GALS convention in Vegas

For those who are interested, Gerry called the GALS convention in Vegas again this year. They're supposed to be getting it into multimedia soon.

I don't know if anyone from here went or not, but if so I hope you're having a good time!

good for them again...

Article on the convention in The Sun with a photo.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/news/2505697/Gerard-Butler-fans-hold-their-fourth-annual-convention.html

P.S. We love you

DROVES of dedicated women flocked to Las Vegas this weekend — to honour popular Scots actor Gerard Butler.
Excited fans paid $275 (£166) each to spend three days chatting about the P.S. I Love You star, enjoying workshops, holding raffles... and, of course, watching his films.

This year’s event, held at the city’s Hilton hotel, was the fourth convention. It was organised by devotees, who call themselves Gerard Butler Gals.

And they were thrilled when the 39-year-old, from Glasgow, addressed them via a Skype videolink.

The 300 and Phantom Of The Opera star told them: “You guys at Gals are great.

“I love your philosophy. I’m very moved and touched and inspired by what you do.

“I wish you all the best weekend and I hope you have a great time with each other and make loads more new friends and you continue to support each other and have fun with each other.

“Keep supporting me and I’ll keep supporting you.”

The loyal fans have even set up their own charitable foundation and have raised more than £17,000 for breast cancer charities in the US and pledged cash to the Scottish Youth Theatre.

This year’s event — which ran from Thursday evening until yesterday morning — is raising money for US domestic abuse charity Shade Tree.

Auctions help raise funds for the nominated charities, with one groupie paying $1,000 (£604) for a pair of jeans Butler wore on P.S. I Love You, when he starred alongside Hilary Swank, 34.

Organiser Dayna Linton, from Salt Lake City, Utah, said: “Not only is Gerry good-looking, but he is a nice guy, with a bit of a tortured soul that seemed to connect with his darker characters.

“When I found out how respectful he was of his mother, well, that did it for me, I was hooked.


“Gerry is loved the world over and we’ve turned that into something very positive.

“Since the very early days Gerry has been committed.

“He’s done some amazing things for the fans, like calling one up for chat on Christmas Day because her mother was dying.

“He’s donated countless things for auction and given his own time to come and meet with us. He’s a special guy.”

Over 6,000 fans have signed up to the Gals’ website dedicated to the former Glasgow University law student.

Fan club administrator Katie Stewart, a mum of one from Nashville, Tennessee, said: “We offer support to each other as well as having a common thread in Gerry.

“We are proud that we were able to make something good come out of this. Some people might think it is weird but it’s all harmless fun.


“My husband Wayne is really supportive — he doesn’t mind at all and my daughter is also fine about it.”

But superfan Jenni St Giles, from Atlanta, Georgia, said: “Some of the fans are pretty obsessive.

“They sometimes have to be reminded that he’s an actor and that it is not his real life.

“We’ve heard some crazy stories from people who just generally follow him around to fans who pretend they are extras on set just to get close to him.

“A couple of years ago one fan paid $300 (£181) for a glass he’d drunk from.

“I completely understand the obsession though — he’s amazing.

Interesting that the article talks about the same person in a different light, and I'm not talking about G...

and I haven't been over to the other site, but I didn't know it was a video phone call.

I'm sure it was a great surprise for those in attendance.

Thanks, D.

greyeyegoddess wrote:

Interesting that the article talks about the same person in a different light, and I'm not talking about G...

and I haven't been over to the other site, but I didn't know it was a video phone call.

I'm sure it was a great surprise for those in attendance.

Thanks, D.

?????

I'm lost. I have no idea what you are referencing. Maybe you meant to be cryptic or maybe I'm just dense.

I think the article was mistaken when it referred to the skype call as a videolink. I believe it was just an audio call using skype that was left on Dayna's voicemail.

Here's a transcript of the phone call (and yes, based on what was posted at GALS, it was an audio call and not video).

