Karen Allen

The biggest draw for me among the "media guest" list -- and I almost never care about these things -- was Karen Allen, of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Starman fame.

I've been a big fan of hers since, well, Raiders, and didn't figure on getting another chance to see her up close. So I gladly paid the $20 admission fee primarily to see her.

A quick aside: the biggest media guests of the day seemed to be Adam West and Brent Spiner.

Here's a lousy picture of Spiner (sorry) ...


... and no picture of West, because con-goers were prohibited from taking his picture. Apparently West, now in his mid-90s, suffers from a degenerative brain disorder that sends him into convulsions if someone takes his picture without paying him $20.

Spiner seemed as friendly and talkative as any media guest I've seen.

But back to Allen:

My brother and I had the opportunity to speak with her two separate times during the day in addition to seeing her give an hour-long Q&A presentation. She was great: friendly, talkative, pleasant to be around.


From the Q&A:

-- She hears rumors about being involved with Indy 4, but (wisely) won't believe anything until it's greenlit.
-- Tom Selleck, who signed a contract to play Indiana Jones and could not because of his Magnum, PI contract with CBS, is still bitter about the experience. Can't blame him.
-- She's in the clothing business now. Check out her website.

She's also teaching acting, and you can tell the experience makes her very comfortable speaking in front of a crowd: her presentation ran a few minutes longer than it was supposed to and could've gone on for another hour if the organizers hadn't ended it.

If you have the chance to meet her, go for it.

But stay away from Adam West. We don't want to upset his addled mind.