May 6 – Robert DeNiro’s second Tribeca Film Festival officially opened with a “remembrance and commemoration ceremony” on the street outside hisTribeca Film Center. DeNiro’s partner and festival co-founder Jane Rosenthal, U2 lead singer Bono and Mayor Michael Bloomberg addressed the crowd, while fashion designer Miuccia Prada, Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor sat onstage. Master jazz musician Wynton Marsalis played his trumpet, a gospel choir sang a couple of numbers, then the whole shebang sashayed a few blocks down to the pink carpet premiere of Down With Love, starring Zellweger and McGregor. (Yes, the carpet was pink.)

Frasier’s David Hyde Pierce, also in Down With Love, and inadvertently sporting a pink tie, looked down, and then said to us “The carpet is horrifying, but the movie is great.” Robert DeNiro told us that he hears the festival is doing great, so he’s happy, and when it’s over he’ll be even happier. Disappointingly absent was George Clooney, rumored to be Zellweger’s beau, and currently in New York.