Fred with Guy Pearce from Memento & Time Machine

Fresh Faced Fred
We met this kid Fred Medill, who has his own Web TV show. The people love him. Fred turns 16 Sunday, and has been pursuing his career as a broadcaster since he first met Larry King at the age of 12. As his Web bio states, Fred's "fresh face and polished style have made him a fave among the industry elite." For once, the hype is true: Fred is indeed cool.

A night with the stars
Hanging with LA Daily News Hollywood reporter Greg Hernandez at the Directors Guild awards

Carl Reiner's Potty Humor
Carl Reiner emceed the show, and went on and on about Nicole Kidman's skin, saying he wanted her to take off her clothes so he could see if it's that white all over. He also suggested Will Smith disrobe and show us his muscles. He later regaled us with details of his visits to the bathroom before and during the show. Ah, the glamour of Hollywood.

Fred with Halle Berry

At the End of the Line
For the first half hour of the red carpet thing, a bunch of unrecognizable people walked by and the press halfheartedly interviewed them while waiting for something worthwhile to do. Suddenly, up at the start of the carpet dozens of flashes go off. Everybody cranes -- we're at the tail end of the line with UPI, LABusiness Journal, freelancers and Fred. After a few minutes she makes her way down to us: It's Nicole Kidman. Everybody in the frumpy press corps turns to each other and says It's amazing. She really does look that good. And then she was so nice to Fred. We respected her totally.

Sunset Strip ...
This lady is a really famous film actress -- tragically I have forgotten her name. I think her handler said it's Lillian something. Some people (you know who you are) told me she is Lillian Gish, and I should be ashamed for not knowing that. Oddly, other sources say Gish died in her sleep in 1993, so maybe I'm not the one who should be ashamed. Anyways, she's famous. Here's how laid back you can be when you used to be famous: Lillian was the only person at thw awards wearing black Reeboks.

Russell Rocks

People couldn't get enough of saying how great he is. They got up on the podium and slobbered. Everybody wants to be his friend.

The awards bathroom was amazingly crowded -- maybe 20 women lined up waiting for four stalls.Gillian Anderson from X-Files stood in front of me in the line for the bathroom. She's really thin. Some lady was telling her how much she liked her work. She totally flubbed her presentation though. And Carl Reiner mispronounced her name. She seemed steamed about it and corrected him from the podium. ("It's Jillian"). I guess thin isn't everything.

Time to head home...at this point Greg has had 8 hours sleep in the past two days. Quote of the drive home: "I'm so tired."

The valet guy, anticipating the paltry $1 tip Greg is going to slip him...

And the winner is....Greg!