While promoting Water for Elephants in Sydney, Australia, Robert Pattinson helped one fan’s dreams come true.
From Starlight Foundation:
In the media lately it has been known that Reese Witherspoon is blown away by co-star Robert Pattinson’s popularity: “I think all I can do is stand back and sort of watch it happen because I’m not used to seeing somebody have so many fans”. One of these fans is Starlight wish girl, Samantha.
Not only was Friday 6th May Starlight Day it was also a VERY special day for Samantha as she was granted her Starlight wish. Whilst over 3,000 people turned up to get only a glimpse of the Twilight star, Robert Pattinson, Samantha got to meet him in person. She was the envy of every young fan meeting Robert at his hotel in Sydney. She also got to go down the red carpet for the movie premiere of ‘Water for Elephants’.
A Starlight wish is like a dream come true for a seriously ill young child. Sharing a special, once-in-a-lifetime wish brings a family together, and is an experience that stays with them forever. If you want to get involved and make a difference visit www.starlight.org.au/Howyoucanhelp to find out how.
Water for Elephants has been performing so well! The movie definitely has legs as predicted after the first weekend. Here are some figures plus some observations to suggest a bigger total than currently posted.
Rob: Reese! WFE might surpass $100M worldwide!
WORLDWIDE
$85.2 million! Fantastic but not complete. Check out the foreign totals:
Countries producing bigger totals (Brazil, Russia, UK) are not updated AND Australia is not included.
Water for Elephants was number 1 at the box office in Australia, beating Thor! Sky News (Australia) reported WFE bringing in $2.628M this past weekend. What a fantastic showing down under. 
DOMESTIC
$48.9 million! Collecting $400k on Monday, our movie is sure to pass the $50M mark by the end of week! This is so wonderful for WFE. Alt Film Guide noted that the film is the only non-action drama in the top 25 and continues to exceed expectations. After the film opens in all markets and finally bows domestically, it likely will have grossed over $100M. Spectacular.
Earl, August, Walter/Kinko, Jacob, & Blackie
From The Western News:
Scott MacDonald grew up watching movies in the Dome Theater and later this month a film in which he stars in will be shown at that same theater.
MacDonald plays Blackie in the film “Water for Elephants.”
“I grew up watching movies in the Dome Theater and am thrilled that there will be folks from my old home town, gathering to see a movie that I am in,” he said. “I loved the escapism of films as a kid in Libby and wish I could be there to watch it in the Dome. Grab a popcorn Libby — and as they say in the movie about the circus — enjoy the most spectacular show on earth!”
MacDonald is a 1977 graduate of Libby High School. He frequently returns to Libby to visit family and fly fish “his” Kootenai and hike the Cabinets. MacDonald graduated from Washington State University with dual bachelor’s in theatre and broadcasting and achieved his master of fine arts at California Institute of the Arts.
“Water for Elephants” is scheduled to play at the Dome Theater May 20 through May 26. Based on the bestselling book, the movie follows veterinary school student Jacob as he meets and falls in love Marlena, a star performer in a circus. They come together though their compassion for a special elephant.
MacDonald stars as Blackie, a bodyguard for the film’s villain, August.
During the film, MacDonald got the chance to work alongside a number of well-known actors including Reese Witherspoon, Christoph Waltz and Robert Pattinson.
MacDonald describes Oscar winner Witherspoon as a courageous actor and a very sweet human being. Waltz, also an Oscar winner, is a soft spoken, highly intelligent guy, according to MacDonald.
He says “Twilight” star Pattinson is a genuinely great guy.
MacDonald gets in a number of fights with Pattinson in the film and says both of them were pretty bruised up, but Pattinson didn’t complain once.
Blackie kills me in the movie. So menacing. You feel the punches, can’t you? I cringe every time. Great job, Scott!
Click HERE to read the entire article.
Updated 5/12/11:
In light of the new ADI video that shows extended footage of the elephants at HTWT, we have updated this post to share only the official statement from HTWT.
To the activists, please note we are only a fan site for the movie and we would appreciate that your criticisms be directed to the appropriate people – not us. As you can probably imagine, this is a very difficult time for the administrators of this blog that have met these elephants.
Below is the official statement from Have Trunk Will Travel:
We are unwavering in our commitment to elephants. We stand by our care and training methods. We are proud of our contributions to elephant welfare and conservation.
Animal rights extremist groups are using Tai’s role in Water for Elephants as a vehicle to take advantage of her celebrity to further their efforts to remove elephants and all exotic animals from entertainment. These groups have no basis of knowledge or experience working with elephants. They have an agenda and a history of using less than honest means to achieve their goals.
The video shows heavily edited and very short snippets, obviously taken surreptitiously six years ago, purporting mistreatment of our elephants. If there was truly any abuse going on why wait six minutes, much less six years?
None of the footage being shown was taken during Tai’s training for Water for Elephants. Tai’s celebrity and the popularity of the movie seem to be the motivation for the extremist groups to garner publicity for themselves and their cause. As our work in the movie proves you can make something look like anything to suit your purposes. That is why they call it “movie magic”.
Rest assured that we will continue to provide Tai and all of our elephants with the love and excellent care they deserve.
Gary and Kari Johnson
Have Trunk Will Travel, Inc.
There’s so much goodness coming out of Water for Elephants Sydney promo. I’ll have a recap coming soon but this interview was too cute to not post right away. Rob and Reese are so charming.
