I had a ball!! :-) I think that's the best way to describe the weekend. The fun started on Friday at the David Lloyd's Tennis Club where Bruce and Jerry had a tennis match ( "Wimpleton" ). To make things short, Bruce won but Jerry was a little handicapped. Apparently, he had a broken toe. He kept taping it together during the match and some weird fan nicked his tennis sock while he was doing that.

Videotaping was not allowed during the actual match because Bruce and Jerry didn't want their comments to be on tape. :-)

After a break the two played several sets with some of the fans and at that point you could tell that Jerry was in pain. Nonetheless, he kept playing. Now that's a real man!

After the tennis match the fans got the opportunity to have their picture taken with the actors.

One of the stewards for the Wolf convention asked me if I wanted to be a steward. Because I have arthritis and can't stand for a very long time she arranged for me to be a steward in the Main Hall. My shift would have been from 9 am - Noon but they asked me if I wanted to stay longer because they needed some extra hands. That way I got to see all the panels and always had a front row seat, which is one of the advantages of being a steward. :-)

The organizers of the Wolf 359 convention had decided to split up the attendees in two groups, red and blue - green and purple would have been better, though :-) Bruce and Jerry held two panels each day, one for the red group and one for the blue group. Autograph sessions were also split up between red and blue and numbers between 1 - 299 and 300 - 600. That way the red autograph sessions took place during the blue panels and vice versa. The fans didn't miss any panels and everybody got an autograph. Yes, everybody, Bruce's last panel had to be postponed for 20 minutes because he wanted every fan to get an autograph.

Mira did not have a panel but she signed autographs and was a guest at the SFX awards on Sunday night.

There were no J&D questions as far as I can remember but lots of questions about Crusade and if there was a chance that Bruce and Jerry would appear in it. According to Jerry the contract they offered him was not acceptable to him so he turned it down. He told the fans to ask Bruce a question: "Is it true that Gary Cole, who looks like you, is about the same age-group and earns slightly more money than you will be the captain of the Excalibur?" I guess there is no way that Bruce is going to appear in Crusade at these terms but he asked the fans to give Crusade a chance.

We learned that Jerry thinks that Jeri Ryan is a babe. He told us about his first audition and how he got his job in B5. He loves being an actor: "It's great. You come to work and the first thing somebody asks you is ' What would you like for breakfast?' ". Jerry told us that Bruce tends to straighten up and pinch his cheeks (not the ones in his face) together when he is acting. He even gave a little demonstration of it. :-))

To be honest that's exactly what Bruce said about Jerry but unfortunately, he didn't want to demonstrate it. "My wallet's too thick." :-((

(There is a little side story here for the interested reader: Four of us were talking about this exact moment on Monday morning in the reception when Bruce sneaked up behind us. He practically leaned against me and Shaz when he asked us what we were still doing there. He must have done that on purpose. I mean we are talking four girls here all of them giggling. I'm very sure he heard what we were talking about. Oops, hehe)

Two more things that I think are important:
Bruce said that he apologized to Claudia because of what he said after she left the show. He said that there were some things that he didn't know about but learned later on. They are friends again and keep calling each other. Cheers! Brilliant!

I don't know if any of you know the SFX magazine...well, they were having a reader's awards ceremony on Sunday night hosted by Jerry Doyle. He was funny as hell.

Mira got the award for best actress in a Science Fiction series, which also got her a kiss from both Jerry and Bruce. Bruce got the award for best actor in a Science Fiction series which got him a kiss from Mira and a hug from Jerry. Bruce put the award in front of him but he didn't let it sit there. He kept touching it and shifting it a little to the right a little to the left. He must have been pretty moved. :-)

I couldn't believe it was the same person who about two hours earlier said that he is not in the business for awards. He may not be in the biz for awards but he sure appreciates them.

Anyway, the convention was lots of fun, there were a lot of good questions and even better answers. Hopefully, I will get around to transcribe the panels. It was nice to finally meet some of the faces behind e-mail adresses. Thanks to Brian, Janet and Margo and the rest of the Wolf 359 team. Cheers, brilliant! :-)

Nicky.

Originally written for Moody Weasel's Bruce Boxleitner Page - used with permission