Please read Part 1 first: Part One
And so here we are in Part Two - the unabridged, unedited, Cliffs Notes, snarky behind-the-scenes version of "as Narnia sees Austin and the Return to One Tree Hill weekend that was". Because you know. You know that when Jake and/or Austin are involved, there cannot be simple and pure. Oh no. We at Narnia have been around too long with these two rascals to know that there is no such thing as a 20/20 view with them.
In Part One, we saw where Austin's return to One Tree Hill was going to be delayed, but he was still coming! Can't miss this one, can you?
Interesting timing of all this. Austin attends The Walking Dead London convention the previous weekend (Mar 9-11) and early in the day on Monday the 12th, we find out that Austin has a new project in the works; he is to start work in Canada on a pilot for a new show called In the Dark. By that evening on the 12th, he is already spotted in Toronto.
it was such a nice surprise/shock to run into austin nichols today. suuuuch a sweetheart. 😭💕 pic.twitter.com/6uUB4EMNXz— becca.⚡️🇨🇦 (@omfgbooks) March 13, 2018
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An Austin civilian sighting? Well, we here at Narnia, already had our suspicions piqued since he isn't spotted much at all anymore.
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On the 14th, EyeCon announces he's being delayed and won't arrive in Wilmington until the afternoon of Saturday the 17th, thus missing the day's early scheduled photo ops. On Saturday morning, we receive this social media evidence that Austin had indeed been 'filming' on Friday.
Saw the man himself @AustinNichols in Toronto yesterday filming. I forgot his real name so I kept calling him Julian @OneTreeHillHQ @InsideBates pic.twitter.com/PHsP6CPymG— Kevin Mutuga (@kvnMvtvga) March 17, 2018
Good thing we had Austin's face clearly in the picture because otherwise, we would have no clue who the other two parties were since they were totally unidentifiable, wouldn't you agree?
But, Austin arrived in Wilmington on Saturday and as if to answer our questions as to the identity of the unidentifiable ones, as it often happens, our paranoid curiosity was addressed by late in the day on Sunday the 18th.
@AustinNichols shooting in Toronto on Friday March 16 pic.twitter.com/ohvEarmk3z— 🤦🏾♂️ (@__LuckyNumber3) March 18, 2018
Alrighty then! Hoods come down!
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The Return to One Tree Hill convention came and went, folks went home and the celebrity guests resumed their professional activities and Austin? Well, we presumed Austin flew back to Toronto to finish that pilot filming which had been briefly started prior to the convention.
Or did he?
While one of us wondered out loud if we were to receive any further filming reports,
— ToothyTile&GGoose (@GoosesTile) March 21, 2018
amazingly, as (again) it so often happens, our question and concern was addressed by nightfall.
@austinnichols of #thewalkingdead and #onetreehill at Pai!!!! So awesome!!! @ Pai Toronto https://t.co/VomFp9LPjX— Pai (@PaiToronto) March 22, 2018
And not just one, but two sightings! We repeat, two sightings. Extraordinary and fortuitous. Amazingly, this fan's name just happens to be the same as the Stronger co-star of Jake, Tatiana Malany.
Nice running into @austinnichols on my lunch break today! What a nice guy. #AustinNichols… https://t.co/XtU8dbHubg— Tatiana (@tatiiana) March 22, 2018
Pretty amazing "lunch place" wallpaper, isn't it? ;-) And both Instagrammer's were up late around the same hour last night downloading pics and posting on their Instagrams as well as Twitters. Busy bees!
We thought so too, Bradley. Now, if you still have any kind of skepticism as to the extraordinary-ness of this double Austin sighting, perhaps this spontaneous twitter conversation may help fortify a wavering belief.
— nikki (@halsteadsass) March 22, 2018
— Tatiana (@tatiiana) March 22, 2018
— nikki (@halsteadsass) March 22, 2018
— Tatiana (@tatiiana) March 22, 2018
— nikki (@halsteadsass) March 22, 2018
— Tatiana (@tatiiana) March 22, 2018
— nikki (@halsteadsass) March 22, 2018
Hmmm, wow. So was Austin with his pilot co-star, Perry Mattfeld already? Or was it....or was it his cyber beard,
Well, once again, ask and thou shall receive. I don't know about you, but I'm quite thankful!
It looks like HH has provided a location of "Toronto" so it very well could have been this lassie, couldn't it? I guess we at Narnia will just have to keep an eye on this secret romance of Austin's for any further breaking developments!
Meanwhile, Austin's real life love muffin Mr. Jake Gyllenhaal has finally been seen out and about in Los Angeles, CA where he allegedly is supposed to have been for awhile, also filming.
Here he is following a meal at Crossroads Kitchen:
and grocery shopping at Erewhon Market!
I love the visibility of the reusable shopping bags at the checkout counter right before Jake exits with his paper bags, lol. Aw, his reusable bags were probably stuffed holding toys and auto bingo cards in the back seat of his car, what am I thinking?
A double photo op day for Jake in Los Angeles! When is the last time we had this treat? Perhaps because Family Jaustin is finally settled and hunkered down after that brief stopover while one parental unit filmed his pilot and now it's time for the baton hand-off. Time for the other one to earn some college fund moola.
