Spielberg Comes to Sundance

After seeing The Good Night, a sweet Working Title-style romantic comedy written and directed by rookie Jake Paltrow and starring "The Office" and "Love Actually" star Martin Freeman, Cinematical's Kim Voynar and I trooped over to the Village at the Lift before all the folks from the movie had gotten there. Standing in the dark waiting to get in, accompanied by one assistant, was Steven Spielberg. Kim told him seeing E.T. made her love movies, and that her son still has an E.T. action figure. Spielberg and I both still have our E.T. clocks--the neck goes up and the finger glows. Ours was a wedding gift. It's worth a lot, he said.

We went in and ordered drinks and it turns out that Spielberg is a close friend of the Paltrow family. The late Bruce Paltrow was godfather to his and Kate Capshaw's son Sawyer. The director came to Sundance for the first time to cheer on Jake's first film, which he had seen as a work in progress, and "Gwynnie," who stars as Freeman's decidedly unglamorous girlfriend. She sports no makeup and long brown hair. The movie is all about how prosaic and real their relationship is, as opposed to the fantasy dreams Freeman keeps having about Penelope Cruz. Shaun of the Dead star Simon Peg is his snarkily amusing best pal. Danny DeVito is a dream expert who advises him. And when Freeman actually meets the woman behind the fantasy, reality sets in.

PR man Stan Rosenfield introduced me to his client Danny DeVito and wife Rhea Perlman; I told Stan I'd heard that people had seen Michael Clayton, starring his client George Clooney, and word was good. He'd heard the same thing, he said; it will open in September. After we all climbed upstairs to a delicious meal of miso soup and sushi, mid-meal, Endeavor agent Graham Taylor popped up and took off to wield offers for the movie. Producer Donna Gigliotti (Shakespeare in Love) took me over to meet Jake. As we talked about his decade-long apprenticeship making a 1996 Sundance short and directing television shows like NYPD Blue, and how he loved Freeman in The Office and Peg from Shaun of the Dead, his actress mom Blythe Danner. who had recently wrapped a show on Broadway, and sister Gwenyth (blonde again) came over to say good-bye. Good-looking family.

[Photo by Getty Images]