HOLLYWOOD—As anyone who tried to get to the Griffith Observatory within two hours of last evening's solar eclipse can tell you, the choice was either a very long walk up a fairly steep hill or to get dropped off by a friend at the observatory door, after which the friend could spend the next hour slowly descending behind miles of traffic to the park exit on Fern Dell Drive.
Hence, in retrospect, it probably wasn't the best plan for Wicked Pictures to schedule a promotional trip to the observatory for the winner of Wicked's Countdown contest to watch the eclipse.
But as it turned out, director Brad Armstrong, star Jessica Drake and contest winner Shannon still got to watch the moon almost blot out the sun by using a smoked-plastic viewer and standing in a clear area of Hollywood Bouelvard—after which the trio and a few companions shared sushi and good conversation at a local restaurant.
"What we challenged people to do was to come up with the basis for the sequel to Countdown, which is our science-fiction movie that's about to be released on DVD, but which members of Wicked.com can already watch on Wicked's website," said Jessica. "I think everybody is already familiar with the synopsis of the movie, because we've told people what it was about multiple times in press releases and everything, but we weren't prepared for the volume of entries. Of course, I promoted it on my radio show on Sirius Radio and on my Twitter and my podcast as well, and we had some really, really big Wicked fans or [Jessica Drake] fans come out and enter this contest, and Shannon's entry was selected."
For those who don't know, Countdown involves a group of fringe astronomers, headed by Drake, who have been monitoring the rogue asteroid Vesta, a real celestial body orbiting between Mars and Jupiter and which has fallen out of its regular orbit due to a collision. It’s the size of Arizona and weighs 300,000 metric tons... and it’s hurtling towards earth at approximately 220,000 miles per hour. Should it reach our planet, life as we know it would end. The movie follows several groups of people as they spend their final days preparing for the inevitable—but we're guessing that just about everyone survives or there'd be no need for a sequel, and no chance for long-time fan Shannon to have dinner with her porn idols.
"I've been a fan for a while, and actually, a friend told me about the contest," Shannon explained. "He said, 'You should really look at this because you're such a big fan and I know you'd enjoy being with Brad and Jessica.' So I looked at the contest and thought it was something I might be able to do, so I wrote a little story and sent it in, and the rest is history. I got chosen and had an awesome time with Brad and Jessica watching the eclipse, and of course, dinner was phenomenal."
Shannon's been a fan of Jessica since she first saw one of the Wicked star's dance shows six years ago.
"She was my first feature entertainer, and she came out in her little cheerleader outfit and did an amazing show," gushed Shannon, who's about to start graduate school in the fall, aiming for a degree in psychology. "She was giving out free porn and of course I got one because I think I was the only girl at the stage, and she's always been super-nice from that first time I met her. She gave me my very first porn movie and ever since, I've been hooked on Wicked porn. So from then on, I was a fan of Jessica and Brad—and of course, Brad makes amazing movies all the time, awesome blockbusters. I'm a fan."
There are several prizes yet to be awarded to contest runners-up, including a Countdown DVD and a Brad Armstrong "Blockbuster Pack" (which Shannon will also receive) containing his award-winning hits, The Rocki Whore Picture Show: A Hardcore Parody, Speed, 2040, Fallen and Coming Home. The fourth-place and fifth-place finishers will receive DVD copies of Countdown and The Rocki Whore Picture Show: A Hardcore Parody.
What hasn't been told yet is Countdown's release date, but according to Armstrong last evening, "I think it's any day now."
Pictured, l-r: Jessica Drake, contest winner Shannon.
