Celebrity Watch List for E3

Stars in your eyes? Here's who's confirmed and who's expected at next week's gaming show.

By Dave Rudden, GamePro

1 of 13

All Images
Related Articles

zAPPed Makes Your iOS Gadgets Part of the Board Game
Sony PlayStation Vita: Powerful Handheld Gaming
Love and Romance in Game On Podcast #6
World of Minecraft: Gamers Recreate WoW in Minecraft
Geek 101: What Is Jailbreaking?

Would you recommend this slideshow? YES NO

E3 Roll Call

E3 is definitely about huge game reveals and new system debuts, but the LA-set show also attracts a fair share of tinseltown elite. We've rounded up a handful of celebs that we know will be at the show, and a few that we're betting we'll see.

E3 is a crazy show. You might be standing behind a sweaty GameStop mouth-breather to play Mario Party one minute, and gawking at Paris Hilton the next. While a few companies have confirmed celebrities that will be attending the show on their behalf, more than a few big names end up dropping by unannounced. We've broken our list up between the celebs that will be on hand and the stars that we're sure will stop by. A quick note--the lines between the show proper, early morning press conferences and evening press events at E3 are a bit of blur, so we're including celebs likely to appear at any of the three.

Expected: Kenan Thompson

A representative involved with EA's evening Bulletstorm event has confirmed to GamePro that Saturday Night Live star Kenan Thompson will be appearing at the event and likely cracking wise at the over-the-top gore produced by People Can Fly's action-FPS. Thompson has been a sketch comedy fixture for over 15 years from his childhood days on All That to his current-day SNL work. He strikes us as a video game fan, so his presence at the event should be welcome.

Confirmed: Leonard Nimoy

Leonard Nimoy may be retired from acting, but his video game career is hitting its apex. He recently lent his voice to Star Trek Online and come next week, he'll add a live-action video game role to his resume as he demos Yoostar2, a game in which players can record and insert footage of themselves into popular movies. Hopefully the footage of Nimoy hamming it up with show attendees will find its way off of the show floor and onto YouTube in a timely manner.

Confirmeed: Method Man and Redman

In case the three rock music titles set to be shown at E3 didn't tip you off, music games are still kind of a big deal. 4mm Games and Konami are heading in an entirely different direction for Def Jam Rapstar, and they're promoting the game in a much different way, too. Instead of playing a private company party during the show, Meth and Red will be performing at Konami's booth next Wednesday. The duo has been performing together for over 15 years, but to the best of our knowledge, they've never played at a booth during a video game convention. This could be a very interesting performance.

Confirmed: Bobby Lashley

UFC Undisputed 2010 cover athlete Brock Lesnar isn't the only former pro wrestler to hit it big in the world of mixed martial arts. Bobby Lashley has been dominating Strikeforce since his debut two years ago, winning all of his matches, finishing all but one of his five victories in the first round. Lashley was a late addition to the EA-sponsored Strikeforce event being held in LA during E3 week, but we're sure the powerhouse will be up to the impromptu challenge.

Confirmed: John Daly

Who would have thought there'd be a day where John Daly was less controversial than Tiger Woods? Regardless of Daly's stature as golf's biggest bad boy, his presence at the show to show off the fall-due John Daly's ProStroke Golf should be entertaining. With Tiger Woods remaining on the cover of EA's annual golf game, we might even observe the beginning of a war of the words. Actually given Daly's personality, we'd change "might even" to "almost definitely will."

Confirmed: The Sounds

If you're lucky enough to attend Capcom's Dead Rising 2 E3 party, you'll be able to catch a performance by new wave rock group The Sounds. While most of their fame emanates from Sweden, they have had a few hits in the U.S., including the very enjoyable DLC Rock Band track, Song with a Mission. We're not quite sure what, if any ties the band will have to the game, but wouldn't it be awesome to take part in a zombified band boss battle in Dead Rising 2's faux-Vegas?

Confirmed: La Parka

You don't know who La Parka is? Any fan of WCW during the 90's knows of the chairman's ability to entertain the world with steel chairs without saying a word. Ever since that promotion has folded, La Parka has returned to his Lucha Libre stomping grounds, becoming bigger than ever in Mexico. La Parka will be fighting in a live wrestling match taking on fellow luchadore Dr. Wagner on Thursday June 17 in Konami's booth. The winner will earn a measure of glory greater than any title belt--he will be the cover star of the publisher's upcoming wrestling game Lucha Libre AAA: Héroes del Ring. If you happen to be at ringside for the match, we have one piece of advice for you. Never touch La Parka's mask.

Likely to Show up: Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg is no stranger to E3, having tested the Wii in 2005 with Shigeru Miyamoto and touted the viability of Project Natal at last year's Microsoft press conference. With the PlayStation Move likely making its E3 debut next week, we wouldn't be surprised to see Spielberg go for the motion-controller trifecta. Here's hoping he'll be wowed enough to commission an HD iteration of his Boom Blox video game franchise.

Likely to Show up: Lakers and/or Celtics Stars

LA will be insanity next Tuesday. With the NBA Finals heading to the city's Staples Center, located adjacent to the E3-hosting Convention Center, the mix of gaming geeks and sports jocks should be a sight to behold. Depending on the outcome of game 6 on Tuesday, we might see a new NBA Champion or another two days of basketball fever accompanying the E3 madness. The outcome of that game may also determine which players stick around and decide to poke their head in to check out the top games releasing during the off-season.

Likely to Show up: Jimmy Fallon

Likely to Show up: Reality Show Stars

Most reality show stars love the spotlight. That's why 99 percent of them live in LA and stick their botoxed faces in front of paparazzi cameras for a living. With E3 becoming the world's stage for video games next week, expect a few dozen of them to descent upon the show like a pack of locusts, annoying fans, developers, press, executives, athletes, actual celebrities, police, firemen, waitresses, doctors, the world at large, and heck, even other reality show stars.