DGA Awards: Red carpet encounters and show moments...

There was some senitment that this year's Directors Guild of America Awards were not as star-studded as in years past. Maybe. But those who did show up were first-rate and some are among the hottest stars in the business. "Ugly Betty" star America Fererra, 2007 Oscar nominees Jennifer Hudson and Alan Arkin, Steve Martin, ABC anchor Charles Gibson, the lovely Maria Bello, 2007 Golden Globe winner Kyra Segdwick, Aaron Eckhart, 2007 SAG winner Chandra Wilson, and "Desperate Housewives" star Felicity Huffman.

At the top of the list would have to be Leonardo DiCaprio who has grown from teen actor to 20-something hearthrob to absolute movie superstar in his early 30s. Between his Oscar-nominated performance in "Blood Diamond" and Golden Globe and SAG nominated performance in "The Departed," this is causing people to really take notice that he is becoming the finest actor of his generation. And the respect he showed in honoring Martin Scorsese was so touching. It was about loving film and looking up to a man who had taught him so much. It wasn't about all the silliness that Hollywood and the awards season can so often be about.
Then you had Hudson, one of the most wonderful a star is born stories in Hollywood history. First movie role results in a Golden Globe Award, a SAG Award and an Oscar nomination. Her performance in "Dreamgirls," especially her show-stopping number "And I'm Tellin You I'm Not Going," is one for the ages. She is still inexperienced at these events and read her tribute to Bill Condon off a sheet of paper instead of a teleprompter and stumbled a few times. But in the end, enough of her warmth and personality came through and she did Condon proud.
Aaron Eckhart, looking more like a big movie star all the time, has been more of a red carpet fixture this year than ever before thanks to his Golden Globe-nominated performance in "Thank You For Smoking." He was on hand Saturday night to present the best documentary prize to Arunas Matelis for "Before Flying Back to the Earth."
Matellas and I spoke on the red carpet before the show and he was hopeful that awards recognition would get his film, about children living with leukemia in a pediatric hospital in Lithuania cancer, more widely seen. "It is not a film just about the pain...It's about our destiny, our faith, our friends, our whole lives."
It was great talking to "Babel" director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu who I first met back in 2001 at Miramax's Golden Globes party (Where does the time go?) and he was talking about his "Ameros Perros." Inarritu (pictured at another event) is such a passionate filmmaker and we talked about all of the awards show hoopla he finds himself in the center of, especially after "Babel" took home the best picture-drama prize at the Golden Globes last month. He is up for the Oscar as well.
"It's fun, it's overwhelming, it's exhausting, it's everything," he said. "It's a great honor to be nominated with people like Martin Scorsese and Stephen Frears and Clint Eastwood it's already a huge honor for me. I knew this film would take me a lot of time, three years of my life. A liver, a piece of my heart. Film can kill you!"
They may have missed out on an Oscar nomination for "Little Miss Sunshine," but the husband and wife directing team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris were basking in the glow of the DGA nomination and received a very warm and funny tribute from Steve Carell, one of the stars of their film. On her way into the show, Faris told me: "I'm very honored to be in this group of directors and to be nominated for our first film, it's incredible. It took us five years." She added that she planned to enjoy Oscar night with "Sunshine" up for best picture: 'I'm going to have fun. I have nothing to worry about. Just to be nominated [for best picture] blew our minds."
And before her wardrobe malfunction stole the show, I said hello to LeeLee Sobieski on the red carpet. I had done a magazine profile on her a few years back and she is even more beautiful now. I asked her what she had been up to: 'I've finished six films, one called "88 Minutes" with Al Pacino." (she rattled off a few more titles but was talking so fast I had some trouble transcribing 'em). But I did get this parting line: "I'm having a great time and I'm really excited about tonight!"
And what a night for LeeLee, for everyone.
I can't wait till next year!