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

Washington, D.C., April 26, 2008 - Apparently the impending presidential election has put the Hollywood set in a jovial mood, because Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ dinner drew a heavy contingent of celebrities, most of whom had stayed away during the Bush administration years. 

Joining the usual powerful media figures like Martha Stewart and Katie Couric at the Washington Hilton was everyone from Donatella Versace to Ashlee Simpson to Grey’s Anatomy star Eric Dane.  Panting tweens lined the hotel lobby and screamed in ecstasy when the Jonas Brothers arrived.  Padma Lakshmi was there, and so was her ex, Salman Rushdie with a gorgeous young date. Awkward!  New York Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman told us that he was “amazed” by the new smaller size of his competitor, the New York Post.  Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner attended, but managed to hide from cameras all evening.

Craig Ferguson hosted the dinner, rambling on a bit, and President Bush himself played maestro, picking up a baton and conducting a marching band.  W also donned a cowboy hat and even sang. 

The stormy evening didn’t stop revelers from hitting the parties.  Pamela Anderson popped into the Bloomberg party at the Costa Rican Embassy for just a few moments, and dashed off to catch a plane, we hear.  Over at the brand new Newseum, Rosario Dawson hosted Capitol File’s party, where Pete Wentz deejayed. 

New York, April 26, 2008 – Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon had back-to-back movie premieres on Saturday at the Tribeca Film Festival, and since People Magazine reported that the two are dating, tabloid reporters were out in force at both.  Mariah carefully avoided personal questions at her 5:00 P.M. Tennessee premiere down at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center – when a reporter asked if she’s single, she replied with a non sequitur, “I’m very grateful to be here today.”

Meanwhile, Cannon showed up so late for his 6:00 P.M. screening of Balls Don’t Lie at the AMC 19th Street that he simply ran into the theater without speaking to anyone.  (Yes, we went to both premieres.)  We tried to catch up with the rapper/actor later at the Balls Don’t Lie after party at ESpace, but he never showed up.  Instead, Cannon joined Mariah at her movie’s after party at Tenjune – he popped in late, but not late enough to avoid our camera.

Photos: Caroline Torem Craig

New York, April 24, 2008 – Madonna wrote and produced a documentary film called I Am Because We Are, and she brought it to the Tribeca Film Festival for its world premiere on Thursday.  The film deals with AIDS orphans in Malawi, and the Material Mom says that working on it has made her realize how lucky she is.  “I’ve learned that my complaints are silly and ridiculous in comparison to most people’s, and going to Africa has really put things into perspective for me on that level”, she told reporters at the screening.   “I’ve learned to appreciate and have much more gratitude for what I have”, the Gucci-clad pop star added.  Malawi is the African country where Madge adopted her son, David in 2006.  Madonna’s good friend Rosie O’Donnell lent her support at the premiere, as did Bernadette Peters and Donna Karan.

New York, April 23, 2008 – New York-based comics Tina Fey and Amy Poehler opened the Tribeca Film Festival with a big, star-studded red carpet premiere of Baby Mama.  “I’ve got my family here, my husband’s family.  It’s like a mini-wedding”, Poehler said at the Ziegfeld Theater.   “The only good thing is all I have to do now is sit down and watch a movie.”  Her husband Will Arnett said that he hasn’t yet looked across the bed at his mimic-queen wife and mistaken her for Hillary Clinton.  Luckily.  “I could just as easily roll over and think it’s Dennis Kucinich”, Arnett joked. 

Poehler told us that she was not confronted by the notoriously aggressive stroller-pushing mothers of Park Slope, Brooklyn, when they shot some scenes there.  “I got to smash a windshield, and people came out on their lawn chairs and watched me.  Brooklyn at it’s best, 3 A.M.”, she said. 

Chevy Chase paced up and down 54th Street outside the theater, talking on his cell phone, oblivious of the fans lining the street - it turned out he was waiting for his daughter to join him at the premiere.   Dax Shepard kept abruptly walking away from interviews mid-sentence – apparently, aggressive tabloid reporters tried to ambush the comedian, who formerly dated Kate Hudson. 

New York, April 22, 2008 – Vanity Fair kicked off the Tribeca Film Festival for the seventh year in a row with a party at the State Supreme Courthouse in lower Manhattan.  “Nobody had ever done something here, and it’s great space”, said VF editor Graydon Carter, who admitted that he gets nervous when throwing such a big bash.  What’s to be nervous about?  Guests like Billy Crystal, Charlie Rose, Jerry Seinfeld, Fran Lebowitz, Nora Ephron, Arianna Huffington and Martha Stewart generate enough chatter to animate the stony silent types like Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel and Willem Dafoe. 

Padma Lakshmi is a juror for the Tribeca Film Festival this year, and she explained how she attained that honor.  “I got an e-mail, they said, ‘We’d really like you to be part of the jury’.  I said, ‘Are you sure’?  They said, ‘Yeah’.  I said, ‘Okay.’”  The Top Chef star said she’s thrilled to participate in the fest.  Fashion designer Zac Posen is also a juror this year.  “I’ve been watching many, many films at home”, he told us. 

Partygoers built up their strength for movie hopping at the ten-day festival by chowing down on chicken pot pie, chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream. 

Los Angeles, April 17, 2008 – Mariah Carey let her loyal fans down in a big way on Thursday evening at a Universal City autograph session in support of her new album, E=MC2 , which was released on Tuesday.  Fans booed the top-selling recording artist when she finally entered the Hard Rock Café at 8:30 P.M., a full two and a half hours after the scheduled 6 P.M. start of the event at which Mariah was to sign autographs for 1,000 people who had purchased the CD.   Many of them had waited in line for up to eight hours to meet their idol.  At 1:30 A.M., after signing autographs for five hours, Mariah simply got up and left without saying a word, leaving about 100 fans who had bought her CD and waited all that time without an autograph.  Her new album played continuously throughout the session, and one person joked that maybe she just couldn’t listen to it one more time. 

UPDATE 4/22 - In response to complaints after Mariah left fans empty handed on Thursday, organizers announced that they will arrange to have autographs sent to CD purchasers bearing the blue wristband from the event.

Photo: Andy Fossum/Startraks

New York, April 21, 2008 – The Cinema Society moved way uptown from their usual Tribeca haunts for the New York premiere of Then She Found Me, and the party was at Nobu’s uptown location on 57th Street.  The movie stars Helen Hunt; the Oscar winner also directed a stellar cast including Bette Midler, Matthew Broderick, Colin Firth and Ben Shenkman – not bad for your first directing gig, huh? 

The divine Miss Midler came to New York for the premiere from Las Vegas, where she’s been knocking out the Caesar’s Palace crowds since February.  Matthew Broderick arrived alone, and then, ten minutes later, his wife Sarah Jessica Parker dashed in to the theater, and chatted with Bette while he talked up the movie to reporters.