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Notes
and miscellany
(See the Sitemistress' Office for a listing of the contents of this page.)
Yes,
like many a fan of many a celebrity, I too have a tale of a near
"meeting" which didn't quite happen in the end. For
everyone's edification, I present the following tale:
I
discovered Julian Sands at the tender age of 14, when I began to
hear about this brilliant movie called A Room With a View.
Soon thereafter I saw an article in a magazine about this
newly-renowned actor, his life and his new project, a movie based on
the life of Percy Bysshe Shelley (someone else I greatly appreciated,
even then). The beautiful picture accompanying the brief article was
immediately clipped out and was displayed in a place of honor for
years. The brilliant quips and quotes I treasured in my memory for at
least as long.
While
at college a handful of years later, I found out that my college had
been chosen as one of two college campuses which would host
sneak-previews of the movie Warlock, starring that very same
Julian Sands, months before it was to be released. I even managed to
obtain one of the posters sent to the student entertainment group for
the showing. The day arrived, and I was one of many excited students
there for the prestigious preview, though I dare say no one was as
excited as I was about this event. I thoroughly enjoyed the film.
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On
the way back to my apartment, I picked up a copy of the weekly
student newspaper, for which I was a writer in the features section
(writing primarily music reviews and music commentary columns).
Unlike most of the students on campus, I actually read the newspaper
occasionally (though still not as often as you'd think for someone
who was on the paper's staff!). And (almost timely in its appearance)
was a story on the movie showing and the film itself, including an
interview with the star: Julian Sands.
As
you can imagine, I raced up to the newspaper office as fast as my
legs could carry me, looking for answers as to how this had come
about and why I hadn't heard about it. It turned out it had come up
at a staff meeting while I had been out of town, and had never
happened to be mentioned in my presence in the intervening weeks.
And, irony of ironies, the young staff writer who had written the
article said she'd been at a loss in writing the piece, and doubly so
when she had had to interview this actor with the lovely British
accent over the telephone, as she had never heard of him and had
no idea who he was!
To
this day, I hold this experience up as a prime example of the
perverse sense of humor of the Gods, and one of the best examples I
have ever seen of irony, and of never being in the right place at the
right time.
Julian,
if you're out there: You owe me a phone call! ;)
If you are
interested in having Julian's autograph, you have three avenues: 1)
you can track him down in Los Angeles and ask him, 2) you can send a
request to him in the mail via his agent, ICM, or 3) you can purchase
autographed items from third-parties. Each of these avenues has its
pluses and minuses.
If you want an
in-person, personalized autograph, you're going to have to manage to
meet him, and to do so at a time and in a place where he is willing
and able to sign autographs. This may be harder or easier than you'd
expect, depending on how you'd think of going about it. While Julian
is often on location in various parts of the world, in addition to
his personal travels, and therefore going to be rather difficult to
track down, he has also been known to attend autograph collecting
conventions, as well as a variety of celebrity meet-and-greet
functions when he is in the United States. Every report I have had
says that he is both friendly to fans he meets and quite willing to
sign autographs, so if you do manage to track him down and meet up
with him, you should do fine.
As for requests
for autographs sent to him via his agent: I have not seen a single
report of a person having success in doing this. In addition to the
sheer bulk of mail ICM receives for all of their various clients, you
must remember that they would have to get these requests to him and
he would have to have the time to sign these autographs. On a further
discouraging note, while I haven't seen any indication of what kind
of autographed items other of ICM's clients have sent to fans
requesting autographs, I have seen several reports that requests to
ICM for Billy Zane's autograph usually result in the fan receiving a
photograph that was pre-printed with his signature on it. These pre-prints
are considered next-door to total fakes, and are disdained by most
autograph collectors. I would hope that Julian would be equally
disdainful of this process, but until I get a report to the contrary,
I would expect any requests for autographs sent to ICM to result in pre-prints
(or in no response at all). If you get the real thing, be immensely pleased.
Autographs
purchased from third-parties have two major drawbacks: you have to
trust the person or vendor providing them to have sold you an
authentic piece, and you have to be willing to accept something that
has no personalization. On the other hand, finding an autograph from
Julian via a third-party can be much easier than tracking him down in
person, and the chance of getting a pre-printed item would likely be
significantly less than it would going through his agent. Many of
these items were obtained at autograph collectors conventions or
other publicity events, where the celebrities can sometimes take the
time to sign multiple items for collectors who can then sell the
items they don't wish to keep for themselves. And, due to Julian's
general popularity being less than say, Julia Roberts, you can obtain
these items much more inexpensively than would be the case for items
from some other actors. I recently found a signature card (usually
plain, white 3x5 cards with a signature) for $8! That's certainly
cheaper than a trip to Los Angeles for most of us, and we'll spend
less time waiting for them to arrive via postal service than we would
standing around waiting for him to walk past us on the street, or
even for a signature at a convention. This can therefore prove an
entirely acceptable way to obtain autographs from Julian, if you are
willing to settle for a non-personalized item. And, until you can
meet up with him in person, if you are really interested in having
his autograph, why not have these inexpensive collectors' items
instead? In the end, the choice is yours....
