Sundance Diary: Antonio Banderas, come take me away from all this

Ah, well, dang. Paul Rudd just left. He said he'd come back... but I think now I'm suffering from a bit of a self-esteem problem. You tell me how you'd feel if Justin Timberlake, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sam Jackson, and Aidan Quinn had all turned down your very generous offer to give them an open forum in which to explore their innermost thoughts. I mean, sure, it's a blog. And they're all very busy and important, whereas I am just, you know, busy. But it's all I have, people. It's all I am. Oh, my heart.

Now the question on the table is: To see Hounddog, or not to see Hounddog? The time for today's screening is nigh, but Antonio Banderas is on his way in here to do an interview for Summer Rain (he directed it), and Rudd swore he'd be back, and I could use this time to transcribe my interviews with Anna Faris and Daniel Gold and the super-cute cast from The Great World of Sound, and finally (JEEZ, WHITNEY!) blog about our party last weekend, and write up that No End in Sight post, and I could also eat something, and help EW ninja Neil Drumming celebrate his birthday, and, frankly, I'm a lot more interested in Hounddog from a train-wreck perspective than anything else, and that's not nice. Also, I figure the picture can only benefit if I wait and let the hype die down. I know Dakota's a terrific actress (and her sister's a great blogger), and that's enough for me.

Plus, someone just showed up with Thai food. Decision made.

A couple quick odds and ends: I realized I never thanked the nice people at Burton for giving me a snowboard and a chance to hurt myself the other day. Likewise, I wish to thank American Eagle for offering me a massage -- which, oh, I forgot to mention, I never made it to yesterday because I was sitting around here waiting for Antonio Banderas to show up, much like I am right now. And given our earlier discussion about my underwear, you will be glad to know that I now own the same pair of AE Aerie boy-short undies that Molly Shannon does, and every time I put them on I get this strange urge to talk about Gilmore Girls. Huh.

And finally, real quick -- because I guess Banderas just got here -- I'd like to thank the makers of Sundance 2007 for the awesome animated screen saver that plays before each film. There are these little flames walking around with sunglasses on, and they're writing movies and getting interviewed and carrying reels of film and driving around in shuttle buses and -- my favorite -- sitting in a hot tub with cocktails. I could watch it for hours and find something new every time. I'm glad I didn't forget to bring that up. Golly, I've been meaning to talk about that since Day One. Wait. Did I already talk about that? There's so much information in my brain right now I can't remember what's fallen out so far.

Oh, Antonio Banderas... take me away...