Suburban Girl leading man Alec Baldwin may have been nowhere near the film's premiere Friday night, but in spirit he was everywhere.
Before the film, the working press had to contend with a publicist speeding Sarah Michelle Gellar down the red carpet. As the film's star paused by reporters from magazines who shouted out basic questions, he quickly pulled her away feigning time concerns. Rather than a fear of tardiness, it seemed a tactic to avoid any questions about Baldwin.
Introducing the film, based on chick lit pioneer Melissa Bank's A Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing, writer/director Marc Klein took a moment on stage to thank the audience for coming and ended with a few words of appreciation. "I want to thank Alec Baldwin," he told the packed theater at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center, which promptly burst into applause for the embattled actor. "He went somewhere very personal for this role, as I think you'll see."
Klein's script, (he also wrote Serendipity) casts Gellar as Brett, a 20-something editor at a New York publishing house who has a tumultuous love affair with Baldwin's character, a legendary editor and lovable ladies man named Archie.
Enjoyable for many of the right reasons, the film also had the audience tittering as Baldwin's Archie was slowly revealed. He's divorced. He's estranged from his daughter. He hasn't spoken to her in years and is resigned to just leaving her voicemails. He is an alcoholic struggling with his sobriety. Personal, indeed.
Klein and some of the cast took the stage after the screening for a Q&A, and a question got thrown to actor James Naughton, who plays Gellar's father. "I want to say, I love Sarah," Naughton told the crowd after he answered, "And I also love Alec." The audience once again burst into applause, causing him to add of the affection, "I hope he comes back and sees all this."
The only specific vocalization of Baldwin's recent scandal occurred when another audience member stood and sarcastically started to ask Klein, "Did Alec tell you he was going to yell at his daughter..." But before he could finish the question, the protective crowd had booed him silent, scared him back into his seat, and Klein moved on.
As for the film, it is a pleasure to watch something that not only takes place in New York, but that was clearly filmed in New York. "That's why I'm so psyched to do this at Tribeca," Klein enthused. "It feels circular to bring it back."
The choice of location also won him lengthy raves from his producers and appreciation from his actors. Asked about filming in New York, Gellar got out an abbreviated answer as her publicist dragged her along. "It's great. This is my home and I think New York is a really important character in the movie."
As Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who plays Gellar's brother, put it. "New York definitely beats Canada."
For more HuffPost coverage of the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival, go here.
- Katherine Thomson