"Casino Royale" is great!

I wasn't a huge Daniel Craig fan before last night...........now I am!

We were comp'd by Sony/MGM to the Premiere in Vegas last night. (The movie is in "regular release" starting today.) It was pretty outrageous! Bond girls in cages, pole dancers, women flying through the air and pouring vodka into "martini shaped" ice sculptures....(isn't that what EVERY evening is like? (laugh)). I did bid on one item in the silent auction -- a framed set of photos and autographs of all the Bonds (including Craig) -- but my $2400 bid was just a drop in the bucket. At the "live" auction, the Aston Martin from the movie was dropped by a platform from the ceiling -- A.M. auctioned off the "first production car off the line" to the winner (the car will be out in production in 2007). It went for -- get this -- $675,000. A yacht trip for 10 went for something like $500,000 -- a USED Hummer went for $175,000. (OK, it was totally tricked out, but still...........)

I think the best part was watching the movie on big couches set up in the "screening room" (for 500), with black truffle oil drizzled popcorn and champagne. You gotta love that.

We had our photos taken for Las Vegas Magazine -- we were comp'd by my favorite designer, Colleen Quen (www.bondgirldress.com or www.mycocktaildress.com) to wear two of her dresses. Domino wore the "Saketini" dress (if you go and look at the website, it's under cocktail dresses) and I wore the "Manhattan" dress (it's under the travel collection).

There are some GREAT LINES in this movie -- but I won't spoil it. I'm going back to see it tonight, with the "public."

I'm not for "Movie Reviews" -- that's not what this website is about. Besides -- I think you should form your own opinions. Interestingly, Vesper is a "different" Bond girl -- but her persona basically matches the book.

The men will definitely have to watch the screen with their hands over their eyes when they see the torture Bond is put through. Though of course the girls in the audience can just say "DANG that guy has an amazing body!"

True to Vegas, the whole thing started at 5:30 p.m. (we got onto the "red carpet" around 6:15 or so), and didn't end until 2:00 a.m. We didn't get up until noon -- and here I am posting at 12:30 -- closest I could get :-)

:-)

Solitaire