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Past weekend was the very last True Blood Bitten event in Northampton, UK. Jason Smith aka Andy Bellefleur was there again with his lovely wife Katie and he reports how Truebies party in the UK.
 

This was the third True Blood convention organised by Massive Events. The big name guest this year was Nelsan Ellis who plays Lafayette. Denis O’Hare who plays Russell Edgington had to be replaced due to being in a play on Broadway which clashed with the convention. Nelsan was to be joined by Lauren Bowles who plays Holly, Lindsay Pulsipher who plays Crystal and Tara Buck who plays Ginger. I was a little sad going into this con as it was announced the week before that this would be the last True Blood Bitten convention that Massive Events would host. I resolved that I would make the most of the weekend and have a great time. Was looking forward to meeting the Bitten crew and cosplaying a variety of True Blood characters over the course of the weekend.

I decided to take the Friday off work this year so I could arrive early and not be so rushed as in previous years. After meeting up with Truebie friends for lunch, checking in to the hotel and registering for the con, I changed into my Sheriff Bellefleur costume that I would be wearing for the party that night and made my way to the convention hall. Everyone was excited that the Bitten con was going to start again. The first shock announcement was that Nelsan had missed his flight from the USA as he had been filming overnight and it had overrun. Massive Events promised he would be there the following morning for photos and autographs and even said they would do a second meet and greet wine reception the following night for gold ticket holders as Nelsan would miss the one that was taking place straight after the opening ceremony. Then we got to meet Tara, Lindsay and Lauren for the first time which got the crowd going. The ladies said they had been enjoying the sights of Northampton and had found a shoe museum to look round!

After the brief introduction at the opening ceremony it was on to the first of two wine receptions with the guests. Lauren (who plays Andy Bellfleur’s girlfriend) said she was very taken with my costume! It was her second convention, the first being a horror convention in Baltimore. Lindsay was wearing some amazing blue high hell shoes that the Truebie ladies in my group loved. She had been to an autograph signing with Joe Manganiello, so it was her first proper con too! Tara looked lovely too.

After the wine reception was the first of the parties, this one being themed round the Halloween party at Merlotte’s in Season 3. Everyone had made great efforts on costumes this year. At 10pm almost everyone made their way outside to the front of the hotel for the first of three group shots of all the convention goers. The party went on quite late and Sheriff Andy was very popular for photos.

I made it to breakfast this next morning dressed as Andy Bellefleur for the first photoshoot starting at 10am. Nelsan had arrived at the hotel shortly beforehand and everyone was excited about that. I also took my Talbot crystal jar down for the photo shoots. First photo shoot was with Lauren followed by Nelsan (who pulled Talbot’s lid off to look inside!) and then Lindsay and then Tara. The queues for autographs were not too bad so it wasn’t long before I had all four signatures added to my Andy Bellefleur arm cast. There was a short break during which I got changed into regular con cloths for the group photo with all four guests and my wife Katie.

The first group talk was a solo one from Lindsay. She was asked what it was like kissing and biting Ryan and about the infamous rape scene which she said was the most awkward scene she had to film. She said biting him was very chocolatey as that’s what they use in the fake blood! She said the funniest thing was the reverse camera shot on Ryan from her point of view when Ryan was tied to the bed which had one of the cameraman bouncing up and on him for a long time and filming his reaction. She would like to come back on the show and try and beat the crap out of Jessica!

The next solo talk was from Tara. She was asked about her trade mark scream and said “It just came out”, which made the audience laugh. She said the best/funniest Ginger moment was riding the coffin. She would love to appear on Game of Thrones and would dress up to go to a convention about it.

The last talk of the afternoon was from Lauren and Nelsan. When asked what his favourite word was he said “cooker”, which was a pun on everyone expecting him to say “hookah”. Lauren said her favourite quote was “bitch can burn”. When asked if he ever took any of Lafayette’s costumes, Nelsan said he took his earrings and shoes on occasion, “but not the other stuff”. Nelsan also said that in real life he sucks at cooking! When asked how long the show could run for Nelsan said he thought it was time to let Lafayette go as he felt he was getting typecast. In later talk he said he would play Lafayette for as long as his character was wanted in the show. Nelsan was also a big Game Of Thrones fan and would love to work on the show. Then in one of the funniest moments of the whole weekend, Nelsan spoilered the character Tara in season 5. We had been told to be careful about mentioning season 5 and the biggest gaff had come from Nelsan. Hilarious!

