So, lesse -- just got back from the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, only to be reminded that the AFI Dallas International Film Festival starts in...oh, sweet Jesus...nine days. Ah, well; beats working, I guess. Anyway, managing director Tearlach Hutcheson sends us this a.m. the complete list of celebs expected to make the fest; turns out, there are probably more famous names coming here than flew to Austin this week.
In addition to such already announced celebs Lauren Bacall, David Lynch, Laura Dern, Morgan Freeman, Sydney Pollack, Ron Livingston, Bill Paxton, Joe Pantoliano and a few others, AFI's also expecting the likes of Patrick Fugit (star of Almost Famous, here with Sundancer The Good Life), Plano's Nick Stahl (here for the locally made The Night of the White Pants), Jason Mewes (as in "Jay" from damned near every Kevin Smith movie), former State mate Ken Marino (who wrote and stars in both The Ten and Diggers, two of the fest's best offerings) and...really?...Ricki Lake.
Speaking of Ken Marino, who's a guy with whom you definitely wanna try to grab an adult beverage while he's in town: Both Diggers and The Ten star the great Paul Rudd, who spent Friday till Tuesday in Austin and had three films at SXSW -- the third being Knocked Up, the latest from Judd Apatow, which doesn't open till June. Knocked Up's pretty much a knock-out, an early contender for Film of the Year. If you've seen the trailer, though, you haven't seen anything. After the jump, we've posted the European version -- which is essentially a scene from the movie and not at all work-friendly. --Robert Wilonsky
