Richard Armitage made me a fanRAbid!


I've just come from reading the "Bearded Ladies" blog, generally, and was drawn to it by Oriane's comments about Richard Armitage, specifically.

There is a certain type of increased heartbeat whenever one's eyes catch sight of that blessed name.

I don't know why.
I don't know how.

But, as "they" [whoever they are] say very graphically,
"Stuff happens!" [They aren’t as ladylike as I]

Only a little over two months ago, I was a normal woman, living a pretty nice, peaceful life right in the heart of Los Angeles, between Hollywood and West Hollywood. I had never heard of either Richard Armitage or even "North and South" by Elizabeth Gaskell.

All of that changed on the evening of 4 July 2005 when I sat down to watch episode 1 of "N&S."

Now, I’ve practically memorized many of the lines from the BBC production and just finished my fifth reading of the novel itself!

It wasn't as though I was prepared for the impeding thunderbolt known affectionately by us droolers as "RA." No, indeedy, curiosity had stricken but ever so slightly. After all, the promo pics I'd seen of this unfamiliar swain hardly rivaled Colin Firth's swoon-worthy looks as Darcy. HA! Little did I know what lay ahead.

My first look at him was through the gentle, floating cotton "fluff." He stood tall, dark, and proudly surveying his working mill. If I had to attach a first impression of him, it would have been that his look was predatory and somewhat watchful. Certainly, not a curly-haired, handsome Darcy!

Seconds later, I was shocked to my core as his face contorted suddenly. I jumped when his voice bellowed, "STEPHENS!" Both the lovely Margaret Hale and I shared our dismay as the apparent "hero" of this Victorian Drama, one John Thornton, rushed down the stairs and began to run through the mill chasing a miscreant. A foolish mill-worker who had dared to smoke on premises despite previous warnings by this ever-vigilant employer.

It was unexpected and exciting to watch the chase which conveniently ended quite close to where the stricken Miss Hale stood with her mouth gaping open in a most unladylike manner.

There was some rather sharp and to-the-point...uh, discipline administered to the smoker by the HCMO [Handsome Cotton Mill Owner] which thrilled me in some pruriently, primal way.

Once again,
don't know how.
Don't know why.
Suffice it to say, it did!

There were angry words over this harsh discipline exchanged by "JT" and Miss Hale. It was interesting to note that he did not feel inclined to "clean up his act" by the presence of an obviously luscious-lipped babe of the first order. Instead, he yelled at his foreman, "GET THAT WOMAN OUTTA 'ERE!" and went right back to disciplining his now whining, cowering smoker.

Fade to black briefly...Scene changes.

When next we met, JT et moi, it was once again in the presence of the heroine of our story, "MH." Seems he was actually inside her home, being feted and whooed by her father as his very first pupil of classical literature.

She was all smiles until he turned around to gaze assessingly at her loveliness. The smile may have faded quickly from her face but not from mine! I took one look at him and totally revised my earlier estimation. He began to rise rapidly on that Darcy swoon-o-meter. Once he said those lines, "I was angry. I have a temper," as he quickly attempted to refurbish his "bad boy" impression on the one with the full lips, he had ME! I was reeled in hook, line, and sinker. MH wasn't quite as easy as I though. She glowered at him for the rest of the scene.

I won't quote every line of his from all four hours but I could! This man of a 1,000 facial expressions totally captivated me with his passion, his principles, his travails, and his whole personna. Of course, along the way, I realized that he was clothed in RA's TDH [tall, dark, and handsome] body as his outer wear.

Somehow, during the course of watching this wonderful tale unfold, I began to adore his small, closed-mouth smiles [infrequent as they were], his gorgeous blue eyes which could transform from meltingly soft pools of blue liquid into hard, piercing shards of ice instantaneously, his incredible profile and classically beautiful nose, those long, muscular legs that seemed to go on forever, his leonine carriage, and his obvious broad chesticles supposedly hidden beneath that black, undertaker's garb.

In other words, I had been smitten by the god now known worldwide as RA!

At first I felt foolish and confused. How could I, a sane and logical woman of some years and experience, a mother, an ex-wife, a woman with marketable skills, have a goony crush on a 150-year-old character from a novel...dressed up in a costume from the Victorian Era and, of course, the physical characteristics of the afore-mentioned god. It just wasn't to be borne, as the snobby Lady Katherine de Bourghe explained quite succinctly in "Pride and Prejudice."I began to make secretive and sly searches through "Google" for his name.

There was a rush of anticipation as hundreds of hits were registered. Some time later, after I had culled out all of the ones pertaining to the former deputy secretary of state for the USA, I was left with a small gaggle of real ones pertaining to the ACTOR, RA.