Following the talk was the auction for True Blood memorabilia signed by the guests. As this was the last Bitten they auctioned off all the previous memorabilia from the first two Bitten conventions as well. My friend won the Chinese meal with all 4 guests that evening so I was well excited for her! Then there was the second wine reception for gold ticket members where we got to meet Nelsan as well as the other ladies from the previous wine reception.

The evening party was Fangtasia as it had been in previous years. This was when the Truebie ladies got to wear sexy vampire costumes and they really went for it! I cosplayed Vampire Eddie which I did at the first Bitten and then took Talbot round in his crystal jar. His fan base was bigger than mine! There was another group shot in the lobby at 10pm followed by a band playing in the main party room. Everyone had a great time and the party went one quite late. Some of the guests came down and mingled with fans in the lobby outside the main hall which was great. Nelsan was doing shots with some of his fans which went down well, except for the following morning!

I had a lie in on the last morning as I already had all my photo shoots and autographs. Nelsan was late down due to jet lag and the shots from the night before. I don’t think anyone minded! The first afternoon talk was from Lindsay and Tara. When asked who the best looking True Blood actor was, Tara said Joe Manganiello, “No makeup required, no clothes required!”. Lauren did a solo talk next and then it was onto the quiz.

The quiz involved all four guests and two volunteer fans in questions, dictionary and acting scenes about True Blood. Fan Melissa was teamed with Lindsay and Tara in a team called “bitches”. Fan Roxanne was teamed with Lauren and Nelsan in a team called “hookahs”. The “bitches” eventually won by a point in another very funny quiz!

Following the quiz was Nelsan’s solo talk. His Aunty had called his cousin “hookah” so he had used it when improvising lines and it had stuck. He played trumpet and tuba at high school and would love to play Richard III if he got the chance. The funniest scene he was in was when a 300lb naked dude was running round a meat tree and he fell over. Nobody could stop laughing after that! He also said that a body double was used for the demon make up as it took 6 hours to put on and 3 hours to take off.

Last up was the final guest talk featuring all four guests followed by the closing ceremony. This was the funniest talk of the weekend. Lauren’s comments were hilarious. The whole talk had very adult material discussed in it which I can’t mention here. You just had to be there! Following the talk was the closing ceremony where we were told about the possibility of Massive Events running some kind of vampire themed country ball in the summer of 2013. There were no details as it was just an idea at the drawing board.

The last party was a slumber party themed round fellowship of the sun in the lobby outside of the main hall. I went as Steve Newlin in his trademark brown sweater and took Talbot along so we could all eat the vodka jelly that was inside.
There was a final group shot of all the party attendees. Later the guests came down again and joined fans in the main hotel bar after the party had finished.

It was another great weekend con organised by Massive Events. Will be interesting to see what they come up with next or if anyone else can fill the large True Blood shaped hole in the UK convention scene!

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Shadaliza

Founder and co-owner at The Vault - TrueBlood-Online.com & AllStephenMoyer.com

Shadaliza loves the Internet, film and TV shows, writing, running websites and charity fundraising; she has found the perfect combo in the fansites to express her creativity and passion. Shadaliza is Dutch, but has lived in Italy for many years and works as Marketing Executive for an Internet hosting company.

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Showmasters has just made the announcement that Denis O’hare has been confirmed for the UK True Blood fan convention Bitten 3.

Denis will join Nelsan Ellis who was confirmed to attend last month.

The event will be held from Friday 17th – Sunday 19th of August 2012 in Northampton. Visit the website for more info.

Showmasters have just made the announcement that Nelsan Ellis has been confirmed for the UK True Blood fan convention Bitten 3.

Nelsan is really looking forward to meeting everyone and spending the weekend partying away True Blood style!

