New York, September 29-30, 2006 – The New York Film Festival seemed as if it had landed in London, with Helen Mirren’s The Queen and Kate Winslet’s Little Children on opening weekend.

We know why Taylor Hackford was at The Queen screening at Lincoln Center on Friday – he’s married to Mirren – but we’re not sure what brought fellow producer/director Ron Howard, and his spike-haired partner, Brian Grazer, there. Jeremy Irons came out to support his Emmy-winning Elizabeth 1 costar.

Winslet was in a great mood at Saturday’s Little Children screening; when costar Patrick Wilson asked which side she preferred when the pair posed for photos, she replied, “I don’t give a s--t!” Kate’s husband, director Sam Mendes, did escort duty for the evening, but Jennifer Connelly, a New York resident also featured in the film, was a no-show.