The ‘Sex and the City’ screening made it really, really hard to like the movie
The “Sex and the City” screening last night was really annoying, in that it was preceded by 30 minutes of coverage of the red carpet premiere in New York, beamed to theaters all over the country where these press/promo screenings were being held. I have no interest in red carpet coverage of anything, and certainly not for the premiere of a movie I’m lukewarm about anyway.
So if the red carpet stuff was at 7:30, why not skip it and show up at 7:55, just in time for the movie? Because while they generally set aside seats for critics, they also release those seats to civilians when the theater fills up. Technically, we’re supposed to be there 40 minutes before showtime — and “showtime” in this case was 7:30, even though the movie wasn’t actually starting until 8. So I had to get there at 6:50 or so.
Oh, and don’t forget: Once the movie actually started, it was 2 1/2 hours long. From beginning to end, including the 10-minute drive each way, the entire experience occupied four hours of my life, 70 minutes of which was just to sit around doing nothing and/or watching the awful, awful red carpet coverage.
I left my bag on my seat to save my place and went and watched the first 20 minutes of “Indiana Jones” in another theater, so that killed some time. I sat in the lobby and read a book for a few minutes, too. I also tried to endure the red carpet stuff, but it was even more terrible than red carpet stuff usually is.
The host was a person I had not seen before and who I hope I never see again. His name is Steven “Cojo” Cojocaru (that’s him in the picture), and he is evidently an E! channel personality and “Entertainment Tonight” correspondent. He is strange and off-putting, he speaks only in hyperbole, and he’s even more shallow than you would expect an E! personality interviewing “Sex and the City” stars to be. He fawned over every person he spoke to, and told each woman how fabulous they looked in their “fashionable” (i.e., hilarious) outfits.
First I heard Cojo’s voice but did not see him, and I thought, “That is the voice of a drag queen. That is the voice of a man who is trying to sound like a woman.” Then I saw him, dressed in a goofy suit and tie, and I thought, “Oh, I was wrong. It’s actually a woman. This woman is wearing a man’s suit, sure, but look at her face! Those feminine features, that long, girlish hair — it’s a woman!”
Then I asked someone who this person was, and she said, “He’s a guy from E!” And I said, “He?” And she confirmed the pronoun. Everything went downhill from there.
Fans of the TV show and of gaudy, bizarre fashions were no doubt delighted by the 30 minutes of extra materials, so good for New Line for making it available. But forcing everyone to sit through it was just cruel. Cruel, I tell you!
May 28th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
When I first saw the picture I thought it was a sorry person who had been photoshopped into a she-male of some sort. Looks like I’m pretty behind the times. I’m sorry that anyone would have to suffer through listening to that thing speak.
May 28th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
I totally thought that was a woman in the picture too until I read the 5th paragraph. Crazy. “He” looks stoned too.
May 28th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
The only good thing about “Cojo” is when Joel McHale makes fun of him/her/it on The Soup.
May 28th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
*projectile vomits*
May 28th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
I thought the picture was Kim Cattrall.
May 28th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
My parents watch E!, I have to say, the only time I tolerated him was that spot on the Daily Show, where John Oliver was doing banter with him (or was that an impersonator?)
May 28th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
He does a little bit on “Entertainment Tonight” as well. He is definitely an interesting person, but does tend to grate on the nerves a bit. I always wondered what critics did at a premiere…thanks for the info! Now I’m going to think of that everytime I see a premiere!
May 28th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Wow. Thank goodness they didn’t show that red-carpet thing before the Austin screening. I would not have survived. The movie was long enough as it was and there was more than enough fashion-related fluff.
May 28th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
I’ll second AdamOndi’s thoughts regarding Cojo’s portrayal on The Soup.
May 28th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
It’s nobody’s fault but his own that he’s opted to wear makeup, lipstick, etc. thus looking even more unambiguously like an actual woman than he would have if he had just left well enough alone.
May 29th, 2008 at 6:40 am
I refuse to believe that ugly woman is a man.
May 29th, 2008 at 10:20 am
I’m embarrassed to know this much about him, but “Cojo” has some hereditary kidney disease. He’s had to get a transplant (maybe even two—I think the first one didn’t take or something). He looked quite a bit thinner before the illness and medication. His transplant was a big deal because he talked with Oprah about it first, even though he was a regular on Today, and so Today fired him.
But I can’t explain the makeup.
May 29th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.
June 1st, 2008 at 11:27 am
That’s a MALE?
I saw “that’s him in the picture” and I was like what? What picture? I couldn’t fathom them being the same person until I clicked that wiki link.
I expected some flaming hispanic from the name, but THAT I did not expect.
Kudos to you for being able to sit though it.