The event will be held from Friday 17th – Sunday 19th of August 2012 in Northampton. Visit the website for more info.

From our special reporter Jason.

This was the second True Blood convention organised by Massive Events. I went to the first one the previous year and had a great time so was really looking forward to this one. The big name guest this year was Joe Manganiello who plays the werewolf Alcide along with Grant Bowler who plays the werewolf Cooter and Marshall Allman who plays Sam Merlotte’s shapeshifting brother Tommy. There was a bit of disappointment at the late cancel of Mehcad Brooks who plays Eggs and Mariana Klaveno who plays Lorena. The three guests had really great rapport and that more than made up for the cancellations. Massive Events also offered extra free autographs and photo shoots to attendees to make up for it. I was also looking forward to the parties as much as seeing the guests as I had a great time doing cosplay at Bitten the previous year.

I arrived at the Park Inn in Northampton where the convention takes place shortly before the Friday night opening ceremony and got changed into my new Sheriff Bellefleur costume and made my way down to the convention hall. The crowd was really excited as the guests were announced and invited onto the stage. Joe had flown into the UK earlier in the week and had appeared on the ITV “This Morning” show mid week. He said he had spent the week being a tourist in London and recommend we saw Richard III with Kevin Spacey at the Old Vic. Marshall had flown straight in from LA and had tried a cure for yet lag that didn’t work.

As a gold ticket holder, I got to go to a wine reception that followed with the three guests. We stood in circles of about ten and the guests came round and joined our circle to say hello and have a chat. All with wine being served in copious quantities. I find it is the best perk of being a gold ticket holder. All three guests spend a lot of their shoots naked in Season 3 so there were quite a lot of questions about that from the ladies all weekend! Grant told us that his opening filing shot was in a forest naked with him being separated by three wolves by a three foot electric fence. He said he was a little worried! Joe told us about hanging out in London all week, going to the Tower of London, Buckingham Place and eating fish and chips. He also said he originally auditioned for the part of Cooter before getting the part of Alcide! And Marshall said he would not do a nude scene with Alexander Skarsgard because he refused to wear a sock, which is normal for actors who do nude scenes! I enjoyed the wine reception but may have drunk a bit too much wine. Several ladies said the same thing the next morning.

Following the wine reception was the first party theme, which was Faery land. Most people (ladies) came in faery costumes or white dresses. I had prepared Bon Temps Sheriff’s Department fairy wing licenses to hand out as Sheriff Bellefleur which seemed to go down well. Sheriff Andy was much more popular than the down and out Andy I played at Bitten the previous year. Must be the uniform! The party went on quite late and there were a lot of people nursing hangovers the following day, me included!

The following Saturday morning was the usual run for autographs and photo shoots. I kept my Sherif Bellefleur costume on for the photo shoots and had my fake arm cast from the previous Bitten signed by the new guests. I now have eight signatures on the cast! One of the extras was group photo shoot with all three guests which I did with Katie, my fiancé. My hangover got the better of me at this point so I went for a sleep before the first of the three afternoon talks with each of the guests individually.

There were some Interesting facts from the afternoon talks. Joe talked about his prep work for appearing on True Blood. He got tips from Hugh Jackman’s X-men trainer and watched a lot of wolf documentaries. The wolf he turns into is called Thunder in real life and they feed him a lot of raw meat on set to stop him biting the actors! He told us that he would be allowed to take Thunder for walks if the wolf liked him. Thunder did and they got to the point where Joe was able to stroke Thunder under the chin! He told us about some running practical jokes he had with Marshall and how he ran Marshall’s head through a bush while carrying him in retaliation for a joke Marshall played on him. More on Marshall’s side of this later! He also told us how being a regular on True Blood has opened up acting opportunities that conflict with his seven month filming schedule for the show. He was unable to screen for the new Superman film because of this!

Grant told us how he thought he was tall until he met Joe! He told us about the differences in being in an Australian TV show, which is where he is from and being in a US TV show. In Australia the budgets are small so the actors will talk about the car chase rather than it actually being filmed. In the US the budgets are larger so they shoot it. Grant’s banter was really good and he was turned out to be the most entertaining of the three guests! Commenting on his apparent lack of height he said he would run a washing line between Eric and Alcide to do his washing! On the subject of being nude on set, he said he preferred an open set as this might be the last time anyone asks him to do a scene nude!