There is,
however, one final drawback to this last method: autographed items
from Julian, not being the hottest or most expensive of items in an
autograph seller's inventory, can often be difficult to find.
Occasionally you will find an autographed movie poster, still image
or signature card, but even these can be difficult to locate. In an
exhaustive search of most of the autograph sellers with on-line
catalogs, I did indeed have trouble finding anything at all, and felt
rather lucky to have located that signature card and an extremely so
to have found an autographed photo
from Warlock. (Note, I also recently managed to locate another
autographed photo, and purchased it sight-unseen - not the most
conservative action. However, when it arrived, it turned out to be
from The Browning Version! A true rare treasure!) If I locate
items with quantities available, I will post links here so that you
can see if you'd like to purchase them yourselves. I wish you luck at
your own autograph hunting!
One final note:
As
this site becomes increasingly visible on the Internet, my concerns
about any possible negative affects its existence could have on
Julian continue to grow. I have done (and will continue to do) my
best to make this site both in good taste and in harmony with
promoting Julian Sands' career. However, the primary emphasis of the
site is for the information and enjoyment of Julian's fans. I hope
you are finding it both useful and entertaining. But when we are
dealing with issues of admiration, adoration and fandom, we must also
deal with the potential negative aspects that accompany them. One of
these is the unfortunate reality of celebrity stalkers. This is
especially true in cases of celebrities who are particularly
attractive, as I think we can safely say is the case with Julian.
Now, it's quite
easy to say to yourself, as an average fan: I'm not a stalker, this
doesn't pertain to me. But, in addition to having to consider the
possibility of obsessive admiration leading into true stalking of a
celebrity, we must also concern ourselves with the safety and
well-being of our favorite stars. This means making sure that they know
that you're not a stalker. You can't do this just by saying "I'm
not stalking you." The only way to demonstrate your restraint is
to be restrained in any personal dealings you have with them. You
can't send vast volumes of mail. You can't repeatedly phone or fax
their agent or publicist or other professional contacts. You can't
take up residence at their favorite haunts hoping they'll show up
while you're there. And, most particularly, you cannot show up on
their front doorstep.
Being a fan of
a particular celebrity should mean that you respect them as a person,
and that means also respecting their privacy and their personal life.
If they're not listed in the telephone book, it's for a reason. If
they've got a bodyguard, it's for a reason. If there's a
"gatekeeping" system in place to keep you from getting to
them, it is for a reason. That reason is simple: regardless of how
famous or well-liked you are, you still are a human being, and you,
like all the rest of us, are deserving of a private life where you
can do or not do whatever you like without being unduly put upon by
others. We all do better at our work when the rest of our life is as
we would have it, and fans should want to help their favorite
celebrity do the best job at their profession that they can. That
means giving them the space and privacy to live their lives, both
private and professional.
The moral of
the story is simple: even if you just want an autograph or a moment
to ask a question or tell him how wonderful you think he is, don't
intrude into Julian's life. You want to be a positive person in his
life, not an intrusion and a hindrance. Don't go to his home. Don't
interrupt him when he's working, be it on camera or off. Don't send
elaborate or expensive gifts that he probably won't see anyway. Don't
try to contact him through his family or friends. I'm not going to
tell you that if you run into him on the street in Los Angeles that
you shouldn't talk to him. But before you take that first step in his
direction, think about whether it is a good time and place for him to
meet you. If it's not, as hard as it may be, I'm going to suggest
that you leave him be.
I know this
eliminates a lot of the chances you might potentially have to meet
him, but Julian has by most reports been generous enough with his
time and energy to allow many fans to meet him, in a variety of
settings, both formal and informal. Rather than taking advantage of
his kind nature and generous spirit, reward him for it by being
judicious in how you go about trying to meet him and obtain
autographs. Particularly, look for official venues like autograph
conventions and celebrity meet-and-greets, where he's offered himself
up for meeting his fans and signing autographs. I think you'll find
the results far more satisfying for both you and Julian than any
other way you might arrange to meet him.
Something I found amusing...
If you've read my commentary on Julian's nude scenes, you'll be aware that I don't have any problem with them, or with Julian appearing in the nude; however, I am a little wary of people wanting to watch the films or see images from them solely to see this lovely man without his clothes. In this spirit, I wanted to share something I found posted on a message board:
"...in the movie "A Room With A View", Julian Sands takes a skinny dip with the other men around a pond. He's gorgeous and romping around with his pride and glory swinging in the breeze! Has anyone scanned a still of this moment and put it on the internet?! Please let me know!"
I think it was just the wording I found so amusing, but it still puts a smile on my face....
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