Gates at NOVACON!
As promised here's my report of the NOVACON where Gates McFadden was the star! Boy, does it sound great to say that! I'll say it again! Gates McFadden was the STAR of the Convention! :o) Sorry but I get excited when she gets to say more than 100 words and if you are a TRUE Bev fan you'd know what I was talking about. ;o) (By the way - :o) is a smiley face, ;o) is a wink, if you don't believe me turn your monitor sideways. ;o) ) Oh yeah, since this all came from memory don't take quotes to mean that is EXACTLY what she said, it will more than likely be something close to what she said. I never claimed to have a great memory, so there!
These pictures have been given to
me by my good friends, Susan, Cindy and Deanne. Now everybody thank Susan, Cindy and
Deanne! "THANK YOU SUSAN, CINDY AND DEANNE!!" :o)
IF you want more pictures of Gates at the convention go to the following places (I'm sure there's more out there but I only know of these right now) :
- Nan's Page and Nan also donated some pictures to Ray isn't she generous :o)
Nathalie's Page, she's got some pictures of the GBO (Great Bald One) a.k.a. Patrick Stewart and of course Convention pictures of the TAG (Tall Auburn Goddess) - Gates of course! :o)
Gwyn's Page has convention pictures as well as a couple of P/C stories for your enjoyment! :o)
O.k. enough with the pictures, you guys
did come here to find out what she talked about didn't you? I thought so! :o)
Well, of course Gates was brilliant, charming, witty, and boy was she EVER talkative! :o) Sorry but it still amazes me when I hear more than 100 words come out of her mouth in a single sitting!
O.k. so everyone is waiting in anticipation for Gates to show up and when she appears from one of the side doors everyone immediately scramble to get a picture of her...let me tell you there was NO need for lighting in that room! The camera flashes took care of any lighting problems! Well, Gates finally gets on stage and she seems a bit surprised by the amount of photographs being taken. So she smiles and I'm sure that she's being blinded by the flashes but she takes it in stride! She says something to the effect of, "So how does this work? I haven't been in a convention for a long time. You guys take pictures of me for 15 minutes, I talk for a little bit and then you guys ask me some questions right?" A very large group in the front row answer her with a resounding yes. So Gates smiles and pulls out chocolate bars with her signature. "I didn't make these but it tastes pretty good. And look they have my picture on it." Then she started throwing those candy bars out into the audience. "Now don't fight over them!" she called from the stage.
Gates then began talking about her
operations. Her first operation was due to a burst appendix while she was in Hawaii. She
begged the hospital to find a doctor who would perform microsurgery on her. And so they
found one doctor who had just moved to Hawaii. While she was lying on the operating table,
the doctor comes in an looks at her. "Doctor Crusher!" he says excitedly. Then
the doctor proceeds to video tape the entire surgery and explain to Gates step by step the
procedures he was using and of course not sparing her of any medical jargon. Gates didn't
have a clue as to what he was talking about but would occasionally hear a couple of words
that she remembered saying in an episode. "And I'm sure there are pictures of my
intestines somewhere out there on the Internet." Yes people, Gates does surf the
'NET. More on that later. :o)
Turns out that a couple months later Gates had to get surgery again this
time for a blocked colon. So Gates is lying one the table and guess who happens to be her
doctor! Yep the same guy who did the appendix operation. He looks at her and smiles
brightly, "Doctor Crusher, you're back!" He then proceeds to talk about the last
operation he did on her and tells her that he still has the video tape of the surgery and
did she want to see it again. She smiles and politely declines but he pulls them out
anyway. Gates then started talking about her experience in Bosnia. And boy did she have
tons and tons of fun! She was there for her USO tour. While in Bosnia she was allowed to
ride around in a tank with full battle gear. She talked about how 
the bulletproof vest, helmet, and
combat boots weighed about 20 lbs. and the absolute trill she got out of racing across the
country side. Then for the USO show they had the show relayed to the other camps. So on
stage an officer was introducing her and wanted to get a colonel at one of the remote
camps on the screen. Unfortunately for the colonel he was in the bathroom when the officer
called him to the screen. One of the soldiers informed the officer that the colonel was
occupied but the officer screamed that he didn't care what the guy was doing and he had
better go and greet a very important person. So the colonel comes to the platform trying
to pull up his pants. Gates takes the walkie talkie and says something to the effect of,
"Help! I'm Doctor Crusher and I'm stuck in a warp bubble." The colonel doesn't
miss a beat and responds with, "Hold on, I'll get you to warp as fast as I can."
