Ghostbusters: Afterlife New York City Premiere Report (November 15, 2021)

After a while, various "celebrities" passed by, or waited by us. Most of them I couldn't pick out of a line-up. Sony's photos (link at the end of this report) includes photo captions that identify some of the people I saw. Several of them were gorgeous ladies, including Jamie Alexander. As she was heading out of the tent, I looked at her, she looked at me - probably "us fans", not "me" - and I instantly knew that I had seen her before. I couldn't put a name to her face. Later, I remembered it was Jamie, Sif from Thor (the film with that himbo from the 2016 film) and Blindspot (with the tattoos all over her body). Had I recognized her at the time, I might have asked her for an autograph or a photo. One person I did recognize was Al Roker.


There he is walking right past us non-celebrity fans on his way out of the tent.


Two minutes later, at 7:04 PM, Logan Kim (Podcast) was the first of the few Afterlife cast to pay us fenced-in fans a visit. He graciously signed our memorabilia, including my magazine. He would be the first of seven to sign it by the end of the night (Autograph #1). It was at this point that I stopped posting updates to the Spook Central Facebook page. It was just impossible to post updates, while also trying to wedge my way in between the other Ghostheads to get things signed, AND take photos as well.


Eric Reich, Ivan's assistant and the Ghostheads' contact at Ghost Corps, made an appearance at 7:21 PM. A bunch of us Ghostheads chanted, "Eric! Eric! Eric!" Since my photo is so far away, I've cropped and zoom in on it so you can see him better. He's the guy in the middle holding the jacket. He's not in any of Sony's photos, so I can't provide anything better than this.


At 7:20 PM, Carrie Coon (Callie) came over to the fan corral. She was dressed in the cutest flowery outfit that looked like she was ready to audition for the role of June Cleaver in a Leave It To Beaver remake. Would you believe that she's four years younger than me? Yeah, I'm even older the "hot mom" in the movie. Now, that really makes me feel old. At least I take solace in knowing that she likes older men. Her husband, Tracy Letts (the uncredited hardware store owner in the movie), is 15 years her elder. Anyway, that's Autograph #2 on my magazine.


Twelve minutes later, at 7:32 PM, director Jason Reitman took some time to spend with us. He provided Autograph #3 on my magazine.


Jason's daughter Josephine was in attendance, and she made sure to stand out from the crowd with her awesome blue hair and a bright green dress that matched her eyeshadow. I'm totally digging that look. I'd like to think that's what my inner teen girl would look like. (FYI: Sony's photo captions did not identify the woman on the left. If you recognize her, post a comment below.)


Around 7:50 PM, we caught glimpses of the OGBs (Original Ghostbusters): Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, and Ivan Reitman. As if it wasn't bad enough that we were put off to the side, we couldn't see very much as all of the agents, publicists, and hanger-ons gathered in front of our pen. Ernie wasn't hard to find in his royal blue suit.


The OGBs joined the new kids for some photos.


Unfortunately, Bill and Ernie never came over to the pen. At 7:56 PM, Dan Aykroyd came over, but never to the side of the corral that I was closest too. He only stayed on the side by the Ecto-1. I managed to worm my way close enough to get my magazine passed to him. Sadly, he signed it on the back cover, and not on the front by his picture. Still, that's Autograph #4.


After they took their group photo, the celebrities were ushered into the theater building. My two-thirds twin Paul Rudd didn't bother with us. He, literally, ducked out as he was leaving the tent - as if he didn't even want us to take any photos of him. That makes me so sad, Ruddy Buddy. We were supposed to see the 7:30 PM showing, but the "red carpet" ran longer, so the other fans were given our original showing, and we got their 8:30 PM showing. We had to wait for five to ten minutes in the nearly empty tent while the celebs were inside doing whatever. Based on Sony's B-Roll Part 3 video, I think they spent a couple of minutes in front of the other theater crowd giving a brief speech. (Our crowd would get an even better speech. More on that in a bit.)

It was now 8:01 PM. We spent our few minutes semi-alone in the tent taking photos of the Ecto-1, and with the Ecto-1. One of the security personnel was a bit of an ass. They had the red carpet tent, and the literal red carpet, placed over half of the sidewalk and on one lane of the street. The car was, appropriately enough, on street level. The fan pen was on sidewalk level. Since all of the celebs were gone, I stepped down to street level to get a better photo of the car. The security person didn't like that, and advised me to stay on the sidewalk. There was no reason for him to say that. Neither I, nor any of the other Ghostheads, were causing any trouble for anyone. I wasn't even remotely close to the Ecto-1 to touch it. Seems like someone was being a bit overzealous in their job. I did manage to get this nice photo of the car and the Ecto Cooler sign next to it. At the time, I didn't notice the extra bottle of Ecto Cooler sitting on the floor by the sign. Had I saw it at the time, I would have taken it... though security probably would have thrown a hissy-fit about that, too.


As we walked through the door into the building, we were each handed a commemorative ticket with our seat number printed on it. Tickets were successively distributed, so I sat in between the people that entered before and after me.


As I rode the escalator up to the second floor, I was greeted by this HUGE lightboard with an Afterlife poster in front of it. What I wouldn't give to take this home :-) There were other IMAX posters and standees I would love to have, as well.

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