Next there was a True Blood quiz with Grant and Marshall on two opposing teams. Each side of the hall was on a different team with two lucky attendees from each side being asked on stage to make up a three person quiz team. The quiz team names were quite rude so I shan’t mention them here! There were some question and answers, Pictionary and acting out of True Blood scenes with the audience guessing which episode they came from. This was the first year Massive Events had done a quiz this year and I think it went really well!

Marshall’s talk came next. He said it was easier to prepare for his character as Tommy does not feature in any of the books so there is no role he needed to play to. He said if he could shape shift into any animal, it would be Felix, Terry Bellefleur’s pet armadillo! He told us about the practical joke he had played on Joe which got his head ran through a bush in retaliation. In a shoot inside a car, Joe had belched loudly in Marshall’s face before exiting the car. Marshall had then mooned out the car window and farted, or pretend to fart as Marshall claims, when Joe had turned round to the car window to continue to shoot the scene! He told us about his infamous method shape shifting video on Funny or Die, and how it had originally started out as a rap video. The intro to the rap video then turned into method shape shifting video. Watch it at your peril!

Then there was an auction for various photographs and True Blood memorabilia signed by the guests and guests at the previous Bitten. The big auction prize was a Chinese meal with all three guests that evening that went for £320. The ladies next to me won that. I had won that in the auction the previous year so it was nice to see them win and tell them what a great time they would have.

The evening beckoned and the Fangtasia party was upon us. This was the big party of the weekend with lots of the ladies vamping it up with some great sexy costumes. The three guests made a brief appearance for the evening. My cosplay revolved round Talbot, the vampire who’s remains Russell Edgington carries a round in a large crystal jar in Season 3. After months of searching I found the exact same jar from the show which I filled with vodka jelly. I look nothing like Russell in build so came as a confused Fellowship of the Sun worshipper who worshipped Talbot rather the sun. Talbot proved to be a big hit with the ladies. I took him dancing and got some great photos of him enjoying the party though out the evening. The party went on hard and late into the night!

Sunday morning saw extra free autographs and photo shoots with the three guests. I decided to do an extra photo shoot with all three guests with Talbot, which turned out some great photos! The afternoon saw all three guests do individual talks again. The quality of the banter was getting funnier and ruder as the weekend drew on. Then at the closing ceremony all three guests appeared on stage again and the banter between them was hilarious, some of the best I’ve seen. Most of it was too rude to mention here!

In the evening there was a Lou Pines party in the lobby area of the hotel outside the main hall. I had a bikers outfit for this one and brought Talbot along so we could eat him. It was a really relaxed evening and a great laugh with everyone winding down after a busy weekend. Grant came along and stayed most of the night. What a trooper! All in, another great weekend organised by some great guys. And gals. Thanks again Massive Events!

Details for Bitten 3 were announced earlier in the weekend. 17th to 19th August 2012 Park Inn, Northampton. Gold tickets are now on sale on the Massive Events website for £210.

Jason aka Andy Bellfleur

Mehcad Brooks was scheduled to be one of the True Blood celebrities to attend Bitten 2 this year. However, last night he tweeted that he is no longer able to be at the event due to his current filming schedule on Necessary Roughness.

The Bitten organizers say: “At the time of his tweet we were not aware there were any issues with his appearance. However, I have been in touch with his people in The States and it is indeed true that he will not be able to make the show now.

Although we are all disappointed we wish Mehcad well with his current project and we hope to see him at another event over here in the future.

Thanks everyone for bearing with us while we got confirmation on this.”

The guests still expected to attend are:  

• Joe Manganiello ”Alcide Herveaux”
• Marshall Allman ”Tommy Mickens”
• Mariana Klaveno“Lorena”
• Grant Bowler ”Cooter”.

source: showmastersonline.com

The UK True Blood fan convention Bitten 2 has just confirmed its very first guest: Mehcad Brooks who plays Eggs in Season 2.

