To the Billy Boyd and Lord of the Rings fans: I’m so glad you like this post. However, it is bad netiquette to take this post in toto and put it on other websites and message boards without prior permission. Fair use allows you to quote a limited amount, and good netiquette asks that you link back to me.
Please be considerate and use good netiquette! Thanks.
This post is from some years ago, but even so it gets scores of hits every month. So, I have brought it back from the old blog.
I have edited out the huge lead in which I describe my sad adventure trying to navigate the highways of New Jersey. The streets of New Jersey and the horrors to be found there are, apparently, not news.
I have also added the fan reactions from the original letter column, because it turned out the Fan From Hell was very well known around the country.
While I have done hundreds of shows over the years, I have rarely had problems with fans. I have said over and over that almost every problem you will ever have at a show – or anywhere else for that matter – will come in the form of an aspiring pro or frustrated pro. The Fan From Hell was just one more example of same.
And now, meet the Fan From Hell:
I’ve been saying it for awhile now. The Lord of the Rings fans are the mellowest of the mellow, the most polite and appreciative of fans, and the main reason I do so many Lord of the Rings conventions and so few others.
Sometimes the shows let us have autographs, sometimes not. You never know. Rules are different at every show. I never know with Creation Cons what to expect because at one show I may get a big packet with lots of instructions, badges for the dealer’s room, name badge, security rules, schedule, etc. At the next, they just put a wristlet on me and leave me to my business. I don’t really collect much by way of autographs, but I love the LOTR stuff.
Fangirl.
I gave Sean Astin a hello. The last time I saw JMS, he sent Astin greetings and I passed them along. Sean passed along a cryptic message back for JMS, that I cannot repeat. I felt like a courier for the CIA.
Billy Boyd is one of the best guests I have ever seen on the con circuit. Not only is he very lively and friendly, he is extremely tolerant of some extremely rude behavior.
I guess one of the reasons I feel so mellow at LOTR shows is that “academic and scholars” don’t get nearly as much attention at these shows at the actors do, so we can relax and enjoy ourselves and talk LOTR without feeling a lot of pressure.
However, I cannot believe some of the behavior that is directed toward the actors at these conventions. Almost every fan was wonderful. The few that weren’t were a horror.
Daniel Reeve was the calligrapher for the maps for LOTR and also did work on Chronicles of Narnia and Pirates of the Carribean. Lovely fellow with a very nice family, and he’s also a fine looking guy. He gets an inordinate amount of fangirl interest too, but his wife looked dead shocked at some of the girls that just thrust themselves on her husband for a hug and a grope. Mrs. Reeve had never been to a con before and really got an eyeful. My dealer’s table was down the row from his and one femmefan after another left saying “DAMN! He’s married!”
Late one night, The Reeve family, me and Billy Boyd were hanging about the bar getting a drink, and there was a particularly horrid woman who simply would not go away. Billy was incredibly polite. I mean, a martyr to manners. It was astonishing. This fan gave everyone, including other fans, the creeps.
While a number of folks broke the unspoken rule of “Thou shalt not bother the celebrity guest when he is having private time”, others obliterated the rule, nabbed autographs and got photos. Billy was more than kind. Some pros don’t care much, some do. As long as all is done within reason, I say.
But after repeatedly popping into the conversation, getting autographs, photos, and generally making a nuisance of herself, this one fan did not then whisk herself away. She remained to repeatedly run her fingernails down Billy’s back every time he turned away from her, grab his arm, and start giving him a massage. My mouth about dropped on the floor and Daniel and Mrs. Reeve looked like they were witnessing the events in an alternate universe.
The fact that the woman had been hanging about all weekend and behaving extremely strangely was bad enough, but to add to the weirdness, she often ingratiated herself by pushing forward her little daughter to grab your attention and then practically daring you to tell her to get lost. She bragged about how she could induce her kid to go on crying jags so that celebrities would spend more time with her. She would push forward her kid, and if the celebrity did not respond, the little girl would boo hoo on cue. Then, she could get access, a trick she used to continue to get access repeatedly. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
