Celebrityscraps

Continuing my chronicles at the MCM Expo we’ve already heard what Greg Grunberg had to say, the next member of the Heroes cast I got to quiz at the Expo was Brea Grant.

For those of you who have just been released from 6 months of solitary; Brea is one of the new cast members in Heroes, she plays a thief called Daphne who is a girl who can run very VERY fast.

So the first time I heard the name Brea Grant was in an announcement of the new additions to the Heroes cast many moons ago. Then as the hype for the new season ramped up I started searching the new additions and to my surprise found that Brea is one of the few actors who is fully immersed in online culture. She’s on Facebook, Blogs, Webcasts, and regularly uses Twitter.

This heavy use of social media and level of transparency has made Brea one of the new favourites of the Heroes cast and she’s established a huge fan-base through the many different channels she’s using to promote herself and Heroes. You can tell her fans deeply appreciate the personal touch she brings to them too.

A big shout must also go out to Laura Roeder as well as she is the person responsible for keeping the online world of Brea running as it should.

Anyway… so my first questions to Brea went out to her in the group Q&A.

First she talked a bit about her character:

Brea: “From the moment I walked in they (the Writers) had a very brilliant idea for the character pretty much mapped out for at least the first four or so episodes to see what was going to happen. That’s been amazing just going in…. the writers are geniuses and they are always there for me to talk to them and ask questions like ‘why would Daphne do this?’. My character was pretty much shaped before I even set foot on the set”

Greg jumps in and adds:

Greg: “You usually don’t get an idea of what’s coming until you get the script, but they called me up and said will you come read on some of these final auditions… and so I did. So they did a scene where where we first meet and we (Greg and Brea) had a scene together. It was great to do that cos when we auditioned i was like ‘please…PLEASE…She’s fantastic!’ *point at Brea*”

I then got to ask a 2nd question:

Patrick: “Out of all the Heroes cast you use blogs and online technology quite heavily. Do you find this important to relate to your fans?”

Brea’: “I think it’s important to be able to use my blog to let people know what’s going on. It’s great to be able to get questions from people all over the world and be able to respond. I also think it adds a personal touch and that’s important.”

Patrick: “The people reading your blog seem to think so. I also noticed that you’re a regular user of twitter and that you recently got Greg (Grunberg) involved”

Brea: “Yea… there’s a funny story behind that.. we were stuck at the airport and I set Greg up on Twitter but forgot to disable the email you get when people add you on it.”

*Greg jumps into the conversation*

Greg: “So my email’s got like 1000 emails in it by the time I get off the plane. Which I only discover when I turn on my phone! …and just to make matters worse when I was coming out they asked If I wanted to upgrade my data package and I was like ,…Naaah I’ll be fine… what am I gonna download on my phone while I’m there…” *makes a painful face*

Brea: “I felt bad about that”

I didn’t get any more questions over to Brea in the Q&A session but managed to speak to her just before she was being made shiny and glam by the make-up girls. As it was an informal chat I went with an different line of question:

Patrick: “So Brea.. are you missing your dog?”

*see Brea’s Twitter for cute dog pics*

Brea: “I am… she’s being looked after by a friend at the moment.. although I’m a bit worried… last time I came back and she’d been in a fight with a raccoon.”

Patrick: “Really!? A raccoon?”

Brea: “Yeah she had a bite on her. It’s wasn’t nice”

That was about all I got to ask Brea at the Expo. I did have a bit of a chat with her and Greg at the autograph table later but nothing noteworthy although I must admit I did see something funny transpire. One guy was taking pics of Brea at the autograph table for ages… even the people getting autographs were telling him to stop… so Brea gets out her camera and takes a pic of him… raised a few laughs although you had to be there.

Anyway… Brea Grant the Speedster Semi-Villain (not made up my mind yet) from Heroes.

She’s was lovely to meet, and you should check her blog out at http://www.Breagrant.com

I wake early on sunday morning and make the agonising journey on packed public transport down to Wembley Stadium to see the once a year International NFL match. “I should have driven!”

Arriving at the stadium and very hungry I’m confronted with £6 burger prices and excessivly priced merchandise…. not a good start.

I enter the tailgate party which is basically a few bars… a stage with a New Orleans style band … and a big tent to drink in. That’s it…. this I was not impressed with, and must say that the tailgate party hosted by the Dolphins the previous year was much better…. maybe the Saints are trying to capture the atmosphere of “post hurricane New Orleans”??

