Kristy, Juliet and Matt Glasgow, at rear, met Star Wars' stars Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill.
Kristy, Juliet and Matt Glasgow, at rear, met Star Wars' stars Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill.
Super fan whips out sewing machine when new Star Wars film out.
A long time ago in a living room not so far away, Kiwi movie super fan Kristy Glasgow started making her own Star Wars costumes.
The Auckland mum - who also likes to be known as Anaria Zar-Rel - has stitched together an impressive collection of outfits since becoming hooked on the hit films in 2003.
Her doctor husband Matt runs the Star Wars New Zealand fan club. He proposed to Kristy at one of the film's famous locations at Villa Balbianello in Italy while she was dressed as the character Padme Amidala.
The couple have attended Star Wars conventions around the world and were thrilled in July when they and their 14-year-old daughter Juliet met two of the franchise's biggest stars, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill in California.
Kristy has been busy at her sewing machine creating a new costume for the arrival of the next instalment The Force Awakens, which opens in New Zealand on December 17.
"There is huge excitement in our house about the first new film in a decade," she said. "I'm teaching my teenage daughter to make her own costumes now too as she is just as big a fan as Matt and I."
Kirsty, 32, wears the outfits at conventions and charity events. Her Anaria Zar-Rel alter-ego is gleaned from a hybrid of Star Wars and Superman characters.
Kristy as Padme Amidala.
With less than a month to go, the new Star Wars movie is already setting records in the US for pre-opening ticket sales.
Kiwis bought $175,000 worth of tickets in just four hours when pre-sale passes went on sale last month.
The Force Awakens is expected to be one of the most successful movies in recent years but it will face tough competition in cinemas over Christmas from the new 007 flick Spectre and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2.
The last Star Wars movie, 2005's Revenge of the Sith, took $4.1 million at the New Zealand box office. The 2012 Bond flick Skyfall grossed $6.3m and last year's Mockingjay Part 1 pulled in $4.8m.
New Zealand's biggest box office smash, Avatar, took in a whopping $17.1m when it was released in 2010.
The name is Moneypenny
Ms Paula Moneypenny pictured at her workplace at Te Aroha College in the Waikato today. Photo / Alan Gibson
As Bond fans fill our movie theatres to watch Spectre, New Zealand's own Miss Moneypenny is taking cover.
Paula Moneypenny shares her name with the flirtatious MI6 secretary from the world-famous British spy films.
And every time a new flick hits cinemas, the school guidance counsellor from Hamilton braces herself for some stick.
The Kiwi Moneypenny changed her surname from McDermott to that of her maternal grandfather six years ago.
She has since put up with an ongoing string of jokes and funny looks at airports and banks.
"Airport staff often look at my passport and in their best [Sir] Sean Connery voice blurt out 'Nice to see you, Mish Moneypenny'," she groaned.
She insists on being called Ms Moneypenny, not Miss, as she thinks it is a bit too sexist.
"I took my late grandfather's name because he had three married daughters and the family name died with him," she said. "Grandad was a great supporter of social justice and was a big influence on me."
Moneypenny, who works at Waikato's Te Aroha College, said her friends at first refused to believe the name change was genuine. "I took an awful lot of ribbing about it."
Six actresses have played Miss Moneypenny since the first Bond movie Dr No was released in 1962. The smouldering personal secretary is famous for flirting with super-spy Bond.
But New Zealand's version said her only real similarity with the film character was that as a counsellor she is "a reservoir of secrets".
Moneypenny said she will see Spectre when the hype has died down. Her favourite Bond movies are Skyfall and Goldfinger and her favourite leading men are debonair Daniel Craig and rugged Scotsman, Sir Sean Connery.
Another Kiwi 007 namesake, 69-year-old James Bond from Plimmerton, near Wellington, also knows what it is like to go through life with a famous moniker.
The former sewage works manager and his own Bond girl, wife Anne, have three children and nine grandkids. "My James Bond retired when he was 65 but unlike the films I am not allowed to replace him with a younger model every few years," Anne joked. Russell Blackstock
