Steven Spielberg
I was sorta surprised when I bought the ticket to this event, An Evening with Steven Spielberg. He’s just so pop! But I never thought I’d see Madonna three times on one tour either, so whatever.
Spielberg was really cool. He’s obviously a major film fan, loves this stuff. Surprise of surprise he addressed the ‘who wrote what’ issue in A.I. for the first time in public and said that Kubrick actually wrote the 1st 3rd and the 3rd 3rd, at least in notes and treatment form, and Spielberg only did the middle bit from scratch. Spielberg even used the term ‘schmaltzy’ to describe what fans thought of the end. But that was Kubrick. It’s what he wanted. It’s how he wrote it. And Kubrick even asked Spielberg to make the film much earlier, with Kubrick as producer. Crazy.
There were a few crazy retards in the audience, as usual, and a couple people asking retarded questions, as usual. I’m so happy Woody Allen made ‘Stardust Memories.’ It’s all there.
Afterwards I didn’t hang out for the 14 minutes of ‘Catch Me if You Can’ and left. There were only a few people over by the exit door so I walked over and the man came out moments later. I didn’t think ‘Funeral Party’ was appropriate for Mr. Spielberg (but who knows, really, what he’s into) and only had my copy of Bruno Schulz’ Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass, which Mr. Spielberg signed for me. Kinda fun. I thanked him for the evening, he looked up realizing I wasn’t just an autograph hound, and smiled. I tried to ask him about his King Arthur movie but the security guys shoved him in the SUV.
I never thought I’d ever meet Steven Spielberg. It’s not something I’ve really pursued. But it was nice to meet him. He’s much cooler than I ever thought I would find him to be.
