Indie Spirits Kick Up Tent Celebration Saturday

The 23rd annual Independent Spirit Awards are coming up this Saturday--my fave event of the year. It all takes place inside a billowing white tent on the usually sunny Santa Monica Beach. It's a more relaxed and fun celebration of all things indie--the real action takes place outside the tent near the honeywagons, as folks grab a cig when the proceedings get dull.

Juno is expected to lead the wins, natch, but The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and I'm Not There could grab some prizes too. Rainn Wilson does the hosting honors for the first time. (Last year it was a profane Sarah Silverman; my fave is always frequent MC John Waters.) Dawn Hudson, exec director of Film Independent, has named Javier Bardem the Spirit's honorary chair this year (No Country for Old Men was too expensive to be eligible).

My favorite part of the show is always New York lyricist Jack Lechner's spoof lyrics of the main nominees, performed by various stars--Rosario Dawson was memorable last year. Saturday, David Alan Grier will sing Lechner's only song this year, a spoof of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

This year's scheduled presenters are:

Alan Arkin, Jason Bateman, Kate Beckinsale, Maria Bello, Cate Blanchett, Zach Braff, Maggie Cheung, Patricia Clarkson, Bryan Cranston, Shareeka Epps, Jon Hamm, Josh Hartnett, Felicity Huffman, Allison Janney, Lisa Kudrow, Eva Mendes, Ellen Page, Dennis Quaid, Ryan Reynolds, Keri Russell, Meg Ryan, Julian Schnabel, Kerry Washington, John Waters, Forest Whitaker, Tom Wilkinson, Steve Zahn and more to be announced…

And the nominees and special award recipients expected to attend include:

Christian Bale, Jeffrey Blitz, John Carney, Zoe Cassavetes, Don Cheadle, Diablo Cody, David Cress, Julie Delpy, Andrew Eaton, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Pascale Ferran, Scott Frank, Marcus Carl Franklin, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Dede Gardner, Richard Gere, John Goldwyn, Mark Gordon, David Gordon Green, Bruce Greenwood, Lianne Halfon, Ronald Harwood, Todd Haynes, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Tamara Jenkins, Angelina Jolie, Irfan Kahn, Janusz Kaminski, Tony Kaye, Kathleen Kennedy, Jon Kilik, Sidney Kimmel, Dan Klores, Frank Langella, Ang Lee, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kasi Lemmons, Tony Leung, John Malkovich, Laurence Mark, Kelly Masterson, Sienna Miller, Mason Novick, Cristian Mungiu, John Orloff, Ellen Page, Vincent Paronnaud, Walter Parkes, Parker Posey, Rodrigo Prieto, Jason Reitman, Marjane Satrapi, James Schamus, Julian Schnabel, Chris Smith, Russell Smith, James D. Stern, Marisa Tomei, Christine Vachon, Gus Van Sant, Jason Wehling, Tang Wei, Mike White, Ben Whishaw, Richard Wright, Steve Zahn, and Craig Zobel.

The show airs live beginning at 2:00 pm PST on IFC (Independent Film Channel). Live, exclusive red carpet footage will precede the show streaming live on IFC.com beginning at 11:30am PT, with an edited re-broadcast later that evening on AMC at 10pm EST/PST.