![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Who Starts These Rumors, Anyway?
Mar. 16th, 2006 03:50 pmOver on the SMOFS e-mail list, one of the many discussions happening right now is on "media" guests for Worldcons. The subject of Patrick Stewart's appearance at ConJose came up. For those of you who weren't around then, let me recap. About a week before the 2002 Worldcon, ConJose announced that Patrick Stewart would make a short appearance on Friday evening of the convention. Stewart appeared on stage for about an hour or so, showed a promotional clip from the next Star Trek movie, took a few questions, and then left, as he had plane to catch. (He stopped off in San Jose for a few hours while returning from Vancouver to LA during a shooting break on X-Men 2. If it had not been for the Worldcon, he would have just flown straight to LA.)
During the discussion on SMOFS, people said that they'd heard ConJose had paid $20,000 or more to have Stewart make this appearance. This is a rumor I'd never heard before, and I had to address it, as it's completely untrue. Actually, Paramount paid us (or would have done so if we'd actually persued it) $3,000.
( If you're already on SMOFS, you read a variation of this earlier )
Anyway, not only did we not pay a huge appearance fee, but we were actually able to leverage the pledge of extra funding to improve the convention's tech to the benefit of all the members -- except those who never attend the Masquerade or Hugo Awards or who think those events are too tech-heavy as they are.
Please, if you ever hear anyone saying that ConJose paid ${LARGE_VALUE} to bring in an actor, try and correct them. Of course, some of them won't believe you. Even if you quote me directly -- and I'm happy to give anyone who wants it a copy of the Excel spreadsheet that is the ConJose budget -- some of them will say, "Oh, they just cooked the books. Everyone knows they're all on the take anyway." Those people are unreachable, and I know they exist because I've talked to them.
During the discussion on SMOFS, people said that they'd heard ConJose had paid $20,000 or more to have Stewart make this appearance. This is a rumor I'd never heard before, and I had to address it, as it's completely untrue. Actually, Paramount paid us (or would have done so if we'd actually persued it) $3,000.
( If you're already on SMOFS, you read a variation of this earlier )
Anyway, not only did we not pay a huge appearance fee, but we were actually able to leverage the pledge of extra funding to improve the convention's tech to the benefit of all the members -- except those who never attend the Masquerade or Hugo Awards or who think those events are too tech-heavy as they are.
Please, if you ever hear anyone saying that ConJose paid ${LARGE_VALUE} to bring in an actor, try and correct them. Of course, some of them won't believe you. Even if you quote me directly -- and I'm happy to give anyone who wants it a copy of the Excel spreadsheet that is the ConJose budget -- some of them will say, "Oh, they just cooked the books. Everyone knows they're all on the take anyway." Those people are unreachable, and I know they exist because I've talked to them.
