John's report on the Spider-Man 3 London Premiere

Before i start i'll mention that i've had major problems logging into the forum. I'm currently logged in using the 'wrong' details...So i may end up having to repost this again !.

Anyway on Monday 23rd April 2007 the London Premiere for Spider-Man 3 was held. Here's my very long (and no doubt very boring) account of my day.

I arrived at Leicester Square at 1pm. Very unusually for me i had remembered to bring everything !.

The Square had been set up especially for the premiere with a big stage in the centre of the Square. There was already quite a big crowd there and i made my way into the barricaded off centre section.

All the good spots had already been taken so i grabbed the best spot against a barrier i could find. I was a bit concerned as this row of barriers branched off from the main walkway. I'd just have to hope i got lucky !.

As i mentioned before the centre of the Square had a special stage built on it with massive video screens. This was surrounded by a circular walkway covered in a red and black carpet with some black spiders on the red bits. I was standing about 30 yards to the right of the stage.

Virtually straight away it started to rain heavily. So much for the weather forecast predicting a dry warm day !. Thankfully this stopped after about 15 minutes.

The video screen then displayed that the premiere would start at 5.15pm, and that no one would be allowed to enter the Centre Square after 5pm.

The Spider-Man 3 soundtrack was blaring out in the background the whole time (they played it straight through 3 times). Very nice to hear 'Summer Day' in it's (fairly brief) entirity. Also amusing to watch a couple of overweight guys dancing to 'The Twist' !.

At 2.30pm Jonathan arrived. Jonathan is a massive fan of Kirsten, and he had travelled down from Manchester on the day especially to be at the premiere. I was desperate to go to the toilet so my first words to him were 'Hi, can you keep my spot i need to go to the toilet' !.

Anyway Jonathan understandly wasn't too keen on the spot i had so he wandered off to find a better one. Somehow he managed to squeeze his way against the barriers about 15 yards to my left, and (more importantly) on the main walkway. I still don't know how he did it, but he is quite a charmer !.

I had no idea if Jess would be able to make it as she is insanely busy with work at the moment. She'd emailed me that morning to say she'd try and get down about 2.30pm if she could.

Anyway 2.30pm came and went and no work from Jess. By 3.30pm i'd just about accepted she wouldn't show.

About 10 minutes later i looked to my right and saw a beautiful young woman standing by the locked entrance staring down at her mobile phone. Seconds later my phone rang. LOL no it wasn't Kirsten, it was of course Jess. A comedy moment then ensued with me waving frantically at her whilst she said 'Where are you?'. I'm sure the guy next to me thought i was a nutter waving at (apparently) no-one !.

Jess eventually found out how to get inside the Square, said hello to mee then promptly wandered off !. Did i have a bad spot or was there another reason why they didn't want to stand next to me !?.

I'll add here that i had been trying for weeks to get hold of tickets to the actual premiere screening itself and/or the After Party (that would have been interesting !). Sadly it proved impossible to get either and i did feel really bad about it. Not for myself, but for Jess, Jonathan, and Marc (Marc desperately wanted to come but couldn't due to work commitments).

Anyway Jonathan somehow managed to persuade the people standing next to him to let Jess stand by the barriiers !. What a charmer that man is. I watched Jess and Jonathan have a good old chinwag (no doubt about me !), but gradually they got enveloped in the ever growing crowd.

Then it was time for my (least) favourite part of the day. Yes the TV and radio reporters went round interviewing the crowd !. God they ask some banal questions !. It was quite reassuring to hear that most of the people present near me were at least as excited about seeing Kirsten as they were about seeing Tobey. A couple of people even pronounced her name correctly (the reporters didn't !).

Some poor guy then had to vacumn the entire carpet. The hilarious thing was that the stars had to walk off the carpet and onto the grass to actually get to the fans.
Anyway 5.15pm arrived and....nothing.

At 5.35pm the premiere arrivals started. First up was a long list of mainly anonymous British celebrities. I recognised Caprice, a couple of Arsenal footballers, presenter Graham Norton, and comedian Allan Carr. Claudia Schiffer was also there but i never noticed her. Standouts out of the celebs for me were footballer Theo Walcott, who spent a long time signing autographs, and 'camp' comedian Allan Carr, who arrived with two 'ladies'. When asked why he said it was so no one would guess he was gay !.

I could see from the video screens that an extra walkway/red carpet had been set up outside the Central Square and this had filled up with fans.

Anyway at about 6.20pm the compere (Radio 1 DJ 'Spooney') announced the first of the cast was on there way, and then said 'I won't say who it is but i can't wait to see what she's wearing'. I actually thought he was joking and that it would be Rosemary Harris !.

