A few days ago, I was expounding on the cinematic horrors that I heap on my poor friend, yet he still brings me cool places. Aww, bless his little heart. Last night he was able to score us some passes to a local film festival because he works for one of the sponsors. Most of the movies sounded boring, so I asked if we could see the Retrospective feature, which was This Is Spinal Tap. It's one of those movies that I've always wanted to see but have never gotten around to seeing it, so I was looking forward to it. We were unable to get tickets to a panel earlier in the day featuring Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer, but we were very excited when they made a surprise appearance for a Q&A after the movie.

It rocked. Afterwards, while walking up the aisle to leave the theater, I heard a man trying to convince his wife that Michael McKean was on Laverne and Shirley. She was insistent that he wasn't. I just smiled and nodded to the man, saying, "He was Lenny!" "You see?!" he yelled to his wife. "I told you!" Then I turned all geek-girl and said, "He's back on TV right now playing Perry White on Smallville." Then it hit me at that moment - he's married to MamaKent. Just as I remembered that, we exited the theater and there, standing right next to the door in the lobby, was the stunning Annette O'Toole. I kid you not, this woman is gorgeous in person. Tiny, too! She was all by herself with no one even noticing her, so when I passed her, I leaned in and said, "Hello, Mrs. Kent." She immediately turned and smiled and said hi, and then she stopped and laughed, saying that it was just natural for her to answer to that now. Then she cried, "Not until July!" Oh, MamaKent - I may have given up on your show last season when it got too ridiculous, but you still rock my world. Now hook a sister up with some Rosenbaum. (His Cribs feature had me rolling.)

Anyway, after that, we headed to the after-party, which was held at one of the old mansions in Newport.

It was nice because it wasn't overly-crowded. Also? Open bar. But the best moment was soon to come, when we were introduced to Harry Shearer. He LOVED Jerry. They talked and talked about cable TV and satellite dishes and were having a grand old time. Some tool kept interrupting us to talk nonsense with Harry and he was being very gracious about it, but at one point he and I did exchange a quick, "Could this guy just please go away?" look. It was cool. And it was nice to see that Harry's "difficult" reputation that was implied in the SNL book was nowhere to be found. He was absolutely fantastic to talk to, and did I mention cool? To wit, he even posed with Tim (and quite happily, Ethan Hawke):

And then, in the Greatest Moment of The Night, I geeked out and told Harry that I know he probably gets asked this a lot, but could I just get a small "Excellent"? He smiled and leaned into my ear, whispering, "Exxxxcellent" as only the voice of one C. Montgomery Burns can do. It was surreal and totally rocked. Did I mention how cool he was?

Speaking of which, after Jerry and I had wandered around the party a little (and headed up to the "Visitors Restricted Beyond This Point" area, where he made me take this picture:)

...we walked into the room where there was a band playing to see Michael McKean and Annette O'Toole just sitting by themselves at a table, grooving away. (We had been introduced to him earlier as well.) I asked for the requisite Tim picture, and they were loving it. Annette O'Toole kept yelling, "Minkey, minkey!"

I don't think it needs to be said that they were just as cool as Mr. Shearer. It was really nice to interact with some Hollywood folk who had no heirs about them, and who most of the other partygoers didn't even notice. As we were leaving, we noticed Michael and Annette jump up and hit the dance floor, getting down like there was no tomorrow even though they were the only people out there. It's also nice to see a Hollywood marriage like that.

All in all, the night rocked. (Even though we laughed on the ride home trying to figure out why we didn't get into any of the pictures. D'oh!) I was talking to Smithers! To Ned Flanders! Skinner! Woo! So thanks, Jerry! I guess I won't subject you to watching Xanadu now.


before & after





2007-09-26 - Follow Me!
2006-09-30 - Site Move & Favorite Entries
2006-09-25 - Evil Easter Bunnies & Rock Climbing!
2006-09-22 - Shameful-Purchase Hiding & A New Dentist Plan
2006-09-19 - Birthday Picture/Video Diary & The Wheelmobile





Copyright 2003-2006 by Sockgirlie. Stealing is wrong.