Oh, and by the way, don't visit IHJ expecting to see pictures of Jake leaving Erewhon's in the Family Truckster. His team took care of that and furnished him with a roomy BMW "mature person's" sedan. ;-)
Or could it be that the truckster Q7 was merely left behind before the trek westward? Look at what was parked along the street as Tom and I left the convention center on Saturday the 17th:
Now, wait a doggone minute.....is that what I think it is, you ask? Let's zoom that puppy up.
LOL! It is! You can't make this stuff up, folks. Swear to pete, this was parked at the meters on Saturday. Florida Tom will attest to this as he was leaving me in the dust because there was dinner to be had while I was snapping these pictures.
And so there is our tale, the Rainbow Brite (Rated G for Good) version in Part One. And then, the Dastardly & Mutley (Rated T for Typical) version in Part Two. And Narnia will leave you with this thought.
Would this lovely dazzling smiling man fib to you when it comes to protecting his mate and goslings?
Austin Nichols aka Julian Baker— JoannaMFoster (@MWhiteShelley) March 20, 2018
Amazing Q&A at @EyeCon3000 #RTTH #OneTreeHill #OTH #TreeHill #Wilmingtonnc @AustinNichols pic.twitter.com/GJ89kr0gSZ
If you've been following Oh My Godot or Narnia Dispatches long enough, I think you know the answer to that question.
We love you anyway, Austin!!! THANK YOU for one of the best experiences ever.
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pic sources: Giphy, IHJ
our playlist: Inner Smile - Texas
O "Fly On" Dedicated to Austin Nichols - Coldplay
Waiting - Seal
I Can't Get Next to You - The Temptations
Extraordinary - Mandy Moore
18 comments:
Phew, that was a labor of pure love. Totally worth the whole tamale, experiencing it and then writing about it.
All my best to Tom who was a lovely host and it's too bad he came down with that terrible infection. But is on the road to recovery now.
Can you believe that Audi Q7 that was parked on the street right by the convention hall? I had to double check that license plate, LOL. I texted Special right away and sent her the pic. I said, you cannot make this stuff up!!
And now tomorrow, I return to work and then it'll be the weekend again! Woohoo. I am dreading the return to work as I've had a peek at all my work emails and see I will have a few rows to hoe. Ugh!
And I also got to meet little Maximilian, tiny Max, Tom's sweet little dog. What a cutie.
Gotta tell you, there's no worse feeling than to wake up, hearing a knock at the door and "PG! PG! You up?"
LOLLLL! Tom and I laughed about that constantly the entire weekend.
*knock knock* "PG? PG?"
And no kidding, I was wheeling my luggage out of the room and Tom was GONE. The car was running and outside the door, trunk lid up and waiting for me to hurl my luggage in.
I was lucky to get my door closed before he drove us off. LOLLLL!!
I'll comment a bit more later this evening because I do want to say a few things about the convention itself and the city.
A more condensed view of what these 2 guys likely did. We had no pics of Jake filming. We had Austin at the London Walker Stalker and I think those two guys and the brood made the trek somehow across the Atlantic and then Jake waited with them while Austin filmed his pilot. And then when Austin was done filming, the whole ark made its way to Cali and that is why we're now seeing Jake out and about in LA.
Maggie is busy now. She's working on The Deuce which is filming in NYC. So she isn't available to help out.
All three of these folks: Austin, Jake & Big Sis have been in hiding since last fall basically. Think they've been out of the country where they can be out and about with the kids w/o being bothered by the paps and somewhere they aren't readily recognized. And they all 3 came out of hiding within weeks of each other this past month.
Boom. Boom. Boom. One by one. Big Hiatus is over.
Great job PG. Good work. I had a very really good time. Hanging out with you was so much fun. We laughed and talked so much and apparently continued blabbing in my sleep :-) I loved being up close and talking to Austin a bit. He is even better looking in person and that body is still rocking. Gotta admit the convention was pretty boring for me until Austin showed up on Sunday. But still had fun hanging out with PG. I had never seen an episode of the show :-) Wilmington is an awesome town and I would love to have done a little tour of the battleship and visited a few of those mansions. Maybe someday Austin will do a play. I would definitely enjoy that . I am feeling better but this nasty sinus infection ha been a tough one . Hopefully we can all get together again soon. Being a part of this little Jake and Austin fanclub is awesome .
I had never seen an episode of the show
ha ha ha, yeah, they were showing early episodes of the show on the two screens at the front of the convention room and good lord, Tom and I must've watched several of them. I have to say I got a little interested and if they were still on Netflix, I would check them out. I wish they would have at least shown one episode that Austin had been in.
Oh, I agree Tom, the convention was really boring on Friday and if it weren't for the Q & A's, on Saturday as well. It was fun to see the line for Austin's autograph and I tried to go up there and catch a glimpse, but there was no way. Sunday started out so precarious and then they called Austin's autograph again and we were off! And from that point on, the convention was salvaged, lol.
