Daily Front Row

2013 March 12

Political Party!

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Alan Siegel (Producer), Gerard Butler, Antoine Fuqua (Director)
Nicholas Hunt / PatrickMcMullan.com View Gallery

(NEW YORK) "I've done a lot of movies here, and I've never seen it this crowded!" said The Cinema Society founder Andrew Saffir at the New York premiere of Olympus Has Fallen, co-hosted by Roger Dubuis, Grey Goose, and The Cinema Society. By 8:30 p.m., the film cognoscenti had filled the Tribeca Grand screening room to the brim, piling out onto aisles or taking last-minute perches on the stairwell before the film began.

The gripping, poli-action thriller, directed by Training Day's Antoine Fuqua, stars Gerard Butler as Mike Banning, a former secret service agent on a mission to rescue the president (played by Aaron Eckhart) from a North Korean terrorist team who've hijacked the White House. Naturally, The Daily was curious about the last time Fuqua visited the historic monument. "I went as a kid, but I was bored," laughed Fuqua on the red carpet. "Bunch of old people on the walls! Know what I mean?"

Butler was next in line, regaling the velvet ropers with anecdotes from the set, including how fellow Olympus actor Dylan McDermott accidentally burned him with a cigarette. "I always thought the cigarette was a stupid idea. He flicked it into my neck, which was part of the scene, but I was supposed to be sweating so I had glycerin on; the top of the lit cigarette stuck to my neck!" laughed Butler. "But I was vindicated. The same evening we were doing a fight sequence. I had to chop him and was supposed to miss, but I chopped him in the neck and he had to go to the doctor. We were even!"

Later, Butler traipsed over to The Darby to tip back Grey Goose cocktails and ham it up with Angela Bassett, who played secret service director, Lynn Jacobs, in the film. Additional VIPs partying into the wee hours were producer Alan Siegel, Mira Sorvino, Paul Haggis, Debbie Harry, Jennifer Esposito, Matthew Settle, Kelly Rutherford, comedian Jim Gaffigan, Rachel Roy, Catherine Malandrino, June Ambrose, Star Jones, and Debbie Bancroft.