Friday, 10 March 2000

SHOWEST - DAY FOUR

This is a diary of exhaustion.

There is a price to everything in the world. And though Thursday was one of the most rewarding days of my professional life, you are about to pay the price.

I got the call on Wednesday at 3 p.m. Pacific Time. Could I come to Chicago to shoot an episode of "Roger Ebert & The Movies"? Well, I guess so. It's the middle of ShoWest, but there isn't an event Wednesday night, just a screening. One problem. Besides missing the Fox lunch, I had agreed to host the X-Men event for Yahoo! and Fox on Thursday afternoon…something I didn't want to miss.

So, I got on the plane at 6:15, arrived in Chicago at 11:45, arrived at the hotel at about 12:15 a.m., finished yesterday's column (which I started on the plane) at about 1:30, did an edit on my Ebert copy (which I wrote on the plane) until about 2 a.m. and went to bed. But not to sleep. My brain was whirring away. So, knowing I had a 7 a.m. wake-up call, I tossed and turned and watched "Mary Tyler Moore" (Murray becomes Sue Ann's producer) and ended up getting about 3 hours of sleep.

I arrived at Ebertville at 7:45, we shot the show at 8:45, finishing (thumbs and all) before 10 a.m. I got in a car for the airport, checked in and got on my 11:45 flight back to Las Vegas. We landed at 1:31 p.m Vegas Time and a driver was waiting. The minute I turned on my cell phone to check messages, it rang (about 5 people on the planet have the number) and it was Fox checking to see if I had landed.

I got to Bally's, dropped off my backpack, grabbed my coat (which I had forgotten to take to Chicago despite the time of year) and headed to the Fox suite to do an hour and a half of interviews with X-Men stars. The Fox and Yahoo! staffs were incredibly helpful and supportive and helped me get my energy up for the event.

Anna Paquin was first (she plays Rogue) and despite a little nervous giggling, she had a lot to say and a real sense of herself that shone through. She's headed to Columbia University in the fall, so don't expect to see her exploiting herself on the cover of Maxim anytime soon. Tyler Mane was next. He's Sabertooth and as Bryan Singer later explained, one look at the guy and you know why he's Sabertooth. He growled for us a bit and was a really sweet, funny guy. Following Tyler was the lanky and luscious Famke Janssen, who is now officially the person most likely to give up X-Men secrets by mistake. Famke is as cool and clever as she appears in movies and she could make The Lord's Prayer sound a little salacious. She plays Jean Grey with red hair, but not flaming red hair.

Next up was Bryan Singer, who spoke about the project from start to finish. He's in editing now and is also suffering from some serious back pain. But he was a trooper and stuck with us for a whole 15 minutes. He also let the world know that Hugh Jackman's audition tapes did not win him the role as Wolverine. Singer didn't think he was the right guy until they met in person. Next up, Cyclops, in the person of James Marsden. We talked visors, optic blasts that couldn't get a G rating and how he really feels about Jean Grey. Cyclops was followed by Senator Kelly a.k.a. actor Bruce Davison. And as was often the case, he probably said a little too much about what might happen to the Senator. At least in the eyes and ears of the studio. Last but hardly least was Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, who plays Mystique in nothing other than carefully placed prosthetics and a lot of blue paint. Besides enjoying working as Ian McKellen/Magneto's sidekick, Rebecca also coughed up a story about coughing up a bunch of blue paint after weeks of being airbrushed from head to toe. Yuck!

I had a really nice time doing this event. There wasn't anyone close to being difficult in the group and I think the actors actually had fun too. You should be able to access the transcript and/or the video stream via the X-Men Website sometime soon. Maybe today.

By the time I finished the event, I was ready to collapse. But I couldn't. Because the press line for the ShoWest Awards called. And so I went. And not much happened that I needed to participate in. In fact, many of the participants will be on "The Movie Show" on KABC-790 in the next two weeks. So, I bugged out and got a little sleep. About an hour's worth. And then the phone rang and woke me up and I caught the last 45 minutes of the awards ceremony. Jim Carrey kicked a**, providing one of the highlights of the 4-day convention.

I have more to say, but you know what? Here is the price tag for running around like a maniac over the least 24 hours. I'm exhausted and I don't have the mental or physical energy to write much more here or even to do the weekend column. I haven't missed a non-national-holiday day of The Hot Button since I started the column almost 3 years ago. But all things come to an end. And so this shall.

Look for a new column on Monday, complete with a proper ShoWest wrap-up. And now, I shall head for the bed, get about 3 hours sleep and then get on the plane back to Los Angeles, where I expect to make about 5 phone calls and then get into bed for at least 20 hours. Oops. I have to be awake for the radio show on Saturday at 10am. Rod Lurie and Michael Clarke Duncan will be with us. So, maybe just 16 hours of sleep.

I love doing this column and I was thrilled to do all the stuff I did this week, but pushing myself any harder would be stupid. To quote every action film made in the last decade, "I'm getting too old for this sh**!" I hope you understand. Have a great weekend.

READER OF THE DAY:The first of many letters correcting my oversight yesterday was sent in by Saint Nick: "Dave -- That blond bombshell in The Vertical Limit is not a newcomer -- she was the terrific chick in Goldeneye who, for some reason, hasn't made another big-budget Hollywood film in some time."

And Ann adds this about another star of the Sony luncheon: "Having seen Godzilla 2000, I can't imagine how they're going to market this film. The special effects are great, but Abe Hirosh's performance as crisis team specialist Mitsuo Katagiri is far too camp to play in general release. Every time he appeared on screen, with his ramrod straight posture and gaze of steel, my friends and I would burst out laughing. Don't get me wrong -- I thought the film was lots of fun. However, at times, it is decidedly tongue in cheek. After all, this is a film that ends with the heartfelt line `Godzilla is in every one of us!' "

E ME: Ask me what you like. I will be sane again sometime Sunday and will try to give you a full load of info and insight on Monday. What do you want to know?