LAistas, Universal is holding another press screening on September 6th. The SoCal yahoo group has been asked to gather 75 names to give to Universal by next week.

We are assuming that the screening will be in Hollywood again. Please let me know if you want to go as soon as possible and I will try to hold spots for you. I think we have 30 spots left as of five minutes ago.

Tamara, that's so kind of you! Wish I were in LA.

Three spots left. Any takers?

I wonder if these were exercizes that Joss did with Summer to get her fully into the character's head-space, to know what River had gone through?

I wasn't part of the Firefly discussion when Firefly was actually airing, but do people think that River's parents knew what was going to happen to their daughter? I kinda got that vibe from the confrontation between Simon and his father in the police station - his dad seemed pissed that Simon was messing with his business arrangements.

I seriously doubt it. Mr. Tam's a bit full of himself, maybe a tad arrogant, but I don't see him being so callous that he'd sell his daughter down the, um, yeah. I think their parents were just so confident in the Alliance's intentions that they didn't see it as possible that they'd be up to something sinister with their daughter. From their POV, I'm sure, Simon was just unduly paranoid, and their attention was more on what he was doing to his life on Osiris than the possibility that he was right to be worried.

Nevermind. All tickets are gone. I tried.

And see, I always thought I detected a bit of "overlook the girl child" in Mr. Tam. I forget the episode, but it was one with the Tam children and Dad, and Dad effused about Simon's progress and completely didn't mention River's. With very little squinting at all I could say that, more than ignoring her, he seemed to be trying to detach from her, or maintain a distance that had always been there.

Daddy Tam also acted pretty shifty when he had to leave his party to bail Simon out of jail. The read I got on it was that the Tams had sold River down the--uh. Yeah, in order to purchase a clear path to success for the scion and heir.

The adult-ish River that we got to see aboard Serenity never talked about their parents. It was as if her only family, even before the academy, was Simon. Whereas Simon says, "We" when talking about how the family knew she was gifted. Maybe I'm reading a whole lot into it that wasn't there. But it sure was easy for me to do, if that wasn't the intent.

But then I've always been a suspicious sort.

Ah, I get it - Beverly and I are sharing a mind!

We're very pretty! And smart!

Pleased to be of a mind with you, dear.

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A friend of mine has been stalking the cast around edinburghj (OK, he's a journalist). Some nice quotes above...