Recently while walking down the Champs I saw yet another movie premiere. In France, and indeed in Europe and the world at large, Paris is an important spot for movie premieres, and they typically occur on the Champs (except for Disney films, which usually premiere at the Rex, near the Opéra Garnier). A canopy with a red carpet is set up in front of some theater, lots of lights are set up, rent-a-cops are hired, photographers and fans gather. You get used to it. It reminds me of Los Angeles (New York is probably similar, but I don't know New York very well).
Anyway, so I'm walking down the Champs, near a certain new restaurant that looks uncannily like another gangster hangout (of which there are a surprising number in the sidestreets near the Champs), and I see the standard set-up for some movie premiere. I don't stop to look at these things, and I just walked right past the waiting crowd in this case, but I did see the name Josh Brolin. The name rang no bells, but from the last name I assumed this person to be offspring of James Brolin (Traffic, Catch Me If You Can, etc.), and a quick look at the IMDB when I got home confirmed this. I guess the movie was that new one about the current U.S. President, which I haven't seen and don't plan to see.
Come to think of it, I can't remember the last time I actually went to a cinema. I just wait for the DVDs to come out these days, and I know lots of other people who feel the same way (including some who actually work in the movie industry, ironically). It's too expensive and too much trouble to go to a cinema these days, and sometimes the quality on a big-screen TV at home is better than the quality in the cinema, although I don't have a TV myself any more.
