Yo. Tired. Sleepy. Groggy. Let me give you the skinny on the premiere of Planet of the Apes
and tomorrow afternoon I’ll go over Dawn & The Madonna Experience.


Woke up early and dropped off Dawn at the airport. This will make sense when I recurse through the
week. Running through what happened tonight so it will be fresh. Went to Montgomeryville Mall
to make a last ditch effort to get my contact lenses. They arrived at 1 PM, but the LensCrafter
people told me they wanted to ‘hydrate’ my lenses for 24 hours. Begged for a reprieve. Got one.
Bought fancy shmancy clothes from Macy’s after many visits to the dressing room. My ensemble would
include my Customatix.com patent leather black shoes with the yellow soles, black Tommy Hilfiger
carpenter jean pants, glossy silver black DKNY dress shirt and a black grid on yellow tie by Ralph
Lauren. Left Philadelphia at 2:30 PM. Arrive in New York around 4:00 PM. Checked into hotel room
at the Hilton, directly across the street from the Ziegfeld. I could see the red carpet from outside
the window, albeit on the 23rd floor. Room 2306. I remembered it by thinking it was one less that
24/7. Walked down to premiere in plain clothes and snapped some setting up photos.
Ran back to the room and took a quick shower and dressed.
Went back downstairs feeling like a bad ass. Took lots of pictures. The Wahlberg
staff arrived around 7:30 PM (an hour late probably due to the traffic). Eric (aka E-Factor) waived
me in to the red carpet, but it turned out I should have gone to the Will Call booth instead.
Eventually I did and got my transparent blue envelope with Planet of the Apes premiere passes as
well as Club Ape after-party tickets. Went inside and got a good seat on the aisle. Took pictures
of the seats with the reservation names on them (including Mark Wahlberg, Charleton Heston,
Tim Roth, Tim Burton, etc). Took a phone call from my friend Dawn who inquired what was going on.
Told her Pierce Brosnan was 15 feet away. Some friends of Lucy Liu (of Charlie’s Angels fame)
were seated to my right, although Liu wasn’t there. Saw the movie.
The plot could have been stronger, but all in all I can’t wait to see it again.
Wahlberg was a kick ass action hero in the role,
so that wasn’t any factor in the plot.
After the premiere I went into the lobby and stood next
to P. Diddy (AKA Puffy Daddy, AKA Shawn Combs). We bumped elbows. He got over it. I also saw
Kris Kristopherson quite a bit, as well as the lead actor for The Sapranos. You know, what’s his
name. Lilith something or other from Mystic Pizza fame was there and I marveled at her beauty.
Always had a crush on her and never expected her to be here. The after-party was one block over
near the David Letterman theater on 53rd (the premiere was on 54th). Walked. Club Ape featured
a dancer in Ape regalia dancing while two ‘human’ females danced in little cages. Very kinky.
I liked it, of course. I told Mark Wahlberg ”congratulations” on a job well done.
I doubt he recognizes
me as it has been over a year since ”Perfect Storm’ and I am now in disguise as Evil Mark.
His manager didn’t even recognize me. Regardless, Wahlberg was
working the VIP section with ease (which Eric was kind enough to allow me into). Mark gave his full attention
to everyone who asked for a picture or a handshake or an autograph. Felt proud to be running
his site. I also met Tim Burton and congratulated him and shook hands. He is exactly as you might
imagine — dark sunglasses and very much the artist.
I told Burton I couldn’t wait to get the DVD. Lots of pressure on him since the cost of the movie was
upwards of 100 million and there is tons of cross promotion going on all over the place.
Jules Asner of E! Entertainment was also at Club Ape.
She looked like The Bomb. At one point she had to squeeze past where I’d been standing to
get to the other side. We were THISCLOSE. It was great. Then her boyfriend squeezed by and
we were THISCLOSE. That part wasn’t so great.
Got to pitch my company to three different folks, all of which apparently
were Fox contractors. Took around 75 photos
of the entire night. Got around 30 or so of Wahlberg to entertain the fans on
MarkWahlberg.com (hi guys!). I walked back to the
Hilton and startled typing this blog in for your enjoyment. Going to crop one or two photos in
PhotoShop and post this update on my web site. Then I’m going to CONK OUT and try to wake up early
in the morning for the trip back to Philly. Have to go to work tomorrow so I’m not totally
thrilled about the drive back. Getting here was insanely easy, however, so I will definitely be
making a return visit. Yee haw!