Not about to curl up and call it quits
| News Media Commentary | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Not about to curl up and call it quits |
| Commentator: | |
| Date(s): | September 19, 2000 |
| Venue: | paper, online |
| Fandom: | Paul Gross, due South |
| External Links: | Not about to curl up and call it quits, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Not about to curl up and call it quits is a 2000 article by Heather Mallick in The Globe and Mail, a Toronto newspaper.
The article is mostly about Paul Gross' career, but wraps up with some very unflattering comments by Mallick about due South fans which includes references to middle-aged women, picking at scabs, slash fiction, and their propensity of saying "Thank you, kindly."
The article references a May 2000 "Toronto Life" article by Cynthia Brouse called "Gross encounters: on the way to writing a profile of Paul Gross, the author discovers his fans are the real story. Reflections on celebrity worship, Internet love and Canada as the Holy Land" and this coverage of fans and fandom is very likely one reason Bernice, the zine editor for IIBNF Press, specifically printed in several of its zines:
This zine is not to be given to journalists (in particular Cynthia Brouse or Veronica Cusack), actors, producers, or anyone else involved in the entertainment/media industries. Please do not refer to this zine in any public forum without the express permission of the editor. [1]
Excerpt
The excerpt from "Not about to curl up and call it quits" which references fans and fandom:
The strange thing about Gross's career is how much it has been moved along by passionate fans (they got a cancelled Due South back on the air, for one thing), as opposed to the lucky breaks and friendly executives that other actors rely on. Due South viewers hold conventions where they discuss literary themes in scripts ( Hamlet references pop up throughout the series), buy merchandise and once, to their great good fortune, heard Paul Gross speak.
Toronto Life writer Cynthia Brouse covered a recent Due South event in all its minutiae, including the middle-aged women practising Fraser-speak. "Thank you kindly," they'd say, having flown in from Europe to be with others who share their hunger. Many Gross fans (actually many fans of celebrities everywhere) read underground slash fiction, which means erotic fiction peopled by celebrities. This means Constable Fraser is the subject of a lot of fantasies.
Brouse reports on one woman who celebrated her 31st wedding anniversary by attending the convention with her obliging husband. The woman later described Gross's press conference on-line, with particular reference to certain details. "I noticed two small abrasions with scar tissue on his left elbow and another one on his forearm near his wrist (could have been scratched insect bites) . . . He continuously picked at one in particular on his elbow that was scabbed over."
It doesn't make for pretty reading, but such is the devotion of Gross's fan club that when Men with Brooms finally appears in theatres, they could easily keep it there.