my friend quentin

And now for the much anticipated post-spirit-award-reception-celebrity update: the party was a hit, fun for all. Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal (both of Y Tu Mama Tambien, etc.) couldn't show for various reasons, but otherwise it was decently hot with celebrity action. My experience was incredible as it was my job to personally escort two very awesome people from their hotels to the elevator, up to the penthouse, and then show them around the party.

So yes, one of my duties was to schmooze with Quentin Tarantino as I took him up to the party. He's an awesome guy, pretty much exactly like you would expect him from interviews and his roles in his own movies. He's a huge movie geek, of course. If anyone said anything remotely related to cinema he'd start going off on all this random stuff. Chad asked him about Godard's "Weekend" and "Zombi 2," which gave Quentin about 7 minutes of stuff to go off about. He also has this funny mannerism of chuckling really loudly anytime he hears something remotely funny. So I'm in the elevator with him and these girls are talking about how they're not giving up alcohol for lent, which is kind of funny, but Quentin keeps doing that half-laugh kind of thing where it should be a quiet chuckle, but comes out a hearty "ha ha!" That was probably my favorite thing about him. And that he was incredibly nice and obliging, remembered my name, and let me take a picture with him. Which I will post later.

I did the same thing, limo, elevator, etc, for Salma Hayek, too. She was really cute. She got there late so she was constantly apologizing to me, but I assured her that it was cool. Then she made me promise her that she wouldn't have to talk when they gave her the honorary award. That was fun, but less fun than hanging out with Quentin.

There were plenty of other smaller celebrities there, but the Tarantino/Hayek connection was the coolest. Tomorrow's the big day: the Independent Spirit Awards. Hopefully the celebrity contacts will increase exponentially from here on.