My first convention ever. After paying a ridiculous amount of money at a cafe in the hotel where the con was being held, Karla and I went to the dealers room so I could find a picture to have Katee sign since my obsession is not to the Buffy level quite yet, at least not when it comes to merch. I thought it was kinda cool that Katee wasn't making fans purchase pics of her but then I don't know much about conventions. I ended up settling on a cute pic of her from what I assume is Max Bickford.

Anyway, we went to stand in line for the photo session, and I was already getting really excited and annoying the hell out of Karla. We made small talk for about an hour until it was Katee's turn (Ron Glass was up before her). As we got closer to the window of the room where the photos were being taken, I did a little squeeing cuz I could totally see Katee's back. Hee! She was wearing this adorable simple black dress, with her hair back in a pony tail. So cute.Upon entering the room, got more and more nervous, and Karla said she would give me an intro for Katee because I'm a total lame-oh shy person and wouldn't be able to say much myself. So yeah, Karla got her photo taken, and Katee cutely asked if she should bend down a bit because Karla's a bit, er, vertically challenged, shall we say? She then told Katee that I was nervous and stuff, and Katee tried to make me feel at ease by making small talk about my t-shirt. I was wearing a Chili Peppers tee, partly because I love them and partly because I thought it was a sneaky way to get her to remember me since I know she kinda digs the Peppers as well. She told me she saw them in concert (which I knew) and that they were amazing and I said I was jealous. I shook her hand with both of mine and said it was really nice to meet her. And then it was picture time, and I had to put my arm around her a bit and I was kinda shaking so then I said something like, "holy crap, I'm so nervous". At this point she said something else to comfort me but I was too nervous to remember what. I smiled my awkward Chandler-esque smile and then she said something else and I told her I was a total spaz in pictures. She laughed and squeezed my arm a bit and I squeezed back and left and basically if you can't tell she's like the sweetest, kindest, most normal celeb I think anyone could ever hope to meet. And just a wonderful person in general. Gah! Love her.

Okay. Next were autographs. We went upstairs to wait in line again for another 2 hrs to get our chance to have stuff autographed. We eventually got in there, and Karla boldly began asking her if she's ever listened to Billy Talent. I had wanted to ask her this question since the band was named after Callum Keith Rennie's character in Hard Core Logo, but I knew I'd be too chicken shit. Katee has heard of them, but apparently only because of Callum. Even though she lives in Canada and it's kinda weird that she hadn't heard of them otherwise. But yeah, that was me and Karla pimping are Canadian homeboys. I didn't say much cuz I was still terrified and I probably came off as kinda rude, I dunno, but Katee was distracted talking to Karla anyway, haha. So we got our personalized autograph, I said thank you to Katee and she said, "Thanks, guys!" and then we left that room as well after trying to grab a few more shots of the lovely lady. This part of the event was a little anticlimactic for me, but I really think it's because Katee seemed more kinda busy with all the people around her and it was difficult to grab her attention for too long. But screw it, we were a foot away from her.

Also, a very interesting note. We were all informed outside the signing room that Katee would not be signing a certain picture of herself. I could easily link you to the picture but Katee's not comfortable with it so I won't post it. But it's the one of her covered with only a sheet, smoking a cigar. You know the one. I was a little surprised at first, but then thought it kinda made sense and that it must be weird to have strangers, many of them a bit odd, come up with this picture of you half naked. Katee later apologized during the main talk for refusing to sign that picture, but said that she was very young when it was done and that it was on the top of her list of regrets. Understandable and it actually makes me respect her even more.

Next was the main talk. We also went in there right after to make sure we got good seats, and we did get quite good seats, though right by the mic. Turned out we were there so early we caught the tail end of Ron Glass' talk and the entirety of Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troy from ST: The Next Gen). Marina was fucking hilarious. While all of Katee's fans had been lined up in droves for the autograph session, Marina got fake pissy, stood up on a chair and said, "Katee's gonna be in there for another hour. Why don't you come and see my talk and then you can come back! Don't piss me off!" Hee! She was great. And Greek. W00t! Represent! She just had this great personality onstage, like fake arrogant with her British accent, but you could tell she was actually a sweetheart. She pretended to be pissed at all the fans who hadn't been at her Q&As the previous couple of days, and she said whoever asked a question that was one she had answered the other day, she wasn't going to answer! That was their "punishment". Haha. She was so bitchy, it was great.

Finally, Katee was introduced on stage and the crowd of course went wild! As usual, you could tell she was really nervous, because from what I've seen she always says the first five minutes she's petrified until she gets into the question part. Flashes were going off like crazy because you were allowed to take flash pics for the first five minutes and she kept smiling as she sat down in the plush chair and said, "So I guess I'll be blind for 5 minutes?"

