December 10 – At least the original Mona Lisa posed for Leonardo Da Vinci. At the premiere of her new film, Mona Lisa Smile, Pretty Woman Julia Roberts was a pretty mean woman, sweeping by a phalanx of photographers, who booed loudly as she interviewed with a TV reporter. Roberts eventually stopped talking, went back and posed for photos, and then returned to complete the interview. That first TV crew was the lucky one; Roberts then proceeded on down the red carpet, deigning only to drop a few words here and there to the rest of the assembled world’s media – from the AP to Xtra! – who all came to see, well, her.

Mona Lisa Smile is about college women’s lives circa 1953, and we got a perverse kick from hearing these fortunate young actresses discuss the film’s themes: Julia Stiles: “We can have it all, and I think we’re very fortunate to have more options these days, as to if we want to have a career. I think it’s much easier, certainly monetarily. When you’re an actor, you work for three months, & then you have time off.” Kirsten Dunst: “I don’t feel powerful, but I can make a choice.” Maggie Gyllenhaal, whose mother is a screenwriter and grandmother was a doctor: “I think I’m in a really privileged place in terms of what women are entitled to.”

It wasn’t only the media that came to ogle Roberts. Spotted at the Ziegfeld and after party at the Plaza Hotel were The Sopranos’ James Gandolfini, musicians Seal and Michael Stipe, and actors Jeff Bridges, Holly Hunter, and Jake Gyllenhaal, who is Maggie’s brother and Kirsten Dunst’s amore.