Sundance Diary: Global Warming, Iraq, and... OMG, there's Aidan Quinn!

Overheard, Jan. 24: "We've had two glorious reviews. It's like we paid the people."

Okay, it's calmed down a little here at the EW Sundance Photo Studio. Paul Rudd and the boys from The Ten are here and I'm stalking them for the guest blog, but in the meantime, let's talk about yesterday! I'm much better today, first of all-- I got 4 hours of sleep after losing $20 in a poker game despite Ten director David Wain's attempts to save me from myself (it should be noted that I clearly retained nothing from my lesson with Jamie Gold this weekend) -- and I can totally feel Sundance slowing down. People are leaving, Main Street (with the exception of the freaks outside our studio waiting for Gwyneth) is emptying out, and we're all running out of time to see the movies we've heard so much about. I have one last chance to catch Waitress tonight; keep your fingers crossed.

So after I got up and went to the foreign policy discussion first thing yesterday morning, I came over here to the photo studio to grab some guest bloggers -- Rainn Wilson's post is the talk of the festival, by the way -- and do an interview with one of the directors of Everything's Cool, Daniel Gold. Everything's Cool is a documentary that kind of takes all the global warming science we learned in An Inconvenient Truth and makes it personal by following the lives of people actually in the fight for awareness. I'm going to transcribe our chat and get it up here as a Q&A in the next couple days, because I thought everything he had to say was great, and he's got some really solid advice for how we can all put our drops in the energy-saving bucket. (Have you switched to compact fluorescent bulbs yet?) Nothing better than talking with someone who's engaging and interested in the conversation, rather than just trying to plug their movie and then get back to the snowboarding. Those folks might be famouser than Mr. Gold... but they're way less interesting to me.

After eating my weight in baked Cheetos, I headed over to The Ten, which is basically The State's whacked-out take on the Ten Commandments. I was personally very excited to see my friend and personal emcee Seth Herzog prancing about naked in the last scene; I would also like to suggest that Rob Corddry should be in every movie ever made. And finally, the long-rumored "Thou shalt not steal" chapter with Winona Ryder and a ventriloquist's dummy more than lived up to its billing (I'll never look at puppets the same way again). Nice to see her having a sense of humor about that whole, you know, larceny thing.

From there, I went back to the hotel and realized how bad my jeans smell, so I turned them over to the Marriott laundry services, which is something I've never done before. But that should give you an idea of how busy (and smelly) I've been, PopWatchers: I gave my laundry to the front desk. Perhaps this is how rock stars live? I don't really know. If any of you know a rock star personally, ask them if they feel weird putting their pomegranate juice-soaked pants in a bag and giving them to strangers. I'd be curious.

My second and last movie for the day was No End In Sight, the Iraq war documentary that necessitated the 7:30 am press conference. It was so good, it's getting its own post. Look for it. I can't put it all in here, because I've got some stuff to say, and I'd hate to interrupt the pointless stream of consciousness of this post with a serious discussion about war. It just doesn't work, watch: HAHAHAHA OMG PONIES PONIES No End in Sight is a clear, reasoned, incredibly well-researched documentary about the missteps and questionable decisions that led to the ongoing occupation of and chaos in Iraq AIDAN QUINN WAS HERE EARLIER AND MAN ARE HIS EYES BLUE OMG LOL!

See? It doesn't work.

One last note: Dinner last night was at Chefdance, the week-long series of celebrity chef-cooked meals that I'd heard was the one can't-miss thing that happens here. I'll be honest and say it did not disappoint -- I sat and ate a lamb shank while somewhere else in the room, Eddie Murphy was eating the EXACT SAME LAMB SHANK. I'm telling you, PopWatchers: If I live through this festival, my ego is going to be out of control. Out of my way, little people! I am wearing Katherine Heigl's shoes!! I can vomit Eddie Murphy's lamb shank on you!! Don't cross me!!