Archives for November 2008

UK fans can win tickets to the UK premiere of Twilight at London’s Leicester Square.

Canadian fans can win tickets to a Twilight preview by entering a Garage giveaway. TY to Kristen.

Remember back in the late spring when the Send Socks to Mike campaign was on?  Well, we now have pictures!  Check out the full story of the photo shoot (six photos in all) with Michael and the socks here.  Also if you are in LA, do check out Mike live and on stage in Speech and Debate which is getting great reviews, but ends its limited run on November 16, so don’t miss out! Call for tickets.

To all of the supporters of Hot Topic and fans of TWILIGHT:

 Although no explanation will correct the situation that occurred in Chicago today at the Orland Square Mall, I wanted to attempt to explain what happened from our point of view.

 We do many signings all over the country with large crowds so we have processes and systems in place to ensure a smooth experience for our customers. The mall developer was a partner in the planning; however, as of two days ago, they told us they would not allow any fans to line up prior to 6AM. They required them to be off the premises.

 On Monday at 6AM at the San Francisco event, the fans became disorderly and stormed the mall entrance. Mall security, numerous police, fire officials and our team from HT stepped in to calm the crowd and create a safe environment for the fans. The event was revised and went forward with the exception of the planned Q&A. 

Monday’s event caused all of us to re-group and review the process. Allowing a “mob” to develop was dangerous and frankly, not an option. The mall developer (GGP) consented to allowing an orderly line to form prior to 6AM outside of the remainder of the malls on the tour. When our crew arrived yesterday at midnight, approximately 500 people were already lined up to purchase tickets. By 1AM, there were 700 people in line. It was about 30 degrees and raining. We had to make a call. We knew the first 500 would get wristbands and felt it was the right call to allow those waiting beyond 500 to go home and avoid the cold, wet weather for the remainder of the morning. Given the demand, anyone arriving after midnight would have been too late to obtain a wristband.

 We understand your frustration and anger, but from our standpoint, we had no choice but to change the rules after Monday’s event. We knew some would feel it unfair as they were told one thing and when arriving on the scene, something else was reality. But given the choice of risking a disorderly crowd, a dangerous situation and canceling of the event, we made a decision that we felt was the right thing to do. I support our team and the mall for making safety and, given the weather, health the priorities.

 There are two remaining locations for “Edward” appearances, King of Prussia in Philadelphia and Square One in Saugus, MA.  Both malls have consented to allowing an orderly line form early, first come, first serve.  Exact line-up locations are posted on the hottopic.com website. 

We sincerely apologize and hope that the facts help you to better understand the situation.

Betsy McLaughlin

CEO, Hot Topic

Hot Topic has added an event featuring Nikki Reed, Taylor Lautner, Jackson Rathbone, Kellen Lutz and Paramore

Remember that this Sunday is the last day to enter the Ultimate Fan Twilight Contest.  As of right now we have under 5 submissions.  We’ve never had a contest before where under five people entered! We’re guessing that people haven’t entered because they assumed so many people did and they wouldn’t have a chance. See this page on what to do to win a chat with Catherine Hardwicke.

If you are an aspiring writer, try your hand at TwilightSaga 2009’s fan fiction writing contest.

The Kansas City Star needs you to vote on their contestant entries. They have two divisions: writers under 18, and writers over 18.

Entertainment Tonight  talks to Rob about his not too distant Harry Potter past.

SciFi Wire talks to Catherine about exactly what went into the the movie stunts.

MTV grabbed Catherine to talk about future movies and DVD extras.

Media Blvd grabs Nikki Reed for her Twilight thoughts.

It seems like things went much smoother in Chicago. However there are mixed feelings. 

This just in from Lexiconer Kristen:

So i JUST got back (its 4:30am currently) from Orland park where Rob is suppose to be tonight, and luckily I got there in time. Two friends and I showed up at around 9 PM and camped out. There were already a good 50 people ahead of us. Some had been there since 4 that afternoon waiting.  It was bitterly cold (34 degrees) and raining almost the entire time.

The Orland park police and hot topic had everything VERY organized. A line was set up around the outside of the shopping center. there were some people selling hot chocolate and everyone was SUPER friendly. The Hot Topic staff was amazing. You were only allowed to leave the line for a max of 5 mins. No saving places was allowed. If you cut, you were sent to the back of the line.

 After sitting outside til 1230, the police and mall manager decided to allow us IN the mall even though it was after shopping hours, but it was only the first 500 people there.  This was a HUGE relief since it was so cold and wet.  You were given a ticket to secure your spot. It gave you a chance to run back to your car and toss whatever belongings into your car. They then escorted 20 at time into the mall, to an already sectioned line. After the first 500 were admitted they turned everyone else away.

