New York, April 24-30 – The Tribeca Film Festival is currently consuming New York City, literally, with screenings all the way uptown as far as 68th Street, near Lincoln Center, which is as far from Tribeca in miles as it is in atmosphere.

The Tribeca version of Australia’s Tropfest, a short film competition, was less than tropical on Friday night, when intrepid (stupid?) viewers shivered through a couple of hours of outdoor cold-weather screenings at North Cove Marina. Aussie founder John Polson rallied landsmen Naomi Watts and Anthony LaPaglia as jurors, along with Matt Dillon, Famke Janssen and Darren Aronofsky. But the big Tropfest story was whether or not Naomi Watts was wearing a diamond ring from her beau Liev Schreiber, who was at her side all evening. Watts had been spotted the previous day obviously hiding her left hand, and on Friday kept her hand inside her pant pocket much of the evening. Despite spending hours with the King Kong star that night, we never got a really close look at the rings that she wore on her middle finger.

More forthcoming about their relationship were John Travolta and James Gandolfini, the next day at a press conference for their movie, Lonely Hearts.

JOHN TRAVOLTA: “Jim and I have a, um, a history even before Get Shorty. Jim’s dad used to buy tires from my father in New Jersey at the Travolta Tire Stand. And when Jim would come to the store, I guess he would see a picture of me from some movie, and decided that if I could do well at it, maybe he could too. And therefore, you know, there’s a history. And then when we met, it was love at first sight"

JAMES GANFOLFINI – “And then, when this came along, this kind of part was kind of a sidekick to him. And that’s kind of what I felt like for a long time; kind of in his shadow and just looking up at him.”

JOHN TRAVOLTA : “I love Jim, and we wanted to be…to work together."

A crisp British accent interjected from the audience: “To be together?”

JOHN TRAVOLTA, half-smiling: “To be together, yes.”

Gandolfini and Travolta arrived together at the film’s premiere the following day.

Also moving was the festival’s big opening night premiere, United 93, where families of the 9/11 heroes joined celebs like Tony Bennett, Joan Allen, Josh Lucas and Tom Selleck. Reaction was positive overall, despite reawakening painful memories.