A fun night in Hollywood at the premiere of the terrific "Henry Poole Is Here"

I did not expect to begin my day sitting on the patio of a coffee house on Melrose called Stir Crazy. But I'm having nightmares with my car alarm system and am waiting for it to get fixed at the auto shop across the street. There's a blonde guy sitting across from me who is movie star handsome (looks a bit like Josh Lucas) so I may lose my train of thought as I try and blog a bit.

So, I've been meaning to write about what a fun time I had last Thursday night. My old pal Lorna Harris and I met up at the ArcLight for the premiere of "Harry Poole Is Here." Since she and her family have just moved back from the UK, this was out first event together in forever. Lorna was promotions director at the old KEZY radio station in the mid-90s and invited me to so many cool things including a joint Billy Joel-Elton John concert in San Diego that I will never forget.

So now I can return the favor a little bit. We arrived early to watch the stars, including Luke Wilson, Cheryl Hines, Radha Mitchell, Adriana Barraza and George Lopez and do their red carpet thing. I wanted to be there as a guest so I didn't bring my tape recorder and just took it all in.

The comedy drama follows a man (Wilson) who abandons his family and business to spend what he thinks are his last remaining days by himself. But the neighbors in the suburban neoghborhood where he has bought a house to die in just won't leave him in peace. There's lots of surprises and wonderfully sweet moments.

We had great seats and both enjoyed the movie tremendously.I think it is the best performance of Luke Wilson;s career and Adriana Barraza showed that her Oscar nomination for "Babel" was no fluke. She gives such a beautiful performance here as Luke's neighbor who has enough faith in God and in life for the both of them. The movie comes out Friday. If it is showing at a theatre anywhere near you, go see it!

The after-party was a really nice affair on the rooftop of the parking lot of the ArcLight. We feasted on some terrific barbeque beef and amazing macaroni and cheese that was so good I felt like doing a face-plant right into the serving dish,
We chattted up various folks including cast member Rachel Seiferth (pictured, right, in a scene with Wilson) whose character wears coke bottle-bottomed glasses then amazingly gets her perfect sight back. I whispered to Lorna inside the movie, "She's faking it. She's wearing contacts!" As we chatted with Rachel about her performance, Lorna blurted out my little remark from inside the theater about the contacts but I saved face (I hope!) by telling Rachel than in the end, she made me believe that she had indeed had her sight restored.

Well, I hope Lorna enjoyed the LAST Hollywood event I'll ever take her to! Just Kiddin! The very clever and smart Lorna has started a news site for women called Boudica.com that I hope you'll check out!

Here is a trailer for the movie: