TWILIGHT TILL DAWN: 5/1/10

Thank you @twilightskittle for sharing with us your amazing adventure w/Oprah....*hugs n kisses*!!!

- @twilightildawn a.k.a. Driguerra

April 9, 2010, Oprah sent out a worldwide message to all awe-inspired Twi-HARDS, to submit a 1000 word essay on how exactly ‘The Twilight Saga’ has affected your life. This is more-so focused on the ‘Behind-The-Scenes’ of what you won’t see on TV.

My Twilight Saga: ECLIPSE ‘Chicago Experience’ w/OPRAH!

I awoke Monday, May 3^rd 2010, to a mediocre mood. I wasn’t feeling inspired to write that morning, like I do every other. It was farewell to my mother, who was off to a hard-days work, and hello to my couch of doomed destiny. My always morning routine: wake up, greet off mom, then kick back to watch Oprah. Believe it or not, I DO watch Oprah everyday, and love her beauty, style, intelligence, and episode’s topics. On this particular day, something beyond magical happened; I got a phone call. I normally don’t answer numbers unrecognizable to me, so for this call, I acted on another one of my instinctual routines; call screening. You’d naturally assume a number ending in ‘1000’ to be a telemarketer – what I didn’t yet know, was that this was a “telemarketer” that I WANTED to talk to. The ringing stopped and the voicemail kicked in – I stood, normal, listening to the opening greeting, “Hello, please leave a message after the tone.” *beep* Then... “Hi Isaac, this is ___ calling from The Oprah Winfrey Show! I was calling because you emailed in about being a HUGE Twilight fan, and we’re actually going to be taping a show with the CAST of Twilight, this Wednesday, May 5^th, and I was wondering if you and a guest would like to be in the audience. If you are interested please give me a call back as soon as you can...” When I heard, “from The Oprah Winfrey Show” I knew the reason for the call. I’m still convinced that my heart stopped beating for those 60-seconds. I can’t begin to THANK Oprah ENOUGH for this fascinating opportunity that I’ve been blessed with. If only I could thank her personally, because this meant so much more to me, than I think she could realize. She made my DREAM. COME. TRUE!

So here I am, not breathing, with a heart rate unable to be marked on the charts, actually considering NOT calling back. I was too nervous – in SHOCK is more like it. I know it’s hard to believe, but it was just such a bizarre instance, that I was momentarily convinced it was indeed a mistake, or a hurtful lie. The message was repeated three times after that, soaking it in deeper; I knew I had to return the call NOW!

“Good morning, Harpo!” a radiant voice greeted.

I couldn’t be more nervous. “Yeah, hi – I’m calling for ___ in the audience department.”

“Mhhmm, sure – one moment please.”

I got the audience director’s answering machine, so I left her a message, but in being SO TAKEN by all of these quick happenings, I forgot to leave my phone number at the end of the message. For the risk of NOT blowing my chance, I focused on BREATHING for the next few minutes, and called back, leaving a more correct, and apologetic voicemail. When I was done, the nerves surfaced back, and I did the only thing that made sense; call my mom! When I got her on the phone, I was so out of breath, in near tears, unable to tell her just WHAT THE HECK was wrong with me, when all of a sudden, my other line BEEPED. Her tone was clearly of concern, but I couldn’t spill the beans just yet, until it was FOR SURE that all was true. The whole conversation with the director is a blur to me, still – I know I made her laugh quite a bit, and was probably one of her ‘calmer’ phone calls. I felt comfortable with her when we talked, and for some reason, I just didn’t want the phone call to end. So on that May 3^rd, of 2010, I had received the BEST phone call, of my ENTIRE LIFE.

The decision of who I would be taking as my ‘plus 1’ was already chosen before I had time to think it over – my best friend Jessica and I have been together since the beginning with ‘The Twilight Saga’. We’ve read all the books together, at same pace, with same emotions, and similar desires to visually live through this series over and over again for the rest of our gifted lives.

We screamed together for quite a while, before actually talking – she was the first person that I got to share this information with, and she would be the last to come home with me after the next two days of INSANITY.

Now, onto the GOOD stuff:

The adventure to the theater was so ‘TOP SECRET’ that we got seemingly lost in the process. I won’t give away the location, or title of the theater, but I will say that it was the most GRAND cinema that I’ve ever seen...even in movies! Waiting in line wasn’t as long as you’d expect – the Twi-HARDS weren’t the only luckies’ getting a SNEAK PEAK that day; we were combined with another Oprah Show audience, who were there to see “Eat. Pray. Love” with Julia Roberts & James Franco. Their taping was the same day as ours, literally right after. Everyone was friendly, and just so enthusiastic about being there. I don’t know who else got to see an advanced Eclipse screening in the world, but on that day, it felt like we were all alone, secluded, experiencing something so far from ordinary, you couldn’t help but turn to the stranger next to you and smile.

