Variety On the Town

'Golden Compass' premieres in London

The event: "The Golden Compass" London premiere
The details: Tuesday at Odeon Leicester Square
The guest list: Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Hugh Grant, Chris Weitz, Phillip Pullman

Brooklyn Bound Gotham Awards

The event: The Gotham Awards

The details: Tuesday in Brooklyn

The guest list : Laura Linney, Uma Thurman, Ellen Page, Jeffrey Wright, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Emile Hirsch

The talk: Page, who won breakthrough actor for "Juno," admitted that she was obsessive about getting the part. "It was probably one of the only situations where (I was willing) to sleep my way to the top or break some legs," she joked.

Al Gore Adds Another Trophy to His Mantel

The event: The 35th International Emmy Awards

The details: Nov. 19 @ The New York Hilton

The star power: Elmo, Robert De Niro and Al Gore

The talk:  Upon accepting the Founders Award for co-founding Current TV Gore said: "We are trying to open up the television medium so that viewers can help to make television and join the conversation of democracy and reclaim American democracy by talking about the choices we have to make."

Burton's 'Barber' Talk

The Film Society of Lincoln Center feted director Tim Burton at Gotham’s Rose Hall on Wednesday, naming the offbeat helmer “The Demon Barber of Cinema” in honor of his new film adaptation “Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.”

Although Burton hasn’t made any of his enemies into pies as Sweeney Todd has been known to do, he has had his share of troubles, which he discussed with interviewer Richard Pena during the evening's Q&A.

The helmer wryly expressed admiration for one-time subject, “worst director in the world” Ed Wood. “There’s a weird sort of poetry to it,” said Burton of Wood’s work. “You’d watch his movies and day would accidentally turn to night, and you’d be like, ‘wow, that’s avant-garde filmmaking. You could have made big money in Europe.’ You get the French medal of honor for that kind of thing. He’s not the worst director in the world — the worst director in the world is somebody you’ve never heard of.”

Burton also spoke of his collaboration with Johnny Depp on “Sweeney.” “We tried to make it like an old horror movie where there’s a lot of music under the action. It changes everything; it changes the way the actors walk across the set.” said Burton.  (S. Thielman)

Totally Tisch Toasts Thesps

On Monday, the annual Totally Tisch Gala at the Town Hall played host to a number of celebs and notables, including Sen. Chuck Schumer, thesps Ethan Hawke, Billy Crudup and Alec Baldwin, and tennis legend Billie Jean King. For the NYU arts school, though, the big news was $1.5 million raised towards the theater they’re planning to build.

Broadway’s recent strike also gave the gala a monopoly on another set of stars: the cast of “Spring Awakening.” With Local 1 shirts over their formal attire, the performers, including a number of Tisch alums, sang a medley of the show’s songs, covering their mouths during the swear words as they did during this year’s Tonys broadcast. The gala feted the “Awakening” cast as well as Crudup, and Carla Roney and David Liu, creators of internet wedding site theknot.com. Contributor Richard Vague and school namesake Joan Tisch also received plaudits: the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus serenaded Tisch with a rendition of “My Best Girl” that filled the Hall. (S. Thielman)

Motorola's Mega Bash

After nine years in Hollywood, Motorola is hardly starting to phone in its anniversary parties. Cell phone maker celebrated its entertainment efforts with Moto 9 last week at The Lot in West Hollywood, that converted a soundstage into a lavish two-story venue decked out completely in white.  Event, hosted by David Pinsky, Motorola’s director of entertainment marketing, has become a hot ticket for young Hollywood, with this year’s guest list including Justin Long, Scott Speedman, Brittany Murphy, Seth MacFarlane, Molly Sims, Emily Van Camp, Dave Annable, Matthew Rhys, Clifton Collins Jr. and JC Chasez who nibbled on mini burgers and mini quesadillas. Kelly Clarkson capped the night with a performance of several of her hits. “In the past nine years, Motorola has truly become a member of the entertainment community," Pinsky said. "Through our marketing efforts, we have created relationships with all aspects of the industry. Each year, we host this event to celebrate our success and to say thank you to those who have helped us along the way."  (M. Graser)

Deneuve's Lesson Learned

Catherine Deneuve chatted with film critic Kenneth Turan, before the unspooling of "Persepolis" at Sunday's AFI fest's tribute in her honor at the Arclight. The thesp said helmer Francois Truffaut gave her the most valuable acting tip while shooting a marital fight she was struggling with in the film "Mississippi Mermaid."  "I went up to him and told him I couldn't do it right because it didn't seem logical to me," Deneuve remembers.  "And he said to me, 'Listen, if it all made sense, we would just take normal people to do these scenes, not actors.'"  She added with a laugh, "He sounded a little nuts but what he said actually explained a lot of things to me." (E. Bertet)

Kidman Joins the Cool Kids

"There is freedom when you don't have a lot of money riding on a film. You really get to play," Nicole Kidman said about working on "indie" pic, "Margot at the Wedding" at Thursday's Gotham screening at The Tribeca Grand Hotel. Hosted by The Cinema Society, screening drew pic's writer-director Noah Baumbach, his wife and film's thesp Jennifer Jason Leigh as well as guests Lauren Bacall, Nora Ephron and Adrian Grenier.

