It has been such a whirlwind weekend that I'm too tired to see Jennifer Hudson perform at Long Beach Pride tonight, as planned. Sorry Jen, we'll just have to catch each other some other time. But, I'm not too tired to write about last night's insanely fun premiere at Disneyland for "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" which I escorted by 13-year-old niece to. Since we were invited guests, I didn't have to work the red carpet and instead, we walked it! It was a red carpet that stretched all the way from the entrance of the park down Main Street and off into Frontierland.
There were mobs of people packed behind the ropes shouting and waving and snapping pictures. Not at us of course but it was quite a rush. My niece nearly fainted when she found herself standing next to Wilmer Valderrama from "That 70s Show." I yelled hello over to Joey Fatone he was friendly and fun. Then we saw Ian Ziering then Janice Dickerson and then the big sighting..Orlando Bloom! My niece was having such a surreal experience and I snapped pictures of her reacting to it all. Priceless. We also chatted with one of the three judges from "Dancing with the Stars," the female one.
Thankfully, this was not one of those premieres where they show the movie first and make you wait until something like 10:30 before you eat dinner. Dinner was served first and we chowed down on teryaki chicken and beef, some terrific salads and asparagus and white chocolate-coverfed strawberries the size of a small child. Sitting at the next table is the great Cloris Leachman and I introduced her to my niece as an Oscar winner and winner of eight Emmys.
"Actually, nine," Cloris corrects me.
She is very sweet to my niece who has just been accepted into a selective drama program at school and wants to be an actress.
"You'll do great," Miss Leachman says.
We say goodbye and with 45 minutes remaining before the movie begins, we go star hunting. Well, my niece's version of star hunting. "Ohmygawd, there's the Cheetah Girls! It's Chad Michael Murray! It's Emma Roberts!" I take her picture with each of them even though I am not quite familiar with their resumes.
Finally, we are being urged to take our assigned seats in this outdoor theater that has been erected for the occasion that surrounds part of Tom Sawyer Island. We have our buckets of popcorn, churros and drinks and say hello to the women sitting next to us: Cloris Leachman!
By this time, we're old friends and Cloris is telling my neice to cover herself with a blanket so she doesn't cold and I start gabbing with her saying that my friend Eddie and I love some of her lines from the "Mary Tyler Moore Show" especially the first episode of the series when her on-screen daughter, Bess, blurts out that Mary's ex-fiancee is in town.
Phyllis (the character Leachman won a few of her Emmys for) turns to Bess: 'That was mother's news Bess....that really was mother's news."
I did the whole bit before I could help myself and, thank God, Cloris was doubled over with laughter. It was so gratifying. My niece was very impressed with my spontanious outburst and I told her i sometimes get a little crazy around stars.
OK, where were we? Oh yes, the movie! The reason we were there! We were treated to some terrific music before the producer, director and cast was introduced and made grand entrances including Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom and Geoffrey Rush. Keira Knightly was not present. We settled in and my niece, a big fan of the first two
"Pirates" movies, was just entranced. Since I had just spent four wild days with friends in Palm Springs and headced straight to the premiere from the desert, I began to nod off toward the end...just out of gas. But the movie was an action-packed delight and Depp is a comic genius. His timing is so brilliant and the character of Jack Sparrow so unique, that he elevates the film to a level that is so enjoyable and fun. It will be a massive hit when it hits theaters on Friday. No doubt.
Meanwhile, as my niece and I were on the tram back to my car, she turns to me and says it has been the best day of her life.
Knock me over with a feather.
Sure beats seeing Jennifer Hudson anytime!