Hollywood comes to Denver...

The Democratic National Convention officially starts today, but the parties and events have been fully underway for a few days now. I hit the ground running Sunday by attending two shindigs, the first of which was an early evening tribute to African American leaders at a place called Mezcal Restaurant. Among the celebs I chatted up were Alfre Woodard, Tim Daly, Matthew Modine, Dana Delany, Gloria Rueben, Richard Schiff, Rachel Leigh Cook, Ellen Burstyn, Alan Cumming, and Tony Goldwyn, Spike Lee was there but after being bombarded by camera people as he got out of his car, he went inside and never returned to do the press line!

Speaking of the press line, my old L.A. Times pal Hope Hamashige (that's us, above) lives in Denver now and I had to cancel our dinner plans when I got an unexpected extra assignment. But I had about an hour or so of downtime and suggested we meet for a quick bite near the party at Mezcal. I thought I was lost getting there and called her on her cell: "Where the HELL is this place? The streets are cionfusing." I'm at a red light. Hope says into the phone: "Greg, I'm standing right next to you!" I turn to my right and there is Hope at the street corner, cell phone pressed up against her ear, doing her fabulous cackle.

What was great was that after we had a quick snack at the pub next door, Hope hung out with me as I did the arrivals line and snapped all these great pictures of the celebs I was chatting up including the beautiful one of Alfre Woodard above. Alfre told me she has been stumping hard for Barck Obama for more than a year.

Tim Daly and Tony Goldwyn arrived together looking as dashing as ever...Tony told me that playing the guy who killed Patrick Swayze in "Ghost" was the best thing that ever happened to his acting career. He's now an accomplished director.

Gloria Reuben told me she is happy with Barack Obama's vp pick Joseph Biden..

Dana Delaney got a little break from the set of "Desperate Housewives" where she has been having a blast with the fast-forward five years plotline. My pal Hope said she had met Dana at the first inaugural for Bill Clinton back in 1992! I mention this to Dana and the two start chatting about their dresses etc. Very funny. .

I was rushing back to the Denver Post newsroom after saying goodbye to Hope when I ran into one of my best friends, Ted Johnson, whose covering the convention fot Variety and who has a well-respected blog, Wilshire & Washington. He was on his over to Mezcal but we had to gossip for a few minutes.

My night was not over. I then road a shuttle downtown to the Denver Performing Arts Center for an event paying tribute to the Civil Rights Movement. There was no arrivals line so I had to wander aroiund looking for some famous faces. Got a quick quote from Rev. Al Sharpton who was just mobbed by delegates with cameras as he made his way in. Just as I was about to leave, I decided to go down to the front of the theater to see if there were any celebs there I could ambush. None. I tell my predicament to a nice volunteer and next thing I know, I'm being led down to this backstage area and standing next to the evening's host, Danny Glover! So did a quick interview with him just in time for the 10 p.m. deadline.

And there's four more days of this! What an adventure!