Hi!

I’m perhaps the only movie blogger in the country who’s not at Comic-Con right now, but thankfully we have the incendiary reporting of my colleagues to keep us in the loop.  Here’s Alex from FirstShowing providing us with a stunning account of how he tried to save his seats, but they wouldn’t let him!

This is odd! My third year here and in attempt to attend the 20th Century Fox panel in Hall H at Comic-Con, I end up getting kicked out of my seats! There is something very wrong with the way Comic-Con works. After heading in to hold my seats for the rest of our writers who were on the way in, a Twilight fan confronted a security guard because she had been waiting and "really wanted my seats." I was then yelled at by the programming rep in Hall H and was immediately told to leave. As far as I know (and you can confirm here), seat saving is allowed but "limited". And by limited, I would imagine my writers and staff who are working with me should be included in that limit, right? Wow, there’s a reason why people don’t like dealing with Comic-Con!

I just finished meeting with one of the executives and talked with all of the heads of security. The problem was that the security guards never told this lady to move on. I don’t know why she was so adamant on getting my seats – there were plenty of them behind us that she could’ve taken. And as time went on, she sat and complained and the security guards just followed her every order. Why didn’t she move on and find different seats? Who knows? If you’ve been wondering why Paramount skipped the show this year, it’s because Comic-Con treats attendees very poorly. This is a first hand account of how crazy Hall H is and how much I would suggest that you don’t waste your time or money attending Comic-Con. As much as I love Comic-Con, it’s not worth getting kicked out of your seats by Twilight fans.

I can’t even begin to tell you how bad of experience this was. I really don’t understand why these people demanded my row and why the security guards just sat back and let her complain. It makes no sense and in turn they’ve hurt our eventual coverage of the upcoming Fox panel. The policies that are implemented here at Comic-Con and the fact that the security guards have no common sense really hurts every last attendees’ experience. It just shows that they really don’t care about the experience of attendees or press or anyone. I think I’ve said enough and will continue on providing the best coverage we can during Comic-Con 2008. [Source]

Thank God our friend was able to survive such madness and bring us this uplifting tale of triumph in the face of adversity.  He asked for no mayo you sick devils! Let’s pray that he continues to brave these iniquities with a sure pen and a stiff upper lip.  Godspeed, movie warrior.

Meanwhile, ComingSoon has breaking news of a drapery collapse!

The San Diego Comic-Con’s Hall H presentations didn’t get off to a good start today as the drapes and the scaffolding supporting the drapes at the rear of the room collapsed. We saw that at least one person was injured. We’ve been told that this will delay the Fox presentation because they are now going around to the other sections and re-securing them to make sure they don’t fall as well. Stay tuned for full coverage of the presentations shortly!

We’ll try to stay abreast of new developments in this historic catastrophe!