One night, two premieres!
Wednesday 23 April 2008
I popped to Leicester Square to see the stars at the World Premiere of Three and Out - a comedy starring MacKenzie Crook that includes a storyline about suicides on the London Underground.
The film’s release has been surrounded by controversy and Mackenzie even got into a confrontation with one of the members of ASLEF – a tube drivers union. I watched as one of the heads of the group told Mackenzie they were furious about the film. He handled it well and replied: “Please watch the film and you will see it’s not all about train suicide. Honestly.” I can vouch it isn’t!
Harry Potter actress Imelda Staunton joined Mackenzie on the carpet. Imelda told me she was ecstatic to be involved in the flick. She said: “I was actually only on the shoot for five days but it was very enjoyable. I did just two scenes with MacKenzie and he was a total pleasure to work with. I haven’t seen the film yet so I’m excited like everybody else.”
The real person everyone got slightly trouser twitchy over was hot new actress Gemma Arterton. She’s a main character in Three and Out and will soon appear as a Bond Girl in the next James Bond flick, Quantum of Solace. Speaking about last night’s red carpet and the prospect of the big Bond premiere in October she told me: “It’s quite mad and I get really nervous by everything. It’s overwhelming. The Bond premiere is going to be totally mad so this is my warm up. I haven’t picked a dress yet! I’m sure they’ll be loads of dresses that come my way.”
And did she enjoy driving those swish Bond cars? Not from the sounds of it. “I was in old bangers and it wasn’t very glamorous in my shooting schedule,” she laughed.
But my favourite moment of the evening came when trashy twit Jodie Marsh paraded up the red carpet with her new puppies on display. Jodie walked up to Edith Bowman from Radio One who was hosting the red carpet arrivals for the crowds and Edith said: “Why are you here?” Jodie replied: “Erm, to show off my new boobs I guess.”
Jodes, I applaud your honesty.
My second premiere of Sunday night was for McDreamy’s premiere, Made of Honour. Patrick Dempsey, his gorgeous wife Jillian and a handful of stars turned out to watch the flick and perv at Patrick’s buns. I was lucky enough to get up close and personal with star – who’s skinnier and shorter than you would think in real life.
Speaking about the film Patrick said: “It was a blast making this film and it was great work in England and a great road trip to go up and film in the Isle of Skye. I tried haggis too – I won’t be doing that again. You have to close your eyes and not think about what’s in it.”
And what does the star prefer doing – film or TV? “They are so different,” he explained. “I think I find film a longer process and this film was a little longer because we constantly worked on the script and changed it and perfected it as we went along. I think television is much harder actually. The filming schedules are relentless for me and we start for Greys shooting in June and go through to May and the hours are longer. It’s insane.”
But the best part was asking him about being a sex symbol (he’s regularly voted the second sexiest man in the world in magazine polls behind Matt Damon). I asked: “Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, George Clooney or Patrick Dempsey – who’s sexiest?” Patrick replied: “I think this has to be my year. I’m always pipped to the top by one of those guys. I’m consistently number two nowadays. This year has got to be my year. I’m going to call George and Matt and tell them to let me have it – they should step aside for one year and let me win. I deserve it because I’m not eating bread or sugar and I’m keeping my hair good too. Ha ha.”
I also caught up with the lovely Vanessa Feltz to start with and spotted EastEnders star Mohammed George, Claudia Winkleman and hubby Kris Thykier and Lisa Maffia knocking about.