Karla also reminded me of a really cute comment she made at the beginning, when they dimmed the lights in the room and kept the spotlight on her. Then she said she couldn't see the crowd and someone said that would make her less nervous. They put the lights back up again and she said (still in a shaky, nervous voice), "There we go...now it feels less like an interrogation....I didn't do it, I swear!"

The questions began in a flurry. In no real order, here's the non-spoiler sum-up of the Q&A. First question: what do you think of the people who don't like the new Starbuck? "Frak 'em".

Someone said something like, "Welcome to Toronto" and she responded with, "Yeah, I've seen so much of it. The airport's beautiful!" Other Canadian-related comments included Katee saying she spends so much time here she's "an honorary Canadian" and when someone asked what her favourite pizza toppings were, she said she always gets weird looks in Vancouver when she asks for Canadian bacon on her pizza. She said how much she loved food and if she could just have a whole Canadian pig on her pizza. She asked if a Canadian pig tastes different than an American one.

Next, someone asked about the boot camp that the actors had to attend prior to the mini and how rigorous it was. She basically laughed it off and said it was no big deal at all, just an "actor's bootcamp". She mentioned that they were all terrified on the busride over because it was right after 9/11 and the States was all gung ho about going to war and they thought they would ship them off to fight or something! But then they got there and it was "Okay, you're gonna run to that wall and then run back". Heh. She said it was interesting how everyone slipped into the rank they would hold on the actual show. Jamie was ordering her around, she was ordering Grace around, and Grace was ordering everyone else around which she was good at, apparently.

Of course, she was inevitably asked the question of the old BSG and turning Starbuck into a woman. My goodness, she must get sick of these questions, but she always answers them so gracefully and like she's never heard it before. You know the drill: she got hate mail, it stopped after the mini, she thinks she overplayed Starbuck's toughness because of all the hate mail but that ultimately Starbuck is now a woman and it's very hard to compare her to the old Starbuck. All they have in common is their callsign.

She again said how difficult it was for her to watch any of the old series. Actually someone asked her if she watched it after the question had already been asked once, which was really annoying. Katee kinda looked at her for a second and then answered the same question again. Dude, were you not listening?

Playing Kara is her therapy, because Starbuck represents "her screwed up parts". She said playing a character who is a lot like yourself is way easier on a TV show, because it's long running and trying to get into the head of a totally different character every week would be exhausting.

Will Kara dump Anders and marry Apollo? Katee obviously has no idea, but she reiterated the fact that she doesn't think Kara will ever let herself be happy. Katee's words were that Kara's "happiness is in her sadness" which was very poignant, I thought. Feeling pain and hurt is what reminds her that she's alive, and I think that jives really well with what we know of her history. Again, she stated that she doesn't really want that perfect happy ending, doesn't want everything tied in a neat little bow because that's not interesting and it's not Starbuck.

When asked about her confidence in the writers, Katee said the writers were brilliant and she was completely sure they would end the series perfectly, especially now that they've been given the chance to wrap up the show properly.

Her experience on filming Maelstrom. She mentioned another director, Bob Young? An 82-year old man who apparently filmed with Jacques Cousteau and is amazing, would get down on the ground with her and tell her what she needed to do in the scene, and this is after his knee replacement surgery, apparently. All he said to her in direction was "allow" and though it took her a little while to figure it out, it was a very useful piece of advice.

On lying to the cast about her "death": it was very difficult, but that Ron and David told her to "sell it"! When David called and asked her to tone it down, she told him she was a melodramatic actress, what did he expect? Apparently she doesn't think she misled people very well, but that her mother did an excellent job when she was on set with her and fooled everybody: "Yes, we're very upset but Katee's going to be fine!" Bwahaha. David eventually told Eddie and Katee knew as soon as Eddie knew "Everyone would know." We all giggled a lot at that.

When opening her can of diet coke, Katee made a bit of a mess on the tablecloth, and then got into the wonders of the Tide stick like an adorable dork. She said she used it on her boyfriend's clothes because he's a pig, but that all she did was put yellow marks all over them which pissed him off. It was cute little asides and anecdotes like this that let you see how much of a normal girl Katee is. She would sometimes make comments that she mostly would find funny and maybe not the crowd and then she'd get back to the questions, like, "Anyway!"