At about 6.25pm we saw a car pull up outside, and out got Kirsten !. Everyone (including me) started screaming !. Kirsten immediately went over to the fans and started signing autographs.

Shortly afterwards the rest of the cast arrived in quick succession. Topher also started signing autographs outside, and Tobey (who is famous for not signing autographs) procedded to shake hands (more of a grasp hands actually) with virtually everyone in the crowd. As far as i could see the rest of the cast and crew present made their ways into the Central Square fairly quickly.

I was getting pretty nervous by now. I noticed Thomas Hayden-Church signing a few autographs about 40 yards in front of me, and Rosemary Harris talking to the press. Kirsten, Tobey and Topher were still outside meeting the fans. (I'll admit i was a bit jealous that these fans who had turned up 'late' were getting to spend so long with the main stars !.

Topher then came into the Central Square and started signing more autographs. I was flitting back and forth between watching where he was and checking the video screen which was showing Kirsten and Tobey outside.

Kirsten and Tobey then came inside too (at about 6pm i think) and started talking to the press. I noticed that Kirsten's mother Inez was with her.

Eventually Topher started making his way up the barriers opposite to where i was standing. I got a quick photo of him, and then got my photo of him ready, and promptly dropped it !. I picked it up just in time to see him approaching, he signed my photo, and i took another photo of him. I have to say he seems a really nice guy, and he's very good looking, he actually looks better 'in the flesh' than on screen !.

By now Kirsten had started signing autographs again and i could tell by the noise she was pretty close to where Jess was standing !. Annoying i couldn't see anything though. Then Kirsten turned up our section and carried on signing autographs. She got closer and closer. I took a photo, held my photo out and....when she was about 2 feet away from me she was ushered across to the fans on the other side !. She turned and said 'Sorry guys i gotta go'. I actually wasn't that upset (unlike the guy next to me !). Kirsten was clearly 'behind schedule' (no doubt due to stopping by Jess !) and they were intent on seeing fans in all sections of the Central Square.

A couple of minutes later Tobey appeared on the opposite side of our Square. I got my camera ready for when he got closer, waited, then when he was very close i clicked away...and nothing happened - My camera had jammed !. I had 1 millisecond to decide between sorting out the camera or shaking Tobey's hand...LOL no contest !. After that i got the camera sorted but Tobey was by then just out of sight.

And that was about it. Sam Raimi signed a few autographs, but was virtually being dragged away !.

The stars all disappeared off the stage and into the cinema and most of the crowd started dispersing. About 75 minutes had elapsed between Kirsten and Tobey arriving and them entering the cinema. I'd estimate they each spent about 50-55 minutes of that time with the fans, and the rest talking to the press and (briefly) posing for photographs.

I went over to Jonathan and Jess and found they had been very lucky !. As you will no doubt hear when Jess posts her report of the day.

We decided to wait to see if we'd be able to see the stars leave the cinema after the premiere had started. Jess had an appointment she needed to keep, but decided to stay anyway !.

Jonathan then gave me a fantastic present. A beautiful specially made book containing photos of the Elizabethtown London Premiere, including 'that' photo of Jess and Kirsten. Jess got one too. I mentioned to Jess that next time she should ask Kirsten to sign it !.

A few minutes later a row of cars pulled up around the Central Square and we got our cameras ready. Very soon afterwards some people appeared and i noticed one of them was Tobey. I grabbed a quick pic, not noticing that in the background was Kirsten !. We spotted her just as she was getting into her car. I got a great photo of her....car just after she'd closed the door !. Topher followed soon after and signed a couple of autographs. I took my last (and probably best) photo of the day of him signing for fans.
And that really was that. The cars drove off (i never noticed the rest of the cast leave, but given the number of cars no doubt i'd missed them whilst snapping Tobey, Kirsten, and Topher).

Jess said her goodbyes and dashed off. I meant to ask Jonathan if he'd like to have a drink, but my mind was racing and before i knew it we'd said our goodbyes and the evening was over.

Overall it was a wonderful day. Personally it was a bit disappointing not to get Kirsten's autograph, and it was slightly annoying that fans who had been waiting so long ended up in a far worse spot that others who had turned up virtually at the last minute. Having said all that it was great to see Jess and Jonathan (albeit only briefly !) and truly wonderful that Jess got to meet Kirsten again.

Special mention must go to Kirsten, Tobey, and Topher. All of them spent a very long time with the fans. Tobey's hand must still be sore from all that shaking, and i think Kirsten just beat Topher in the signing autographs race !.