posted by Travis at 9:57 PM

I was checking my referral logs recently and I was getting several hits from a site in Japan. I can't read the site, but it looks like a blogger specializing in Elijah Wood found my blurb about him at E3 and posted something about it. Since I am getting some hits from it, I suppose I should tell the whole story. And since my E3 2003 write up may not make it, here is the story.

This year at E3, Kim and I had media badges. However, on the third day of the expo when I met up with my buddy Shane, who writes for a big gaming mag, I learned that even within the "media badge" clique at E3, there are levels of power. Kim and I, being from a media watchdog organization, were on the low end of that scale. Shane was not. The Rockstar Games lounge was like a nightclub; guarded entrance, velvet rope, and a group of people clamoring to get in. Shane shouldered his way to the front of the crowd, flagged down a PR guy, and said, "Pickle, this is my boy Travis. Can we crash here for a bit?" And we were in. We sat down on a big white couch and were served some bottled water. While Shane and his buddy chatted, I looked out at the longing gazes from the crowd of people on the other side of the rope. At the front of the crowd, I saw a familiar face; comedian Robin Williams. So picture this, Robin Williams (a celebrity) was patiently waiting to get into a place where I already was. I tapped the PR guy and said, "Dude, Robin Williams is waiting to get into your booth. I think you should let him in." He leapt up, let Mr. Williams in, and seated him across from Shane and I on another couch. I've been close to celebrities before, but never in a situation where I was on equal ground. It was a strange feeling. Siezing the moment I said, "Hey...what's going on?" Someone else sitting in our area quickly took over and engaged him in intelligent conversation, while Shane and I just listened. Robin Williams was shortly ushered away, no doubt to see something cool, and Shane and I thought we should make our way out, too.

Now, E3 is really just a big "who has the coolest T-shirt contest". I was sporting my turbo-cool Battle Royale shirt (Battle Royale is a Japanese movie about a class of children that are forced to kill each other, and it has kind of a cult following). Several times throughout the day, people had stopped me to complement me on my shirt, so as we stepped over the rope I thought nothing of hearing someone say, "Hey, man. That is a great shirt." I gave my canned response, "Yeah...thanks," and pushed past him through the crowd. I had just been talking with Robin Williams after all, and I had no time to engage some hanger-on in meaningless prattle. Feeling a bit rude, I turned to at least make eye contact with the person, when I was confronted with a gigantic pair of blue eyes belonging to Elijah Wood. The shock of recognition went through me quick, so I was able to get out a stammering, "Oh...yeah...hey, man," before I forced my way past him. He had a big smile on his face, and said, "Yeah...hey," back. Now, if I see someone wearing a cool shirt, I might tell Kim or think to myself, "cool shirt". Rarely, will I actually stop the person to tell them, unless I'm in the mood to converse. So, Elijah Wood made, however small, some attempt to communicate with me, and I was too busy to talk to him. I could have asked him if he'd seen the trailer for the sequel, or what he thought of Brother, another movie starring Takeshi Kitano, or any number of questions about The Lord of the Rings movies or games. However, seeing that the moment had passed me by, I moved through the crowd. When Shane and I were out, I turned to him and said, "Did you see who that was?" Shane said, "Wasn't it one of your friends?" I said, "No...it was fucking Frodo." Shane's eyes got kind of big and he said, "Well, you waved him off so casually, I thought you knew the guy!" We headed over to our appointment to see the Half-Life 2 movie and discussed the conversation that might have been.

So there you have it. My run-ins with celebrities at E3. For all you Japanese Elijah Wood fans, I know this is probably not big news. But in my opinion, it is a pretty funny story. I guess I won the contest at E3. I'll have to get a printing for the back of my Battle Royale shirt that says, "Frodo digs my shirt."