So I spent the night with Oscar nominee Jeremy Renner. Wait. That doesn’t sound quite right. I spent the evening with Jeremy Renner–star of THE HURT LOCKER who was honored with the Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor, last night at the Brattle Theater! He graciously accepted the award onstage, then stayed for a screening of the film and a Q& A with the audience! He’s down to earth, a bit shy, slyly funny, and a little rough around the edges in person–like his character. He actually was sipping scotch on stage while answering questions, but it didn’t seem to dull his responses. He says shooting the film was a bear–and it took a while to come down from the experience. He’s just finished shooting BEN AFFLECK’s last movie in Boston with Jon Hamm (mmmmm) called THE TOWN. Renner will appear on Oprah next week along with other Oscar nominees.

Renner is an L.A. boy and seems to be taking his recent catapult into the Oscar limelight in stride. He made our evening, coming to Boston to accept his award. He acknowledged that the Boston Critics were instrumental in his road to the nomination. We were certainly ahead of the curve in recognizing the movie(we named it BEST PICTURE) and his performance–weeks ahead of just about every other critics group in the country. Studios pay attention, momentum was gathered, and now he’ll be sitting at the Kodak Theater in L.A. on Oscar night waiting to see if his name will be called.

I emceed the event, and while the film (which I had already seen and loved) was being shown, I ducked out for dinner (as did Mr. Renner) at Henrietta’s Table at the Charles Hotel with Marji Borkow my longtime producer. As we sat at the bar we met a guy who volunteered that he had once been on a plane hijacked to Cuba! This info tumbled out after I had barely finished one glass of syrah. He was drinking–what else– a Cuba libre. It’s amazing the people you meet and the stories they spill.

I raced back to the Brattle to introduce Renner’s Q & A, and a good night was had by all. Meryl Streep (our Best Actress for JULIE & JULIA) autographed a copy of Julia’s MASTERING THE ART OF FRENCH COOKING– that we raffled off — some of the proceeds going to Partners in Health for Haiti.
Julia Child’s niece– Philadelphia Cousins–unbelievably cool name–accepted on behalf of Meryl, and “Phila” as her intimates call her– is a doll!! She is tall like Julia and resembles her in manner and personality–very sunny and gregarious. She flew in from Denver with words from Meryl, and it was wonderful to meet her!!!

I WILL POST PICTURES AS SOON AS I GET THEM!! I AM STILL GETTING THE HANG OF THIS BLOG!

Thanks for your loyalty and patience!

Good night–
and stay tuned!