September 29 - Looking a bit grannyish in brown Prada, Madonna appeared at a midtown Manhattan bookstore to promote her new children’s book, The English Roses. Only 200 lottery winners got to hear the material mom read, and each had, literally, fourteen seconds to greet the Detroit-born Englishwoman. Instructed to be there two hours before the scheduled 3:30 P.M. reading, fans didn’t have to wait while Maddie signed their books – she’d done that earlier. And, it seems, some devotees didn’t wait around – we were handed a signed copy of the book as we left.

That evening we attended the premiere of Out of Time starring Denzel Washington, Eva Mendes, Sanaa Lathan, Dean Cain and John Billingsley. (Denzel was wearing jeans and sneakers – do we need to sick the Queer Eye guys on him?) On her way out of the theater for a smoke, we asked Queen Latifah her opinion of New York State’s strict smoking ban. With a withering look she said, “I’m glad I live in Jersey where you can smoke inside. That’s what I think.” Note to Governor Pataki: here’s a movie/TV/music star that earns lots of money and refuses to live in New York state. Think of all that tax revenue going up in, um, smoke.

We couldn't stick around with Val Kilmer and Janeane Garofalo at the screening of their new film Wonderland. We had to get home and post our Madonna book on e-bay.