The Santa Barbara International Film Festival came to the end of its 11 day run yesterday. Time to tie up some loose ends and put this baby to bed until next year.
Those irrepressible kids from the Santa Barbara Middle School Teen Press were a constant presence at every red carpet arrival throughout the Film Festival.
On Saturday night, evidently aware of his affection for dogs, they presented Mickey Rourke with a stuffed Chihuahua.
A half hour or so later Rourke tossed the stuffed pup into the audience as he strolled across the stage to take his seat to be interviewed by Pete Hammond.
Hopefully, whoever caught the dog can give it a better home than Rourke would have.
What's a typical day like during the Film Fest for Roger Durling? On Saturday he got up at 7 am. Here is his schedule for that day as given to me by his personal assistant.
8 am- 8:30 am - Intro movies at Metro
9 am - 10am - Programming meeting
10 am- 11am - Producer's panel breakfast
11 am- 1pm - Producer's Panel and (possibly Metro show intros)
1 pm - 2:15pm - Women's panel lunch, possible Metro intros and Women's Panel intro
2:15 pm - 3:15pm - Personal appointment
4 pm - 5pm - Metro intros
6 pm- 10pm - Arrival at Arlington and Mickey Rourke event
In case you're wondering what the nature of that 2:15 pm "personal appointment" was, Roger had his hair color changed from blond to black.
Too bad Roger couldn't have taken Mickey Rourke with him to that hair appointment.
In fact, if he would have taken him along to the hair stylist, maybe at least Mickey would have remembered Roger's name. During his thank you speech at the Arlington, Rourke referred to Roger as "that gentleman" who came out and said the nice things about him.
On Saturday I stopped by the Producer's Panel where the discussion centered on the business of making movies. What did I learn? For starters, if you are going to be a Hollywood Producer, you'd better wear black.
Christian Colson (Slumdog Millionaire), Charles Roven, (The Dark Knight), Jim Morris, (Wall-E) and Dan Jinks (Milk) were all wearing black sportsjackets. Neda Armian (Rachel Getting Married) was wearing a black dress. Even Patrick Goldstein of the L.A. Times who moderated the panel was wearing a black shirt.
At just about every Film Fest screening or other event, the audience is reminded to turn off their cell phones. While on stage at the Producer's Panel, Roven had his cell phone go off just as he was about to answer a question.
Which one of these movie stars brought their own hair and makeup person with them to the Arlington?
Kate Winselt? Penelope Cruz? Kristin Scott Thomas? No, actually it was Jake Gyllenhaal. (And he was only a presenter!)
Well, who did you think I was going to say, Mickey Rourke?
I doubt that he was in town for the Film Festival but on Sunday morning I spotted UCLA basketball coach Ben Howland sitting in front of the bagel shop in the Mesa shopping center having an orange juice and bagel.
What kind of a day did I have on Saturday? To give you an example, when I got to the press pit for the red carpet arrivals I reached into my pocket to pull out my digital camera to make sure it was operating. It was dead. I had left the battery in the charger which was plugged into the wall back at home.
Fortunately, I've had the fine photo contributions of Cagara Digital Media to augment my blog posts throughout the Film Fest. You can see their work at their own website, www.MagicalLightPhotography.com and some of their photos are posted at my own Film Fest photo gallery. Thank you Chuck and Marie!