**************************

Hello everybody. This is Gerry, Gerard Butler saying hello to you all at the GALS convention in Vegas. This is my first time I think using Skype so I have no idea if you can even hear me. I hope you can. I'm in my trailer. I just finished work in Atlantic City which I'm now about to leave, sadly, cause it's amazing.



But, anyway a big hello, loads of love to you all. I guess you're all sitting at dinner or something I'm not sure where this will be presented or where this will be played. But hopefully you've all got a few glasses of wine down you and a few beers, or vodka, whiskey…whatever it is, whatever it is, I hope you're having fun.



So I want to thank you all for I guess your continued support. It never fails to amaze me what you guys do and how you've kept us up how you've kept it all together, and the imagination that goes into it and just the love and the commitment. So thank you to all of you who are attending and especially to those of you who put it all together. And to good ol' Dayna here, whose voicemail I'm borrowing for this message.



So, I hope you have a great, great, great fabulous weekend in Vegas. I mean how could you not? Cause by the looks of things you're going to get to watch some of my movies. I personally can't think of a better weekend that I can spend than watching my movies. (laughter) No.



So I'm looking here at what you've got going on. You have a video workshop. I'm not quite sure, you know, there's some fancy names going on here.



So, MySpace/Facebook for Dummies…sounds very interesting, right up my alley cause I'm clueless to those things.



Siggy workshop. What? I don't know; I'm sure it's amazing.



Gaelic Gutter Gab for GALS (laughing) I don't know where you get these ideas from.



Tour of The Shade Tree Shelter and We're All Connected Gala.



You guys are gonna have a ball. I wish I knew what you were doing, but I gotta say from those titles, I'm none the wiser. I recognize some of the other stuff. Have a great time, have a great time.



I am working my little butt cheeks off here. I have a bunch of stuff coming out. I guess I have about five movies coming out now, from thrillers to animated movies, to a couple of comedies, to action. There's no stopping me. I'm kind of doing it mostly to make sure that there's always movies for you to sit in on when you have these movie nights at your conventions. I guess you must be running out of movies by now. So, I work to furnish you with movies for your movie night. (laughter)



Listen, from the bottom of my heart, I'm really honored that you all would even use my name for a convention and that you have these fansites.



You guys at GALS are great. I love your philosophy and how the website was started as well. It just seems like it's created out of a whole bunch of love. So again I'm very moved and touched and inspired by what you do. So I wish you all the best weekend and I hope you have a great time with each other and make loads more new friends and you continue to support each other and have fun with each other and keep supporting me and I'll keep supporting you.



Loads of love and I'll see you all soon.



Ciao.

Dallas wrote:

greyeyegoddess wrote:

Interesting that the article talks about the same person in a different light, and I'm not talking about G...

I'm lost. I have no idea what you are referencing. Maybe you meant to be cryptic

Yes, I was being cryptic to those who don't know. We can chat about it later...it has to do with the fan stuff.

Thanks DK, for sending the call stuff. So, it was a prerecorded call. ok...

I hope that the other site gets something as nice for their convention, too.

On the other hand, it's nice to hear him so positive about his work.

I'm almost thinking that it was somehow written or put together by the owners and admins, as they were the only ones who were reported in the article. I could be wrong, and have been. I remember that D was big at wanting to promote the site 'out' there as much as they can-google ads, etc. And they have every right to do so.

I don't think they do anything outside the US. I could be wrong. I thought they might have had something to do with the tree deal that was started on .net. Other than that, I cannot remember any other non US charity.

I'm sure I missed out on a lot of fun, good times, and the phone call. Who knows, maybe G will show up for the fifth anniversary. But I still wouldn't pay to go again, after the things I know.

The article has been explained over at GALS. The writer interviewed them for the article.

ETA: the explanation from GALS:

"The reporter did an interview with Dayna, Jenni and Katie.
As with most 'interviews' some things were misquoted but it's overall a nice little article.

