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Collectormania 4 by Leyla
Months of planning, waiting and anticipation came to a head last week, as Collectormania 4 kicked off on Friday. Over 30 guests filled out the booths in the Centre:MK, awaiting the arrival of the legions of devoted fans. I don't suppose any of the poor celebs quite appreciated what they were in for, as I and three of my friends bounded up to them, surprisingly chirpy, despite the annoyingly early hour.
After battling through the crowds of screaming girls and a few hundred trekkies, our first port of call was Christian Coulson, better known as Tom Riddle. Perhaps I was expecting him to be a carbon copy of the Seriously Evil Dude he portrays in the Harry Potter films, but I was pleasantly surprised by the smiling face that greeted me. But, being a girl on a mission, I had no time for drooling over his cheeky grin or his manly stubble -- oh no! I had organic matter to distribute!
Shaking like a day-old jelly, my friends and I marched up to him and announced that I had a present for him, and plonked a bright yellow lemon with tippexed letters down on the table. Looking more than a little bemused, he picked it up. Much to his assistant's amusement, he proceeded to ask me exactly why I had deemed it a good idea to give him a lemon. I took it upon myself to then explain how, last May, I had given Tom Felton a leek...again, without any particularly logical reason. Poor Christian was still rather perplexed by the whole thing, and so asked if it was his birthday present. Being the observative mushroom that I am, I had of course, entirely overlooked the fact that Friday was his birthday. Luckily, my friend announced that it was a birthday present, and that we were, of course, entirely aware that his birthday had just passed. When I tried to apologise for the lemon, he just said: "don't apologise! I love it! Very unique!"
Hand over heart, Christian was a genuinely lovely guy. I asked him: if he was a biscuit, what kind would he be, and he said he would be garibaldi biscuits, so I got my fantastic mother to go and buy him some...which he shared with Giles from Buffy later on. (Note: I gave Anthony an orange...he's also rather fantastic!) In total, I spoke to Christian at least 20 times over the weekend, including when I came back on Sunday to give him pineapple rings taped to a sponge. Corey Feldman was particularly impressed with that...
Next, we met Matthew Lewis (Neville), and presented him with a yellow pepper., with "Psychological Shopping Trolley" emblazoned on it in my own wobbly writing. Matthew was another poppet, very easy to talk to and incredibly funny. Although he was relatively quiet at first, he soon got chatting to anyone and everyone, and was certainly a hit with the girls I spoke to.
The Phelps twins were next on our list. Armed with a bra with a potato in each cup (which read "twin boobies", by the way), we bounced the bra straps a few times for them, before setting it down in front of them. A few nervous giggles later, they thanked us for it, although they looked totally confused by the whole thing. Again, we came back to see them a few times over the weekend, and they remembered us, which we were very pleased about. Hail, hail, Phelps twins!
At 6:30 on Saturday evening, my friends and I went to the Q&A session at the cinema. Christian had said he would look for us, and sure enough, he gave us a wave once he spotted us. Sitting one row from the front, we weren't hard to spot.
After a quick photo session, we were invited to ask any questions we liked. Someone asked if they had ever had chicken bones thrown at them (Christian was laughing about that with us the next day!), and the answer was, of course, no. But it did provoke the four celebs into telling everyone about our...err...unusual gifts.
MATT: I got given a pepper!
OLIVER: I got a bra.
JAMES: WE got a bra.
CHRISTIAN: And I got a lemon. You know what, maybe you should just talk to those girls in the second row!
James and Oliver held the floor for most of the night, and Christian offered quite a few interesting points. Matthew remained fairly quiet, although we did find out that he has a secret passion for joining the army, David Blane and the Cirque Du Freak series. When asked what Hogwarts house they thought they would be sorted into, the twins said "Gryffindor". Christian said that, when he was thirteen, he would've probably been put into Slytherin. For some reason, that made most of the girls in the audience coo...myself included. Matthew (bless his cotton socks!) said that he would like to be in Gryffindor, but that he'd probably be put in Hufflepuff. Again, the sound of gentle cooing resounded off the walls of the auditorium. Towards the end of the talk, the discussion became much more relaxed, and the twins told us a very funny story about Devon Murray and the women's toilets. I felt very proud when my question concluded the talk, having asked what, if anything, they would like to say to their fans. The unanimous answer was simply "thank you".
All in all, Collectormania 4 was a very worthwhile, very fun-filled event. Although Sunday was far busier, what with Elijah Wood being in attendance, there was still plenty of chances to meet the boys again. After going and hugging and kissing each of them in turn, I came back to see Christian one last time. Again, I couldn't have wished for a nicer meeting: although he was tired, he still made the effort to get up and give me a huge hug. I then managed to somewhat embarrass myself a few seconds later. I was glancing over at Matthew, when suddenly I heard someone shout "IT'S THE IRISH LAD!", and moments later, I saw none other than Devon Murray standing a few feet away. I started screaming his name, which sent Christian off into hysterical laughter. I said a quick goodbye to him, and rushed over to Devon, who I hugged and kissed. He's so tiny in real life...very huggable! I was slightly embarrassed when I heard Christian saying "awwwwww!" in the background, but I was on such a high from this unexpected meeting, that I barely noticed it.
With Collectormania 5 only a few months away, I'm already well into making plans as to which vegetables I will be giving out. All I can say is, if it's anything like CM 4, it's going to be worth every carrot, turnip and wrinkly brussel sprout in Tesco!
-- by Leyla Berramou.
 
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