My Sneaky Weekend
Posted on July 30, 2012 Posted by John Scalzi 31 Comments
You may have noticed I’ve been a little scarce from the site for the last couple of the days, and the reason was that I was traveling to LA in order to be at the surprise 40th birthday party of one Wil Wheaton (the picture is of his birthday cake, which was huge and awesome). I and roughly 165 other of Wil’s pals, including Felicia Day, Phil Plait, Chris Hardwick, Amy Berg, Grant Imahara, Paul Sabourin, Drew Curtis, and, frankly, most of geekerati of the entire United States, descended to the appointed place and genuinely surprised young Wil (I get to call him that because I am three years older than he is), who just thought he was going to dinner with family and a couple of friends. Surprise!
There were many lovely moments of the evening, the most amusing of which is when Debbie Gibson showed up to serenade Wil, which surprised the hell out of the birthday boy. For any straight male who grew up in the 80s, it doesn’t get much better than that. Beyond that, there was a lot of fun, great conversations, tons of photobombs and generally the sort of time that memories are made of.
It was nice to be there for Wil on his birthday. It was also sort of amazing that given this particular crowd of folks, not a hint of the event showed up on Twitter or any other social media until Wil showed up for his party. That’s discipline, people. It paid off.
I’ll be traveling home today, so things will be slow about here. Catch you all tomorrow.
I saw the aftershocks/fallout of this on Twitter. I have to say although I do not particularly involve myself in the lives of celebritypes, the news of this event warmed the cockles of my black hole heart. It may even have grown some sizes. Mr. Wheaton earned this, and thank you for participating. I get to get to feel good vicariously.
And a toast to the guy, naturally. Unpopular though it may be, he was always my favorite character on Trek and I have followed his career with interest. He has earned and deserves the very best wishes.
Which genius made that disturbing-but-delicious-looking cake? Salient facts, Mr Scalzi!
That is outstanding. This is no doubt a night that will keep his heart warm for a very long time. Bravo to everyone involved….
Well done, sir. Well done. That is an epic level surprise party.
I’m not a fan of most of what passes for celebrity happenings but, damn, boy thats a list of people who could hold up their end of an entertaining evening that would be worth watching.
Know this though – As I drag my sorry behind off to the office this morning where I get to interact with many people who would have to take classes to make dullard levels, appear semi-illiterate and unable to hold a conversation about anything other than the weather or local sports teams (one even BRAGS he has not read a book since “forced to for school”) this makes me hate your guts 8-{D You are one lucky busterd & its a good thing you posted that long thank-you note to prove you are aware of that. Otherwise I might have hunted you down & tried passing myself off as you.
I can’t believe that he’s 40..
James-“I saw the aftershocks/fallout of this on Twitter. I have to say although I do not particularly involve myself in the lives of celebritypes…”
Ummm, if the fallout on twitter came from a celeb type you are following on twitter then that sort of disproves the second sentence doesn’t it? Just saying.
Anyway, for some reason I am shocked to hear that ‘Wesley’ is 40. Wow!
The omg before the squee in that photo for sure.
Wil Wheaton can’t be 40, he’s barely older than I am…
Jeez, he’s only a few months younger than I am? Watching TNG reruns makes me feel really old now…
damn. 150 people at a surprise party and not a single leak or slip? That’s impressive indeed. I did a surprise party for my wife once, with about 60 people. My brain was frazzled by the time everyone yelled “Surprise!”
As for the cake that looks like the enterprise and lights up, Wow. That’s fricken cool. I see what appears to be a Wheaton figure, a… bride… and… I think that’s cthulhu in the back… and possibly four other characters running across the hull of the ship. Wondering if this was explained…
That is an awesome cake. It looks delicious.
Sigh. If we could run cars on Jealousy I think the worlds energy situation would be solved for 20 years.
@Greg: The figures running on the cake are young Ryan and Nolan being chased by Anne. Sparks is sitting on the front, and yes, Cuthulu is on there as well.
I don’t follow very many celebrities on Twitter, but I think almost every single one of them was at that party. That must have been an amazingly fun party. Heck, just going through the posts about it was blast.
Although I never really cared for the character Wesley, Mr. Wheaton is a talented actor (screen and voice) and a fine upstanding geek. And while I don’t blame him for the TNG writers/directors choices for his character, I can certainly envy him the opportunity to be on one of my favorite TV shows of all time. Happy B-day, Mr. Crusher. Make it so…
Sir Paul McCartney sends regrets from missing the singing of happy Birthday, but was tied up in London.
My custom-built terabyte-drive PC is being repaired by an Attorney with a double B.S. in Computer Science and Mathematics, also known as my son. Sorry for the delay in our communications. I am writing this from Caltech.
What a great thing to do, and how well-deserved! Wil is one of the Good Guys, for real. Learned that back in MonkeyBox days.
In other news, the fact that Wesley Crusher is 40 (FORTY) makes some of us Unspeakably Old. I’ll just zoom off on my power scooter now…
I can’t stop feasting my eyes on the magnificent geekery that is that cake.
Must’ve been a great party.
Forty… Remember that John Lennon lived to 40 (and a couple months). Princess Diana, to 36 Martin Luther King Jr: 39. Sobering.
Then again, the average age of the original, surviving, MTV VJs is about 56, so on the whole, 40 isn’t quite so old.
Surprise parties are the best. Wil’s a lucky guy, and you’re one of the good ones, John (and you appear to be in good company.)
sigh… since i’m a few months older than you Sir Scalzi (45 in a couple more days) should I refer to you as the “young John Scalzi”?
To other things… dang… you… Phil, Adam… my geek-o-(kilo)meter just pegged at BITCHIN’! (for those who don’t know, that is like 12 on the amp… one better than 11!)
I stumbled upon The Nerdist this weekend on BBC America, and my life may never be the same. As it happens, Mr. Wheaton was featured on the episode just ending when I tuned in … along with Nathan Fillion … and at the time I chiefly thought “well gee, The Bloggess just got that awesome photobomb of Nathan with Wil and here they are.” Which is an indicator of the directions in which my nerdery sometimes travels.
At any rate it sounds like a smashing bash, and a big “well done” to all those who managed to keep it a surprise.
That photo is bothering me. Can you please replace it with one that has flat sides?
W squared seems like a decent guy. Nice thing that he didn’t end up warped just because EVERY PHYSICS AND ASTRO Major in the observable universe hated the character of Wesley Crusher…..
The annoying thing is that he looks, what, 25? But I hope he had a nice birthday party and the cake is splendiferous.
Well played.
Dr. Phil
In case Wil is reading this, you turning 40 makes me feel really old. I remember watching you on Star Trek when I was a kid. i am 38.
[Deleted — JS]
And Sour Tipton demonstrates the failure mode of clever.
Was Sheldon Cooper there?