Then he began shouting out orders to his soldiers. After the show they took her on a
Blackhawk helicopter ride. One of the soldiers asked her if she would like to go on combat
maneuvers with a slightly evil smile. She replied with, "Sure." Then she went on
the most exciting ride of her life. The Blackhawk raced across the land barely missing
mountains. While most people are about to blow chunks, Gates just screams out
"Wooohoooo! Take it to WARP 8!"
Gates then talked about she enjoyed baking cookies for her son and as
every proud parent does she began bragging about him. Jack is a very smart little boy.
They lived in France for a while and Jack spoke French well enough to be able to attend
public school there. So he's fluent in French and can 
speak several other languages. While Gates was
filming MARKER, he attended a international school where he picked up several different
languages. Gates was considering learning Japanese to keep up with her son. Gates also
explained that the reason why her hair is so blonde looking is due to her spending so much
time in the Hawaiian sun.
O.K. the things that she has done lately have been an upcoming movie on ABC called, "Broken Crown," where she plays a nasty Southern woman. She also did a radio show for the BBC. She did some mentoring and helped out some universities.
O.K. now about the Internet and Gates. She said as far as she knows, none of those nude shots on the web are really her, but said if it has a good body attached to it, go ahead and think it's her. She said that she can't vouch for old boyfriends but as far as she is knows those pictures are not of her. She and Brent Spiner e-mail a lot and she does surf. So some of you people out there with questionable stuff be careful! Gates IS on the WEB!! Hmmm...wonder if she's been here? ;o)
O.K. now for some tidbits. She's really fascinated
with the MIR space station. She keeps thinking to herself, "If only the Enterprise
was here." She did wear wigs during some seasons, and no not the first season. She
was hoping that her dolls would come with wigs. By the way she's really ticked off about
her dolls. She doesn't know who the model is but she knows that it's not her. "It
doesn't even have RED hair!" But someone left her a doll on her desk and her son
picked the doll up and said, "Mommy doll." Gates was totally amazed, "I
didn't think it looked like me at all!
She also sold some limited edition posters for her favorite charity Doctors Without Boarders. In addition to signing whatever you wanted she would sign this poster also. She was selling them for about $30. This picture is terrific! The funny thing about this picture is that she's got a very large run in her pantyhose.
Also as a side note before Gates came on (both days) there was an auction and there was a "Meet and Greet" picture prize. On Saturday the picture went for, oh darn what was it, $600?! And on Sunday the picture went for about $700!!! I think they are serious Gates fans what do you all think?!
Well, here's a picture of Gates, Kelly
and a very nice young man who told Gates that he thinks that Kelly should be up there
since she spent so much money for a picture of her. So Gates agreed and so here's the
picture of them. While up there the young man asked Gates how she felt about having to
destroy the candle (you know the one in "SubRosa"), she replied with,
"Aren't you a bit too young to watch that?!" I can't remember what she said
about the question but I think she said that she was sad.
Well, that's all that I can think of right now. I know that I had tons and tons of time to remember everything but quite honestly I don't have a very good memory at all. So when I remember some other stuff. I'll place it here. Under the category "Oh yeah and this also happened at the CON..." ;o)
Date Updated : July 30, 1999
Date Created : October 08, 1997