Las Vegas Weekly

June 11, 2009 · 8:30 AM

Photo Gallery: Celebrities mingle on the red carpet of 2009 CineVegas Day 1

By Robin Leach

Danny Greenspun and Dennis Hopper with the cast of Saint John of Las Vegas. From left, Danny, Romany Malco, Dennis, producer Marc Burman, Sarah Silverman, director Hue Rhodes, Jesse Garcia and Trevor Groth, CineVegas' artistic director.

Photo: Denise Truscello

Hollywood stars and Las Vegas headliners mingled on last night’s red carpet at Planet Hollywood for the premiere of Saint John of Las Vegas to kick off the 11th Annual CineVegas Film Festival. Our contributing photographers Denise Truscello and Erik Kabik were on duty for our photo gallery of the festivities.

The movie’s stars attending were Sarah Silverman, who wore a camping backpack, Romany Malco and Jesse Garcia. Romany told me he’d grown up as a youngster watching Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous and used it as his inspiration to seek fame and fortune in Hollywood. Sarah told me she keeps the backpack handy “as a security blanket” to deal with first-night jitters. “Sort of like my character in the movie who painted smiley faces on her fingernails to get into a comfort zone.”

Sarah was in and out of Las Vegas. “I can’t spent more than 24 hours here because the ding, ding, ding of the slot machines just gets to me,” she said while we chatted on the red carpet. Also there was the film’s first-time director Hue Rhodes and producer Marc Burman.

CineVegas executives attending were our fearless leader Danny Greenspun, actor Dennis Hopper, who serves as the festival’s chairman, and Trevor Groth, CineVegas’ artistic director Trevor Groth.

Dennis told me: “Even before the economic turndown, we had decided to trim our festival this year to six days. Prior years, it ran 12, and that was just way too long. It was like having two festivals over two weekends, and few people could take part during the middle week. This long weekend of Thursday through Monday and the Wednesday kickoff premiere is much better. This will be our best CineVegas yet. We have great films and wonderful stars and directors taking part.”

Trevor added: “We're very happy with the new shortened format, and it will still be a tremendous tourism boost for Las Vegas.”

Our local star headliners turned out in force from their Strip shows: Gerry “The Mentalist” McCambridge with his magic assistant, Danika; Frank Marino in drag with wedding couple Tony and Tina; zany comic Carrot Top; Peepshow star Holly Madison with girlfriend Laura Croft; Human Nature, who perform the Motown revue for Smokey Robinson at the Imperial Palace; the gorgeous glamour girls from Peepshow; and my friends the cast of Jersey Boys.

Vegas DeLuxe will update coverage of 2009 CineVegas with daily photo reports throughout the festival.

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

Follow Robin Leach on Twitter HERE.

Follow Vegas DeLuxe on Twitter HERE.

Share This