It’s true I was there for the wrestlers, but since there were a few other celebrities of note attending the Steel City Con in Pittsburgh on April 12, 2014, I made sure to check out what they had to offer. I skipped out on Jonathan Frakes and Brent Spiner, mainly because they only had the professional photo ops available, but also because Star Trek just isn’t Star Wars in my estimation. I’d go for the main cast of Star Trek, sure, but when it came to Star Wars, even the most obscure performers didn’t slip by my radar.
But there comes a point when they are just so obscure and their parts so minor that I really didn’t need to shell out $25 each for an autographed photo, especially when a photo op would have cost an extra $10. So I exercised the loophole I had recently given myself: screw the autograph and just go for the relatively inexpensive photo op. This type of thinking used to kill me, but now it just offers an exhilarating relief to my wallet.
So who were they? I thought you’d never ask. The first was Femi Taylor who had only the most devout Star Wars fan would know played Oola, Jabba the Hutt’s Twi’lek dancer, who was unceremoniously dropped into the pit below Jabba when she resisted his advances in Return of the Jedi. She was eaten by the rancor monster. How’s that for obscure?
But here’s the interesting thing about Femi Taylor: she was the only member of the entire cast of the three original films who returned to re-shoot footage when the special edition of the films was released in 1997. The main reason for this being that she apparently was in even better shape in 1997 than she was in 1983. And I will say without a doubt, she was still in exceptional shape and exceptionally attractuve. I didn’t dare ask how old she was, but I knew she must be much older than she looked. I told her she looked great, and she ‘let’ me hold up one of her photos for one of our photo ops…as if someone were watching and might have disapproved. I liked her.
Dermot Crowley played General Crix Madine in Return on the Jedi, as an Imperial officer who defected to the Rebel Alliance. So he was a good guy…but still obscure, and without the benefit of being exotic like Femi. It’s kind of like one of his other roles: Duval in Son of the Pink Panther. Officially, its canon, but without the benefit of actually starring Peter Sellers. It was a $10 encounter at best, but a nice one to enhance my collection of photos with Star Wars personnel.
As long at the Star Wars folk keep showing up, I’ll be picking them up. But I’m going to give them as little money as possible. May the force be with me…
This concludes the celebrity encounters from the Pittsburgh Steel City Con. Return to the original posting here…
were Oola and that blue opera singer in the 5th Element related?
Eric Hubble
January 22nd, 2015