Friday night, the movie 21 had its big red carpet premier at SXSW 2008. It’s a true story about an MIT student who bamboozles the Vegas blackjack tables until he gets caught. For me, I thought it’d be fun to hang out on the red carpet here in Austin, which is not known for its red carpets (the one I was standing on was about eight feet long), and see what happens. My story is as follows:

8:30 pm - An hour before the premier - The fidgety reporters and photographers around me are yucking it up about lenses and such when I see a group of kids wearing professional make up and hear shutters start to snap. “It’s the guy from Friday Night Lights!” Someone exclaims, then, “… it’s a show on NBC.” I wait for the flash to charge on my $99 point-and-click camera…

Two girls wearing tiaras take a picture of him…

But my attention turns to this guy–who I’m developing a little man-crush on–and I think he’ll step on the carpet, but he’s apparently just checking text messages…

Then these two step in front of my camera (more after the jump)…

They look about 16 and I hear later on the news they’re called Aly & AJ. Anyone? They spend a lot of time talking about how exciting the trailer for 21 is. I’m wondering if they misinterpreted it as a movie about turning 21.

8:51pm - All of the sudden, a car pulls and none other than the naked girl from High School Musical Vanessa Ann Hudgens steps out…

8:59pm - These teen celebs are really working the video crews when they step in front of a bank of photographers. Immediately, they start striking runway poses, one every three seconds, like clockwork. A stocky guy with a thick british accent elbows me aside and yells, “Over here, Vanessa! Can you blow us a kiss? That’s great, great. You’re lovely!” I try to get a shot of the airborne kiss, but my camera takes too long to auto-focus, so I get this…

Here’s the director of 21, Robert Luketic. (He’s the only one to show up so far whose actually involved in the movie.)

He answered three questions then booked past me as a newspaper guy holding a notepad said sheepishly, “Mr. Luketic, can I ask you one… Mr. Luketic, just one… question…” (I wanted to take a picture of the newspaper guy, too, but I draw had to the line.)

Then the producer, Dana Brunetti, saunters up to the video crews. He used to be Kevin Spacey’s assistant and I once saw him do a Q&A for a film while checking his text messages. I hope, for his sake, he doesn’t do that tonight.

Then the star, Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe), shows up…

But I’m not as excited to see him as these girls are…

The theater was full when Jim Sturgess left, so I missed the movie which is kind of a bummer. There’s nothing like watching a premier with a festival crowd, but now I understand why you never hear about that experience on the news. It’s because the news crews are locked out once the under-17 celebs finally go inside.

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