JAGFanFest 2002

Click images to visit JAGFanFest Sites for more info

Visit Laurel's Hanging Out With Bud See what "adventures" our Bud has been on (with Webb) since the last FanFest!

On September 13 & 14, 2002, JAGFanFest was held at the Airtel Plaza Hotel for fans from all over the world to gather to honor those who bring us J.A.G. and to raise money for charity. Proceeds will be split between The Navy/Marine Corps Relief Society and the American Red Cross.

*Total Raised: $17,197.00*

Bud Lovers Anonymous was proud to participate and would like to thank KathyTRG, KatRose and Brigitte for all their help in getting us there!

Photos will be added as they become available.

Photo by Chris--Thanks for sharing!	<---This is how The BLA booth looked. There was a raffle, goodie bags and information on The BLA, Bud and Patrick. There was also a "Bud Quiz" and those who answered correctly received a JAGFanFest Trading Card. There were also BLA Bookmarks given out as consolation prizes. Goodie bags contained a BLA notepad, pencil, an alien, bookmark, Bud button, and many other surprises. All monies from the raffle went to the charities. Other Fan Clubs represented include: The Rose Garden, Officially Trevor Goddard, JMJAS, Mac on JAG, Harriet on JAG, Randy Vasquez Online, Bellisario Fans, The Steven Culp Fan Connection, The Chuck Carrington Fan Club, DJE Online and The Peter Murnik Fan Club.
This is another good shot of The BLA table ------------> Notice the large photo of Bud used as a means to let everyone know we were there! (More on that later!). Also, you can see the raffle, which contained: A copy of the script "JAG TV" written by Patrick A NAVY baseball cap A patriotic photo album A package of BLA Notepads A mousepad designed by Brigitte One of each design of BLA Bookmarks An Alien gumball machine, complete with gumballs A four-pack of blank, eight-hour tapes for taping JAG this season Congratulations to Anne on winning the raffle!	Photo by Sandy--Thanks for sharing!
Photo by KatRose--Thanks for sharing!	<----On Saturday night, Peter Murnik (Clark Palmer) and Trevor Goddard (Mic Brumby) came by to help with the auction. Apparently, they were excellent auctioneers, because they helped the FanFest raise in excess of $16,000.00 for the charities. Here, you can see that our giant poster of Bud was one of the auction items. During the bidding, Peter and Trevor asked where all the Bud Fans were and Laura (from the FanFest Committee) called out, "They're ANONYMOUS!" Everyone laughed and the bidding continued. Congratulations to Laurel for her winning bid! She's taking great care of Bud--visit Laurel's Hanging Out with Bud! It's VERY, VERY funny!

At the FanFest: As Posted at Maeve's Message Board

(By KatRose)

Just wanted to give y'all a little news from the FanFest. It's about 11:25 pm here in L.A. and I just got home from the first evening of our fun (with a little pitstop for food before heading home).

The day, for me, started with picking Beth (Admiral from the USA chatroom) up at the airport. We headed to my home and chilled out for a bit before heading to the hotel to help TRG-Kathy with some of the set-up and to shoot some pictures of the booths before the fans arrived.

Unfortunately, they were having a few problems with the room set-up and Kathy told me to come back later. I grabbed a couple of the other fans (NO! SD, not like that!!! LOL) and asked if they wanted to join Admiral and I for dinner. They did and we have a great time at BJ's Brewhouse. Finishing off the meal with the fabulous Pizookie's (Go here: BJ's Brewhouse for more info on THAT tasty treat) and discussion about the wonderful and wacky folks we know from the cyberworld.

We returned around 5:30 and while the ladies got in line to get their badges and welcome bags, I headed inside to shoot the room. Everything looked great. As you can imagine there was a plethora of red/white/blue going on. Each of the major cast members had a booth dedicated to them.

The room was officially opened a few minutes after 6pm. The fans entered to find that Anne-Marie Johnson (Bobbi Latham), Jade Carter (Sergei) and Michael Bellisario (Mikey Roberts) were there inside waiting to sign autographs and have their pictures taken.

Around 7:30 the Q&A session got started. Melissa Skoff, casting director, was the first to speak. She had a lot of tales to tell (without giving out names) of how the business works and how she deals with situations that crop up. I'm sure other fans will be better able to tell you what was said...I was running around with two cameras trying to get as many pictures as possible of the festivities. There was a lot of discussion about who was responsible for hiring Cindy Ambuel and Trevor Goddard and she replied, "me." I have to give the lady credit, she's got balls to say she was the one responsible for hiring, what in some fans' opinions, were the two ickiest characters. LOL

Then the three actors got up and shared the microphone to answer fan questions. The one that got the biggest laugh was when someone point blank asked who was the better kisser: Harm or Sturgis? Anne-Marie looked at the ceiling and whistled, blushing a little bit. Then Jade leaned into the mike and said, "definitely Harm." The room broke up. After things calmed down a bit, the question was posed again and Anne-Marie said, "Well, if truth were to be known, Mac's the best kisser." The room lost it again.

