we're all stories in the end

So for those of you just tuning in, as part of Marvel's really quite concerted attempt to make me care about Guardians of the Galaxy by casting *everyone I love* -- Zoe Saldana, Lee Pace, Glenn Close, Djimon Hounsou -- they have Karen Gillan playing Nebula, a villainous space pirate. *__* I don't even care what the quality of the film is like at this point, with that many good faces on screen I'm going to go see it in the cinema like five times.

And the whole cast have been at SDCC, and during the Marvel panel KGill did an amazing reveal, which is that she has shaved all of her perfect and beautiful hair of the part. It looks fucking awesome. Picspam below!

( first Matt, now her, taking bets on whether it's Arthur, Alex or Jenna next! )

Karen Gillan had her 25th birthday today. Flimsy excuse for picspam? I think so!

( image heavy )

So Darvill & Gillan have been tweeting today re. s7 casting spoilers (of the kind long-since announced by the BBC) and I have feelings.

( spoilers & picspam )

+ At white_lotus we've started posting fanworks for the Lunar New Year exchange - so far there are two fics, one about Ursa and one Katara/Zuko, and a vid about Toph & Azula. All highly recommended!

+ FESTIVIIIIIDS! I got a wonderful vid, Baby Got Going (Bridesmaids), which I looove and need to praise the vidder in much detail about why it's great, but have yet to find the right words. Basically it captures all the stuff I love best about the film (female friendships! ridiculous faces! hilarity!) and is really well-edited with some great timing and eeee. :D I shall have some more festivids recs later when I've had a chance to watch a few more. (I'm putting off some that look wonderful because they'll probably make me cry - so tomorrow when I'm home alone, then!)

+ Here in the UK it is the National Television Awards tonight (decided by public vote), and Matt Smith and Karen Gillan have picked up Best Drama Performance awards, hurray!

( They are both looking rather fab )

+ Speaking of Karen Gillan, her biopic about Jean Shrimpton, We'll Take Manhattan, is airing on BBC Four tomorrow evening and will presumably be on iPlayer thereafter - I don't know about international airings. From the promo pictures, it's going to be extremely pretty at the very least.

( picspam )

Last Monday purplefringe and I went to see Inadmissible Evidence, the John Osborne play currently showing at the Donmar Warehouse in London, which Karen's in. The play's very good - difficult to watch, as the main character is so distinctly unlikeable, but it's a great performance from Douglas Hodge and the play knows just what a mess he is. He's sort of a British Don Draper with all the charm and sheen wiped away. Karen's part is relatively small - she plays a secretary at the office who walks out midway through the first half and doesn't return. Karen's brilliant in it, however. She really works the Sixties look, which makes me look forward to her turn as Jean Shrimpton in We'll Take Manhattan.

The theatre is tiny, and we were very close to the stage. I'll be perfectly honest, when Karen was on stage I was having something a problem re. paying attention to the plot. She is SO PRETTY OMG. I mean, I know, also the Pope's a Catholic, but it is even more overwhelming in person. *_*

Afterwards, we hung around outside the theatre, tagging along to a group of autograph hounds. Although some actors did leave via the door we were at, there was no sign of Karen, and most people gave up and went off. After a while, I went around to the other side of the theatre to see if there were more people there, and lo and behold, she was walking right towards me. I called Phoebe in a panic as she walked past with a couple of friends. There was no one else around, so we caught up with her and Phoebe had to go get her attention because I was too faily.

I'm sure she had much better places to be, but she was lovely while we both fangirled her and said how great she was. She thanked us for coming to the play and signed my programme and smiled lots and was generally wonderful. She's so adorable and was so nice to us and I can't even. And, my goodness, I also can't even with the pretty. She's so tall in real life as well, a combination of those legs and huge heels was really impressive. And her face. It is made of sunshine and joy and all that is good.

We watched her stride off into the night after a minute or two, her friends laughing at us a little I think, which is fair, and then I went all fangirl puddle-like and Phoebe had to steer me back to the tube station. It's been ten days, and I suspect my eyes are still heart-shaped. SHE IS THE BEST. <3333

As seen on ponds_daily, here are a couple of pictures of her from the day after we met her:

( my crush is thiiiiis big )

Finally got around to scanning in the photoshoot Karen did for Marie Claire earlier this year. Feel free to snag/modify etc.

( 7 large images )

+ oh gosh, I watched most of the livestream of the HP premiere at Trafalgar Square last night, and UNEXPECTED FEELINGS ATTACK. I first I was all 'ooh, look at the pretty dresses, here are some interviews with people I like', and then Dan and Emma and Rupert and JKR made all these emotional speeches at the end and I was suddenly an emotional wreck, what even. So it would appear I will definitely be a mess when we go see the film at Diacon, then, heads up everyone.

+ Relatedly, today I am off to London Film & Comic Con! To see Karen Gillan and Alex Kingston, as well as other cool people. *insert massive flailing here* I am quite excited, as you may imagine. But, okay, when I was registering I got my general con ticket and a ticket for Karen's talk and also a ticket to get my photo taken with her. Which I do not know how I feel about! I couldn't not do it, because Karen Gillan, but given my track record of getting kind of weirded out and also totally speechless when face to face with people I am fannish about, well. At least on this occasion I've known it was coming so have had time to think about what I would like to say. And also, you know, it'll last a couple of minutes if that and I can photoshop myself out of the resulting photo if I look like a complete dork, etc. It is not a big deal. (Except it totally is, omg tomorrow I will be in the presence of the person I am fangirling like it's my job right now, ack ack etc.)

ANYWAY. Aside from that, I will try and take some pictures and report back in as much detail as I can about what Karen and Alex say and also any other talks I make it to, like Mark Sheppard or Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred. Also, if any of you are going to be there, give me a shout! I do not promise to be particularly coherent at any given time, but I can promise squee.

The world loves me and has bequeathed unto me many treasures of late.

+ Edinburgh Zoo have a webcam over the penguin enclosure. PENGUIN! /Aang moment

+ Karen Gillan being interviewed for the Christmas special: ( embed )

HOW SO ADORABLE??

+ Karen and Matt and Arthur and a rousing rendition of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas: ( embed )

+ Zoe Saldana on Sesame Street with Elmo omg eeeeee: ( embed )

+ lefaym wrote beautifuly, achy Gwen/Morgana fic for the Solstice, Midsummer Night.

+ And lastly, I see the end of year memes are doing the rounds again.

( end of year fannish meme )