Photo Flops! Marie Has An Amazing Night… Then Gets Her Film Developed! DOH! Gillian Anderson! David Duchovny! Edward Norton!

I got so excited when I saw this wonderful article from Marie! Now, I don’t know if you guys remember but I went with Marie down to a taping of The Soup last year and we were able to meet Community star Joel McHale.

Anyway, with the start of our new Photo Flops column Marie decided to write in on a night of tragic Photo Flops! And it’s especially tragic for X-Files fans because who did Marie Flop with… BOTH David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson! DOH! And as an added kicker which kills me just a little… Photo Flopping with Edward Norton!

My heart just sinks! But that’s what this column is for… We need to purge, get it out… Breathe in, Breathe out…

Check out Marie’s Photo Flopping after the jump!

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With all the recent X-Files coverage on Mikethefanboy, I started reminiscing about the time I encountered Mulder and Scully too. The story of my meeting David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson coincidentally ties in with the brand new Photo Flops column, and because the two topics are so closely related in my mind, I thought I’d share my story!

This dates way back to the days when The X-Files was still on primetime, and film cameras were still being widely used. I had the incredible fortune of being invited to an awards show after-party and arrived to the venue just before the show ended. This was the very first time I had ever been to an event like this and was filled with both a tremendous sense of excitement and nervousness. As I walked through the lobby, my attention was drawn to some camera flashes around a small crowd. I looked over to catch a glimpse of Courteney Cox! She was a bit of a ways away and surrounded by a number of people, so I simply observed her from a distance, thrilled to have just seen Monica Gellar in-person. I continued through the lobby, because quite frankly I wasn’t sure where I was supposed to go, and who should I see walking towards me but Gillian Anderson! With an awards statue in-hand! Overwhelmed at the sight of her, I stopped in my tracks and didn’t know what to do or say. Sensing the opportunity for a meeting might pass, my dear and wonderful friend who had brought me spoke up, “Excuse me Ms. Anderson, could she get a photo with you please,” gesturing over toward me. She kindly agreed, we posed, and the photo was snapped…

Now I don’t know if you all are familiar with a certain feature on some cameras known as “red-eye reduction.” On my particular camera, red-eye is reduced by an initial flash, followed by a strobe of flashes, and then one big final flash. If you don’t know it’s coming and don’t anticipate it, then chances are you’ll start to move and be mid-stream by the time the photo is actually taken.

So as you might have already guessed from that preface, Gillian Anderson started to move before the final flash, and all I could do was stay posed and smile. I think she realized that she had started to walk away too soon, but she had somewhere else to be and continued on her way. I didn’t realize just how foiled by the red-eye flash my photo had been until the next day, standing at the 1-hour photo developing counter, looking down at this:

In actuality, at the time the sting of the Gillian Anderson photo flop lasted only a minute or so, because following closely behind her, with an awards statue of his own, was David Duchovny! They must have been doing press nearby after each had won, and were returning to their seats to watch the remainder of the show. So here we go again…I froze, my friend came to the rescue and asked for a photo for me, we posed, and *click*…

Now I know what you’re thinking. Red-eye flash fake-out strikes again! Nope. David Duchovny was not duped by the multiple flashes. He stayed put and smiled and was very gracious. And it would have turned out to be quite a lovely photo had the camera not gotten shaken while being taken. But I was happy in that moment, not knowing that the picture soon to be developed would be a photo flop:

Really, I do feel very fortunate to have gotten to meet both of them despite the photo flops, and you can still see the charming smile that David Duchovny had through all the blurriness. 🙂

Incidentally, David Duchovny was not to be the last photo flop of the evening. At the after-party, I got this photo with Edward Norton. I call it a two-for-one deal on the red-eye flash fake-out and camera-shake. Sigh…

Thanks for reading!