The infamous question of the evening, IMHO, was whether or not Bobbi and Harm had, in Anne-Marie's words "bumped boots." There was a lot of cheering and laughter as everyone waited to hear her answer. She replied, "Well, only Nanci knows and I don't think she's telling." (I think A-M was confusing the question to ask if SHE and DJE had "done it" but then again, when you're faced with a question about a hunk like that co-star, who could blame the girl?). Anyway, back to the question...she never really replied....until she was asked about her favorite scene and she said, "When Harm and Bobbi broke up on the steps in Washington DC." That, to me, says they had to break up from something, right??? LOL (I know there are a few people that live on HarmandBobbineverdidit Island, but I think the rest of us know better).

Jade was hysterical to listen to. He's got GREAT timing and knows just when to stick in a word or two. When someone asked if there was a line that really made the actors go, "Whoa! Bless the writers" and Jade said, "Bless you." The fan was like, HUH? He said again, "That's the line, 'bless you.'" It's probably funnier in person, but that's what he said.

When asked what they would be doing if they weren't actors, Michael said he'd love to pursue singing (which he proved WASN'T dubbed by singing Happy Birthday to Nancy Pratt in front of the entire group). He's also hoping that there can be some way in future eps to allow Mikey to sing, but he doesn't know if or when it'll happen. (When it was brought up that there would be a flashback ep revolving around Navy nurses, the cast and casting director were a little taken aback...they didn't know such a thing was in the works.)

Jade said that if he wasn't acting he would have been a doctor. He had originally been planning on being a doctor when he was growing up, but a tractor accident (he was pinned under it as a young teen) turned that around when he became addicted to television and videos for entertainment.

HarrietJAG came up next and spoke at length about how she got involved with DPB years ago and told tales of the shows they've worked together. I don't have a lot of intel on this part because my brain kinda died at that point and I needed to head for home and my nice comfy bed...not to mention poor Admiral had been up since 4am Ohio time (and I thought *I* was tired!!).

As soon as I get a chance to cull through all the digital photos I took and edit out the bad ones, I'll have Northstar post a few for everyone to see.

Hope y'all enjoy your Saturday doing whatever it is y'all do. I'll be out at the JAG set enjoying lunch and a tour. See you later tomorrow evening.

Saturday night FanFest Report -- KatRose, 04:16:06 09/15/02 Sun

As you can tell by the timecode on this post, it's a VERY late night for me (especially since I'm usually in bed by 10pm!), so pardon my typos. LOL

Anyway...it was a VERY long but VERY wonderful day.

Since I was the official photographer (btw, thanks North for posting those pictures for me - I'll get you some more in the morning after Admiral leaves), I drove up to the set before the buses departed the hotel. I had Lindy, Admiral and TRG-Kathy with me.

We went into the production office and hooked up with Erika (production secretary), Travis (production assistant) Robin (graphic artist) and Sara (production coordinator). After a few moments of "hi, how are you?" Travis took us down to where catering had set up lunch and Stage 8 (where they had a big screen TV set up and enough chairs for all of us).

We hung out chatting with Travis (who's new to JAG this season having just graduated from college in Oregon) and then with HarrietJAG when she arrived with her companions in tow. The set we were located next to was moved up from the "First Monday" sets at Sunset-Gower Studios and rebuilt at JAG. They're going to be used as part of the new Washington DC set. One of the offices will play a vital part in the upcoming SecNav storyline and then again as Senator Sheffield's (Dean Stockwell's character from "First Monday" who's making the transition to "JAG") office. There wasn't a lot of set dressing done yet, but they had a lot of things they could do to make it look like the Pentagon, Capital building, federal courthouse, etc.

The buses from the hotel were a little late in arriving because of the Six Flags over Magic Mountain traffic on this fine, sunny, HOT September day. Once they arrived, the crowd of approximately 120 chowed down on turkey or grilled veggie sandwiches, fruit, cookies and drink. We were also given raffle tickets for some kind of prizes to be distributed later on.

Charles Floyd Johnson (aka Chas) started things off by getting Erika and Travis to pass out a 10 question quiz. We were given exactly 5 minutes to complete it. The winners would be announced a little later. When I have enough brain power in the morning, I'll see if I can find my copy and post the questions.

After the quizes were collected, Erika started up the videos. The first was made specifically for FanFest2002. David and Catherine flubbed their way through the opening "hellos" at least three times before Catherine got it right. They wanted to say how much they appreciated our attending the FanFest and to say they were sorry they couldn't be there in person. The video went on to give us a few clips from upcoming episodes (and unless you were really paying attention to what was being said and what spoilers Kip had given, you didn't really know what ep they were from).

There was also a little bit with Donald saying that he knew a lot of shippers were wondering when, if and how Harm and Mac would get together. He made a comment about giving "spoiler space" as is dictated by netiquette and then we heard game show music instead of Don's voice as Don mouthed something while the camera came in for a close-up (for those of you wanting to know what he said, it was just a lot of jibberish) and when the camera pushed out again you heard Don say, "And that's all thanks to Kip." The fans had to laugh at the joke and roar at the "unfairness" of not really getting the scoop! LOL

They then played us the 7th season blooper reel. There were a lot of great moments on it and I'm sure someone else will fill y'all in later in great detail.

