Feb 4, 2006 - Mr Ed's Horse Race

Friday was the first full day of the 2006 Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF). In case you haven’t counted, there are 37 letters in that name. Racehorse names can’t be more than 18 characters long. But then again, not even John Henry ran for 21 years. Speaking of race horses, that’s what the dedicated staff of edhat.com felt like yesterday as we rushed from venue to venue to provide full coverage of the day’s events.

In the morning we were eating Gumbo being served in front of the Metro 4 for the World Premiere showing of Willie Francis Must Die Again. There’s another showing of Willie Francis today at 4:00PM at Center Stage. Rumor has it there will be more Gumbo.

Then, we were on the Ed Carpet in front of the Hotel Santa Barbara taking pictures and interviewing filmmakers, sponsors, and volunteers. For the record, we interviewed Greg Hanneman of Into The Wind, Jody Nelson and Kevin Correnti, of Hero Of The Game, Peter Atencio, Peter Donovan, and Jeremy Catalino from Night Of The Dog, Renee Sotile and Mary Jo Godges from Reach For The Stars, David Charmatz with Starz, Erica and Jonathan Wyche, Gabriel Damon, and Clint Howard from Planet Ibsen, Carolle-Shelley Abrams of Oola Oop fame, who’s here with her new film, Alien Dinner Theatre, and Christine Le Bon from the Unity Shoppe and Field Trip to the Movies.

That’s 15 interviews, if anyone is counting.

We spent some time eating pastry and drinking strong coffee in the Pass Room. And, we visited with Mo and Co in the Press Room. Every day so far there has been strange food in the Press Room. Once again we photographed, but dared not eat it.

At the hotel we ran into two guys who called themselves The Butcher Brothers. They were a little bummed that their film, The Hamiltons had been accidentally left out of the SBIFF program. We told them that we would tell all of our subscribers that their world premiere is 10:15 tonight at the Metro.

Also today is today is a special tribute to Roy London. Check out Mike Takeuchi's article about the famous acting coach.

In the late afternoon, we were at Victoria Hall for a discussion with Robert Towne. The topics ranged from Chinatown to tuna fishing. Guest reporter Steve Edwards provides the coverage of this event.

As the discussion was letting out, we intersected the crowds heading toward the Arlington for the George Clooney red carpet (the other carpet). The crowd was as tightly packed as dolphins in a can of tuna. The dedicated staff walked across State Street to mingle with the people (local people) who had gathered there to watch the excitement and possibly get a glimpse of Clooney getting out of his car.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the Clooney award, even our dedicated reporter, who goes by the racehorse-sounding nom de plume of Lucky Lisa. You can read her story to find out more.

Yesterday’s home stretch was the Clooney party held, of all places, at the New Granada Garage (which by the way, was built because of a guy named George). Guest intrepid girl reporter, Barbara Vilander was there to report on a whole lot (get it?) of things that happened there last night. Of course, once again we have lots (get it again?) of pictures.

We didn’t get back to the barn last night until way past midnight. The dedicated staff is planning to put out a newsletter every day of the Festival. Sounds like a lot of work, but we’re having so much fun that even with an early post time, we’re looking forward to today (Naomi Watts, etc.). In yesterday’s Edhat contest, only Angelica picked 15 as the number of people we would interview. Angelica wins an Edhat t-shirt and a date with George Clooney (kidding).

Check out more festival Coverage on Edhat.

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