Fast-Forward to after the movie; I couldn’t BELIEVE what my eyes had just ingested. To me, the movie was OFF-THE-CHARTS amazing! My opinion, as the similar opinion of others, is that this is the BEST film out of the entire series. There’s so much more action, and DETAILED action, at that. David Slade has captured something so much more intimate, visually captivating, and breathtakingly incredible, than its predecessors. The most refreshing aspect of Eclipse, is that you see such a LARGE scale of the Cullen family, and their detailed pasts to becoming Vampires. The history of the wolf pack is played out so well too, that it just brings the whole two-hour experience to a complete whole by the time you walk out of the theater. I left ecstatic. When I got home that night, it was only a couple of hours before I needed to be awake, and out of my house, to head to the farthest bit of Chicago, I have ever been, living here the whole nineteen years of my life. Due to practically no one knowing of the stars presence in Chicago, till during or afterward, there were two small mobs outside Oprah’s garage, where the guests, and ‘O’ herself, enter – they were the self-titled “RobStalkers” that weren’t actually going to be in the episode taping. Wanna’ know something cool? Oprah was literally driving right BEHIND us when we pulled up to the front, with her cute dog Sadie hanging out of the back window. Oprah was nice enough to come outside and quickly greet the crowd after her car was parked, and showed off Sadie to the rest of us – And yes, I got footage. After realizing that we were in the wrong place for the show, we went to the actual line, and planted ourselves at the end. Inside may have looked like chaos, but Oprah’s staff is surprisingly swift, and precise. The wait until entering the studio was about forty-five minutes; the most agonizing forty-five minutes of my life, but I was happy to be sweating in that anticipation.

Inside the studio there’s a parade of lights, at the centermost point near the stage, forming a LARGE steal ‘O’. We were seated in the upper level, and had quite the view of the stage – it wasn’t front row, but it was VERY clear. Once everyone was in, the WARM-UP began. We danced, sang, waived our hands, and even HUGGED the complete strangers around us, because we had all made it there separate, yet together. The crowd pleaser allowed some questions, as if we were asking the stars. We were SPECIFICALLY told not to ask to give Rob a hug...LOL! Something VERY unexpected to the ENTIRE audience happened next: the audience pleaser coyly asked if there was any guy who was there, that was only dragged by his girlfriend/wife, and had no idea who the actors were, or WHAT Twilight even was. She called on an older man who was seated in my row – he stood up, the boom microphone was put up near him, to respond.

“So you have no idea who this is?” A picture shows up on the HUGE screen of Taylor posing shirtless, sideways near a stretch of water, in a pair of jeans, and abs of steal. He of course replies “No.”

She then directs toward a woman sitting next to him. “How about her? Do you know her?”

“Yes – that’s my wife.” he responded.

“Oh, ok...and how about him – do you know who he is?” she asks, now directing towards the other man, on the woman’s opposite side – they both shake their heads no.

“Are you sure? …the father of some famous movie star...” she began, but never got to finish her sentence.

“THAT’S TAYLOR’S DAD!” a little girl shouted out – I’ve never seen heads turn so fast. He stood up, answered a few questions, and made us all laugh. So there, literally SIX SEATS away from me in the same row was Taylor Lautner’s father!!

THEN, it was the big ‘O’ moment; it was announced that Oprah was on her way down, and the audience fell to total silence. When she entered, there was a ROAR of screams, myself included, and a sea of flailing hands. Oprah took it all in and motioned us to have our seat.

“You really had to know someone to get here today.” she joked.