Once the tapes were done, the prizes for the quiz were handed out. Ten people managed to get all the answers right and won items like JAG hats and license plate holders (there's a story to THAT item I'll share in a minute), JAG watches given to the crew last Christmas and very nice JAG stadium blankets.

According to Robin (the graphic artist), the license plate holders were originally designed because then-producer Jim Weatherill had purchase a brand-new FAST car and wanted to "protect" himself from speeding tickets. So he had special license plate holders made that said "JAG Cast and Crew." Turns out, a couple of the other crew members, in addition to Jim, managed to get themselves out of a speeding ticket or two as a result because the highway patrol officer was a fan of the show! THAT's the story behind those kewl plates.

There was another video shown by Diamond Farnsworth (Stunt Coordinator) of stuff he'd done over the years. Afterward, he did a Q&A about JAG and doubling for Scott Bakula on "Quantum Leap."

We then got to the raffle. I'm guessing that about 20-25 people won some really great stuff. More hats, blankets, watches. There was also Trisha Yearwood CDs and more license plate holders. A lot of very happy fans went home with stuff!

We had more Q&A with Dana Coen, Chas and David Bellisario. The questions ranged from asking if David had ever wanted to be in front of the camera? (No, but he was forced to be there in one early JAG ep. He's very happy to be behind the camera.) How do they come up with storylines? (Dana said the writers do some brainstorming on their own and then as a group.) What's a typical day look like? (Chas just laughed at that one! LOL)

We got through all of the Q&A and finally got to head off on the tour. They broke us into 4 smaller groups and off we went.

We wandered through the new DC sets and then headed towards Stage 6 (I think) where Harm's apartment and the carrier sets are located. The female fans were all a-twitter over being in Harm's bedroom and a few even got into his shower! They have revamped Harm's apartment some and I'm eager to see what the reaction is to his new living room/office area will be.

The JAG offices were on the sets next door. The Admiral's office seemed to have been remodeled some, but the biggest problem I had with it was that all the furniture had been shoved into different corners!! I'm guessing that they had moved it to get cameras and lights inside to light the Bullpen area for something recently shot.

Harm's office (and the one Bud occupied before going TAD) were the only two lit. Mac's office was dark and hard to see in, but we all went trapsing through anyway. Harm still had the two pictures we saw last year on his bookcase...he and Sergei in Russia and one of he and Mac from a DC location shoot. The H&M pictures is NOT shippery in nature. It's just two friends standing side-by-side for a photograph. That's it, ladies. Sorry.

Since there were A LOT of people on the set, it was tough to really see much in detail and they didn't have much time to allow us to linger. We headed back outside for the group photo and the video of US saying Hi to the cast and crew. The fans boarded their buses for the trip back to the hotel and I packed up my little entourage and we headed out.

I made it back to the hotel around 7pm, just in time to see the LOOOOONG line of people waiting for Steven Culp's autograph, a really LOOOOOOONG line of people wanting Trevor Goddard's autograph, and decent sized line for Peter Murnik. Steven had to leave shortly after I arrived due to prior commitments. He did stay long enough to help pick the raffle tickets for the prizes at the Totally Steven booth.

The remaining boys were then left to their own devises (and can I tell you, those two are a hoot and a half! I haven't laughed so loud and so often in ages.) They had the live auction to deal with and fans wanting pictures and autographs. The auction should have been videotaped for posterity (or at least to be added to some future blooper reel). At one point Trevor was auctioning off a "Harm Bag-o-goodies" and kept pretending to throw each item over his shoulder as if they were just trash. Then he'd look up at the fans, crack that grin and laugh. Who could resist him? Not I, for certain.

While he was auctioning off the scripts for Adrift and Adrift 2, he made comments like, "Don't you think *I* deserve a better send off than a measley $40? After all, I didn't get to keep Mac." Up went the bidding.

Peter auctioned off a Mac pillow late in the evening and made a crack about Trevor needing to get in on the bidding since that was the only way he'd get Mac back in his bed! The crowd lost it. There were moments that even with the microphones it was tough to hear what was being said.

Some of the big ticket auction prizes were (prices may not be 100% accurate based on lateness and tired brain):

Set visit for 2 - $4,000

JAG commemorative watch - $900 (this was the same one they were raffling off at the set tour!)

JAGATHON package (t-shirt, script, tape, and golf-cart decal) - $800

"King of the Fleas" package with Harm and dad picture, script and other stuff - $900

Harm and Mac pillow - $400

There was a LOT of stuff and early guessimates is that we raised over $16,000 for the Red Cross and Navy/Marine Relief Fund. I think we all done VERY good!

I know there's a lot more to the day, but it's now after 1:15 (and I started this post a half hour ago). So I'm going to sign off and hope y'all have a great weekend!

Do YOU have a story from the FanFest or pictures you'd like to share? If so, email us and we'll post it here! Don't forget to check back often as pictures and stories are added!

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