TOM HANKS officiated the wedding of one of my Players!

[el-remmen]

So a few weeks ago, a player in my group who plays Thron Greenman the Druid, arrived at the session a little distracted. It turned out he had just arrived from meeting with Tom Hanks to handle the details of the actor officiating his wedding! Hanks is an ordained minister and happens to be filming here in Pittsburgh and they were using my friend's property for some of it - so he and his fiancé had spotted Hanks a few times and decided to take a chance and send him a letter via one of the production people asking him to officiate and he agreed!

But the funniest part to me is that when the local morning news show decided to do a segment on it, Tyson decided he was going to "promote our D&D group" by wearing the group t-shirts we had made up last year - so if you watch the segment below you can see the shirt he wears reads "Alson and Nora, and Rollo, and Thron," which are the names of the PCs in my Ghosts of Saltmarsh+ campaign.

Anyway, I thought it was cool.

CBS Pittsburgh - Breaking Local News, Weather & KDKA Investigations

Latest breaking news from KDKA-TV CBS Pittsburgh.

pittsburgh.cbslocal.com

 

[Mad_Jack]

That's awesome... They should ask him if he'd do it dressed as Pardue.

 

[el-remmen]

That's awesome... They should ask him if he'd do it dressed as Pardue.

The irony is, I don't get this reference. While I have seen my fair number of movies starring Tom Hanks because I live in America and have a pulse, I am not actually that big a fan or am familiar with his body of work post like 1994.

 

[Mad_Jack]

Mazes & Monsters (1982) A tv movie based loosely on the start of the whole Satanic Panic of the '80's, starring a very young Hanks as a mentally unstable college student whose obsession with a D&D-like game called Mazes & Monsters gets him into trouble when his group decides to do a live-action game in the steam tunnels under their university and his emotional issues over the disappearance of his brother cause him to have a breakdown and become convinced he's actually his game character, Pardue the Holy Man.
For a 1982 tv movie, it is damn good, and worth watching - it's on Youtube, and I added a link to it.

 

[Umbran]

Okay, that's cool.

 

[el-remmen]

Mazes & Monsters (1982) A tv movie based loosely on the start of the whole Satanic Panic of the '80's, starring a very young Hanks as a mentally unstable college student whose obsession with a D&D-like game called Mazes & Monsters gets him into trouble when his group decides to do a live-action game in the steam tunnels under their university and his emotional issues over the disappearance of his brother cause him to have a breakdown and become convinced he's actually his game character, Pardue the Holy Man.
For a 1982 tv movie, it is damn good, and worth watching - it's on Youtube, and I added a link to it.

OH YEAH! I just forgot the character's name! Mazes & Monsters is actually a big reason that I got into D&D in the first place! I used to own it on VHS.

 

[Aeson]

I just read this.

Tom Hanks Photobombs Pittsburgh Bride on Her Wedding Day: 'We All Lost It'

“He was like, ‘Hey! I’m Tom Hanks. I would love to get a photo with you and I immediately froze,” the bride Grace Gwaltney said

people.com

Is this a different wedding then? Does he just wander around looking for weddings to crash?

 

[el-remmen]

Is this a different wedding then? Does he just wander around looking for weddings to crash?

Apparently yes. The video I linked to starts off explaining as much.

 

[el-remmen]

Our game group photo shows off the t-shirt Tyson was wearing when interviewed:

 

[Ryujin]

Love it

 

[aco175]

Great story. I don't think that I have heard a bad story about Tom and Rita from over the years. I'm not sure if I saw a clip from him or Brad Pitt about 'getting it'. Understanding how lucky he is to be doing what he is and to be able to spend a few moments with the fans. Sort of like Arnold Palmer, the golfer would spend time mentoring the up and coming golfers to take the time to sign your name properly so the fans could read it and take the time to sign it for everyone waiting no matter how long it takes.

 

[Umbran]

Great story. I don't think that I have heard a bad story about Tom and Rita from over the years. I'm not sure if I saw a clip from him or Brad Pitt about 'getting it'. Understanding how lucky he is to be doing what he is and to be able to spend a few moments with the fans.

The way the world is, it is kind of inspiring to see someone famous for work we enjoy actually being a good human being.

And it absolutely stinks when something comes up that disabuses us of that notion. I hope it never happens with Mr. Hanks.