You know you’ve had a great time at an event when you’ve made a total jackass out of yourself TWICE, yet you still recall the night fondly. I first screwed up when I asked Eric Alger, the PMc Bookings Director, to ask Andrew Saffir if I could attend his Cinema Society after party for “Rachel Getting Married”. I’m in the movie, so, since this was the premiere, I thought it would be fun to see people I hadn’t seen in a year: The scenes I was in were filmed at the end of last September and October. I told Eric to tell Andrew I didn’t need to come to the screening because I had already seen a screening. Stupid me didn’t realize that early screenings for cast and crew and family and friends actually feature a film still in flux. After the screenings, the film appeared at both the Venice and Toronto Film Festivals. I knew that the response at these festivals might impact the proposed limited release date. What I didn’t know was that these screenings and festivals would also determine the final cut…which was what I THOUGHT I saw. I was wrong: It was released on the designated date in NYC and LA, but WHAT was released I have only a clue. I found this out at the after party when people kept telling me about scenes I was in and things I was doing on the screen that I don’t remember seeing in the version I saw. Harrumph. I had laughed to myself about how the camera had always cut away when it panned a group I was part of JUST before I was visible. This was true at both the rehearsal dinner and at the afternoon party I had deejayed in the back of the house where the wedding was later held and the alleged family lived. However, I was given two big close-ups while I was deejaying the nighttime wedding party in the tent erected in this yard. Since I was nothing more than a glorified extra (“The DJ” according to the script, but just one of the last names without a title in the actual credits), I was grateful for even those. And since filming had been such a blast, I was thrilled to have just had the experience. For that, I can thank my dear longtime friend, Jenny Lumet. Jenny wrote the screenplay and, without ever telling me, had written in a “DJ”. I didn’t know that she had done this and that she had suggested to the director, Jonathan Demme, that I play myself (Happily, I always seem to deejay the extended Lumet family functions). Luckily, Demme thought I was capable of playing myself, which isn’t as absurd a notion as it seems. Anyway… I was really confused at the premiere after party when people kept telling me that they saw me at the rehearsal dinner and grooving out to Sister Carol’s song when she put in an appearance during that afternoon backyard party. That means I have to see the movie again. I guess I’ll have to wait another year until it comes on TV because I’m too cheap to actually buy a ticket. I’m such a cow. And, though I saw a few people I filmed with, most of them appeared to be MIA. I didn’t even know that Anne Hathaway was there until I saw the pics Billy Farrell posted on our site. I really loved Anne and we got along great. She’s a real girl’s girl and is so open and down to earth, I almost wanted to warn her that not all writers are as trustworthy as I was/am. We talked REAL girl-talk, which made me feel so badly when she would mention “my baby” and I would have to pretend that I wasn’t aware of all rapidly increasing buzz that “my baby” was a baby-faced Italian conman. Acting! What we spoke about is no one’s business, except I will divulge that she had become turned on to Leonard Cohen’s music and was really loving it. It helped that I am of the age group that would know a thing or twelve about Leonard Cohen’s music and, being a DJ, I am very quick to offer my opinions on music. l quickly shared my faves from his catalogue with her …at her request. That was a pleasure for me since, most of the time, I just offer my opinion without someone requesting that I do so, which leads to either extreme boredom for or arguments from the other party. It was when I found my old pal Zach Galligan that I had my second jackass moment. We were talking about the upcoming (at that time) election. We were talking about who was doing the most commentating and I think I had just crowed about how Ann Coulter had suddenly gone missing when John McCain had been picked as the Republican candidate. She had actually said on TV or radio (I can’t remember where I heard her say this) that she would actively campaign for Hillary if the Republican Party chose McCain. Then I said, “And what ever happened to Karl Rove? He’s been weirdly missing!” “No he hasn’t been!” Zach corrected me. “He’s been on TV all the time!” “No way!” I insisted. “And I watch Fox all the time because it’s so hilarious. He hasn’t even been on there!” Zach just looked at me with his eyes and mouth wide open, like he was going to say something, then didn’t. We just moved on to other subjects. When I got home and told my husband about the party, I mentioned that conversation. “Are you out of your mind?” He asked (rhetorically). “We’ve been watching Karl Rove speak nearly every night on Fox. He’s ALWAYS on!” And, of course, he was right. I had to laugh because he was so right. And so was Zach. And Zach was too much of a gentleman to argue with me further or just tell me I didn’t know what the hell I was going on about. All I can offer as an excuse (to myself?) is that I was getting so ANGRY at always having to listen to Fox EVERY night…especially Bill O’Reilly, but MOST especially Sean Hannity…I guess I had actually tuned-out Rove’s appearances because he annoyed me so much, I spent lost of the time yelling back at him (or my husband, who can’t get enough of Fox). I know…that’s no excuse. Once again: Arrogance and ignorance form a nice rancid bond. This was especially embarrassing because I had just done what I’m always complaining about Fox doing: That just because they say something (and sometimes emphasize with written “talking points” on a split screen, as O’Reilly does), if they say it passionately and enough, it will actually become truth and all evidence to the contrary be damned! I hang my head in shame. Eventually, I found Jenny. She was encamped in an adjoining room, along with her mother and stepdad, Gail and Kevin Buckley, her hubby, Alex Weinstein, and her dear BFF from childhood, Sara Jane the Psychiatrist. Jenny told me they were all going to leave very soon because Gail and Kevin were starving. I joined the group and spent most of my time tackling cater-waiters, especially those bearing pigs in the blanket, and sharing the spoils with Gail. Poor dears: They had all come from the screening and only hors doeuvres were being served at the party, even though the invite said a MEAL would be served. In fact, I had Eric ask Andrew if the meal was a sit-down one and Andrew had replied that it was a “buffet”. Some “buffet”. Peggy Siegal used to pull that fraud until a couple of years ago when she actually DID serve meals, either as a buffet at the screening or fancy sit-down dinners in hotels. I don’t know…maybe bits of food pass as meals for those food-phobic socialites that form Andrew’s usual crowd. But, it was a super evening, nonetheless. And I’m so happy for the great reviews the movie is getting. Everyone says it’s very Altman, which I guess is true. I’ll be so surprised if Hathaway doesn’t, at the very least, get a nomination, come Oscar time. I’ll be equally surprised if Jenny doesn’t, since she too has been constantly singled out for praise. One of the best parts of all of this started when the movie opened wide. I’ve been getting so many calls and emails and Facebook messages about it from people who have been missing from my life for decades. The attention has been so overwhelming for just APPEARING, I can’t even imagine what would have happened if I had actually SPOKEN. Actually, I probably would have just made a jackass out of myself. And when Demme would have cut out whatever nonsense I had uttered, I would have really had a reason to take it personally. Thank God for small favors.