Day: February 5, 2014

I couldn’t be in a better mood. I napped for about 90 minutes on the British Airways flight from Heathrow. I ran into David Poland (whose luggage was AWOL) and Thelma Adams at Berlin’s Tegel Airport. A nice easy drive into the city. Now I’m all checked in and unpacked at Berlin’s Wyndham Grand Hotel. A pair of Fox Searchlight publicists met me in the lobby and gave me my Berlinale press pass. The room is small (not quite as roomy as a Motel 6 suite in Billings) but nice. The high-def TV works really well, the hotel concierge has lent me two power adaptors (the one I bought at Heathrow doesn’t work for a three-prong) and the hotel wifi is double-lightning fast…to die for! Now I’m off for a 90-minute walk. A Fox Searchlight press reception is happening at 7:45 pm.

Gene Hackman looked a bit lame when he wore a bald cap to play Lex Luthor in the 1978 Superman, and Jesse Eisenberg, I predict, is going to look even dopier when he plays baldie Lex in Zack Snyder‘s Batman vs. Superman flick. How many actors have looked cool with shaved heads? Ben Kingsley, Bruce Willis, Yul Brynner and who else? Eisenberg should keep his wiggy Zuckerberg look. Who cares? What, he has to play the part bald because Lex Luthor was drawn that way decades ago? What’s the difference? If you’re truly creative, you can do anything you want. Eff D.C.Comics tradition. Break on through to the other side.

Read more

Last night’s British Airways flight from JFK to Heathrow was 35% to 40% full, if that. I had an entire middle row to myself so I stretched out on the floor for some zees. Three pillows, three blankets. Not very comfortable (I slept maybe two and a half or three hours) but simply lying flat was wonderful. My legs were delighted. I’m going to remember this henceforth — always fly British Airways redeye to London on Tuesday. In ’83 or ’84 I had an entire middle row to myself — I put up the armrests and laid across four seats — perfect. In the ’30s and ’40s airlines used to have sleeper cots with curtains in first class.

Heathrow Airport — Wednesday, 2.5, 8:40 am.

Read more

The Santa Barbara Holiday Inn wifi was so weak this Cate Blanchett award-acceptance video (taped last Saturday night) wouldn’t upload. I managed to get it on YouTube during my brief turnaround in West Hollywood before heading for LAX yesterday morning. You’ll notice that Blanchett thanked her Blue Jasmine costars but not the writer-director. Totally understandable. I would have done the same. Note: Blanchett’s SBIFF interviewer Pete Hammond reminds that she spoke admiringly of Allen during their on-stage chat, but that was due to Hammond raising the subject.