"Hairspray" blows away crowd at ShoWest...

Sometimes, you just can't be everywhere at once. For the past three years, this is the week that I have been in Las Vegas covering the ShoWest Convention. I was there when Brad and Angelina walked out on stage about 10 feet from each other a few years ago to try and not look like they were a couple (yeah, right). Al Gore was there last year to push "An Inconvenient Truth" which I skipped to see some creepy movie called "Hard Candy." It was at ShoWest where I watched a Thomas Jane movie ("The Stander") with Thomas Jane sitting right in front of me, blocking my view of a Thomas Jane nude scene. What was I supposed to say, "Can you please movie your head so I can see your ASS?" And at my first ShoWest, I got to ask Meryl Streep a question during a press conference, see Bette Midler real up close and see a very pregnant Gwynth Paltrow teeter on these sky-high platform shoes.
Ah, memories.

But this year, after a grueling award season, It was decided I would take a vacation instead of go to ShoWest. I was cool with that but now that I see what I missed...I'm PISSED! New Line Cinema had called last week and invited me to this "Hairspray" event and I casually begged off since I'd not be attending. Now I see that it was my chance to see James Marsden in the flesh! The my queen, Latifah, and Michele Pfeiffer...and John Travolta! And whoever the girl is playing the Ricki Lake part.

This is an account of the evening: It was a full house with the cast of Hairspray was on hand at ShoWest on Wednesday night — John Travolta, Queen Latifah, Michelle Pfeiffer, Zac Efron, Brittany Snow, James Marsden, Elijah Kelley, Allison Janney, Christopher Walken, and Nicole Blonsky as the lead.
JustJared.com reports that 20 minutes of footage from the film (out July 20) was previewed at ShoWest and the reviews are great!
By the way, my reviews were not so great last night. On the last night of my vacation in Palm Springs, I took a break from watching tennis, downed a few greyhounds (vodka and grapefruit juice) and took the stage at the Spurline on Arenas Street downtown. It was kareoke night. I bombed bigtime! Sang a painful version of Carole King's "It's Too Late" but instead of getting booed, the crowd was behind me when I confessed, mid-song, to singing like Cameron Diaz in "My Best Friend's Wedding." After that, everyone sang the choruses with me and I got a big cheer at the end and some high-fives.
Uh boy...I shoulda gone to ShoWest to hear the professionals sing...