Anyway I decide to stop wasting time and head for the stadium.

I arrive… get a reasonably priced beer and take my seat. It’s about 3 rows from the front so I’m pleased i’ll be able to get a good view of the cheerleaders… and the game too!

This is where the experience turned from a chore to a delight. As it was the home game every seat had a New Orleans Saints flag for us to wave merrily. That was a nice touch and definatly paid off from a TV point of view because as soon as the cameras are on the crowd all you could see was flags waving.

Right… to cut a long story short the game was in all fairness one of the best I’ve watched in a long time, and right till the last second (no word of a lie) could have gone either way. It will probably also win a competition for the most penalties handed out in an NFL match this season.

The Chargers played well… a bit rough.. but well, and the Saints put on a stunning performance that certianly pleased the crowd. Check the hightlights: HERE!

The trip back was another matter. 84,000 people hit the streets of Wembley and try to get on the London Underground…..EPIC FAIL!!!!

To resolve this transport issue my buddy and I run about 4 miles up the road to catch a different underground line… which we were able to get on although the situation did resemble that of battery chickens we were that packed in.

Bottow line… the game was awesome and worth it… but next year I’ll drive!

I’m sitting in the corner of a small room located in the press office of the Excel centre in London waiting for the some of the cast of Heroes to arrive for a Q&A session. Looking at the line of chairs up against the wall I can’t help but draw a contrast between what I’m seeing and the classic ‘firing squad’ image… then I relalise that I’m playing the role of the marksman…. too late to back out now… they are arriving….

Greg Grunberg rolls into the room followed by Brea Grant, David H Lawrence, Ken Lally and Andre Royo. Within seconds Greg has already destroyed a camera stand. A grin creeps across my face as I realise this is not going to be the standard rigid press affair I choose to tolerate.

After the rest of the group has asked their questions and the press Q&A starts to wrap up I decide now is my time to corner ‘Grunny’ for a decent chat.

My first question was obviously… “Do you think you’re death in the film Hollow Man could have been better?”

Greg rolls into this one with ease:

“Man so much more could have been done with that film. The guy goes invisible and what’s the first thing he does?… goes and feels up a bunch of women, then goes crazy and kills people. So much more could have been done with that film. When he’s driving and scares the kids in the other car *Greg imitates the scene*, that’s the type of stuff that we should have been doing!…. and I’d have loved to be in the sequel too… but … oh… wait…. that’s right I’m dead!”

Suddenly my chat with Greg is cut short by one of the events personnel whisking him off to the main press office. I follow and after some ninja like sneakery I’m back to talking to Greg in the press office while the events staff work out how to get him out of there without getting mobbed by 30,000 fans.

So next we get chatting about his celebrity band. For any of you who don’t know Greg’s band is called “Band from TV” and all of the members are actors from various TV Shows.

The band’s members are Greg Grunberg (Drums), James Denton (Guitar), Jesse Spencer (Violin), Bonnie Sommerville (Vocals), Bob Guiney (Vocals), Teri Hatcher (vocals), Adrian Pasdar (Guitar) and Hugh Laurie (Keyboards).

I ask Greg if he’s planning to do any gigs in the UK, he replies: “Man we really wanna get that happening. Hugh was saying he wants to do a few performances in the UK… we’re working on it.”

At this point I committed to plugging the band on this blog (again) so as a man of my word - ALL OF YOU SHOULD CHECK OUT BAND FROM TV’S ALBUM “HOGGIN ALL THE COVERS“. IT’S FOR CHARITY SO IF YOU DON’T BUY IT I’LL BE POSTING YOUR NAMES TO GREG AND YOU WILL BE ‘ON HIS LIST‘.

Ok so now that I’ve plugged the band we can get back to the interview/chat. So we’re talking about the band and Brea comes down to get herself made up by the lovely make-up girls (who had been up since 4am - unlucky girls). Our conversation then goes a bit like this:

Patrick: “Hey man you should get Brea in on the band action”
Greg: “yeah I just found out she’s a drummer… she plays drums!”
Patrick: “You’re a drummer!”
Greg: “You know it’d be great to get her in for a song… like she comes on and sits on the drums and I sing a song that’d be huge”
Patrick: “Yeah or you could be on the drums and get her on the Bongos or something”
Greg: “Definatly!.. watch this space”

So there you have it.. now all Greg has to do is get Brea to agree… but I doubt that’ll be hard for him.

