1) How different is celebrity life from that of the rest of us? Well, at Sundance, companies set up stores not to sell things but to give them away; expensive, beautiful things; things that would cost you and me many hundreds of dollars plus tax, they just give you, if they think you're famous. While they do it, they ply you with drinks and cappuccinos, and tell you how much they admire your work. Every time I see something like this up close, I say to myself, it's no wonder these people go so batty so quickly.
2) Paris Hilton travels with a scrum of bodyguards and scummy journalists and photographers so large, it puts one in mind of the secret service detail around Clinton, if the secret service were much more scruffily dressed and had really bad manners, and would knock over your great grandmother to bask in her aura. It is really one of the worst comments one can make about this country save the fact of who is somehow president. I wonder what the suck-up sales people say to her instead of "I really admire your work."
3) Speaking of which, my buddy Al Gore would not budge an inch on '08, though we were at a crowded party and I did not have a chance to make my case in earnest. He told me he's been writing those terrific speeches of his of late by himself. He also told me "The West Wing" is cancelled, which is too bad, as it's been pretty great lately. I particularly liked the episode Brad Whitford wrote last week, up until the ending.
4) This Redford fellow is one pretty lucky guy. The Sundance Institute is about as nice a place a anybody could want to live. It's quite removed from the craziness of the festival, which by the way, contains every economic form of human being known to man. Twice I've been in the men's room with people who appeared to live there, for washing-up purposes and stuff. It is capitalism at its most raw, coupled with the dream of fame and endless free stuff, and it's both moving and scary to see what people will do for it.
5) "Little Miss Sunshine" is a magical little movie. Go see it if you can. "Thank You for Smoking" is also hot and is a lot better than if Mel Gibson had made it as was planned. It is not quite tough enough on the Abramoff culture as I see it but it is at least there, and the timing is excellent. People treat movies here as if they were Springsteen/Dead concerts. At an 11:30 a.m. showing of "Thank You" at the Park City Library, people were holding up one finger as if hoping for a "miracle," begging for a ticket. I gave away my ticket to a documentary on Leonard Cohen, and the guy was so grateful it was as if I was offering to put his children through college.
6) The Yarrow Hotel is one of the worst hotels I've stayed in in my adult life. Anything my sponsors are paying over $59.95 a night is a rip-off. Hell, that would be a ten dollar rip off. I suspect they are being ripped off, however, by a factor of about 600 percent. This saddens me but it's bad form to complain about it, what with so many people washing up in the men's room. **
7) The woman who made "Control Room," Jehane Noujaim, flew all the way from Cairo to be here for our panel this afternoon. I will try to cede the time for all of my unimportant remarks to her.
**Not to be interpreted as ingratitude for the generosity of my hosts in putting me up at the festival, for which I remain appreciative.