Bitten 2 will take place from 5-7 August, 2011 in Northampton, UK. For more information visit the conventions website http://www.massiveevents.co.uk/bitten2/

Second installment of the adventures of Shadaliza at the True Blood convention Bitten in Northampton, UK, August 6-8, 2010.

Read the first part here.

Check out the Photo Gallery for more photos from Bitten.

Convention days start early; we all had to be ready by 9am for the first photo shoot with Jim Parrack on Saturday morning. The restaurant was full with Truebies dressed in various True Blood t-shirts when I arrived for breakfast and Jim, dressed in a suit and sitting alone reading his bible, stood out. Going against all fan convention codes I walked over to say “good morning” and he invited me to join him.

Thirty minutes later day 2 of Bitten was in full force. Fans moved between the photo studio and the main hall to collect their autographs and get their pic taken with Kristin, Sam, Jim and Todd.

In the afternoon the four individual talks of the cast and the guest encounters were scheduled. The guest encounters were sold by auction; maximum 12 fans got to spend 45 min with one of the guests. Unfortunately they were scheduled at the same time as the talks, so one could only attend one or the other.

The four individual talks lasted about an hour each and they were all very interesting and entertaining. I had sent in several questions for each guest and I am proud to say that many of my questions were presented to the cast.  During the afternoon of the third day Jim and Todd did a talk together and so did Kristin and Sam and the last talk was with all four of them. Because season 3 has not yet aired in the UK we were not permitted to ask questions concerning season 3, but every now and then season 3 scenes were mentioned even though no big spoilers were revealed for those who had not yet seen it.

We were not allowed to record during the talks and it is hard to recall what was said exactly.  I will do my best to list some of the highlights.

Sam did an impression of how Lafayette moves. Jim did the vocal impression: “You eat it the way I fucking make it!” Sam repeated the Andy lines that made him crack up on set over and over again: “Annie the Nanny”. Todd does a mean Willy Nelson. and the fans cheered when they all did “Sookie” the way Bill says it. Other favorite lines were “Smite me” from Sam, Kristin mentioned her Pam line about smiling too much and wearing pink, Todd loved his list of 10 and Jim was impressed by the lines where he tells Jessica that she is beautiful and shouldn’t be ashamed.

Nudity was mentioned of course, Sam told about awkward moments in his trailer with the make-up lady rubbing make-up on his naked body. Kristin recalled the season 3 scene where Alex and Natasha we the most comfortable on set and they were the ones that were naked. Sam didn’t like the butt of his body double in the season 1 finale and decided to do the graveyard scene himself.

Jim’s party trick is impossible to carry out for most people: walking in a straight line. Sam juggled with 3 bottles of water. Kristin could knot a cherry stem with her tongue (!) in college, but not any more: she is married now. Todd’s party trick left Kristin sitting for moments with her mouth open of surprise, which was:

Pick a number between 1 to 10, multiply this number by 9 and add the 2 digits together. Subtract 5 from this number and think of the letter of the alphabet with the same rank as his number. Think of a European country with a name beginning with that letter. Think of an animal whose name begins with the last letter of the chosen country. Choose a color with a name beginning with the last letter of the animal’s name. NO, there are no orange kangaroos in Denmark!

Kristin told a wonderful story about her audition for “Bones”, she gave the performance of a lifetime with shitty lines and got scared because she got the job and knew she would never be able to repeat her Oscar worthy performance. She never saw her “Bones” episode, but the paycheck cleared. She thinks it’s funny to say “Chris Bauer” to Chris Bauer every time she sees him, because how many shows have a Chris Bauer and a Kristin Bauer? Chris never smiles though…

One of the highlights of Jim’s life is his wedding day. Getting married was pretty special to Kristin as well, as was losing her virginity during the honeymoon.

Todd would like to turn Terry into the Frankenstein monster, Sam wants to shapeshift into a dinosaur, Kristin is still impressed by the burgundy 80’s jumpsuit she wore, Sam would like to invent a gadget to keep his coffee hot (that’s called a thermos, Sammy). Kristin and Abri can never find the remote in bed.