We then move on to the subject of mind reading… I ask him where he got the inspiration for the unique look on his face when he’s reading minds on Heroes. His response “Yea… cos if someone came up to you and did it *makes the face* you’d be like - what are you looking at?”

He then proceeds to fill me in on a few Heroes season 3 spoilers which I’m not gonna publish. Sorry peeps!

We then briefly move on to the subject of Twitter. Greg has gone Twitter mad since he was introduced to it last thursday and he loves the fact he can keep all his fans up to date with all his movements. Check Greg’s Twitter: HERE

So that’s it. Greg Grunberg at the MCM Expo and what a nice guy he is too! Again.. buy “Band from TV’s album!” It’s for charity!

COMING SOON: What Brea Grant has to say on Blogging, Auditions and raccoon attacks.

I’m recovering from my grueling weekend of madness. On Saturday I covered the MCM Expo (UK’s version of ComicCon) and caught up with Greg Grunberg and Brea Grant from ‘Heroes‘, Michael Hogan from ‘Battlestar Galactica‘, and also spoke to the cast and production staff for ‘Primeval‘ and new series ‘Demons’. The event was huge and even caught the attention of the police who turned up in force when they noticed the huge queue of 30,000 attendees snaking it’s way round the Excel centre in London.

On Sunday I rambled over to Wembley Stadium to check out the NFL International match between the New Orleans Saints and the San Diego Chargers…. and it was a cracker!

Keep a keen eye out as I’ll be posting my adventures at both throughout the week.

So the first vid of Paris Hilton ripping apart Mccain’s campaign was funny.

The 2nd was a welcome encore, but it now seems that the girl who is famous for being nothing more than a spoilt little girl has overstepped the good taste mark (again) by releasing a music vid where she sing’s her electon campaign out!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XccGV16iznc&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&fs=1]

Arrrg… I think shares in the future youth just went down!

Brea’s Twitter cottoned me on to Greg Grunberg from Heroes/Alias/Felicity joining Twitter last night while stuck at the airport.

This was a read that made me chuckle but also piped me into something that hasn’t reached my UK based ears.

Our good man “Grunny” frontlines a celebrity cover band called “Band from TV”. The group donates all it’s profits to charity and so is a great cause.

I’m ordering a copy of their DVD as we speak so will let you know whether Grunny’s drumming is up to scratch!

So please go and buy a copy as it’s for charity!

oh P.S. Grunny… you now owe Brea a pint.

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Well the next series of Lost is not coming out til 2009… but ABC have been kind enough to release the first promo footage of the upcoming series.

DocArzt & Friends’ Lost Blog have got the first trailer of the new season (spoiler alert), and it looks to be a good one.

More coming on this as I get it.

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Guns N’ Roses’ long delayed album Chinese Democracy has finally been given a UK release date.

The record, which has been over a decade in the making (17 years), will be available in record stores on 24 November.

The album is produced by Axl Rose and Caram Costanzo and features 14 tracks.

Two of the album’s songs have already been released.

Shackler’s Revenge recently debuted on the soundtrack of video game Rock Band 2.

The film Body of Lies, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe, also used the track If The World.

Full story on the BBC website: here

Yesterday evening I got wind of and announcement that a powerful new villain named Alastair will be introduced as a fickle Nemesis to trouble the Winchester brothers on Supernatural.

Mark Rolston has been tapped to play Alastair, “one of the top demons in Hell” on Supernatural.
The actor has appeared in Aliens, The Shawshank Redemption, Cold Case and Profiler, to name a few and will begin appearing on the series November 13th.

The article by Michael Ausiello (Entertainment Weekly) says the character is described as a “calm and composed demon with a placid smile that belies his simmering sadism and evil.”
I guess we’ll see if this new demon lives up to the previous bad-ass of Meg, Yellow Eyes and Lilith??!?!!

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London MCM (Movie-Comic-Media) Expo is part of the MCM Expo Group organisers of events and conventions relating to Scifi, Movies, Anime, Manga, Gaming and much more.

It’s hitting the ExCeL in London (near Canary Wharf) on Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th and is hosting a huuuuge array of things to see and do.
They have cast signings from Heroes and Battlestar Galactica to which are two of my fave shows!!! (I’ll def bag some signed pics to give away on the site)

Anyway I’ll be posting a monster review of my day out on Saturday…

I’d really love to go both days but I have the UK International NFL match (American Football) at Wembly to attend on Sunday (expect a monster review also)….

WHAT AN AWESOME WEEKEND I HAVE LINED UP!

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