Club Jade

• AFP: The Force is strong as fans flock to Europe’s Star Wars convention

• Sydney Morning Herald: Fans out in force at Europe’s Star Wars convention.
• Metro.co.uk: Darth Vader leads anniversary party and Star Wars fans gather for 30th birthday
• The Sun: Luke who it is at the reunion
• Also check out the media picture feed on Yahoo and the celebrationeurope tag on Flickr.

Pictures from London are appearing on the TOSblog Flickr account. Outdoor screenings and Opening Ceremony? So jealous! (Burning question: Was there cake?) We’re expecting reports on the TOSblog proper, too.

Rebelscum is also reporting from the con, while TFN found an interview Mark Hamill did with BBC Radio 2.

Mark over at Lightsabre wrote in to share the news that Gerald Home, who played two characters in ROTJ (Tessek aka Squidhead and a Mon Calamari officer) will be signing at the fansite’s table (D-74) in the dealers room on Saturday. A significant portion of the proceeds will go to Cancer Research UK. Pretty neat for a fansite!

Meanwhile, over at the TOS, we learn of a few more guests (including Kenny Baker, Caroline Blakiston and Michael Culver) and that the Tattoo Competition and Illustrated Trooper are making another appearence at CE,

Well, advance tickets, anyway. So if you haven’t got your tickets yet, best order them now, or make plans to camp out at ExCeL…

Fans at CE will get a first look at the rough cut of Fanboys, along with a Q&A with director Kyle Newman.

Only a week?

• Hip-hop artist to host Platinum Stage

• Production Stars: Don Bies, Lorne Peterson, Norman Reynolds and Robert Watts.
• Verifying Hyperspace status
• TFN has a nice artist roundup
• First look at CE store. So jealous!
• Start planning for PCD: Brits can add a CE-inspired Star Wars rave to your October schedule.

Millions of gamers suddenly cried out in horror upon discovering that the Star Wars game for Wii is just the Lego Star Wars re-release. Poor, poor gamers.

Alderaan shot first

• Hollywood Chewbacca in the news again. Assaulting Marilyn Monroe? For shame!

• Darth Vader gets (Dis)Honorable Mention on a Five Fictional Geekdads list.
• Seven coolest geeks on television. I think Bonnie’s interviewed at least half of them on starwars.com, so it counts.
• Times Online catches up with some fans heading to Celebration Europe.
• 1100 great movie robots
• Oh, and George is still hanging around Yale.

Mark Hamill will be at Celebration Europe Friday (13 July) and Saturday (14 July), signing autographs.

Updated: On starwars.com

Lucas Licensing has once again dug into the archives for Celebration Europe’s live auction. I bet they’re bringing a lot more boxes.

Ian McDiarmid will make an appearance at Celebration Europe. He’ll be a special guest at the Opening Ceremonies – certainly a better reason to go than cake!

Rick McCallum received an award at the European Digital Cinema and HDTV conference in Spain, and, according to the guy who wrote TFN showed a preview of 3-D Star Wars to the crowd.

Meanwhile, Lightsabre posted the second part of their McCallum interview, including some interesting insights on George and the prequels.

Busy day in these parts

• Marc Ecko Star Wars fashions

• James Earl Jones to recite U.S. Declaration of Independence (via TOSblog)
• Celebration Europe: The Force Unleashed is going, as well as yet more guests.

Fandom

• Collector Jason Gibner featured in Metro Time Detroit’s Motor City Cribs.

• In that vein: “How To Display This Star Wars Collection (and keep the boyfriend)?” at Apartment Therapy.
• Star Wars holiday for the kids. Why not?
• Fan donates hair to play Luke Skywalker on parade float.
• 11-year-old fencer inspired by Star Wars
• 501st TIE makes debut
• Another international Star Wars convention – Poland’s Dagobah 2007