Ipod music. Sam: The National, Jim: Nina Simone, Kristin: Abri van Straten, Todd: Willy Nelson. Sam didn’t know The Final Countdown by Europe, it has now become the theme song of Bitten 2010. Abri air guitared on it while we all sang.

Jim spoke about his director’s debut that he is working on with his wife and family called “Post”. “You all celebrate Christmas but like I died a couple of months ago.” He instructed his family before saying “action”.

Todd will spend some time recording with his Pilbilly Knights, Sam is on vacation in Italy right now and Kristin and Abri are in South Africa.

The message we received loud and clear from all of them is how much they enjoy being part of the True Blood family. They all feel fortunate and blessed to be able to work on this amazing show and they are very grateful for the love and enthusiasm of the fans.

Saturday night the party theme was Fangtasia. The main hall was transformed into a vampire bar including Eric’s throne, grunge music and pole dancers. Many fans had dressed up in fangbanger style wearing vampire bait outfits.

Kristin, Abri, Sam, Missy, Jim and Todd mingled amongst the fans, chatting with everyone that came up to them to say hello. All the fans were respectful and the guests were never crowded. They moved around the party, Todd and Jim even gave the pole a quick try and danced with fans.

Together with a few of my friends I had the chance to talk with Jim and Todd about season 3 and after the jet lagged cast had gone to sleep I chatted with Kristin’s husband Abri for some time. The next day I received a signed copy of his latest CD.

Sunday night’s party was in a smaller setting, many of the fans who lived nearby had gone home. The theme of the party was Descendants of the Glorious Dead and several fans had dressed up accordingly.

A special shout out to Jason Smith and his wonderful costumes.

When entering the lobby we ran into Kristin, Abri, Jim and Todd. Sam and Missy had already left for their vacation in Italy. We took a few photos with the guests and I spoke with Todd and Kristin. Entering the party again the men were dancing and Abri accompanied Kristin onto the dance floor while the fans cheered.

Bitten was a wonderful experience for both the fans and the guests. So much positive energy and love, we were all there because we share a passion: True Blood.

Bitten will be back in 2011, you can already buy your tickets in the Massive Events webstore.

Special thanks to Giles Golding for letting me use his photos.
http://blog.gilesgphotography.co.uk/2010/08/bitten.html

Special thanks to Tinchy and Mary for sharing their photos.

Check out the Photo Gallery for more photos from Bitten.

Having my home base in Italy I didn’t expect to be able to attend any True Blood fan conventions any time soon, but when I heard about the Bitten event in Northampton (UK) organized by Massive Events, I bought my ticket and booked a flight; I just had to be there.

And I am so glad that did. I have no words to describe the amazing positive energy that flowed around in the Park Inn hotel this past weekend. The guests, the fans, the crew…. I can speak for all of them when I say that we all had a blast and that the event was a huge success.

For the first time I experienced first hand how difficult it is to be a fan and report at the same time, the days at a con are long and full, there is so much going on and I didn’t even have the time to take notes.

This is my story about the first day.

My journey to England on Thursday August 5 was a total disaster. I departed from Pisa after a 5 hours delay (there had even been talk of canceling the flight altogether) and stumbled into the Park Inn in Northampton at midnight. After only one hour of sleep, I was woken up at 2am by a sound in my room that was so loud that it could have woken up vampires in daytime. It took me a few moments to realize that the noise wasn’t in my head but that it was the fire alarm. Outside I found myself surrounded by people who were clearly not attending the Bitten event, except for one couple: Kristin Bauer (looking lovely dressed in a white bathrobe) and her husband Abri van Straten. Fortunately, there was no fire and we were allowed back into the hotel, only to find ourselves outside again 30 minutes later. A technician solved the problem and we could finally all go back to bed again.

Cheryl, Shad, Marcia, Tinchy and Mary

On Friday at the registration desk I met several online friends and while chatting with them in the lobby, Sam Trammell and his girlfriend Missy Yager arrived. Sam was very kind and took the time to shake hands and say hello before going up to his room.

