PHOTO SPECIAL: SHOWEST MOVIE STARS PARTY ALL OVER TOWN
The speeches ended. The awards completed. The screenings wrapped. The red carpets rolled up. ShoWest 2008 at Bally’s & Paris resorts is over for another year and over 5,000 movie exhibitors from over 50-countries are heading home. But the stars wanted to stay on to party—and party they did.
Among the surprises were Mike Myers and Jessica Alba who will be seen together in the new Love Guru movie this spring. “It’s a very, very fun and silly movie,” he told us. Cameron Diaz was ecstatic about her new What Happens In Vegas movie co-starring Ashton Kutcher.
The romantic comedy tells the story of a pair of strangers who wake up not so happily married following a wild Vegas night and winning a jackpot fortune with their last quarter! The film, with many location scenes shot right here, will be released as of May 16.
During the four-day movie convention awards were presented to Robert Redford, Helen Hunt, Anne Hathaway, Robert Downey Jr., Seth Rogan, Abigail Breslin, Emile Hirsch, Brendan Fraser, Sarah Jessica Parker and the entire cast of the new 21 movie starring Kevin Spacey, Laurence Fishburne, Kate Bosworth and scene-stealer Jim Sturgess.
They even played blackjack for real—but unlike their movie story didn’t win million$. Their 21 movie is set for release on March 28—a week from Friday.
Warner Bros. executives flew in Get Smart stars Steve and Anne Hathaway in advance of the movie’s June 20 release; Emile Hirsch starring May 9 in Speed Racer, and megastar director George Lucas who presents his animated Star Wars version The Clone Wars on Aug. 15.
In fact wherever he went he traveled with his own army of costumed storm troopers! Highlight for me was emceeing one of the ShoWest luncheons and getting to introduce genius director Steven Spielberg on video from LA for his award presentation to his marketing executive Marvin Levy.
Female Star of the Year Anne Hathaway, partied with friends at Tryst nightclub in the Wynn… Sarah Jessica Parker was spotted walking through the Tower Suites at Wynn after dining in star chef Daniel Boulud’s restaurant there…
Ben Stiller and Robert Downey Jr. cracked sarcastic jokes at each other’s expense at Paramount’s Tropic Thunder party in the new Koi Japanese restaurant in Planet Hollywood Resort…
but it was actor Laurence Fishburne who had the most fun of all. He took in the late night performance of The Beatles Love by Cirque du Soleil at The Mirage, drank champagne at the Playboy Club in the Palms even demonstrating a two-step dance for the bunnies while hanging with co-star Jim Sturgess.
Then he stopped in at The Beatles Revolution ultra lounge at The Mirage and said hello to Pussycat Dolls dancer Carmit Bachar and Knocked Up star Paul Rudd—all playing with the $150,0000 interactive art graphic tables that project their images to wall screens.
Most intriguing news I learned at ShoWest was the decision by Warner Bros. to split the final 784-page Harry Potter book The Deathly Hallows into a two-parter movie that will be filmed simultaneously—but then shown first in November 2010 and then the second half will wrap in May 2011. It will be the seventh movie in the series that to date has racked up a mammoth $4.5 billion at the box office. The final book sold a record 11 million copies during its first 24-hours of going on sale last July!