This year they also teamed up with Wired magazine and set up a private green room called the “Wired Cafe,” where select people from the press and the industry are invited during the day. They have a bunch of laptops set up for people to blog and tweet and a cafe with an open bar and great food. I decided to go there for lunch instead of my usual haunts. I had a Smoked Turkey Panini and considered a Dim Sum sampler, which the person at my table ordered with his Burger. Maybe tomorrow.

There were some sponsors there like Patron Tequila and Bustelo Coffee giving out free drinks. I never tried either. Not being a drinker I only had one Patron cocktail, which had grapefruit juice and club soda. It was goood. I gotta say, the Bustelo canned espresso drinks were awesome. I like Starbucks products. Especially when I am driving long distances. But Bustelo is more flavorful. I never had them before. I found out these are advance copies and they will be on sale in a few weeks at Wal-Mart and Trader Joes.

The Con seemed to have the usual Thursday crowds, which were fairly intense. But the next two days will be much worse. I wish I brought my camera. I missed a couple of shots that would have been golden. They have all these pedi-cabs outside carting people between the restaurants and the Con. And I walked by one that had a guy in a predator costume being driven around. It was hilarious.

(I hate using my cell phone; the shots never look good enough.)

There were the usual people in costumes, including the Star Wars variety which are perennial. I remember one year I was sitting on the outside terrace in the back of the Con, which looks out over Coronado island. A friend walked by and we started talking. All of a sudden, about 60 Star Wars Stormtroopers walk onto the terrace and pose for a photo on the outside steps.

“Now I’ve seen everything.” I said. My friend laughed.

This year a lot of booths were scaled down from previous Cons. I’m sure the economy had to do with it. But the movie and TV companies still had impressive set ups.

Marvel Comics has four different life-sized Iron Man costumes with glowing eyes and chest generators. They ranged from the crude version from “Iron Man” to one that may be used in “Iron Man 2.”

SyFy (which used to be the SciFi channel until some rebranding doofus decided to change the name slightly) went so far as to rent a restaurant space right near the Con in the Gaslamp quarter. The coffee shop for the Hard Rock Hotel, usually called Mary Jane’s, is called Cafe Diem during the Con. All the items on the menu are advertisements for Scifi Syfy shows with names like Caprica salads (but not Battlestar Burgers). Lots of cardboard stand ups of their characters. The prices were a little high, like $7 milkshakes, but the place seemed busy.

I got to see a bunch of familiar faces and I was surprised how many people told me they loved my Big Hollywood columns. That’s always nice to hear. I will look for Doug TenNapel’s booth tomorrow. I forgot to write down the number and it’s a huge place. I only got to see about half of the show run today.

Today I parked at the Padres parking lot as the baseball stadium is next door. My mom told me it was free for the Con (disclosure: my sister knows the owner of the team, so I though the info might have come from her). Ha! It was $20. I ended up having to park on the roof because they were almost out of spaces.

Just as I was leaving I noticed I had a really good view of the old El Cortez hotel in the distance, where the Con used to be back in the 70s. It still has that big neon sign on the top with the words “Hotel” lopped off because it went condo. And there was once a restaurant on top called the Skylight Room with a beautiful flashing neon sign below the word “Hotel.” Not anymore. They don’t even turn on the sign at night.

Things change.

Apparently, the AP’s definition of “living” in a box is two eight-hour shifts over two days. Using that logic, I’ve lived at Peet’s Coffee in Westwood, the Mac store at The Grove, and Breitbart’s basement in the last month alone.

In a gesture of solidarity with America’s poor, Arquette’s Plexiglas abode will be furnished.

Their not-so-ambitious goal: to raise $250,000, probably the amount Arquette makes off royalties from “Scream” DVD rentals every Halloween. I bet it will cost at least that much just to promote the event.

In what might be a hunger-awareness first, Arquette plans to chow down while in the box, and considering the event is put on by Snickers (part of the Mars, Inc.), he’s likely to gain weight over the two days. But this event is not about hunger or charity or starving people–it’s about selling chocolate bars.  I’m a free market guy, so I don’t mind that Snickers hired a celeb to pimp their product, but nougat gives me moobs and not even David Arquette in a publicly displayed human-sized fish tank (complete with ottoman) can change that.

Besides, among America’s poor, very few are starving but very many are obese and wrongly fed as opposed to underfed.  If we are serious about fighting against deficient nutrition in America, should the people behind the best-selling candy bar of all time lead the charge?  The problem isn’t starvation, it’s Snickers.

But hey, it might work.  The stunt certainly grabbed my attention, and that’s Hollywood’s spell. It certainly can’t do much harm, and in a satisfying twist, any charity done will go to American human beings.

Still, if I were putting on the the event, it would be Courtney Cox in the Plexiglas box and Trader Joe’s would be the sponsor.  That would be delicious and nutritious.

On a more serious note: According to Charity Navigator, Feeding America is an efficient use of your charity dollars, so be encouraged to make a donation to them.  You can help some people in need and you’ll have leverage to complain about their lame celebrity spokesmen.