Potter-Mania

Today is THE day. The day I play dress-up. The day I camp out for hours on end in Leicester Square. The day I get a real glimpse of Harry Potter - Daniel Radcliffe (aka where-were-boys-like-you-when-I-was-16?). The day I get to rub shoulders with the celebs (or maybe not). The day has come: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix world premiere in London. And it's the day I get to go absolutely nuts, because everyone else around me will be as well. Besides, no-one knows me here. How much of an idiot can I make of myself?

That was rhetorical. Don't answer it.

En route in my uniform (minus robe - come on, give me some credit for sanity), I am mistaken by a middle-aged woman and security guard (who turns out to be the biggest ass-wipe) for a student who has just finished school. On the tube, I find myself getting so comfortable in my uniform that it's almost frightening. My mother should have let me play dress-ups more as a kid. Or sent me to private school.

I secure a spot at the rear of the stage (which basically means the really gung-ho nutters got the best spots hours before. Next time... I make 'Harry Potter Crowd Buddies' with a Mexican girl called Gaby, her Australian handbag (called Ryan) and a 15 year old boy called Shaun who we almost feel the need to chaperone. For the next few hours, we talk (generally utter crap about seeing Daniel Radcliffe's 'wand' in Equus, bringing Cedric Diggory back from the dead, and swooning over Rupert Grint's sexy mop of red hair [oh okay, that last one was just me]). We take cheesy pictures and get interviewed by reporters. A foghorn (bless the girl) of a teen draws the attention, and I keep it with my dedicated garb. I really should have been an extra in the film. Better still, I should have been Cho Chang - after all, she gets to snog the Potter boy.

I am interviewed by Dave Berry (?) who is apparently famous here - a Nickelodeon presenter, and a woman from BBC Online. Watch this space.

DAVE (after eyeing me up and down on camera, cheeky grin on face): How much did all this cost?
CHRISTINA: A lot.
DAVE: How much?
CHRISTINA: About ₤300.
DAVE: And how much was your plane ticket?
CHRISTINA: About ₤1100.
DAVE: That's a crazy amount.
CHRISTINA: I gotta look good if I came halfway around the world for this. (okay, so that was a bit of a white lie: I leave out the bit about a film conference I have to go to in about 3 days time...)
DAVE (laughs): Too true. Thank you very much!

And he poses with me for a glamour shot. Love them metrosexuals.

The weather turns foul as soon as the stars arrive at 5pm (I have been waiting for 5 hours at this point). Downpour and thunder. Unfortunately, no-one has told us that our perfect shot of the stars will be obstructed... by competition winners who are siphoned in to 'the pen' in front of us. Irate fans can be a dangerous mob. I think that's where the phrase "eyes like daggers in your back" came from. We are privy to glimpses between-heads of the actors. BUT we do see them all, and some much closer than others.

Just when we think we've got the short end of the stick, Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) comes our way. He's just as unattractive in real-life as he is in the movies, but today - he's a legend just for leaping the boundary. Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) follows suit. It's funny what a fabulous dress and your own personal stylist can do for a person. I say "Thanks Emma" for signing something (I think), and she says "You're welcome". It is so not a Viggo Mortensen moment (and if you want the story on that one, email me and I'll tell you all about it), but it'll do.

And finally, the boy wonder we've all been waiting to see. Daniel Radcliffe himself. I'd love to say he came our way. That he smiled for my camera, signed whatever scrap of paper I could fish out of my bag, and then said "Hi, would you like to be my guest this evening?" (okay, that was just wishful thinking). Unfortunately, none of that actually happened. He didn't venture in our dark recesses and there was no opportunity to rugby tackle the lad. We see him through craned heads and walking up the ramp towards the red carpet. But he did smile our way (we'll take what we can get), as did Rupert Grint on numerous occasions (only because our section of the crowd was being obnoxiously loud).

Better than a kick in the teeth. And hey. You're looking at the pics, right? You can say you know a crazy person who sat in the wet and cold for a picture of Daniel Radcliffe, whose head is the size of a needle-point in the the photo. Or maybe not.

All I can say is, there's a 6th and 7th movie. Like a 4'11 Terminator, I'll be back (in full costume) and all the wiser and more prepared (read: turn up at 7 in the morning next time!).