So a few years back (2006), my favorite comic book artist and friend Darick Robertson drew me into THE BOYS #1, as the girlfriend (Robin) of main character Wee Hughie. Wee Hughie happened to be modeled after British Actor Simon Pegg (you might know him as Shaun of SHAUN OF THE DEAD or Scotty in the STAR TREK reboots), so I thought it was pretty darn awesome that not only was my likeness getting into a Wildstorm comic book, but that “Simon Pegg” was going to be my boyfriend! Simon’s British series SPACED is one of my favorite comedy TV shows EVER. Here’s a scan from the comic:

Shortly after this lovely scene my body is thrown into a brick wall and Wee Hughie is left holding nothing but my arms which had been ripped from my body (IN THE COMIC). It was a brilliant end to my appearance in THE BOYS.

In 2008 or 2009 when I took notice that Simon Pegg was on twitter, I “@replied” to him about us being in a comic book together. He was awesome enough to reply back AND started following me on Twitter. Totally boss move that he didn’t have to do. We had some back and forths here and there: one memorable one was the time I twittered about whether or not I should go to the Philly Zombie Crawl, Simon answered that yes, yes I should. When Shaun of SHAUN OF THE DEAD tells you to go to a Zombie Crawl, YOU GO (I did and I had a great time!).

“Skip to the end.” A few weeks ago I learned about the double feature of HOT FUZZ / THE WORLD’S END being shown here in Philly. I entered a contest to win but didn’t get picked. So I figured “what the hay?” and I sent Simon a direct message, telling him I couldn’t get tickets but I would love to get a Robin/Wee Hughie photo op or buy him a pint. A few hours later, he answered back and told me that he would hook me up with tickets. Not only that, but he let me know that hopefully we would get to meet up for a bit.

I. WAS. FUCKING. FLOORED.

The anticipation for Tuesday was flippin’ insane. We go into the theater and we had reserved seats which was just The Hotness. HOT FUZZ was ridiculously funny (as always) and THE WORLD’S END was just brilliant and touching and funny and action-packed (the fight scenes are seriously out of control. Just top bloody notch!) and awesome. After the movie Simon, Edgar Wright and Nick Frost answered some questions from the audience. Nick Frost stole the show - what a hilarious dude. They were whisked away out the back entrance and fled the scene.



My husband Sean and I figured we would head to a local bar and see what was what. Not 15 mins later we heard from Simon and he told us where they were hanging out and not 10 minutes after that we were sitting with Simon, Nick, Edgar, and their friends Lee and Haley.

I think I handled myself pretty well considering I was COMPLETELY STARSTRUCK and just in awe of the whole situation. They were all so nice, Simon especially, and it was just really cool to get to sit down and have a drink with someone that I admire so much. We got to hear some behind the scenes stuff about THE WORLD’S END, some murmurings about some possible new projects, how the promotional tour was going, etc.

Slowly everyone trickled off until it was just us and Simon, and as they are doing quite a whirlwind tour we took our leave but first got some fun photos with Simon b/c…IT’S SIMON PEGG. Of course I wanted photos!

Simon was seriously so gracious and nice. He didn’t have to get me tickets. He didn’t have hang out after the show. But he did, and that to me was just such a cool thing on his part. Later he twittered one of our pics with the status: “When Twitter friends meet. Me and @marythewretched in Philadelphia. ”

I could not contain my giddiness. He said “friends. And that is just so neat. I am honored to consider Simon Pegg a friend. And that’s my story.

Now mark your calendars and plan to go see THE WORLD’S END, premiering in the States on Aug 23rd. Keep in mind a lot of theaters are doing Cornetto Trilogy screenings as well! I cannot wait to see it again.