I know I'm supposed to live in the heart of London, and attend posh parties and stuff if I'm writing for a British website like this, but I don't. I live in Birmingham, in the middle of England, and the number of British film premieres that come to Birmingham is not something that requires a Wikipedia article. The back of a cigarette packet would do.
However, with the American and Jamaican Olympics teams currently in the city, Universal decided to ferry Danny DeVito up to the Midlands (he's currently treading the boards in London) for the British premiere of The Lorax yesterday, and I figured I should go and see what a Birmingham film premiere looks like.
It was held at the Cineworld on Broad Street, an establishment I'm more than familiar with (quick tip: if ever you want to beat the queue for a drink, they have another counter upstairs), and when I got the list of people attending alongside DeVito, I couldn't get to Google fast enough to find out who most of them were.
Basically, alongside the Olympians and DeVito, were a couple of people you might have heard of, and a bigger bunch who were willing to get into some posh clobber on a Sunday morning. There were two former Birmingham City footballers, too, and it was a genuine relief that either of them managed to make it to the orange carpet without hitting the barrier and bouncing away.
So here's what I learned:
* Danny DeVito is a class act. He worked the line, had time for as many people as he could, and came into the screening and did an intro too. He told us that he'd voiced The Lorax in five different languages. I enquired whether one of those was Brummie, but sadly not.
* The event was co-sponsored by Bournville Garden Centre. You might think that a little strange, though, but I got my Christmas tree from there one year, and the needle retention was sublime.
* Joe Egan is a very friendly chap, too. He talked about working on Guy Ritchie's pair of Sherlock Holmes movies, and told us that he's working on his next film, too. A very friendly man.
* The Olympians were delightful. There's something quite refreshing and uplifting about a bunch of people who are genuinely excited about a sporting event that they've clearly trained hard for.
* One very helpful lady from the company who got us a spot on the press line had some interesting revelations. She exclusively revealed, while we were waiting, that she'd love to have a Lorax costume to go to sleep in, and that the best thing about being a girl is wearing make-up to cover up a spot. I was, of course, grateful for both exclusives.
It was, in all truth, a really fun morning, and it'd be interesting to see more and more film companies moving their premieres out of the same old places. We're not quite sure why a man kept shouting "Mr DeVito, I've got my finger here", though. A bit of a puzzle, that.
The Lorax arrives in UK cinemas on 27th July.
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