February 21

February 21, 2001

Roheryn's story: POL Premiere, London and my own first glimpse of The Man in the flesh.

At the POL premiere we hung around while he was inside for further pics and interviews. I don't know why I stayed. I actually expected him to slip out a side door. I'd never been to a premiere before. But he came out and stood on the floor of the limo so he could wave at everyone over the roof. I remember being disconcerted - can you believe it ?? - at his shagginess ! Then I realised his hair was damp and drying by the minute. He bounced along on the balls of his feet and just seemed to be bursting with energy. Except for the late Princess of Wales, I'd never seen anyone so charismatic. When he turned and apologised to us for being hustled back into the theatre that was the icing on the cake. Then he jumped inside and the car left, turning north. Other Crowe fans told me he was going to Stanstead airport for a private jet back to Oz for the premieres there, which later turned out to be true. Three hundred people let out their collective breath when he left. My group ripped the heavy cardboard POL posters off the barricades, marched to a nearby pasta restaurant and had a meal, and I carried mine home triumphantly on a double decker bus, to bemused stares. Somehow I lost it on the move back to Canada.

~ Roheryn


Poly's story:

I arrived at Leicester square at around 5:15, I already knew that the camera I had with me wasn't working because I couldn't load the film. I had arranged to meet with another Crowe fan and she introduced me to a bunch of nice people and started chatting. Fairly soon it was getting crowded, from 6:30 onwards they were about 1500 - 2000 people there. They had barricaded about 100 meters of the road in front of the theatre, and they were people all around the barriers. We were standing opposite of the entrance, 10 meters to the left. The cars that they were dropping the guests were coming from the opposite direction. Minor celebrities started arriving, no one I knew. Jamie Bell arrives, he gets out of the car, he looks miserable, I guess all these women at his mother's age with lust in their eyes were really scary. Taylor Hackford and Helen Mirren arrives, they get photographed, they sign autographs, all very nicely. At about a quarter to 8, nothing much was happening and we were running out of time.

Suddenly, a silver sports car, like the ones that were dropping guests, arrives in front of the theatre, but doesn't stop, carries on at the opposite direction. Obviously, it has dropped whoever he was to drop. The press people are perking up, there is some excitement at the very beginning of the line of people at the opposite direction, some 50 meters away from the theatre, everybody is straining to see.

To make a long story short, he has gotten out of the car at the beginning of the queue and is moving towards the theatre, signing autographs, shaking hands, that sort of thing. And the funny thing is that this had a calming effect, because a few minutes pass, and we know he is there, but we haven't actually seen him yet, and there is excitement, but there isn't hysteria. And Jamie Bell is showing up at the entrance of the theatre, looking uncomfortable, obviously Russell has sent for him.

Suddenly, I can see an ear and a flop of hair among all the other ears and all the other flops of hair and I know it's him. And then he moves pretty quickly towards the centre, and I have the first very good view of him, and the first thing that pops in my mind is that he is cuter than hell. I really didn't think that he would look that cute!! I have said to a lot of people that probably if he wasn't famous and I saw him in the street, I wouldn't look twice, because he is rather normal looking. But as he looked yesterday, you bet I would have looked. He looked wild and soft and cuddly and nervous and simply adorable, very smiley, and his eyes kept flicking all over the place. He kept flicking his head because the hair was getting in his eyes, and he wouldn't stop moving, anything not to stop moving.

He is wearing the black long coat - of course - black suit, black shirt. And his clothes look a little too big for him. He moves towards Jamie Bell at the entrance of the theatre, and bear hugs the kid, and puts his hand around his shoulder and he talks to him, and the kid is mortified by the attention. And they move together at the opposite direction, to cover the other end. And Russell keeps shaking hands and signs autographs, and a guy has a camera, and Russell gets it from him, and turns around, leans back and snaps a picture of them together, and everyone goes wild.

And then we can't see him for another few minutes because he is at the other end. And then shows up again, he is covering our side now, and I am behind some girls from the Dreamworks message board (Irene and Dee), and then it's the barrier and then it's him, hardly two meters away. But he is moving towards the entrance of the theatre, and one of the girls in front of me shouts "Russell!" (Dee says: me, breaking the shy and retiring habit of a lifetime! )and thrusts a picture (actually a hardback of "A Beautiful Mind") to him to sign, and he turns and says "I got to go in", ( I heard "I'm sorry but I have to go..." but that's just me...) a little amused, a little regretful, with the corners of his mouth softening even more, and I think that hearing the VOICE was what made me realise that it's really HIM, because the VOICE doesn't lie. And that's when I really saw his eyes, looking at us, and they are pale blue, they make him look even more like a little boy, how can he look that young? And then he is at the entrance of the theatre, snap, snap, the photographs, by himself and with Jamie Bell and then he is inside.

And I think it's time to go, our legs are aching from standing up andstraining, and we talk about it a little bit, how it was and where we are going to eat. People ask: is he going to come out? And I am thinking he is going to get out through the back door, surely, but then the silver sports car returns and stops in front of the entrance and nobody is moving again. And after a couple of minutes he gets out, and he is not wearing the long coat anymore, and I am glad because this fine figure is not for hiding. And he is out there for about thirty seconds, he looks around like he is looking for something, and then he opens the back door of the car, but he doesn't get in, he steps in the car with both feet and props himself high above the hood, so as to everyone can see him, waves - god, he has enormous hands - and them he gets in and leaves.

While we were waiting I was thinking maybe this isn't a good idea and I am going to be disappointed. But he looks so huggable and so soft and so fuzzy, and he is all over the place all the time. And most of all, he looks very normal and gorgeous in a warm, real way, and you get this very comfortable, happy, fuzzy feeling.

And with that note I am going to bed, I really need the sleep, and maybe I 'll have some good dreams.

~ Poly