Kidman added that it was Baumbach that helped her decide to do the smaller pic. "I had seen 'The Squid and the Whale' and I thought Noah was such a great writer. I just think Noah and Jennifer are really cool and both extraordinarily talented. It was like being invited to the cool party."
Baumbach admitted that he was a surprised how quickly Kidman accepted his invite. "It was so strangely easy that I am even still not sure how it happened," Baumbach said. "I had coffee with her. I gave her the script and she called me the next day and said I would like to do the movie. Can you do it in my schedule? So, we basically went into pre-production that afternoon." (A. Morfoot)

Musicians Gather for Dylan Benefit

The songs of Bob Dylan came to Gotham's Beacon Theater Wednesday night for the "I'm Not There" - The Music of Bob Dylan Benefit Concert. Dylan took the film's title to heart and was not at the event but a slew of well-known musicians including Jim James, The Roots, Al Kooper & Funky Faculty, Yo La Tengo with Stanley "Buckwheat" Dural and John Doe hit the stage to belt out a few well known anthems including "The Times They Are a-Changin,"  "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" and "All I Really Want to Do."

"No one has really mentioned Bob Dylan tonight," Doe said before beginning his song set. "He is probably out there tonight performing on some stage and that makes me happy."

"I'm Not There" helmer Todd Haynes and pic's thesps Bruce Greenwood and a barely audible, gum chewing Heath Ledger presented bands while fellow actor Marcus Carl Franklin performed. (A. Morfoot)

Colbert Gets Glam

The words Stephen Colbert and Glamour may not always go hand in hand but they did Monday night in Gotham when Colbert arrived at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center to present House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with her kudo at mag's Women of the Year awards.

"I'm so honored to be here tonight to honor all these honorable honorees. I'm sorry, my writers are on strike, my stuff is usually better. Since my writers are on strike, I’d like to thank Glamour magazine for giving me someplace to perform tonight," said Colbert.

'Beowulf' Roars Into L.A.

"Beowulf"  stars Angelina Jolie and Anthony Hopkins and helmer Robert Zemeckis arrived in Westwood Village Monday night for the film's L.A. premiere. Also on hand were Brad Pitt, Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Robin Wright Penn and John Malkovich.

Comedians Pitch In

Comedy and camping converged at the Laugh Factory Thursday night as The Jewish Federation’s Entertainment Division hosted the 2nd annual Laugh Out Loud event. The night of comedy raised funds to help over 1,000 inner-city kids attend Camp Max Straus, a residential summer camp located in Glendale and run by Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters.

The all-star lineup included host Chris Kattan, Jeff Garlin, Chelsea Handler (who gave $500 to the Federation), Bill Bellamy, David Spade, Elon Gold and Dov Davidoff. Howie Mandel delivered a taped message from Vegas.  “I think it’s a great cause and I think it’s very important to take this cause in seriousness even though we’re all supposedly funny people," said Kattan. "Usually it’s the funny people that get people to pay attention to these types of situations going on.” (J. Marks)

BAFTA's Bawdy Bash

At the BAFTA/LA Britannia Awards Thursday in Century City, everyone was relaxed in the knowledge as emcee Michael Sheen put it, “that no one will go home a loser who didn’t come here a loser.”

Bill Nighy presented kudos to helmer Richard Curtis and thanked him for, “changing my professional career when he put me in Lycra in 'Love Actually.'”

In accepting the award Curtis said, “It’s sort of a nightmare situation. At last you win an award in front of girls you want to sleep with, but it’s for being a goody good and so of course they won’t want to even if they are going to anyway.” While giving a pitch for more aid in Africa from the audience, Curtis talked about the people who helped him, like Sacha Baron Cohen and how Curtis had to reassure donors that Cohen was kidding when told them, “£5 will buy a bra for a poor woman in Africa and £500 will buy her a boob job.”

New Line toppers Michael Lynne and Bob Shaye talked about the films that drew them to Britain. For Lynne, “The ‘Carry on’ films inspired my interest in British films.” While Shaye’s included a long list of movies that clearly predated many in the audience, but he got a laugh with, “We want to make films in Britain again as soon as the pound’s weaker.”

Reese Witherspoon, who introduced Kate Winslet, said she had plenty of stories about the honoree but, “all the stories about Kate and me are all bawdy, tawdry and too drunken to tell.” (S. Dore)