Earlier this evening, I came out of the Apple store on Fifth Avenue right next to the Plaza Hotel and stumbled upon the "My One And Only" premiere. I was on my way to Burger Joint in Le Parker Meridien and I just had to stop for a few minutes to get a few shots as the stars strode in. What's "My One and Only," you ask? It's the new Renee Zellweger movie set in the 1950's that had its New York premiere tonight at the Paris Theatre. The film also stars Kevin Bacon and Logan Lerman. Who's Logan Lerman? In case you didn't know, Logan is definitely an up and coming young star and I'm looking forward to seeing what Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief is all about next year, esp. since he plays the lead. I really didn't have a very good vantage point for these shots and I didn't feel like running around just to get a good one of Renee so my pictures aren't the greatest, but you basically get the idea. No one comes here for the quality of my pictures anyway. Personally, I like the pictures of the packages of marshmallows that I took earlier today which are far better photographs(see below). But for all you Renee Zellweger fans, if you ever wondered what it was like to star in a movie and make your entrance at the premiere in New York City, then this set of pictures is as good an example as any of the sheer volume of cameramen and flashes that go off when you hit the red carpet. Even for a relatively small movie that presumably needs all the publicity help it can get, there were a lot of press out for Renee and assorted other stars in attendance. I didn't see Bradley Cooper who Renee has been rumored to be dating and has been seen out with in New York and Barcelona recently. I didn't see Kevin Bacon either. However, I did see George Hamilton. I didn't post the picture because he's so tan (and looks fantastic), but I really don't want to encourage the youth of the world to get skin cancer. Sorry George.
The Paris is definitely my favorite theater in the city since it is one of the only single screen theaters left in all of Manhattan and the only one with a balcony. It's currently playing the new Michelle Pfeiffer movie that seems to be doing reasonably good business there since it's been playing for the past seven weeks or so.
In case you're wondering why the theater marquee is for the Michelle Pfeiffer movie "Cheri" and not for "My One and Only," it's probably because this movie is a relatively small independent feature that's being released by a small distribution company. It's super expensive to release a movie, secure a theater for the premiere, get the after party together and pay for a pricey custom-made marquee. It makes a lot more sense to buy more print advertisements to promote the film than it does to spend on signage for the premiere.
You've got to give Renee A LOT of credit for doing a small independently financed film like this one. Her manager, John Carrabino, is one of the savviest managers in Hollywood and he gets a lot of credit for guiding Renee's career so I hope he was instrumental in helping her choose a movie like this one. Actually, I wish a lot more stars would follow her lead and we would see a greater diversity of movies being made and theatrically released. It's a lot of work to make a movie and get it out to audiences so I'm totally rooting for this one to do well when it opens and hope it does good business for the distributor (Freestyle Releasing) and for the investors. It looks like a intelligent, well-made feature and the early reviews seem to be very good. Renee is really working hard getting all the press she can for this one and she seems like she's doing a great job so far.
Of course, I know how difficult it is to get people to buy tickets to go see your little independent movie and if there are any people in San Francisco that are reading this (hint hint), it's not too late (ends this Thursday, August 20th) to see Guest of Cindy Sherman at the Roxie theater. Coming soon to a city near you.
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