5 , Oz.Org Servers

Cobols Wordy and Confining
Cobolts Metal Hard and Shiny
Kobolds crumble when you Strike them
Don't be sad its hard to like them.
:The Roguelets ABC
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by AntonyF:
Can you imagine that scene... I would loved to have seen it. JMS standing aside, then Mira coming forward and condemning the man, Delenn style! And the whole room watching...

I just have funny visions of Delenn telling this guy off, in the way she does those wonderful speeches.
laugh.gif


<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I would have loved to see it too. I think that examples should be made out of those who are caught so to prevent further forgeries.

------------------
Say Zog to Kumabya
<A HREF="mailto:
kolya@softhome.net">
kolya@softhome.net</A>
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Ivanova:
Antony,

Speaking of Delenn's speeches, Mira can do really good ones too. Here is her Open Letter to The Press that was published in 1991.
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Zone/7474/b5mira.html

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Wow, i just read that letter and it's left me with tears in my eyes!

I never really knew what Mira's background was, certainly didn't realise how painful it was. Seems to me like she's a very strong person, and i hope she does extremely well for herself, whatever she chooses to do next.



------------------
We are starstuff. We are the universe made manifest...
 
As for the letter... it is most impressive.

JMS has been asked more than once whether some aspects of Delenn were based on Mira... because sometimes it seems so. JMS being a Vorlon we can only guess to what extent this is true.

I imagine it must have been equally difficult and worthwhile for her to act out a role with so many parallels to her own life: being rejected in one's homeland, seeing it choose a path of hatred and destruction, trying but failing to change it, feeling alone among people who once would have understood and helped... and eventually seeing one's people torn apart in a civil war.

It seems that to a great extent Mira's acting is so convincing because she knows what many of those situations feel like... I'm certain her work has made and will continue to make a difference - not only being excellent but so often reminding us of important principles that are too easy to forget.
 
What do you say when you have nothing to say? I had no idea of Mira Furlan's background. I had only seen her once before, in a movie whose name I cannot remember. It was a steady philosophical discussion about many things, environmentalism, philosophy, physics, etc. I need to find that movie and see it again. I hope Mira Furlan finds more roles worthy of her. That won't be easy.

------------------
"Why not? Only 1 Human captain has ever survived battle with the Minbari fleet. He is behind me, you are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else."
 
I found something else to share, and, again, it is on a sad note. I found this a while back while looking though some old posts. The column is written by a comic writer by the name of Warren Ellis and there is a part in this particular column where he talks about a Con experience that Claudia Christian had.
http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/index.cgi?column=cia&article=563

------------------
Ivanova is always right. I will listen to Ivanova. I will not ignore Ivanova's recommendations. Ivanova is God. And if this ever happens again, Ivanova will personally rip your lungs out.
 
Thanks for the link, Ivanova. It was an interesting read, though quite terrifying in parts.

I've never been to a con and have no direct experience of this kind, so all I can say is that I guess there are all sorts of people - among the overwhelmingly great bunch of fans there are bound to be some sickos (just as there are sickos among non-fan people), just as there are bound to be a few not-so-nice people among the actors.
Just the way life is. And fame - or just being good at your job, if this job happens to be, say, acting - seems to carry a price. Too bad.
frown.gif


As for Claudia - ooh, it must have been awful for something like this to happen! I imagine it takes a lot to get over this sort of experience.
frown.gif


------------------
"You've misspelled this. There's no 'Y' in liberties."
"Oh, go away. Repress someone else."
 
Wow, scary stuff....
I've never been to a Con yet myself but when I do go, I'll keeping my whacko detector on full blast (no pun intended)

------------------
"Faith Manages"
 
Wow, that's sad, and scary. I've heard of bad con experiences, but never had or witnessed one myself. The last one I went to (1/2 hour poking around a dealer room doesn't count), I and some of my friends were hanging out with Peter David at midnight.
wink.gif
(We had food.
wink.gif
The convention organizers had scheduled interviews during the hotel's dinner, and didn't feed him after.)

Anyway, what's the fun of an autograph if you don't meet the person?
wink.gif
JMHO. I'll even pay a bit for one, depending on the circumstances. (Stephen Furst charges, but the money goes to his charity, for instance.)

les

------------------
 
I've been to the San Diego Comic Con about six times and I went to the Highlander Celebration in 98 and I have never witnessed anything that Warren Ellis has described. Maybe Scifi cons are a bit different. The various people in the two industries who I have met at cons (John Byrne, Bobbi Chase, some other comic writers, then for people in the television field, Donna Lettow and Gillian Horvath (both writers for Highlander), Anthony De Longis, Valentine Pelka, Stan Kirsch) all were relatively nice (The really nice ones were Gillian, Anthony, and Valentine...Valentine was such a sweetheart to me when I asked him to sign my picture of him...he was the first actor from Highlander that I had met, so I was very tight, and had a hard time breathing...he smiled and told me to "breathe.")

