| Private Signing with Sir Christopher Lee for the Belgian Star Wars Fan Club (24-25th August 2002) As PR Manager of the Belgian Star Wars Fan Club, http://www.teekay-421.be. I have organized quite a few private signings with Star Wars cast & crew members. But end of June I got really excited when I was able to get in touch with the webmaster of christopherleeweb.com, Mr. Juan Aneiros.  We immediately announced this opportunity on our website so that our members could reserve their copy of a Count Dooku signed photograph, authenticated and personalized by Sir Lee. We would be able to ship the items to be signed to Mr. Aneiros, who would make sure Sir Lee signed them in time to ship them back the week after.
So far, so good. But it gets better…
As luck would have it, a Belgian delegation of our club needed to be in the vicinity of London, so we got in touch again with Mr. Aneiros, asking if it would help him if we picked up the signed items in person. It would save on postage and the items wouldn't get lost or damaged in the mail. Sound reasoning!
And he said 'yes'! So my friends Gregory, Pascal and Sofie traveled with me to London, only to be astounded as much as I was. We were actually invited into Mrs. Christina Lee's home, Sir Lee's daughter, and were able to chat with her and Mr. Aneiros about Sir Lee's work. We were also shown a video of the signing. How amazing to hear Sir Lee say 'the Belgian Star Wars Fan Club' in his deep voice - one that we've come to associate with Count Dooku and Saruman - but most definitely belongs to this living legend with the commanding presence of royalty. We were transfixed to the screen…
That's why his casting as the count in Star Wars and the wizard in Lord of the Rings is so obvious, almost inevitable. No other actor would be able to pull off these performances to this degree of believability than Sir Lee.
Standing there, in Christina Lee's living room, sipping soft drink from a large wine glass, chatting away with our hostess and host about Sir Lee's work, with photos of Sir Lee on the wall and on the desk, conspiring to ensnare Sir Lee to a dinner with me in the near future, checking out other great signed items with Juan… It would be almost too much for any Star Wars Fan, no?
Words cannot express what it means to be able to meet with these people. And the prospect of perhaps meeting the living legend in person in the very near future. Ah, it makes you forget that you missed your boat back to the mainland and had to drive several hours more to bring this signing to your clubmembers.
One thing is for sure : 'this will be a day long remembered…'
Mark Dermul
Wilrijk, Belgium
Jedi@teekay-421.be
28th August 2002 |
