LA, the Lost Weekend (Part 2)

I woke up on Friday October 29^th, it's my LA premiere! I buy the local papers, the LA Times and the LA Daily News and anxiously turn to the film review page. How would they critique my film? Thumbs up? Thumbs down? But after turning every page – I couldn't find my review – how could that be? We sent them numerous screeners, they were definitely aware that the film was coming out. I freaked. I called both my PR agents and they both accused the other of sabotaging my reviews. I tried to call the film editor, but she was away for the whole weekend – lucky her!

So, I had no idea which agent was telling the truth. In any case, I had to go to the premiere. My good buddy, Ken Mora, put together a dinner for over 20 fans and I had my cousins Christina, Nikki, and Kelly come down from Sacramento with a case of celebratory wine. As we rushed to the cinema, I was not surprised to hear that we only sold 1/3^rd the capacity for the opening night. This was not a good sign!

But I still worked the publicity machine. I did a masterclass at Dreamworks and told them all to go see the film. Also, Jerry Beck set up a great screening at the Cinefamily that was packed with fans, and they all said they would go see “I&A”. And we did get a nice review and article in the LA Weekly. But the thing that really pissed me off was the fact that the LA Times is the journal of the film industry. It's the paper read by Steven Spielberg, Jeffery Katzenberg, and all the members of the Motion Picture Academy. Without a review in the LA Times, my wonderful film is non-existent. It's like it never opened in LA. It's a phantom film. And everyone who saw the film raved about it! The final insult was as I was about to board my flight to return to New York, the people from Disney called and said that they wanted me to come by to talk to their studio..! AAARGHHH!

Oh well, my only consolation is the Chicago opening on December 2^nd. And I have one PR person, Gabe Levinson, and he's very dependable and I know he'll pack the Music Box Cinema.