I think that there are two kinds of famous people: those who know that their fans are their life blood and those that don't. Case in point, my friend and I recently went to the on-site filming location for Roswell. We were standing behind the building that is the Crashdown, just talking and minding our business. We weren't clad in "We Love Jason!" t-shirts with our arms full with photos and posters to be signed...no, we were just standing, and looking like we belonged there. When one of the actresses (heck, I'll just name her *S* Shiri Appleby) walked by us, and gave us both a unsettling glare of one who is completely full of themselves. Now, keep in mind we weren't trying to say anything to her, but still she acted all haughty.

------------------
Ivanova is always right. I will listen to Ivanova. I will not ignore Ivanova's recommendations. Ivanova is God. And if this ever happens again, Ivanova will personally rip your lungs out.
 
There are shithads in every group. Luckilly, they are in the minority.

But, I have heard about some truly ugly stunts. Such as the person who got himself armed with a cup of Vomit and threw it on a writer he disliked. (Harlan Ellison wrote a column about this in Issac Asimov's magazine years ago.)

Harlan has had dozens of fans show up at his house over the years. He used to invite them in for a tour. He kept catching them stealing his things as "souvenirs" of their visits. They'd usually get Mad at him for not letting them keep the stuff, as if he owed them something.

The worst I ever heard of was the author who had a fan show up, totally unannounced, at his house. He invited the guy in, even though his arrival was very inconvenient because the Writer and his family were on the way OUT. The guy talked them into letting him stay the night. Several days after he left, they found out he'd _molested_ their granddaughter.




------------------
Yes, I like cats too.
Shall we exchange Recipes?
 
I'm reminded of an interview I once saw with a comedian. I can't remember who it was but he was describing a really bad day he once had. Stress from his job, stress from the bank, stress from the mother-in-law! Just when he'd found somewhere quiet, a fan came up to him and said one of the comedian's punch lines.
For some reason the comic just flipped, he was screaming at the guy for ruining his only quiet moment, calling him names and almost getting violent. The poor fan just fled, obviously, and only then did the comic get control of himself. He feels really bad over this and apologises on camera whenever he can, hoping the ex-fan will be watching!
frown.gif


I'm not saying your Roswell actress isn't a b**ch, Ivanova! But I'd be surprised if we got a good understanding of your personality from just a one second snapshot as you walked by us!
wink.gif
Who knows what she was thinking? Maybe her boyfriend had just left her, blaming 'fan' pressure. If that was the case she wasn't mad at you, she was mad at the ex for letting her down. - Maybe
wink.gif


And the Warren Ellis column just plain annoys me!…
*rare SB rant removed – suffice to say that Mr. Ellis is a tad ungrateful, and proud of it*

Does Claudia still go to Cons? If so I encourage you to form a blockade across the doors, stop her from getting in. Send her home, hell, buy her a plane ticket to someplace warm.
No one should choose to make themselves so miserable. The lady’s not feeling well, do her a favour, tell her we love her and we want her to enjoy herself!
smile.gif



------------------
"You know I… I rather like this GOD fellow. He's very theatrical you know, a pestilence here, a plague there... Omnipotence, Got to get me some of that, Hmmm?" - Stewie (Family Guy)
 
Wow -

Thanks Ivanova for that scary article. Scary for two reasons; 1) that someone would *shoot an actress and B) that a columnist has that low an opinion of fen in general.

In the interest of full disclosure, let me admit that I go to cons, get autographs, and even (horror of horrors) pose for pictures. I've never (to my knowledge) thrown vomit at someone, worn a shirt that's too small, or gotten physically violent. I've always made sure to shower, wear deoderant and brush my teeth (uh, I do that every day, not just for cons) All the weirdos I've seen at the cons I've been to are rather inoffensive, non-violent type weirdos (myself included).

Not that I don't believe that it happens - I've worked retail for years, and I know there are some sick weirdos out there. I've just been lucky I suppose.

Now, beyond the Claudia incident... the stinky, socially retarded fashionably deranged fanboy/girl encounters the author of the column mentions - hell, it just doesn't seem like that awful a thing. Sorry, sounds like a bit of whingeing to me.

But if I were Claudia...<shudder> you couldn't pay me enough to set foot in a con again.

~ Trilobite

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<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Trilobite:
B) that a columnist has that low an opinion of fen in general.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Warren Ellis has a low opinion of generally everything, and likes to rant about it. It's his thing
laugh.gif
.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Ivanova:
Antony,

Speaking of Delenn's speeches, Mira can do really good ones too. Here is her Open Letter to The Press that was published in 1991.
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Zone/7474/b5mira.html
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Wow. Very strong lady there. I am ashamed of the people who pushed her to that. It was a most amazing letter.

In crass American words, Mira can kick butt!!!! My husband has a huge crush on her.

------------------
Colleen L. Stanford
Gideon's Mine, all Mine
(he just doesn't know it yet, LOL)
 

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