Those organizers desperately need to develop a tighter schedule. They owe it to the fans who attend and need to kind of plan their comings and goings. I don't care what kind of event it is - even our darn holiday party had a schedule. We didn't always hit it, but you have got to have something to try and stick to.
The other thing they needed to do was cut off those photo ops. At the Super Natural con, they knew they could only do so many per hour. By now, EyeCon should know about how many photo ops they can get done in an hour and when they're sold out, they're sold out.
Saturday and Sunday ran ridiculously behind, like by several hours. Who knows what time they were done on Sunday. People may have flights to catch on Sunday. I guess as long as none of the actors were going anywhere on Sunday, it didn't matter what time it ended on Sunday? I don't know.
By Sunday, the schedule just read "TBA" after about everything. "To Be Announced".
That all being said, the organizers were also extremely nice and answered questions. I think they busted their butts and other than the inability to stick to a vague schedule, they did their best to give fans a great time.
It is easy to see why Austin spoke so highly and fondly of Wilmington. You could tell by his answer to a fan's question that he just adored the city. And of course, it is right by the beach so you know he loved that. But Wilmington is a city of about 200,000 (I think our cab driver said?) but it has a small town feel to it. The downtown is adorable and I saw so many antique shops I would love to go back and visit. We had a great sandwich at a place now I can't think of the name of. :-( We ate twice at the Front Street Brewery, who had very good food. My only regret is I didn't buy one darn souvenir! I forgot and before you knew it, the weekend was over and we were gone! I didn't even get my postcards written and sent. What a mess.
I was like, oh my gosh I didn't even get a Wilmington t shirt! We talked to several really nice fans. One in particular who we stood in line with on Friday was extremely nice and she had been to several already. Then at the Wilmington airport on Monday, we talked to two young girls from Texas and it was their first con and first time traveling out of their home state. What a nice visit we had with them, too.
The hotel breakfast was awesome and we had the same cab driver every day. He was very helpful and told us about some of the sights around. Wilmington has so many gorgeous historic homes and churches.
I would love to go back. Lucky Austin who was able to stay there for three (?) years.
Excellent overview, PG. I feel like I was there. I'm not surprised that Austin was a gentleman. Fans seem to consistently comment about how fan friendly he is. What about Chad Michael Murray? What was your impression of him? Robert Buckley looked like he was having a good time. He seems like he would be a lot of fun to hang out with.
You didn’t tell me that Tom brought a “brick” with “It Gets Better” on it. Along with a pink triangle and 3 gold triangles. Is Tom’s middle name “Louis Tomlinson”? Talk about signaling to a member of his community without saying a word.
So wonder Austin treated him with such respect. That’s the Internet-based anti-bullying campaign started by Dan Savage and his husband in 2010. Austin would sure as heck know about the project. Good for Tom!!!!!
I totally forgot to include some of my pictures of Chad Michael Murray!! I’ll add those to the post later this evening. He seemed pretty great. I think it says a lot that he came on Sunday and he must have taken pictures allllll day. And at the end of James, Roberto and Stephen’s panel, he busted in on it and helped auction off some prizes. So that’s really cool and it was neat to see him as well.
I think all of the actors of Tree Hill seemed so personable, appreciative of the fans and so comfortable in that setting. And I think it says an awful lot that this show has been off the air for how many years now and yet that conference room was FILLED on Sat and Sunday. All those empty chairs you see in one of my pictures? They were filled on Sat and Sun. That’s a great attendance I think for a show no longer even on the air.
Now to the real news. Villanova and Kansas are one game away from playing each other in the final four. I wonder how f Austin will think about me if Villanova wins it all. He asked me who I liked :-)
It was a surprise when Chad came out after the last Q and A was ending. No one expected that and everyone got excited.
Loyola was hot today! K State was no match; shots not falling and they would only get one crack at the basket. So it looks like one of the Big 12 teams is going to fall. Hopefully KU can do it tomorrow over Duke, although Duke always tough!
No one was expecting Chad, were they? I heard all this screaming and looked up and there he was, lol, coming out onto the stage. Pretty cool.
M&M and I enjoyed having Florida Tom joining us in some of our phone chats. It's great fun to do 3-ways. When Special and I have been together or I'm visiting M&M, we'll do 3-ways and so at the hotel, Tom and I got M&M on the phone and kept her updated on our hijinks. ;-)
Don't worry, I'll change the Sandpipers in the morning. LOL! For some reason, that song popped into my head early this am and I couldn't get it out, so I had to put it on the music player. Aaaah, I like it.
I had a great time talking on the phone with everyone and catching up on our favs. Tom had to be brought up to speed about Larry, but I think he's up to date now. A love story for the ages after all. It appears Thomas has a special fondness for Harry. The man has wonderful taste!
I enjoyed chimming into your PG and M&M phone calls. I think PG got bored when myself and M&M starting yapping about Harry. That is one good looking man .I was shocked when they told me he had been in the movie Dunkirk. I had no clue. Now I have to watch it again.
I think our next get-together as a group should be TIFF or Sundance when a movie that Jake or Austin appear in premieres there and when Jake or Austin will be there for a Q and A .That would be a blast and both are great places to visit.
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