Moonlight Fangoria Con 2008

Posted March 30, 2011

There's seems to be a resurgence of interest in the pictures of Alex with the little girl at the Fangoria Con. So I thought I would post the pictures and tell the story again. The little girl in the pictures has autism. She was drawn to Alex. Her mother said she had never done that before. She wrote a blog about it and one thing led to another. I met her on the cbs.com/Moonlight board. She was excited that people were interested in her story but most of all she wanted Alex to know what a special thing it was that he did that day. Also she was impressed with Sophia. So I told her I would send him a message at MySpace letting him know. This was the summer of 2008. He finally read my note in February of 2009. His answer? He was AMAZED and glad that I had shared the story with him. He signed the note: "Lots of Love, Al"

Fangoria’s Weekend of Horror ~ Aka: Alex O’Loughlin has won my heart!

And, as I gestured my apologies to Anthony Timpone (editor of Fango for the last 100 years) he only smiled and nodded back that it really was ok. She was definitely the bell of that ball! And, that wasn’t the only one she stirred up!

But, before I get on to that, I need to add that I met a wonderful couple while there and have even more reason to visit Las Vegas now. At the entry to the con was a long table filled with movie promo’s and such. And, as I was going through picking up one of everything, I bumped into a guy doing the same. We made the smallest of chit-chat about the con and all the stuff there was when he mentioned that he and his wife had a booth set up inside. They’d brought their young son and he thought maybe we should stop by when he got there later. And that’s when he mentioned that his son is a highly functional autistic. That really floored me, since it was only recently that Donnella was diagnosed with a form of autism. Some of you may recall my jokes in the past ~ when it comes to her “issues” ~ how at least I didn’t need to worry about autism. Well, it looks like I joked too soon, because she falls into that same category as their son. And, the more we talked, the more I realized just how much she’d benefit from knowing someone like herself. He and his wife know all too well the heartbreak I’ve felt when watching the other kids and how they just seem to sense something’s not “right” with her and quickly abandon her on the playground. And, when they did finally get to meet it was far too brief a time together. But, seeing her play with another kid who “got her” made my night! And, as soon as I’m able, we’ll be getting with whatever support group there is in the area so that she can socialize with even more kids. Oh, and Gina also gave Nella one of the artsy boxes she was selling. Nella’s newest “thing” is to be a kitty cat, so she gave her the box with two cats on it. Very, seriously cool! When we got back Nella put all her convention buttons in it as her treasure box. And, another thing I’m only now making the connection about; as we were talking, she made the comment that they can now *spot* other kids like their son, so I’m thinking that’s why he’d initially invited us over. He could just tell. Wow.

As soon as that bit of hoorah died down, as we were actually walking toward the door to leave the auditorium, Anthony Timpone came on the mic and announced that the panel for ‘Moonlight’ would be on shortly. Oh boy. How could we leave when Nella’s newest heartthrob, Mick, was going to be on stage???

This time she whole heartily agreed to sit down and listen. Let me tell ya, this was the most well behaved she’d been all day! And, when they came on stage, I was actually quite glad we stayed. They were the last panel for the convention and I was pretty worn out. So, had Nella not been so insistent to see her Mick, I’d probably have skipped it. Well, the group consisted of Alex O’Loughlin, Sophia Myles and Jason Dohring ~ the three main players on the show. Now, she sat pretty damn still, but I did have to keep her from charging the stage again! And, this time she knew all too well what she was doing ~ she wanted to be near Mick! And, dammit if my kid doesn’t have some great taste! But, to pacify her, I promised that when they were done, she could go up and say hi to him. And, when I could tell they were wrapping up, I walked us up near the stage and let her go the second they ended it.

Now, this is where it gets really cool. She ran up to the stage and just at that moment Alex turned around and saw her. He turned, smiled and said “Well, hello there”. You should have seen her ~ eyes all big and adoring! I quickly explained that she really loves the show and had wanted to say hi. Well, that was a wrap! Hearing this he held out his hand to her and pulled her on stage! She immediately held open her arms to hug him and then leaned in for a kiss! He seemed so genuinely pleased to have one so little so completely in awe of him that he happily hugged and kissed her right back! Of course, I was so shocked by it all that I didn’t have the stupid phone out! SO, he patiently waited so that I could get a picture of them together. Want a man, what a man, what a man! I should also add that Mr. O’Loughlin had been working on the show til 8:30 that morning ~ this was 6:30pm ~ so the man had had no sleep. But, what really killed me was that he was going to hang out with her LONGER, but she turned and walked away! He was crouched there with this huge grin, saying “What? That’s it? Where you going?”. I mean, out of all the really cool experiences we’d had, after all the really cool people we’d met ~ here he was, so pressed for time, yet pretty much said “f^*k it all” and was gonna MAKE time for her! You just can’t get any cooler than that! So, as she was walking away I just shrugged and said “Eh, she’s fickle”. To that he smiled at me and said “She’s really cool is what she is! She is really cool”. 

And, I’d be remiss if I didn’t also add how we nearly incited a riot amongst the women in the audience who also wanted a hug from the hunky star! It really was too funny ~ the handlers were trying to get them off stage and to the backstage area for the *paid* photos and hugs, and by holding him up, that held everybody up! It was utter chaos! All the fans from the audience kind of rushed the stage and the actors just went with it. Really, it was kinda cool to see how much they enjoyed the fans and didn’t really care about the business end of it all.

After Nella was done with her moment, Sophia Myles was suddenly in front of us having her photo taken. On a personal note here, I wanna be friends with her just so she’ll show me how to pose for pictures like that! The girl was ON. But, when she’d first walked out on stage I was really taken with her dress and yelled out to her that it was just gorgeous. Well, this super-cool chick stopped what she was doing to give me the designer’s name. She said to me “Check out her stuff. She’s really, really good and her cuts are perfect for women with, uh, real figures!”. Ya know, I loved her as the trampy-bitch in ‘Underworld’, love her as Beth on ‘Moonlight’, now would also like to hang out with the woman in real life! Hey Sophia, I’m new to town and could use a new bff! Ya know, I’m just sayin’......

But, in all seriousness ~ Alex, if you ever read this, know that you now have a life long fan! I really can’t begin to tell you how much the attention you paid my kid means to me! She’s so special, but also tends to be quite lonely. She really does spend so much of her daily life up in her own head and not in the world. So, making her the center of your attention the way that you did not only brought her out, but bolstered her confidence in ways that I just can’t articulate. And, that pretty much makes you a real life super hero in my book!

This is an excerpt. Read the rest of the story at:

http://bloggerparty.com/fangoria_s_weekend_of_horror_aka_alex_o_loughlin_has_won_my_heart...