The photo was supplied by GALS, taken Friday evening."

And SSporran added:
"Overall quite well done, though I know that the "quote" attributed to Jenni about people pretending to be extras was not something she said.

Compared to other press that we fans have gotten, this one managed to focus on the more important picture as we hoped - how in supporting Gerry we have come to support each other, and even to support women's and children's charities as well. And how he supports us in the process. Not a bunch of crazies.

I believe Siobhan (the reporter) may have come upon the Convention via a Google search because she contacted the site via email last week to request the interview which Dayna, Jenni and Katie did the other night."




(why is there crazy formatting issues that I have to keep editing? sorry)

I think we should organize a convention for our site, go visit Grants Farm in St. Louis, and feed the goats.

I'm kidding!! Maybe.

Gads you're spot on, Nay! I think you know a lot more than most people realize.

I don't know if they did actually write it, but I wouldn't be surprised. I know that it's so busy during Vegas time, that an interview is very difficult unless it was done today after the event. And to get all three of them into a room together during another time is not easy either. They all live far away from each other.

Or done by a fan who works for the Sun or knows someone at the Sun. It's just too weird that a UK deal would come all the way to Vegas.

they could have Skyped the interview, too...if that was the case.

Those lines did bother me though, Nay.

I learned some things about each of them in that article. And I learned that there were droves of women there...whatever that meant.

Much luck next time.

DonnaKat wrote:

I think we should organize a convention for our site, go visit Grants Farm in St. Louis, and feed the goats.

I'm kidding!! Maybe.

As soon as I get a job!

LOL! Well if anyone does visit me here in the Lou, we'll be doing more than feeding goats. There's much better things to do in St. Louis than that.

Got it!

Alice, I added further explanation to my post.
They didn't write it. You guys are cracking me up. It seems pretty straight forward to me.

Thanks D, but it only added truth to the fact that because I think it was pushed on google...possibly a google ad, which they've done before when they aren't getting the numbers they need for the event, that it was picked up by someone.

In a way, they did write it up for themselves, by what they said.

funny, when did they write that explanation, D?

I don't think any of the dedicated fans felt hurt about the misquotes. They should be used to it by now. Gerry's fans are obsessive, as far as anyone in the media believe. Heck even Gerry thinks his fans are a bit crazy...who cares?

Unfortunately, I've had conversations with all of them, and honestly, those words aren't far from the truth.

greyeyegoddess wrote:

Thanks D, but it only added truth to the fact that because I think it was pushed on google...possibly a google ad, which they've done before when they aren't getting the numbers they need for the event, that it was picked up by someone.

In a way, they did write it up for themselves, by what they said.

funny, when did they write that explanation, D?

Alice, they wrote the explanation when the article was posted. People commented on the article and asked how the article came about - just like people did here - and they answered their questions. It seemed pretty straightforward to me.
But you all can go read it yourself. I may read it differently than someone else does.

As for the google thing - maybe it was google, or maybe it was all the twitter stuff posted pushing all the sites, the convention, and even the virtual convention. Who knows how the reporter heard about it. But the info about it is everywhere -- not to mention this convention has been written about before in the media and talked about by Gerry in interviews. The convention has been advertised non-stop on the front of GALS and with a countdown and everything for months and months. I guess I just don't see the big deal about the article. It's a puff piece by The Sun. They also have reported on his "womanizing" reputation as of late. This is just another Butler story, in my opinion.

DonnaKat wrote:

I think we should organize a convention for our site, go visit Grants Farm in St. Louis, and feed the goats.

I'm kidding!! Maybe.

The goats WERE pretty cute. Marissa took me when I was there at the beginning of June. Pairsonnally, I preferred the Scottish Cow they had...But I like Scottish stuff. LOL.

It's been a long time since I've been to Grants Farm. They have a Scottish cow now? Does it wear a kilt?

I know, I'm a dork.

Unfortunately, no, there is no kilt. That would have been great tho!