Countdown to Celebration: Exclusive Figures

As expected, Hasbro's action figure exclusive(s) for Celebration IV here in LA (and July's Celebration Europe at the ExCeL exhibition center in London) are 3¾" versions of concept artist Ralph McQuarrie's original illustrations of those iconic bickering droids C-3PO and R2-D2.

McQuarrie concept figures accompany each wave of the new 30th Anniversary figures (with versions of the Stormtrooper, Boba Fett and Chewbacca already previewed). This signature series will continue throughout the year with Darth, Luke and Han amongst others already rumoured. R2 and 3PO's conspicuous absence from the rumour list made them highly likely candidates for this year's convention exclusive.

Limited to one set per convention day pass purchased (which means if you've purchased a 4-day pass you’re lucky enough to be able to buy 4 sets – one to keep MIB, one to open, and 2 to ebay - sadly I only have a day pass) these figures will quickly become hot commodities!!!

May the Force be with you!

Countdown to Celebration: USPS

For only the second time in history, the US Postal Service is giving the public the opportunity to vote for a stamp that will become it's very own stamp sheet.

Acclaimed artist Drew Struzan designed a sheet of 15 stamps that we can choose from, stamps which commemorate the 30th Anniversary of the Star Wars saga, incorporating images from all six movies (including such icons as Yoda, Emperor Palpatine, Darth Maul and Boba Fett) against a space battle background.

On Friday, May 25, the these stamps will be released at a first-day-of-issue ceremony during the Star Wars Celebration IV at the LA Convention Center. The most popular single stamp, voted for by the public, will also be announced at this event.

You have until May 23rd to place your vote.

May the Force be with you!

CELEBFLASH: Me?

Yes, that's me on Oprah!

Filmed at Spago exactly a month ago, the episode, A Tribute to Sidney Poitier, aired yesterday. Celebrating The Measure of a Man, Mr. Poitier's spiritual autobiography at a "Dinner of a Lifetime" were seven lucky viewers (and a cast and crew behind the scenes of hundreds).

I was lucky enough to be featured in the Spago overview bit towards the beginning of the episode (I'm the one standing behind uber-designer Colin Cowie, looking a tad befuddled if I do say so myself)
Next stop Survivor!

[ Note: Downloading the episode from Tivo to my laptop was a piece of cake. Capturing a screenshot not so easy! Matt in NYC has given me a couple of ideas, namely using VLC Media Player which captures it's own snapshot - still not great images, but better! ]

Archer and the TB Test

Yesterday morning I woke to Jeffrey Archer, British author, former MP, and convicted perjurer espousing The Gospel According to Judas (his own fictionalized version anyway, written in conjunction with biblical scholar Francis J. Moloney) to Matt Laurer on The Today Show.

Later that morning I find out that it's advisable that I take a tuberculosis test (having recently come in contact with someone with the ailment). Great!

All of a sudden I'm transported back about 20 years, to Wellington School (my secondary school, circa 1986), that fateful day queuing outside the "san," readying myself for a Heaf Test and BCG vaccination, continually moving to the end of the line to put off the injection for as long as possible (which on the positive side, meant that I'd be late for German).

The summer prior I had been presented with my "prize" (for coming first in my year in Latin) by none other than Jeffrey Archer, a school alum. This was just before the 1987 libel case against the Daily Star in which he perjured himself, leading to his imprisonment and suspension from both the Conservative Party and the Marylebone Cricket Club.

Interestingly enough in his younger days Archer reportedly told people he was an "old boy" of the more prestigious Wellington Collage rather than the less well known Wellington School. Wouldn't that be an indication of things to come?

CELEBFLASH: Bad Table?

Remember the good old days when you played one of the leads in TV's top rated medical drama, when you were the "and" in the show's title (similar to Heather Locklear's "special guest star" role on Melrose Place).

Then after 168 episodes you hang up your scrubs to produce, direct and star in your own movie, Crazy as Hell. Maybe you thought you'd get out when the going was still good, when ER was still on top and just after your NAACP Image Award win for best actor in a TV drama, hoping your career path would mimic former co-star George Clooney's upward spiral.

And then... Well, there were a couple of episodes of Without a Trace and a behind the camera stint on an episode of The Twilight Zone.

And now... Oh, dear Eriq La Salle, 44, there you are on the break.

Not exactly the best table in the house!

No More Foie

Hot on the heels of The Governor's Ball, that famous post Oscar bash catered by celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck (i.e. my boss), came the news of that one of his chefs had contracted hepatitis. Less than a month later Puck is in the news again, this time to promote animal rights and fight cruelty to animals.

"Puck chefs will continue to kill lobsters by cutting them in half while they're still alive," but foie gras is no longer on the menu. And while that famous Spago weiner schnitzel (which is damn good by the way) will now be made from free-range all-natural veal, "skate and Russian caviar, both of which Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch has on its "avoid" list," will still be used. So wrote Corie Brown on the front page of the LA Times earlier today.

Puck's announcement was made with help from the Humane Society, which only recently began its programs championing the rights of farm animals. Farm Sanctuary, the 21-year old farm animal protection organization responsible for the legislative ban on foie gras in Chicago (which begins here in California in 2012), got no such love, having protested outside Spago for many of the restaurant's 25 years.

In other restaurant news Chef Lee, Spago's own executive chef, has been nominated for the Outstanding Chef at the 2007 James Beard Awards. Fellow nominees include Top Chef's Tom Colicchio, Jean Joho, Paul Kahan and Michael Richard. Meanwhile steakhouse CUT (which Chef Lee oversees) at the Regent Beverly Wilshire (you know, the Pretty Woman hotel) has been nominated for Best New Restaurant. The awards ceremony will be held Monday, May 7 in New York.

Wizard World LA 2007

Finding parking at the LA Convention Center sucked as much this year as it did last, and there weren't any Buffy alums to beg autographed eight by tens from, but the 2007 leg of the Wizard World Convention in downtown Los Angeles provided just as much geeky enjoyment (maybe even more) as my inaugural visit did in 2006.

Last year I all but dragged Mikey along with me. This time Joe was my willing accomplice. Last year Charisma Carpenter and Stephanie Romanov were the big draws (though I'm still kicking myself for not shelling out for Andy Hallett and Elizabeth Rohm's signed pix). This time it was artists Marc Silvestri and Humberto Ramos.

Thanks in no small part to the never-ending Marvel Civil War, the advent of Buffy: Season 8, and most importantly, Joe's own love of the art, my appreciation of comics has been rekindled over the last few months. Though I'm still really more of a collector/completest, Joe is a true and avid comicbook fan, so his excitement at meeting his favourite artist, Ramos, was infectious. Not only did Ramos sign a few comics, but he drew Joe a very very cool Venom sketch. We followed that with signings by British writer Paul Jenkins and Anita Blake penciller Brett Booth (sadly the line for Top Cow founder Silvestri was way too long).

In addition to meeting the artistes, I found several of the Civil War tie-in issues I was missing (including the Wizard World Captain America #25 variant, though Amazing Spidey #529 still illudes me), as well as some adorable Star Wars character prints (which will nicely adorn my bathroom). We even came across a number of those exclusive Wal-Mart figures I mentioned previously, and though cheaper at $15 a piece, I still couldn't justify the price.

Without the glitz and glamour that Hollywood lavishes on the San Diego Comic-Con, and with guests the like of Jerri Manthey, Tony Burton and Lou Ferrigno, the comicbook artists and writers far outshown the competition at Wizard World. As well they should!