Letters from Pemberley

photo taken by Tommy

So last year, Derek told me Kristen Bell and Rob Thomas were starting a Kickstarter campaign to make a Veronica Mars movie.  One of their higher donation levels included tickets to the red carpet premiere.  After a few minutes of hemming and hawing, we decided to go for it–and it’s a good thing, too, because they sold out within hours.  Fast forward to last night, and here we were, in Hollywood!

This is actually as much of the red carpet as we saw…we got there 90 minutes ahead of time, and they were still setting up.  So we snapped this picture and assumed we’d see more once we came back at the appointed time for our tickets.

We came back from dinner and got in line 10 minutes before we were supposed to, and the line was already down the block.  Sadly, the area they’d set aside for Backers to see the red carpet was super small and already filled up, which we didn’t realize as we rushed to get our tickets and were shuttled into the theater…only to discover we were not allowed back out to watch any of the goings-on!  Bonding with other Backers who were seriously ticked, we found our seats and discovered we were sitting in the second row!  So we took our picture up front.

We listened to the movie soundtrack and waited for over an hour.  The Chinese Theatre is cool.  I guess they used to hold the Academy Awards there.

Finally…the stars shuffled down to welcome everyone.  Hi Rob, Kristen, and Percy!

Hi Tina, Jason, Ryan, Chris, Rico, and Amanda!

I really loved how these three’s relationship played out in the movie.

Weevil’s story since the end of the series was the most endearing.  Amanda Noret may have given up acting to be a stay-at-home mom, but she still plays a super mean Madison!  I actually was a little underwhelmed with Keith’s role in the movie.  He kindof just disapproved of Logan the whole time.  Dick was hilarious in every scene.

You know, I was really mad when they brought Piz back, much as I like Chris Lowell, but the girl sitting next to me sure wasn’t.  She groaned every time Logan exuded his bad boy charm.  Derek’s Team Piz and I’m Team Logan, but we both really enjoyed the movie.

Hey, look, they’re clapping for us!  It’s been pretty fun to be a Backer.

Aww, Rob Thomas, you’re welcome.

Derek wants me to point out that Kristen only looks as tall as Percy because she’s wearing 6 inch heels.

On a related note, it takes guts to star in a movie just weeks after giving birth.  She looked it, too–lots of jackets and flowy shirts to hide her postpartum body, which is totally the opposite of her wardrobe for the TV show!  I really appreciated it, though.  Since Janie and her baby Lincoln were born at the same time, I remember exactly what I was thinking and feeling at that time last year, and it wasn’t pretty.  Kristen is obviously not a political or moral role model for anyone, but I love how she has said that she still has 10 lbs of baby weight that she’ll probably never lose, and she’s fine with that, because her daughter is worth it.  Don’t hear that much in Hollywood.  She still looked beautiful in the movie and totally became Veronica.

And I wish I could rock the elegant ponytail look…

It was really, really fun to watch the movie in a theater full of Marshmallows.  Everybody applauded every time a new (old) face appeared on screen (okay, so Logan and Piz may have gotten a few catcalls, and I think Dick did, too).  Everybody laughed at inside jokes and references.  I’m really not sure how much someone who hadn’t seen the TV show would enjoy the movie, as Rob definitely wrote it for us fans!  I’m sure Derek and I will have to watch it a few times to catch more that we missed.

When it got out, we just loitered around outside for a while, hoping we’d see someone or something…

Most of the people there looked like gamer geeks, according to Derek.  Is that really the VM cult demographic?

After a while, our patience paid off…Jason Dohring emerged to meet the fans…

And I sidled up and asked for a picture.  Derek was in such a rush that he didn’t take time to focus.  I was super bummed, but I teased Derek that he doesn’t have to worry about me celebrity crushing now that I don’t even have clear evidence I met Jason.  And yes, that is a Hooters in the background.

So there it is!  Me with a B-list (C-list?) Scientologist movie star!  Our conversation: Me: Can I get a picture?  Jason: Sure!  What’s your name?  Me: Emily.  Great movie!  Him (after Derek took the picture): That’s a real camera!  Me: Yeah.  Thanks!  Epic.  He was actually thinner and shorter than I pictured him from the show, showing yet again how petite Kristen Bell is in real life.  He was super nice and patient with all the fans, taking tons of pictures, running out to the barriers where the fans who hadn’t paid for tickets were gathered for a glimpse of a star.  I guess everyone else was just whisked away to the afterparty, so Derek didn’t get to drop a Shrine High School reference to Kristen or a mutual friends reference to Ryan Hansen.

It was totally a fun evening, and now we can say we’ve done the Hollywood thing!