New York, April 25-29, 2008 – The low-key, high-profile Tribeca Film Festival has taken over all of downtown New York from Union Square to Battery Park City with screenings, panel discussions and, of course, parties. 

Shoppers on busy Broadway gape as celebs like Cheryl Hines, William H. Macy and Nick Cannon pose in front of cameras at the AMC 19th Street Theater, right out in the open.  Late Friday evening, Bruce Willis and his girlfriend Emma Hemming nonchalantly strolled into the theater practically unnoticed – they came to support his daughter Rumer Willis at a screening of the dark thriller From Within. 

At the screening of teen prom-anxiety comedy Bart Got a Room, William H. Macy said he has a soft spot for the this festival because his wife Felicity Huffman’s movie Transamerica was sold at Tribeca.  Huffman got an Academy Award nomination for her performance in that film.

In Lake City, Sissy Spacek plays Troy Garity’s mother.  What’s he like, we wanted to know, having grown up with activist Jane Fonda as his real-life mother?  “He’s funny, he’s a fantastic actor, he’s not spoiled, he’s very politically aware, environmentally aware.  I’m his biggest fan,” Spacek raved.  “His movie mom and his real mom are both proud”, the Oscar winner told us, beaming.

Side note: British actor William Mosely popped in at the Lake City premiere, and he blushed when we asked which of her lovers Tilda Swinton brought to the set of the Chronicles of Narnia sequel, which hits theaters in May.  He hemmed and hawed but finally blurted: “She did have her 29-year-old lover on set.”  Mosely approves. “You know, nobody’s ever going to stop Tilda from being her own person”, he told us.

Spacek, Fonda photos: Caroline Torem Craig