Thursday, 28th March 11.00am GMT

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Sunday, 24th March - Inside The One Party

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this report are those of Ian Smith, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the official fan club, its staff or any of its members.

Out in the corridors a camera crew and interviewer prowled looking for fans to interview and seemed to pick a pretty representative cross-section of people. Of course, it goes without saying, that anyone in costume became an instant target.

Whatever the footage shown on TV was, one can only hope that the impression is not given that Tolkien fans are just another bunch of sad geeks who desperately need to "get a life". Apart from beautifully done elven ears which many of the ladies turned out in, and a very good "hobbit" outfit, I only noticed one or two other costumes and it was disappointing to see the camera crews rushing to film characters in some of the less well thought out costumes. I guess the media always needs a gimmick, even if it's not necessarily a representative one! One of the problems experienced on the night was finding people where you only had a board-name to go on. I lost count of the number of times I was asked why Justin (Director of Fan Club Services at Decipher) wasn't around, when he was under everyone's noses all the time. Similarly, although some of us had Skybly's web profile photo's to try and match faces to people, too many attendees hadn't submitted photo's to the site which made identifying them difficult. Perhaps next year some sort of badge-naming scheme could be introduced to make life easier for everyone?

With Rosie's help Justin was soon identified, and mobbed by a group of girl fans. If I had a dime for every time I was asked "Is he married?" I'd have enough cash to pay my air fare and back next year! Needless to say, Justin was a hit with everyone who met him - we're all suckers for that Australian charm.

Meanwhile, on the dancefloor, things were really starting to heat up. An excellent DJ played some modern club tracks (no cheesy pop tunes here).

Rumours that some special guest might be arriving, had been circulating since the start of the party, when it was pointed out that Peter Jackson was wearing a TORn badge on his tuxedo at the Academy Awards. Suddenly there was a rush of excitement and the main corridor was full. It seemed that Sir Ian McKellen had entered the building!

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Email the web master at:ian.smith@irascian.com