And Francis! Don’t you listen to Rob about the Polish song not being on the DVD extras. No matter that he’s the star of your film and has some clout. The fans WANT. 
Water for Elephants has been doing well at the box office. During the week, only behind Fast Five, it chugged along and earned steady money. This past weekend it held the #6 spot and performed better in its opening weekend than the opening weekend of another New York Times bestseller, Something Borrowed. The domestic total is currently at $41.6 million and worldwide total, $62.9 million. The numbers will continue to climb with the film opening in other large international markets.
This has me in such a good mood, I thought I’d share a wonderful review from The Irish Mail newspaper.
Click the scans to read
Thanks to our affiliates, Irish Twilight Sisters, for the scans!
I was reluctant to share this info because it’s not directly related to Water for Elephants but since it all came to fruition on this blog, sharing will now commence.
The Daily Telegraph reported:
A year after helping Hollywood heart-throb Robert Pattinson reconnect with an Aussie-based school mate, Charlie Bowman, we can now report the Water For Elephants star has finally caught up with his old friend in Sydney – and we take full credit.
“If Charlie is reading this, tell him to call me,” Pattinson asked us in an interview last year, referring to Melbourne-based Bowman, with whom he lost contact after shutting down his Facebook page.
“Tell him to call my mum, because he’s probably still got that number.”
With our help, the pair got in touch again, and on Friday night they dined at Bondi’s Icebergs.
“Was that you I spoke to?” Pattinson asked us when we spoke to the British actor on the red carpet on Friday night.
“Thanks for that. I plan to meet up with him later tonight.”
Do you remember the original story? We posted it almost a year ago. Rob was speaking to The Daily Telegraph when he mentioned Charlie:
“I haven’t ever been to Australia but a lot of my best friends from school have moved there, to Melbourne,” he says excitedly, using our chat as an opportunity to get in touch with a long-lost mate.
“If Charlie is reading this, tell him to call me,” he says. “We used to stay in contact via Facebook but I can’t really have Facebook any more because it kept getting hacked into so I haven’t talked to him for a while.
“Tell him to call my mum because he’s probably still got that number.”
Well Charlie commented on our post.
Click HERE and read his comment. Cute to see our friend, Suzie, hoping they get to reconnect. The story doesn’t end just yet…
When you comment on wordpress, you have to leave an email address. We verified that the email did in fact belong to Charlie Bowman and wondered if there was a way to get this info to Rob.
The Eclipse premiere was around the corner and I was going (naturally). We decided I would try to give the email address to Rob if I was lucky enough to have a front spot on the red carpet fan area. I wasn’t so lucky and was part of the second row. If you’ve ever done these premiere things, second row might as well be no man’s land. It’s front line or bust. My expectations lowered considerably and I figured I’d just enjoy the sights (people’s backs and asses) and sounds (screams).
At the time, I had my camera and flip vid in my Team Rosie tote. I also was wearing my Team Rosie shirt. I was trying to show WFE some love at the Twilight extravaganza. Rob hit the carpet and like I said, all I saw were people’s backs. I’m not exactly tall so I thought I’d hold my hand out with some Eclipse postcard I had and hope Rob would sign that. When he was literally one person away, a light bulb went off. My Team Rosie tote.
Cameras, flip vid, wallet, and all, I thrust it in the air above my head and held it forward. Maybe the big elephant would catch his eye? It did. He was surprised to see WFE paraphernalia so soon. He signed “Rob” and was starting to move on when I remembered that little H2O business card in my pocket with Charlie’s email address.
I scrambled to snatch it out before he moved too far away. Pushing my arm through the masses, I started to shout back at Rob, trying to get his attention again. Call me a leprechaun because I’m lucky. Rob comes back my way but not to take the card. He signs it! I start insisting (ok maybe yelling), “No! It’s for YOU! It’s Charlie!”. Calm, clear, and eloquent was not my approach here.
Rob understood the “it’s for you” part and he took the card. The moment he realized I wasn’t pushing our blog on him and the card held the email address of his long lost love, Charlie Bowman:
*gasp*
I had written the email address on the back and went back to “calm, clear, and eloquent”, “Charlie! He wrote on that blog. For you!” Something like that…
Rob was flabbergasted. Literally. Looked dead at me and asked how I got the email. Don’t you know, Rob? I’m coming though your window so hide your wife, hide your kids. Seriously though, I just shouted again, “On that blog! He commented!”. Eloquent.
*flabbergasted*
So there you have it. Rob gave the card to his bodyguard and looked at me again attempting a conversation but I told him I had to go, my work here is done.
If you’re wondering about where the video is to those screencaps, you won’t find them here. It’s a tad…um…enthusiastic (euphemism for crazy). I don’t want to subject you guys to my “calm, clear, and eloquent” dialogue here. I might post the video on ROBsessed. Those are my people and they’ll comfort me in my embarrassing, fanatical moment.
Happy Rob and Charlie found each other again! The reunion story made the kinkers back flip and shake some tassels.
Rob & Reese are hilarious. That is all.
Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon, and Francis Lawrence during Water for Elephants Sydney press conference May 6, 2011.
This is an unofficial fan site for Water for Elephants movie for entertainment purposes only. This site is not affiliated with the film, its actors, or its producers and distributors. No copyright infringement is intended. Please advise if you own something seen on this site (proof of ownership needs to be supplied) and would like it removed by contacting waterforelephantsfilm [at] gmail [dot] com.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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