Still feeling slightly foolish, I nevertheless began to methodically search through the brush, seeking shiny objects. I read everything I could find on the BBC web site about "N&S" and again, RA himself. A website [www.richard-armitage.com] devoted entirely to RA and his projects appeared under my diligent scrutiny.

Finally, I happened upon the C19proboards message boards [www.c19probards53.com] where I found kazillions of threads pertaining to both "N&S" and "RA" himself. Side visits to various Yahoo groups revealed the existence of something called, the "Armitage Army." Mmmmm....sounded quite yummy! The drool began to collect noticeably in the corners of my mouth.

The RAddiction had begun to feed itself. I was merely the conduit for it's passions as I gathered more and more info on this yummy actor.

It became, dare I admit, an RAobsession?

My own TDH son began to make occasional comments about "that man" within my hearing. But, still I drove myself on hunting and gathering.

Once I settled into the C19 boards, I felt as though I had come home. For there I found sane, sensible women from all over the world who were just like me and seemingly also encased in varying degrees of drooldom.

My pulse quickened dangerously once I discovered the hundreds and hundreds of screen captures of him from other TV projects. I nearly squealed as I realized that he was certainly well-known and RAppreciated by these women of the British Isles. They had patiently captured nearly every moment of RA screen time and posted them for the rest of us newbie droolers from Australia, Greece, and finally the USA.

Then came the video and music clips, the radio interviews,...scanned copies of print interviews, newspaper and magazine articles.

Each treasure I downloaded made me greedier for more. A lovely screen cap found its way onto my desktop. A pensive, handsome manly man shot of RA from an episode of the "Inspector Linley Mysteries" enticingly called, "In Divine Proportion." My son tried a new tactic; humoring me. But he was clearly worried about his MommyMom. He quickly passed through humor and into mild annoyance as he found a large version of this same RA screen cap prominently displayed on his own monitor when he transferred the contents of my old computer system onto my new one.

Now, mind you, my new hotshot system had been lounging around since last Christmas like a guardsman called to active duty but not given a real assignment until I had been galvanized by this feeding frenzy within me to actually view the clips and listen to the interviews on the various media already installed.

Six weeks ago I began writing a letter to RA. Nine drafts later, it has still not been sent. Although, I have worked in all facets of the entertainment industry for many years, I found sending a piece of fanmail with my signature attached was just sticking in my throat. Some last vestige of pride or something. Plus, I've never sent a fan letter to anyone in my life. I've fired off some pretty pointed epistles to politicians before. But, never even contemplated writing to the object of some fervor like this.

And now here we are at today...just inches from the launch of his new TV series, "The Golden Hour" on ITV1. The frenzy has sprung forth again with renewed and somewhat amazing vigor on the message boards. I've now been the happy recipient of the kindness of relative strangers who've sent me DVDs of "Sparkhouse," "Cold Feet," and "Between the Sheets." I'm even teaching myself new net skills like peer2peer file-sharing and how to update all of my various media (i.e., QuickTime, RealPlayer, WinDVD, WinAmp, et al.)

My upcoming trip at the end of this month to London, Paris, and Rome has been altered to...well, the U.K. with a side trip to Paris...maybe! Now, my focus has shifted to meeting other RA droolers, uh, I mean, Rappreciators rather than climbing the steps to the la Tour d’Eiffel or tossing my for-tune into the Trevi Fountain!

IRL, I don't wash my dishes until I have used all 8 short glasses, 6 mugs, 5 larger glasses, and all flatware. One of my poor kitty boys tries to sneak slowly onto the keyboard in a desperate attempt to touch my hands which are always clicking along rapidly on the keyboard. Mostly posting kazillions of RA-related comments on the various boards. The fur boys huddle forlornly together on my comforter hoping to lure me away.

Their hopes are dashed once I press the play button my DVD player and "SH" jumps into action on the TV screen. As I settle myself under the covers and kitty boy bodies, I know all of his scenes and fast forward through the unimportant others. Those being any which do not feature RA's character, the adorable John Standring!

I'm laughing at myself right now...writing this all down is very cathartic! Anyone reading this blattering would quickly come to the conclusion that I had lost my senses.

Unless, SHE [seriously doubt that any “he’s”] had been similarly struck by this RAdoration and Thorntonmania. Much worse than Darcymania which was really concentrated on a few scenes in "P&P" as well as some localized drooling over CF himself. Subsequent research on CF revealed to me that it was really only Darcy that elicited such a response.

Since I don't know what lay ahead for a "fanRAbid" comme moi, I must close for now as I have a bit of studying up on the importance of bit torrents and why I don't want to be recognized as a "leech" of a certain type.

Later...and remember...

RA Rulez!

LDB