A Clooney-Eyed View of Fantastic Mr. Fox's World Premiere

Inside the 1600-seat Odeon, which can only be described as majestic, a Ryan Seacrest-like presenter was projected on the screen, asking arriving celebrities what their "trademark" is -- as Mr. Fox's is a whistle and click. Cindy Crawford said it was her mole; Wes said it was his suit; Jarvis Cocker took the microphone out of the interviewer's hands, disappeared it completely down his windpipe, reproduced it, handed it back, then opened his palms in a "ta-daa" fashion. National treasure, indeed.

A huge fuss was made over the arrival of Bill Murray, who plays Badger -- Mr. Fox's prickly lawyer. As if possessed by some autograph-seeking Zuul, foamy-mouthed fans screamed, "Biiiiillll! Pleeeeasse -- Billlllll!" and the actor obliged as many as he could. That was until one female fan penetrated the sacred barrier with a handwritten sign and rushed the actor; she was promptly whisked away to a medieval torture detainment room of some kind. It all happened too fast to actually read what she had written on her oversized greeting card. I hope it had some classic Murray line on it, like, "Let's show this prehistoric bitch how we do things downtown -- marry me, Bill!" (Though it more likely hewed closer to What About Bob's "Roses are red, violets are blue, I'm a schizophrenic and so am I.")

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