December 2-3 – Japan is the new black in Hollywood this season, with three major films - Lost in Translation, Kill Bill and now The Last Samurai – set in the land of sushi. Last Samurai screenwriter Marshall Herskovitz joked at the premiere, “Sofia Coppola, Quentin Tarantino and I had dinner two years ago and decided on a Japanese theme. No, it’s just the zeitgeist.” Tom Cruise told us he trained for a year, plus spent eight months working with swords to do the fight scenes. Herskovitz bragged, “There’s one sequence in the movie where he [Crusie] makes 37 moves continuously without a cut. We surrounded ourselves with people of such skill and such ability that nobody got hurt. We just made it look that way.” Cruise flew in from L.A. on the redeye, and did not attend the screening’s after party at Barney’s – he went to Greenwich Village at 8 P.M. to tape a segment of Inside the Actors Studio, with James Lipton.

Cut to the next night, same time, same place (the Zeigfeld), next movie: Something’s Gotta Give. Jack Nicholson in sunglasses, Frances McDormand with no makeup and hair in pigtails, Diane Keaton and Amanda Peet both elegantly dressed, Keanu Reeves not there. How did director Nancy Meyers attract three Oscar winners? “I think they all wanted to work with each other. Once I got one, it encouraged the others.”

After the premiere we hitched a ride on Santa’s sleigh over to Rockefeller Center for the Christmas tree lighting, where NBC stars hosted performances by Harry Connick, Jr., Ashanti, Nick Lachey, Enrique Iglesias and Gloria Estefan. Professional skaters whirled around the ice rink in front of the Brian Setzer Orchestra, decked out in leopard-print jackets and Santa hats.