New York, June 14 – You can’t buy the kind of publicity that Michael Moore’s new film, Fahrenheit 9/11, got when Disney refused to distribute it. But if that controversy didn’t make filmgoers curious to see the Bush-bashing documentary, the raft of high-profile liberals who trotted over to the Zieigfeld Theater on Monday just might. Richard Gere, Eva Mendes, Spike Lee, Vernon Jordon, Tom Brokaw, Chloe Sevigny and Tina Brown were just a few in a tornado of media, fame and politics.

While Moore et al blathered on about the film’s “R” rating, their opinions of the Bush administration, the upcoming elections and other political stuff, we were busy collecting the hard news. Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon and his rock princess girlfriend Elizabeth Jagger came en famille. With his beard, long hair and glasses, Sean looks eerily like his father John Lennon. A shaggy-haired, baseball-capped Leonardo DiCaprio slouched around, uncommunicative as ever. Mike Myers had the most sensible reason for coming to see the film: “To be entertained and informed”.