Talking with Trevor Groth, CineVegas' programming director, a few days earlier, he asked me if he'd be seeing me at the festival. Sure, I replied, I'm going to be hitting all the events again, doing the party diary. He laughed, "Oh yeah! That was funny!" As we hung up, I couldn't shake the feeling he was talking not about my writing but about my slow physical and mental degradation over the nine days of late nights followed by early mornings at the Weekly and in-between time of posting movie reviews to our website. But this year, I had discovered a secret weapon, something that would keep me from becoming intermittently nauseous and prevent my feet from sweating. That something is naps.
For those who remember my account from last year (thanks, Mom!), it may come as some surprise that I'm driving. No, I did not learn to drive stick; I got a car with an automatic transmission, just as God intended. My wife, Biana, is thrilled with being the passenger for a change, though my iPod apparently leaves a lot to be desired.
Arriving at the Palms, I gird myself for the approaching line. I've often run into snags getting past the velvet rope at the Palms, and even flashing the gold-plated Weekly business card doesn't always help. But instead of explaining that, yes, this really is my job, we're ushered in as smoothly as something that passes more smoothly than you can imagine through something else.
Before I can even make it to the bar, I run into Kelly Hohman, the Cher impressionist I had met at last year's CineVegas. Only now she goes by Terese Kelly, and is marketing herself as an actress/musician. She introduces us to her friend, Geyana Scott, and tells me some secret stuff about the upcoming party for the Land of the Dead premiere. Look! I'm a real journalist protecting my sources!
Trying not to be too obvious about watching the go-go dancers swing around the CineVegas sign (I'm reporting, honey!), I get the first of what will be several-over-the-next-nine-nights Cuervo and ginger-ales and meet Ezra Buzzington, a director/actor from LA involved with the short film, The Big Empty. He was involved with Fringe Festivals in New York and Seattle, a sort of DIY international theater scene I think would be a big hit here. He's excited to be in Vegas before he takes off for Morocco where he has a part in the remake of The Hills Have Eyes.
Sitting for a moment with Carissa Gutierrez and Kristine Burnett from PR powerhouse Kirvin Doak, Biana and I flag down a friend of ours, Chris Rollins. Aside from being a talented artist and all-around great guy, Chris is also a waiter at the Palms. As he brings over a platter of tiny grilled cheese sandwiches with a tomato soup dip, I realize the importance of good contacts.
Terese introduces us to Jason Dinant and Dominick Fantacone who, with her, are working on putting together an Internet radio station called Celebrity Corner. Armed with a tiny recorder and an even smaller mike, they're trolling the parties, looking for celebrities (no duh) to do station IDs for them. They're aiming for a July 10 launch date, and have been excited to find that all the actors they've approached have been cooperative and lacking in 'tude.
I run into Trevor, barely recognizing him with his hair trimmed. He's looking for his wife, Susan, while I'm looking to get out of there and head to the official afterparty for the Hustle & Flow cast Downtown at the Beauty Bar. The irony of an afterparty for a movie about pimps being held in a neighborhood of pimps is not lost on me.
Someone had told me that I had just missed the Hustle & Flow cast at Skin and my luck holds steady as Matt Keleman, A&E editor at something called CityLife, tells me I've just missed them at the Beauty Bar. They must be trying to live up to the film's title.
A good-sized crowd is still there, though, having made a run on all the hair gel and Aquanet at Walgreens. I watch a young guy with a red mohawk, wearing a black shirt and red tie with a bar rag stuffed in his back pocket, empty ashtrays. The girls at Skin were also wearing black, albeit two-piece black that showed off their midriffs.
We sit and chat with Matt and two more of our talented-artist friends, Brian and Jennifer Henry before calling it a night. Actually, a morning as it's 3:30 a.m. But I can take a nap, right?
Celeb sightings: Cuba Gooding Jr. doing a jig for a photographer, Eriq La Salle, Johnny Brenden, Paula Jai Parker.
Oddest note: "1 tennis lesbian," a happy face and "u dirty" (courtesy my wife)
June 11, Green Valley Ranch pool and Whiskey Beach
Now this is what a film festival party is supposed to look like. Also celebrating the second anniversary of Vegas magazine (disclosure: Vegas magazine is part of the ever-growing Greenspun Media Group, soon to be renamed Everything In Las Vegas), and all the stops that could be pulled out have been, and then mutilated, folded, stapled and put out with the trash.
Dancers do what dancers do atop cabanas and in the pool, some twirling fire. Stilt-walkers gingerly make their way through the crowd. A bubble machine outside of the new VIP pool area, the Pond, provides, well, bubbles, and Gaudin Motors is on hand, displaying a Boxster and laser animation.
A woman in a dress made from Vegas magazines strolls by and the bar is serving up Ciroc Blue Ocean, shaken with blue curacoa, and Ten Fresh, made with Tanqueray. I look in for Tony Sinclair. I can't find him but I do run into Michael Coldwell, late of Caesars, and Jennifer Prosser, late of CityLife. Both are nice folks, even Michael, despite being from the bad part of Canada.
On one corner of the grounds, Allure Las Vegas has set up a tent bathed in red light, with a faintly Middle Eastern feel. In not keeping with that, they offer fortune cookies. Your fortune is the same as mine: "The Allure is the future. www.AllureLasVegas.com." I could double-check that with the two tarot-card readers, Shandara and Nancy Barr, but they're both busy with more serious clientele.
A friend of mine from my old San Francisco Examiner days arrives. Tom Roderick is now running a motorcycle magazine in Orange County and is in town for a Yamaha convention. Once a notorious skirt-chaser (his words), he is now trying to e-harmonize his life (my words). As cool, ex-model-writer-editor types go, he's a catch, ladies.
In tow with Tom are Andrew Charas, Turning Green producer, and his newly engaged fiancée, Mary. They're having a great time at the party—so great, in fact, that we soon lose them in the crowd. It being a semi-GMG event, I feel like I'm at the Office Party at the End of the World, basically running into our entire company directory.
Of course, it wouldn't be a Vegas party without an appearance by Larry Edwards, drag queen and bona fide movie star with a role in Miss Congeniality 2, and his friend, Joshua Carlson, a dancer with Chippendales. Larry's decked out for the occasion in a crinoline frock, blond wig with pigtails and fresh-flower lei. Why I take note of all of this and my wife becomes instant best friends with Joshua is a question best left for a therapist.
Leaving Green Valley, it's a quick trip down to the Strip for the Rize afterparty at Light in Bellagio. I finally get to meet Jake Saady, head honcho for the club and someone I've been e-mailing and telephoning for about a year. The rest of the night is a blur, meaning I evidently got so caught up in partying with the film crowd, out-of-town friends and my wife, that my notes are embarrassingly scant. But I can tell you this: We arrived back home as the sun was rising. But I can take a nap, right?
Celeb sightings: James Woods, Dennis Hopper, John Singleton, Cuba Gooding Jr., Eriq La Salle, Robin Leach, Michele Quinn of Godt-Cleary Projects, Matthew Kriemelman of the Blue Man Group.
Oddest note: Rufus Wainwright NOT at CV party.