One of the most amusing questions of the night was when someone asked her if she knew people wrote pornography about her. Of course, at the moment this question was asked, Katee was sipping on her diet Coke and nearly choked on it! It was completely hilarious. She was laughing her ass off. "I've had milk come out of my nose and coke would burn a lot more!" She wanted to clarify: "About Kara or Katee?" Answer: "Katee". There was a long pause, Katee got really red and shyly asked: "Is it good?" Everyone cracked up laughing and she got redder and redder and covered her face laughing and embarrassed and oh, poor girl. After everyone had quieted down, she said she was going to download it and print it off, then use it as wallpaper in her boyfriend's bathroom. We all lost our shit even more at that point.

She talked about how fun it is to get to make out with such hot guys on both BSG and Bionic Woman, and said it a few times actually and finished off with a quick, "I love my boyfriend".

Another very interesting portion of the talk was when she talked about her most scary, vulnerable scenes to shoot. Apparently, the paint sex with Leoben from Maelstrom was scariest for her because she said even though it may not have come across in such a way on screen, they filmed it as a rape. That it was a violation and after the scene was over and she went to her trailer to take a shower, she cried. Aww, Katee! I understand that though, because while the scene had a "sexy" aspect to it, it was of a very disturbing kind, IMO.
    Edited to Add: Since these comments by Katee are causing a bit of a ruckus in some areas of fandom, I just want to clarify that this is only my OWN interpretation of what she said and she may not have meant it exactly in the way I understood it. I got the feeling that the term "rape" was used more in a metaphorical rather than literal sense.

Comments on cast members. If she could sum up each cast member in one word, what would it be?

"Frakked".

Eddie/Mary - Brilliant.
Jamie - Smartest man she's ever met.
James - A warm, kind soul.
Trucco - Amazing.
Grace - Most improved actor on the show. Grace had never really acted before BSG and she's doing amazing.
Trish - Most underrated. She takes everything so seriously and she's always perfect.
Aaron - Psycho.
Tahmoh - Her partner in crime.

She loves Lucy, she's hilarious, and everyone was told not to call her Xena when she first joined the cast. Of course, though, being Katee, she had to do it! But did it so quietly because she's "terrified of Lucy". Heh, I can see that!

More on her and Tahmoh, apparently they do crazy shit together like get hopped up on caffeine and act nuts. Like, grab their guns and act like cowboys. They also went to a restaurant in L.A. once and couldn't pronounce the name of the wine and made up some gibberish word for it. Also, walking around together downtown (LA or Vancouver? Can't remember) they were apparently holding hands (aww) and Katee noticed a paparazzi was around. She told Tahmoh to be careful because he was holding her hand and apparently also touching her butt! Tahmoh looked around for the paparazzi, said "Where?" then proceeded to squeeze her boob. LOL.

Someone asked how cool it was to get to punch people. Katee sarcastically said, "Oh yeah! I love to punch people in the face!" She and Jamie love to fight each other. She repeated the story of when she hit him in the nose and thought she broke it because it was bleeding and his eyes were watering, and when Unifinished Business came 'round, she was worried it would be payback time!

Some practical jokes on set. She apparently had handcuffs hidden in a sex scene with Jamie, then chickened out when it came time to pull them out, or was possibly too in character. Also, a scene where she takes out the box with her idols to pray, she instead took out this long strand of condoms instead. Hahaha.

Also, the cast had to attend some kind of workplace "sexual harassment" talk and would torture the lecturer with ridiculous questions: "So if Eddie grabs my ass and tells me to do 'blah blah blah', is that sexual harassment? Okay. Just checking. And if I turn around and grab Eddie's package, is that sexual harassment? Just checking."

The painted walls in her Caprican apartment. Apparently Katee can barely fingerpaint, so the Eye of Jupiter was not her doing. All she really did was write the poems, which she took the time to think of one weekend trying to get into Kara's head. Her "very creative" additions on the wall included, err, handprints! Yay!

When asked why they don't have more women in scenes together, Katee hilariously remarked that the writers were afraid to put two strong women in a room together for fear that they might "go gay". But she said it's probably because when she, Mary, and Trish are in scenes together they get the major giggles.

How does she deal with being the centre of attention? Katee says she does the cons for the fans, because talking in front of a crowd scares the shit out of her, and she continued by saying that she thinks it's underserved attention. The man asking the question said, "It's deserved" and everyone clapped as Katee smiled modestly and I think a little emotionally. Aw, group hug!

One girl told Katee how much she's been inspired by her and was getting pretty choked up while saying it but asked what advice she has for aspiring actors. "Don't give up." Some people will tell you that you can't do it. Everyone will tell you that you can't do it. Katee's drama teacher told her she was a failure. Follow your dreams. Your dreams may change, but follow your heart.

