HRO Karl Willem marking some papers.....
I occupied my favourite table at Blackwell's Bookshop today to do some academic work. On the floor below, they were filming more scenes for the upcoming Elijah Wood/John Hurt movie.
Truth be told, I wouldn't be working in such a noisy environment were I not stalking AA Gill and Prof. Richard Dawkins hoping I can get them to sign my copies of their latest books. The Oxford Literary Festival is in full swing and all the big names are here. Granted that Dawkins, Philip Pullman, and Colin Dexter are local wildlife, there are writers who I still want to meet such as Alexander McCall Smith, Colin Thubron, and James Salter (who knew he was still alive!).
Now, the problem with authors is that it's difficult to pick out who is who. I know their work (or pretend to know their work) but I haven't the faintest what they look like. And book flap pictures are always taken at flattering angles when the authors were still teenagers.
Actors are a different matter. You can pick them out in a crowd from a mile away because you've seen them blown up on the big screen. (Especially easy if they've been in a trilogy.)
Or not.
I looked out my window and there were throngs of giggling teenagers waiting for that one chance to have a photograph taken with Elijah Wood....
No horde of Orcs can ever stop a gang of prepubescent teenagers...
They congregate in the middle of the road as filming starts at the White Horse Pub.....
...while I helped myself to some of the free food......
And so the fans wait and wait and wait...........
and Elijah Wood walks casually BEHIND them un-noticed.
Where he at? Shame really, as when I met Frodo yesterday, he was a really nice guy and gladly gave autographs during filming breaks. (Pero pare, yung suot nya apat na araw na yun! Siguro costume. And unlike Tita Shawie na pa-sikreto kung manigarilyo, kahit nakabisekleta tuloy pa rin ang pagsunog-baga ni Frodo.)