The marathon that is Tribeca Film Festival has come to a close, so while we gently nurse our livers off life support, you’re invited to click through the gallery for a rundown of our interactions with the ultimate motley crew: HRH The Prince Edward, George Lucas, Bobby De Niro, Ed Burns, Geoffrey Fletcher and a litany of others…
We popped into the Films Without Borders launch last week at the Saint Reeg--the Versailles Room, if you must know--for a bit of A-list action with a pinch of royal tomfoolery. Prince Edward appeared to be all thumbs as the ombudsman of the evening, making more than a few eyebrow-raising gaffes. "And here I'd like to introduce our next guest, who is clearly from Africa," he said, motioning to a striking African teen. Entire crowd gasps, cups mouths, show goes on. George Lucas and Mike Newell took the stage for a little panel which found Lucas firmly in the "visual" camp of filmmaking and Newell in the "script and plot" camp--a friendly rift that they continued throughout the panel discussion. Cue cocktails, the ubiquitous Russell Simmons, and we're off!
We caught up with Ed Burns at the premiere of his AMEX-commissioned short film Doggy Bags, notable for it's use of Twitter to crowdsource the initial screenplay. Burns found himself directing his first short since film school: "It's something that I don't think I'll want to do again any time soon. After working in feature-length format for so long, it was an incredible challenge to think short. But I really enjoyed it!" Google around and you'll find the thing, it's pretty freakin' cute.
We sat down for a one-on-one with Geoffrey Fletcher who has signed on with Bombay Sapphire to launch their film competition. The premise: he has written a short, open-ended script that entrants will interpret for themselves and then create and submit five-minute shorts. Fletcher, who famously penned and directed Precious, was found by Velvet Roper to be impeccably gregarious, infinitely relatable, and an all-around stand-up guy. He waxed poetic on the power of film to heal, to educate, to empower.
Robert Downey Jr., aka Iron Man, made a whirlwind entrance to the premiere of The Avengers on Saturday night.
Smulders smoulders: look at that dress.
We found De Niro cubbied up in a corner at the afterparty for The Avengers, shrouded by his posse. We had no choice but to admire his permanent frown from afar.
(Photo by Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images for Bombay Sapphire)