Moments later Kristin and Abri walked in and the first thing that came to my mind to say to her was: “Did you really have to set off the fire alarm last night? Twice?” I’ve been in email contact with Kristin and it was wonderful to meet her in person.

She introduced me to Abri and we spoke a few moments about his first solo album that has just been released and the charity work connected to it. When the CD will be for sale on Amazon in September they will send a signed photograph to everyone who buys the album (a part of the proceeds will go to the IFAW).

The Vault will help with the promotion, so stay tuned for more info.

At 7pm it was time for the opening ceremony. Mark and Jason of Massive Events explained the do’s and don’ts and called the cast on stage for a quick hello. I was so busy cheering for Jim Parrack that I forgot to turn on the video camera and I missed how his chair broke when he sat down, but there were 4 chairs on stage…..

After the official opening the Gold ticket holders all went to the main bar for the reception with the guests. All the fans had the chance to speak with each guest in small groups of no more than 4 or 5 people; the rotating system worked very well, kudos to the crew.

The highlights for me were that I spoke with Kristin about how she experienced Comic Con and the wonderful remark she made about Alexander Skarsgard during the panel.

Even though Sam has said in interviews that he doesn’t read the fan sites, he knows The Vault and loves the apron I designed for him that the Billsbabes gave him last year at the Eyecon convention in Florida.

The first thing Todd said to me was: ”You are just as pretty as your Facebook photo”. Who would have expected Todd to be such a charmer?

I looked very much forward to meeting Jim. I’ve been in contact with him for quiet some time now and meeting him in person was definitely a very special moment for me.

Together with a few other girls I spoke with the lovely Missy Yager, she told us the story how she and Sam met and got together and she added that he is a good man and the look on her face confirmed that statement.

It’s remarkable how similar some cast members are to the characters they play and how others seem to be completely different, that’s good casting and good acting. When I watch True Blood I see Pam, Sam, Hoyt and Terry. For me the actors and the characters they portray are completely separated in my mind; they are different people. But meeting Kristin, Sam, Jim and Todd I can’t help but see a little bit of the characters they portray in them.

Kristin told us during her Q&A that she does have some Pam in her somewhere, her warm and kind personality makes that hard to believe, but I do see glimpses of Pam in Kristin’s dry and, at times, sarcastic sense of humor. But I sincerely doubt that Pam would tear up talking about cruelty against animals and meeting the in-laws for the first time.

Sam and Sam could be twin brothers; both good men and they share a very similar taste in clothes. I find Trammell Sam more charming than Merlotte Sam, he smiles a lot more too, that may be because he found the love of his life in Missy Yager and Merlotte Sam is moving from one disaster to the next.

When you look at Todd from a distance you don’t know whether you are looking at Todd or Terry, but Todd is definitely more laid back than Terry. He enjoyed talking to the fans, is passionate about his music (“country music is three cords and the truth”) and he has as few party tricks up his sleeve that I will explain in full in a next article about Bitten.

Jim and Hoyt were made from the same cloth, but because of the lack of life experience growing up in a place like Bon Temps Hoyt is in some aspects still a boy. Even though they have the same age, Jim is definitely more mature; he could be Hoyt’s older brother.

The evening ended with a country style party including a mechanical bull. I was beat and was in bed before midnight. None of the guests partied hard that night, I believe, the jet lag caught up with them and everybody had to be fresh and ready the next morning at 9am for the photo shoots and signings.

Check out the Photo Gallery for more photos from Bitten.
Special thanks to Tinchy, Mary and Jennifer for sharing their photos.

To be continued…

Todd Lowe joins Jim Parrack, Sam Trammell and Kristin Bauer at the UK convention Bitten that will be held in Northampton the weekend of August 6 through August 8, 2010.

Check out the Bitten website for more info on this True Blood convention.

I will be attending this event and I am looking forward to meeting you all there!

Jim Parrack joins Sam Trammell and Kristin Bauer at the UK convention Bitten that will be held in Northampton the weekend of August 6 through August 8, 2010.

Check out the Bitten website for more info on this True Blood convention.

I will be attending this event and I am looking forward to meeting you all there!