As most people know, she dislocated her knee while filming BW and says she has now learned her lesson, even though she loves to do stunts and everything. But from now on she's going to let her stunt woman kill herself, hee. Speaking of Bionic, she said they were still looking at the fine print in terms of how large her role on the series would be, but that her loyalties lie with BSG and if she thinks working on BW will compromise her work on BSG, she'll stop doing BW.

A question was asked about The Education of Max Bickford. Katee said that she was young and didn't appreciate the fact that she was working with Oscar winners like Richard Dreyfuss, that she only knew him as the guy from Jaws. She said every job is a stepping stone, that Max Bickford got her BSG, BSG got her Bionic Woman and BW will get her "EVERYTHING". She then pimped NBC.

She was asked about the picture of the man on his knees in the Ready Room, which everyone touches on their way out. Katee said she thinks it's supposed to be similar to a photograph of firefighters after 9/11 standing on the rubble. So basically the photograph is a picture of a man watching the destruction of Caprica. I had heard that before from somewhere but it was still very interesting.

One of the sweetest things was how she remembered fans. Like this one young girl came up and said, "Nice to see you again, Katee" and Katee said, "Hi! Mary, right?" And she totally remembered the kid's name. Like, holy shit. How much more awesome can you be? Anyway, the girl asked what her most embarrassing story is, and Katee responded with, "Oh honey, you know that, you just asked me 10 minutes ago but you want me to say it in front of all these people!" The girl laughed and Katee shared her embarrassments. Apparently, she accidentally showed her boobs at a televised swimming competition because the suits they had to wear were so terrible. Another embarrassing moment happened while filming White Noise 2 (where she apparently met her boyfriend). They gave her size A pantyhose to wear (Katee: "And who fits into size A? Really?") and she was apparently ripping them all day. She went to change or something and had this skirt on, with g-string underwear, and her skirt got caught in her pantyhose. After asking the crew, "What's everyone lookin' at?" she realized she was showing her ass to everyone.

Favourite music: Van Morrison! She also mentioned Grateful Dead and Keith Urban, among others. I think she's still got some country love in her. Favourite TV is whatever she can sort through on her boyfriend's TiVo since she doesn't have cable: History channel, Deadliest Catch, Top Chef. What she loves about Top Chef? A reality show where the contestants get weapons! Ahahaha! They're told that this is a competition, and then "Here's some knives! There...might be food, we don't know."

Someone stepped up to the mic and showed Katee a mini Starbuck Lego toy and asked what she thought about it. Katee said it was awesome and that "Everyone's getting one for Christmas." She then added that the hips were all wrong, and the girl said "It's Lego, what'd you expect?" Katee: "I know. But my butt's way cuter than that."

Finally, she ended the talk with retelling the paintsex pasties story! You all know it by now but it's so funny. Katee doesn't get the point of putting the pasties on the censored areas since you can't show that anyway! And when she took off the pasties, the director said, "Well now we can see everything", so Callum dipped his hands in the paint, grabbed Katee's boobs and said "problem solved". Then he gave her boobs a honk. People like Katee's boobs, eh?

When she had 5 minutes left, one of the con volunteers walked around with this poster that said "5 minutes remaining" and Katee booed her good-naturedly and the audience did the same. Then the lady waved her hand like, "Oh, fuck you all!" and Katee was like, oh shit, "I'm sorry, I was just teasing!" Still don't know if the volunteer was joking or actually pissed. Neither did Katee. So. Funny.

Katee's shopping for a Harley! That's hot.

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The first major slip from Katee: Lucy's back! Yes, you heard it here first. She knew immediately she shouldn't have said it but it's too late, man.

When asked if she'd be kicking ass in a viper this season, Katee at first said she was trying to remember if she filmed any scenes in a viper this year: "nnnoo....? Not as much as last year. But I kick ass everywhere." Damn right! A few more interesting details from the first 6 eps:

- Starbuck points a gun at someone
- Starbuck kills 2 marines
- Starbuck shoots cylons (in a viper)
- Starbuck has sex
- Starbuck gets drunk, not dumped. I guess I heard that part wrong.
- A lot of division in the coming season, with loyalties where you might not expect them.
- She'll have to choose sides (thanks for reminding me, Karla!)
- There's a brothel - obviously this is Baltar's harem that was mentioned online before. Katee jokingly said Starbuck's a regular visitor.

"Am I a cylon? Wouldn't you like to know!" But she doesn't know either, as it turns out. She knows it's because she can't keep her mouth shut.

These photos are all thanks to Karla!

The pretty!