Without time to waste, the show BEGAN! Oprah takes center-stage and delivers her swift opening monologue, then, in a second’s time, ROB, KRISTEN, AND TAYLOR, exit from LEFT, all smiles, and beaming in shiny sexiness. Rob next to Oprah, Kristen next to him, and Taylor to the far left – it was like looking at an extremely detailed painting, so beautiful, you almost can’t believe it’s real, unless you touched it...and we all know how much we’d love to touch Rob, just to make sure he’s actually BREATHING our air. The answer is Yes: Rob is DEFINITELY SEXIER in person! I don’t understand how girls weren’t attracted to him, before Twilight. I also loved the fact that he wore those same black & white shoes, from every paparazzi photo – hey, those shoes are pretty iconic, if you think about it. Kristen was dressed pretty comfortably, but still looked chic, and fabulous. Taylor...there really are no words; just his name speaks for itself – he’s a handsome young man, and I could definitely see the resemblance of him, in his father’s eyes. Now I won’t give away EVERYTHING from the show, because I’m sure EVERYONE will be watching on May 13^th, but I will say that even if Kristen and Rob aren’t dating, just watching them on stage interact with each other, felt like watching Bella and Edward, aside from constant lip-locking. As most already know, Rob surprised three sets of homes with his gorgeousness, literally RIGHT AFTER he got off a plane from London, where he’s filming his next movie Bel Ami. After several segments, during the brief commercial break, Dakota walks out of NOWHERE onto the stage, and the crowd goes into yet ANOTHER ROAR of screams – I was particularly excited as well, because I’ve watched Dakota grow up! I’m such a fan of hers, even since I Am Sam with Sean Penn (GREAT movie). Dakota is so well-spoken, and mesmerizing, that when silence settled again, just before they were to show her scene as Jane, I screamed “DAKOTA!” and waved wildly to her – the cast all looked at me, but only she waved happily back – the clip then started to play. If I didn’t ALMOST die when I got the phone call, I DID IN THIS MOMENT. Dakota’s waive is what I’ll hold onto for the rest of my life, along with this ENTIRE experience (especially seeing Rob)!

The taping FLEW by as fast as blinking your eye (it’s NOTHING like watching it on TV...it’s FASTER!) I wanted more, we all did! The show ends with Oprah and the cast joined at their shoulders, as she says her last few words. Oprah posed for pictures with each star, then it was time for them to leave; that was the worst moment. Though, it wasn’t over yet. The audience pleaser hopped back on stage and hyped us up even more – she told us something that NO ONE could have possibly saw coming!

“Everyone here today is going home with a Certificate of Authenticity, for a Limited Edition ‘Bella’s Engagement Ring’ from Eclipse.”

My mom couldn’t be more proud of me. If it wasn’t for my mom, I wouldn’t have been there; I’m convinced of this. My mom was the true bearer of burden, in supplying me with my Twilight fix. I admit I jumped onto the bandwagon later than most, but JUST in time before the first movie’s release. I read the entire series in less than one month (a novel a week.) and I was thirsty for more. Think about it, it really isn’t Bella and Edward that kept you SCREAMING for more – it was Stephenie Meyer’s power of words. She truly captured something remarkable, and without her, there would be NO Robert Pattinson! To Stephenie Meyer: I am ETERNALLY grateful for your large mind – you have truly inspired me to embark on my own path of wisdom and creation, and my eyes will never pry from your past, present, or FUTURE works of art!

Thanks to all who are reading this right now – Twilight fans truly are the best fans in the world, to have. I’ve put a lot of thought into this, and I hope that I was able to make you feel like you were with me the entire way. This is dedicated to all the deserving people that didn’t get the chance to attend.

I won’t say what was written in my ‘Oprah Show’ submission letter, but I will end this written experience with the main truth -- Honesty, is what got me there.

The experience of an OBSESSED fan

- Isaac Ray

Thank you @twilightskittle for sharing with us your amazing adventure w/Oprah
*hugs n kisses* !!
- @twilightildawn a.k.a. Driguerra

'Water for Elephants' Oscar Pedigree
by Joan Lister

Robert Pattinson will be surrounded by Oscar winners and nominees both in front and behind the cameras in his upcoming project Water for Elephants, directed by Francis Lawrence (whose last feature was Will Smith’s I Am Legend) and based on Sara Gruen’s novel.

Pattinson’s co-stars Reese Witherspoon and Christoph Waltz are both Oscar winners. Witherspoon won a Best Actress Oscar for James Mangold’s Walk the Line (2005), while Waltz was this year’s Best Supporting Actor Oscar winner for Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds.

Hal Holbrook, who’ll be playing the aged version of Pattinson’s character — a young traveling-circus veterinary during the Depression years — received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for Sean Penn’s Into the Wild two years ago.

Additionally, Water for Elephants screenwriter Richard LaGravenese was nominated for his work on Terry Gilliam’s The Fisher King (1991); production designer Jack Fisk (Sissy Spacek’s husband) and set decorator Jim Erickson shared a nomination for There Will Be Blood (2007); and costume designer Jacqueline West has been up for two Oscars: Quills (2000) and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008).

Rodrigo Prieto was the Oscar-nominated cinematographer of Brokeback Mountain. And finally, one of Water for Elephants‘ three producers, Gil Netter, was shortlisted as one of the producers of this year’s Best Picture nominee The Blind Side.

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