Movies Archives

New York, October 10, 2009 – Pedro Almodovar’s film Broken Embraces closed the New York Film Festival on Sunday, but Paper magazine celebrated a day in advance, feting the Spanish director and his star Penelope Cruz at a star-studded dinner Saturday evening at the new eatery Casa Lever. 

None other than Madonna popped in at the party, unannounced.  Fashion designers Isabel and Ruben Toledo, Cynthia Rowley, Catherine Malandrino, Jeremy Scott and ThreeAsFour’s Gabi, Ange and Adi joined Paper’s Kim Hastreiter and David Hershkovitz at the bash.  Debbie Harry, Beth Ditto, Joey Arias, Alison Pill, Jeffrey Deitch, Kenny Scharf and Albert Maysles all sang Happy Birthday to Paper mag’s beloved Mickey Boardman.

Photos: Caroline Torem Craig

New York, October 3, 2009 – Sundance favorite Precious has been making the film festival rounds, and perhaps there was some extra emotion at this week’s New York Film Festival screening – the story is set in New York City, which is hometown to director Lee Daniels and breakout star Gabourey Sidibe.  Many of the actors that Daniels cast, including Mariah Carey, Lenny Kravitz and Sherri Shepherd, call NYC home, too. 

Daniels told us that all the acclaim hasn’t sunk in.  “I still keep thinking that somebody’s going to wake me up and tell me that it’s not for real.  I think they’re going to wake me up and say it’s going to video.  Like, that’s been my luck,” the director said.

Boldface New Yorkers like Robert De Niro, Mary J. Blige, Harvey Keitel, Steve Buscemi and Jane Fonda came out to get a first look at Precious, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. 

After the screening, everybody headed over to the Oak Room for a 42 Below-sponsored party.  Mariah sat happily with hubby Nick Cannon, and we spotted Queen Latifah late in the evening. 

Photos: Joy E. Scheller

Toronto, Septbember 10-19, 2009 – While one of us was fully immersed in New York Fashion Week, another of the OAN team headed north for the Toronto International Film Festival, where the stars came out in force.  George Clooney, Matt Damon, Natalie Portman, Jennifer Garner, Michael Douglas, Keanu Reeves, Colin Firth, Penelope Cruz, Ewan McGregor and even The White Stripes were among the stars roaming the Canadian city. 

Highlights of the festival included Colin Farrell’s infamous meltdown when photographers yelled at his sister to get out of the way at the screening of his movie Triage.  “You don’t roar at a lady like that!” Farrell admonished, picking one photographer in particular and shaking a finger in his face. 

Our other favorite TIFF moment was when fans in full zombie regalia came out to honor Night of the Living Dead legend George A. Romero at the screening of his newest, Survival of the Dead. 

Even scarier than the zombies, however, was Drew Barrymore's two-toned hair color at the press conference for her directorial debut, Whip It.

As always, the TIFF is a pleasure for the working press, the press conferences are civilized, the red-carpets well run. 

New York, August 19, 2009 – Anna Wintour hosted the premiere of The September Issue, R.J. Cutler’s documentary about the making of the biggest issue of Vogue magazine in history.  (Of course, that was the September 2007 issue, and not the current one, when magazines are suffering double-digit advertising declines.) 

Sienna Miller, who has been a no-show at numerous recent events in NYC, was the cover girl, and finally made an appearance for the premiere.  Renee Zellweger, in town for her own premiere the previous day, attended.  Rapper/fashion designer/perfumer/actor Sean Combs has apparently not embraced recessionary frugality, arriving at MoMA in a flashy Lamborghini. 

Fashion designers including Carolina Herrera, Oscar de la Renta, Vera Wang, Marc Jacobs, Donna Karan, Zac Posen and Cynthia Rowley, several of whom also appear in the film, attended the premiere. 

Another screening will take place in the Hamptons on Saturday, and Ms. Wintour will appear on the David Letterman show on August 24 to promote the movie, which opens in theaters in New York on August 28. 

Additional photos by Joy E. Scheller

New York, August 17, 1009 –Quentin Tarantino hosted the umpteenth screening of his differently-spelled movie Inglourious Basterds in NYC on Monday, courtesy of the Cinema Society and Hugo Boss.  Despite the crushing heat, Tarantino was exuberant, giving an expletive-laced introduction to the film, and later chatted up well-wishers and reporters. 

Star Diane Kruger said she was ready for Tarantino’s legendary hyper directing style.  “I expected him to be like that, because when you watch his movies there’s that underlying sense of joy of making movies, and it’s crazy,” Kruger said.  “But he can also be incredibly sensitive,” she added.  Co-star Melanie Laurent calls the auteur “very passionate.”

The Basterds specialize in scalping Nazis, Apache-style, but Eli Roth’s character has his own skill set.  “My specialty was the baseball bat,” Roth explained.  “I was a really good scalper, but I left the scalping to the boys.”  One of his boys was Brad Pitt, who could not join his cast mates at the New York screening.

Tarantino’s energy hasn’t flagged – with the movie opening on Friday, he next promoted the movie in Chicago, and he’ll bring it to Nashville on Thursday. 

New York, August 12, 2009 – With The Time Traveler’s Wife co-stars Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana having already arrived at the premiere on Wednesday, we wondered why we heard hysterical shrieking from fans lining the street at the Ziegfeld Theater.  And then this dude in a white suit sashayed onto the red carpet, and that explained the screaming: Brad Pitt!  It seems Pitt was a producer on the movie, and wanted to lend his fame to add a little publicity to the premiere. However, Pitt posed for photos and mugged with his cell phone, but then dashed into the theater, ignoring the press; that’s because he’s got his own NYC premiere on Monday, for Inglourious Basterds, in which he stars. 

All insisted there was no confusion while shooting Time Traveler scenes in which Bana’s character jumps back and forth in time, waking up confused - and naked.  “I lost the vote on that," Bana said. "Rachel and the director said in the buff, I voted clothes; I lost.".  But he saw the bright side.  “It’s faster; you don’t have to pack,” the Aussie quipped.

New York, July 30, 2009 - Julie Powell, who cooked every recipe in Julia Child’s classic cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking, blogged about it and then got a book deal, has raised the blogger bar by not only selling the story to a movie studio but ending up with Nora Ephron directing Meryl Streep in the movie, titled Julie & Julia.

At the big splashy premiere on Thursday, Ephron said that she gave Amy Adams, who plays the blogger, short, mousey hair in the film, “because I wanted her to look like an average New York girl, and not like the glamorous movie star that she is.” 

In addition to movie stars, culinary stars like Anthony Bourdain, Rachael Ray, Martha Stewart and Katie Lee Joel packed the premiere, along with restaurateurs and Tim and Nina Zagat.  After watching the mouth-watering movie, everyone headed over to the Metropolitan Club and sated themselves at the wall-to-wall buffet tables.