Norbreck Castle Hotel

Norbreck Castle Hotel, Blackpool, UK
18-20 September 2009

The 3 day event organised by Starfury featured Mia Kirshner, Pam Grier, Daniela Sea, Rose Rollins, Anne Ramsay and last but not least Alexandra Hedison. Although Alex only appeared in 2 seasons of The L word as Dylan, she is no stranger to the L word community. She hosted 'Be Scene' at Dinah Shore 2 years running and has been seen at premieres and book signings. Being a guest in Blackpool this year was a first time for Alex but she didn't disappoint. She enthralled the crowds with her wit, humour and honesty.

Opening Ceremony

These pictures say a thousand words

Meet and Greet
Breathless Mahoney was lucky to meet Alex on Friday evening at the meet and greet session before the fire alarm went off resulting in her table missing out on greeting Pam and Rose. Alex was happy when BM said 'hi from Dee (wm, fanofalex)' telling her how she found the site 'amazing and complete' and easy to navigate to the page she wants. BM also asked her what camera she uses to which Alex replied 'medium format'.

Photo Sessions (by tpandora)
Alexandra greeted everyone as they approached for the photo with her with a big smile the genuine question of "Hi, how are you?” I told her I was nervous to be standing next to her. The first shot didn't come out so we immediately posed for a second one; I told her I didn't mind and that I could stand next to her all day. I wasn't crazy about the way I looked in the picture on Saturday (I looked a bit star-struck) so I opted to get another one done with her on Sunday (who wouldn't, right?). This time I took the opportunity to tell her how absolutely beautiful I thought she was and she graciously thanked me for that and reciprocated by saying "So are you".

Q & A Sessions
Alex did these sessions on both Saturday and Sunday on her own.

Alex was asked what other Lword character she would've liked to play. She said Tina, so she could make out with Bette.. she said Jennifer Beals is stunning. However, since she is friends with her now she wants to change her answer because if she told her she would be like ......OMG what did you say?

Alex is a fan of Jennifer Beals' photography. She likes how she portrays people in her photos, she captures people's moods. They have a mutual respect for each other's photography.

The puppet kept showing up every now and then before the guests were on stage... all of the sudden Alex appeared out of nowhere......

She indicated that the L Word was the best acting job she's ever had and spoke of a few funny/memorable moments on the set, specifically, in season 3 while shooting the beach house scene with Helena. Apparently, a bat had gotten on to the set while they were doing the most intimate of scenes and how hard it was considering her fear of fast flying objects, such as bats. She also spoke of her first day of work on season 6 during her dance scene in the HIT club. Leisha (Alice), who's a good friend of hers, did some improvisation and added a few more lines than were scripted when describing how Dylan and friends were dancing (Wow..looks like someone’s carpet’s about to get munched). Alex then had to act this provocative type dance part out when the camera turned back to them. She got a lot of laughs from the audience as she re-enacted her dance on the stage for us.
In describing the differences between the character of Dylan and herself, she said of herself "I believe in honesty. I believe in being upfront. I believe that when you are speaking your truth that everything is fine, always. It always is." (by tpandora)

Autographs (by tpandora)
We were told that as a time saving measure, the autographs were not going to be personalized. When I got to her table, she asked my name and immediately began to personalize the signing. I had her sign a photo in which she wrote "Be creative + true" and the Ithaka catalogue where she wrote ..."On your journey". I told her that I was able to see the Ithaka exhibit at Frank Picture's Gallery in Santa Monica in May and she said that was her favorite gallery that she's shown in.
Overall, it was a pleasure to meet her. She, along with all of the cast members there, were smiling and engaging the entire time. I can imagine that wasn't always easy considering they all put in 12+ hour days and must have signed their names more than a thousand times throughout the weekend. Thanks Alex, for making L6 one of the most memorable weekends of my life.

Auction & Raffle

Alex brought along her Ithaka catalogue and L word water bottle given out during the bike ride in season 5 to raise money for V Day

Her 40th birthday present from a friend Who's the lucky winner?

40 x 40 inch print from Ithaka collection

Closing Ceremony

Report by tpandora with contributions from breathless mahoney

Photographs by breathless mahoney

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Report by Blue

Meet & Greet
Alex sat down next to me and asked us where we were all from (Belgium, Scotland, Ireland and England – she said that her Mom was English).

We asked her about her photography - Alex talked a bit about Ithaka (she mentioned – I’m sure not for the first time that night – that the work wasn’t about trees!) and said that she’d been teased at one of the other tables because the gallery where her exhibition is now is in a really posh part of London (Kensington). She also talked a little about her current project.

Re Helena/Dylan, we said that they were the most believable couple on the series – Alex thanked us for the comment and said that she and Rachel had worked really hard to make the relationship between the characters real (we assured her that they had succeeded!).

We asked if there were any scenes which she had found hard to shoot - Alex said that the she had found the knife scene in Season 6 really difficult to film and was glad it was shortened in the finished episode.

All too soon, it was time for her to go. We asked her to pass on our congratulations to Rachel – Alex said that she would be seeing her in a few days and she would be happy to do so.

Guest Talks and Auction/Raffle
When Alex first came out on stage (to be met with hundreds of flash-bulbs!), she said she didn’t really know what to do – someone in the crowd yelled that she should pose so she did just that : this might go some way to explain the more ‘random’ images in the photo gallery (particularly 18 and 19).

One of the first questions was whether Alex preferred being called Alex or Alexandra – she said she had no preference but that her Mom called her Alexandra (she recalled how, when she was growing up, if her friends rang the house and asked to speak to ‘Alex’, her Mom would say that there was no-one of that name living there).

During the Talk on Saturday, she invited a lass to join her on stage so the lass could propose to her girlfriend (who fortunately accepted!). She also congratulated another couple who had got married a few days before. Then during the Sunday Talk, a chap asked her to dedicate a poem to the newly engaged/married couples – Alex read out the poem (having first read it to herself to make sure it wasn’t of the ‘her clothes slid slowly to the floor’ kind of poems which she said she would be too embarrassed to read aloud!).

Alex said that she wasn’t keen on crowds and preferred one-on-one (I’m sure you can imagine the reaction that comment received!), that her perfect day would be spent with friends and that she’d like to get her own back on Leisha Hailey for making an un-scripted comment to camera (Season 6 where Alice sees Dylan at Hit) which Alex then had to act out (she gave us a demonstration - Image 56).

Many of Alex’s responses to the more serious/personal questions (coming-out stories, discrimination, etc) got me thinking for quite some time afterwards (and some still now if I’m honest). Equally, I’m still chuckling at some of her more light-hearted comments (I’m not sure I’ll look at cooking foil again without smiling : a-loo-min-um? a-la-min-ee-um?)

I wasn’t fortunate enough to win one of Alex’s 2 large prints from Ithaka in the raffle but I did buy one of the smaller ones (which came with a signed exhibition catalogue) - the proceeds went to V Day. As well as some other photographs and mementoes from the series, Alex auctioned her necklace which had been a birthday gift – she assured everyone that the person who gave it to her would be OK with it as she was raising money for V-Day.

So, those are some of the things I remember from L6. I really hope Alex comes to another L event (or any other event for that matter) and that I get to meet her again. And hopefully if I do get to meet her another time, I’ll be less nervous and so won’t come across like a complete half-wit…………..again!