July 19-21 – While The Manchurian Candidate rolled out the red carpet this week in New York and then in L.A., Catwoman did a reverse commute, west to east. Catwoman definitely has better-looking stars – Halle Berry, Benjamin Bratt, Sharon Stone – but The Manchurian Candidate got better reviews, to put it gently. As we met the Catwoman stars on both coasts this week, the elephant in the room that no one wanted to mention was how does it feel to promote your film on TV shows, etc, knowing that it’s one of the all-time movie bombs?

Berry talked about the whip she uses with such style in the movie. “Not only is it a lot of fun and very sexy, but it’s quite dangerous.” Wow. Who’d she hurt with it? “Mainly myself. When I first started learning, it wrapped around my leg, smacked me in the face.”

The New York premiere was closed to the press, but we went to a party at Henri Bendel, which has a window full of designer catsuits tied in with the film. We asked young fashion designer Esteban Cortazar if he’d done projections on how many of his catsuits he expected the store to sell. “I don’t know. We’ll see tonight how many people love it, and then I’ll tell you.” Even if the movie was a hit, only people with bodies like Halle Berry’s could wear these skin-tight bodysuits.

With Jen Lowery in Los Angeles