Around 130 they announced that Hot Topic was going to start selling the bracelets. 10 people were allowed into the store at a time to make their purchases. As I was walking out to my car, there were other fans standing outside who were denied entry. A lot complained about false advertisement because the bracelets were sold before 7:30, but the 500 were already present.

Everything went VERY smoothly and I applaud the police, mall management, and Hot Topic employees! I was fortunate to be one of the 500.

This from Orhai

Hot Topic are liars. Once again, this Chicago one was a disaster. Tons of us have called over the week and they all gave us the same answer. "You can’t line up till 5am. If you do you will be escorted out." Well you can only imagine what a big surprise it was when we got there at 1 in the morning only to find out that they had started to sell them early. It is sad because they lied to so many of us. Some people had driven hours to get there only to find out it was too late.

I think that you guys should put a heads up on your site for the next couple of signings warning people that there might be a last minute change of plans. It really is unfair to have die hard fans drive miles and waste hours of driving to find out that they were being lied to. I was one of the 500 who got a ticket, but it was still sad to see 50+ girls crying because they were told that they couldn’t arrive until 5am. It is very hard for people to know that plans are changed when they live on the other side of the state and can’t make it a day before they are supposed to sell them.

There is also local media perspective:

Chicago Breaking News Site

Chicago Sun Times

As far as we can tell the "Villians" leg of the tour hasn’t experienced severe problems.

Borders has trucked out some more Twilight Saga video footage featuring:

•  Kallie and Kassie of Twilight Series Theories
• Becca of Twilight Live and Twicon, interviewed by Jen (Be My Escape from the Lexicon)
• Bailey AKA  No More Marbles of YouTube and TwiCon fame (interviewed by Pel and Alphie)

Alphie had the chance to preview the Cullen crest jewelry that should be hitting Borders shelves this week, and she was way impressed. Alphie, who will probably kill me later for saying this, is a bit of a jewelry snob, so this is saying something.

Also remember that this weekend Borders has their Twilight Fans Pre-release Movie Party this weekend.  The parties will feature:

7:00-7:30 PM Twilight Movie Discussion Watch trailers, cast interviews, and Borders-exclusive behind-the-scenes video from the movie.

7:30-8:00 PM Twilight Quote Contest

7:30-8:00 PM Twilight Soundtrack Listening Party & Discussion Listen to cuts from the Twilight soundtrack, including the Borders-exclusive track from Paramore.

8:00-8:30 PM Twilight Charades

And Borders will give away two FREE movie tickets for Twilight, courtesy of Fandango, the nation’s largest movie ticketing service. Don’t forget to enter the raffle!

What went into the Twilight wardrobe? Find out in the special from Fashion on Film.

USA Weekend (not to be confused with USA Today) will have a specialty Twilight section this weekend. They are a pull-out section that appears in many nation-wide newspapers. See if there is one in your area. Here’s why you want to get one.

"The upcoming Twilight issue for USA Weekend magazine. It will be in newspapers starting Friday (our magazine appears in more than 600 newspapers across the country, with a 23 million circulation), and will feature a cover story about the movie and the book phenomenon as well as an exclusive collectible poster signed by Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. Also, we have a special cover that is referential to the book covers and features a new logo, only the second time we’ve changed our logo in the past decade. (Stephenie Meyer’s official website will be revealing our cover on Wednesday.) "

LA Times keep up their Twilight countdown.  Here’s the most recent and a recap in case you lost any in the massive news cycle.

• First is Peter Facinelli
• Next Kellan
•  Last Kristen

The Christian Science Monitor analyzes what makes Twilight popular.

Kristen is now on the cover of Teen Vogue.

So here’s the best of what Twilight related video and audio has to offer. Basically right now there are a ton of media outlets providing Twilight info. We’re trying to separate out what you’ve heard a million times ( I think we can all recite Stephenie’s "How Twilight Chapter 13 came to me in a dream" story right along with her at this point.) and the new tidbits we all want. So with no further ado…

Reelz Channel interviews Edi Gathegi. in their latest Twilight coverage.

EW snags a few moments with Rob, who is wearing his signature beret again. Also don’t miss part 4 of EW’s interview with Rob.

Collider has the audio of the interview that they did with Stephenie the other day. If you want to save the file just right click on the link in the Collider article and select "Save Target As" and you can save it, IPOD it, whatever.

Things went much smoother at the Seattle area signing featuring Edi, Rachelle, and Taylor. We hope to have a fan report later.  Taylor, Edi, and Rachelle are in Denver tonight.

Rob moved on to Dallas today. No one got hurt, but we are hearing mixed reports on organization.