Attended the premiere of the romantic tale "Feast of Love" in Beverly Hills last night. Before I tell you about the incredible pumpkin ravioli that was served at the after-party, I'll share with you some of the red carpet action at the Motion Picture Academy Theatre.
Morgan Freeman was first to arrive and was in a singing mood. It all started when a reporter from "Extra" asked him to sing a little of the show's theme song. She got him going and he didn't stop. Soon he was singing Marvin Gaye's "Let's Stay Together" and when I asked him the secret to his long marriage, he sang: "Love Will Keep Us Together." Well, just the first few words. Singing apparently has very little to do with it: "Our secret is communication. Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk."
Freeman was the first cast member to arrive for the film's premiere but he was soon joined by co-stars Greg Kinnear, Rahda Mitchell, Billy Burke, Toby Hemmingway, Stana Katic, Shannon Lucio and director Robert Benton.
Kinnear was stumped when he was asked by a reporter what the secret of lasting love: "Lasting love? I don't know, look it up on Wikepedia.com!"
But he had an answer for me when I asked about working with Freeman for the first time: "He's such a gentleman and he's so funny. He just makes me laugh and I never saw that coming. He's a very endearing man and it was an honor to work with him. I think he's one of our great American actors."
Kinnear, Freeman and nearly all of the rest of the ensemble cast showed up for the premiere of the film which opens nationwide on Friday. Only Jane Alexander and Selma Blair were absent.
"I have been blessed with working with some of the best actors alive and this cast is as good any group of actors I've ever worked with and that's saying a great deal," Benton told me. "They are just an amazing group of actors. There's not a weak link. Everyone is just phenomenal."
For Mitchell, her role in the movie has her torn between love interests played by Kinnear and Burke and she plays it so well.
"I'm a bad girl," she says, laughing. "It's an edgy character who's not immediately likeable but someone you kind of have to find and explain in a real way. I'm in love with Billy Burke but he's married and I end up marrying Greg Kinnear and breaking his heart."
I wanted to know how it felt to break Greg Kinnear's heart. Seems like such a nice guy after all.
"It was so much fun breaking Greg Kinnear's heart because he's such a wonderful actor and he really measures
the tone of this piece in that he plays comedy in such a naturalistic way and then he goes to tragedy and it's so heart-moving and soulful."
For director Benton, he considers the film one of the most important that he's made: "It is a movie about the
sheer mystery of love. It is is tragic, it is funny, it is erotic, it is intimate. It is about friendship and it is about passion. I wanted people to come away with a sense of the mystery of love."

I gotta say, i really liked this movie. It's different from most and was the perfect balance to oh-so-violent "The Kingdom" which I saw on Monday night. Oh yeah, and the pumpkin ravioli. Delish! They would only serve you one at a time but a reporter from Variety managed to get two without having to wait in line again. Not me. The server looked at me with a face that seemed to say: "Only one ravioli for YOU, Holywood Joe..."