“I Mean…What?!?” – Abe Gurko

Last night, I went to Peggy Siegal’s screening of Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, which fortunately was one block from my home in West Chelsea (such a curmudgeon lately). I am curious to see how this movie will be reviewed, because it will take a certain kind of person to not let the over-the-top crazy/funny performance by Nicholas Cage get in the way of the stick up their ass. You have to sit back, relax and see the funny. Once you do that it’s a great ride. Werner Herzog did a very interesting directing job. Granted a tad long, but what movie isn’t these days? Too bad most directors don’t know well enough when to lose a few scenes and try to keep the movie length between 90 and 115 minutes…but I digress. Back to the evening. There was an interesting mix of people in attendance from (young) Madeline Martin (the daughter on David Duchovny‘s Californication), to Susan Sarandon to Ice T and his jugs/wife Coco to (old) Sylvia Miles. Sprinkled in was a slew of “green-lit hopefuls” as I like to call them. These are Hollywood types plopped here in New York City, that speak loud enough to let the room know that they are “in development” or “yeah, I like LA, but I really miss New York” or “bla bla bla”.

Eva Mendes was on hand to warm up the crowd wearing a simple, cool ensemble: fitted white man-tailored shirt with many open buttons, and a fierce silk, black skirt. She’s lovely. And her performance in the film is really good, considering most women get gratuitous roles, hers being a “hooker with a heart of gold”, a sure way to be taken seriously as an actress. Good for her. Although while introducing the film, one of the producing brothers, Alan or Gabe Polsky (formerly known as “green-lit hopefuls”) referred to Eva Mendes as the new Marilyn Monroe, which is like…really? I think the whole room scratched their heads at that remark. Call me crazy, but I’d like to consider Eva Mendes “the new Eva Mendes”, since she was sensitive and vulnerable in this role, a far cry from that nonsense remake The Women as Crystal Allen. Let’s just say that Eva is not Marilyn or Joan Crawford. The after party was barely cute, but I was glad to see Liam McMullan who has promised to be a contributing party reporter in the new year for I Mean…What?!? seeing that I am way to jaded to do this on a regular basis. The quote of the night however, was when Eva Mendes left the after party, Sylvia Miles turned to me and said, “So, I guess I am the only celebrity in the room now”. Don’t ask.