Media Geeks' Night at the Movies

Well, I gotta say, tonight was pretty cool. Thanks to Paramount’s
experimental Webmaster Program, the staff of Media Geeks was invited to
a red carpet “fan screening” of WAR OF THE WORLDS
at Hollywood’s historical MANN CHINESE THEATRE. After check-in,
StarWars Geek and I walked down the red carpet, mostly going along the
north side of the closed off Hollywood Blvd. It was cool to pass the
press line of cameras and reporters waiting for Tom and Katie, but we
got plenty of stares from fans that wondered who the hell we were.

While waiting for the theatre to fill and the movie to start, a decent
list of celebrities started to show up. First, we saw Matthew Perry and
Lauren Graham show up in the more center placed seats of the theatre.
Soon, Sir Anthony Hopkins sat next to them. A number of rows behind the
reserved seats, Adrian Brody showed up. Near him was Stanley Tucci.
About 20 minutes later, we saw Michael Clarke Duncan talking to Perry.
Roughly ten minutes before the movie started, Will Smith and a small
entourage showed up, although we did not see his wife Jada with him.
We’re not really sure why, but Germany’s favorite pop star David
Hasselhoff showed up (maybe it was a Paramount thing, considering he
was in the SpongeBob Movie).

Eventually, about 10 minutes
after the movie was to start, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes showed up,
hand in hand. Once he got to the mic, setup at the foot of the screen,
he welcome everyone for showing up, said he’d always wanted to do a
“fan screening” like this, and that he wished Steven Spielberg was
there to join us. After some weird talk show interviews and that
practical joke played on him at an earlier screening in London, it was
kinda cool to hear him joke that we weren’t gonna be able to see the
movie until Wednesday.

After the movie was over and the crowd
migrated out of the auditorium, it seemed the wings of the lobby became
the place to get autographs and pictures with the celebrities that
showed up. While none of the Media Geeks staff went up to any of them,
most of us were at least a little bit starstruck. Personally, it was
just really cool to be that close to the world of Hollywood. I mean,
how many people can say they’ve walked down the red carpet of a
celebrity attended movie premiere in Hollywood?