Anyway, you can read my update at the Walnut Creek news website, I edit, Walnut Creek Patch.
The teen vampire and werewolf wannabes who will probably be crowding into the midnight show of the next Twilight movie (June 30, and I've got my tix) wouldn't have anything on the groups of stiletto-heeled Carrie Brandshaw wannabes who didn't behave very lady-like at Thursday evening's screening of Sex and the City 2.
A friend called me last night after returning home from the movie to say she could not believe what she saw after getting into the theater featuring the 7:15 p.m. show. "This is crazy in suburbia!" she said.
Just to set up, my friend and some of her girlfriends decided to have a girl's night out and see the show, just as they had made an event of the premiere of the first Sex and the City movie a few years ago. My friend isn't necessarily a huge fan of Sex and the City franchise, but she and her friends think it's fun to participate in this cultural phenomenon.
Other women had the same idea of using the premiere night of Sex and the City 2 movie for a gals' night out. My friend said the theater was packed with women, many in the 30s, 40s and 40s and decked out in cocktail dresses, Jimmy Choo-style high heels, lots of make-up, and piles of bling.
These women also came equipped with Cosmopolitans, some pouring this pink confections from containers into martini glasses, right there in the Century Downtown Walnut Creek 14 lobby and halls. Hmm, I thought the theater frowned on letting people bring in their own drinks, especially those of the alcoholic variety. Well, if there is a rule about that, the theater apparently waived it.
Everything was festive and sisterly among the crowd as they waited outside the doors of the second-level theater to take their seats. No husbands or boyfriends. Any men there, my friend, figured were probably gay.
When the staff finally opened the doors, the women rushed in to grab the best seats. It was going to be a packed house.
And that's when my friend and others saw a surprising scene: a prime block of perhaps 50 center seats roped off with red gauze.
I've never heard of Century 14 letting people reserve seats like this. Neither had my friend. And, apparently, neither had a group of women who were miffed enough about apparent special treatment that they tore through the red gauze and sat their perfumed selves in the middle of those blocked off seats.
What makes this story a little more interesting is that those seats, according to a sign posted next them, had been set aside for a party coming from Bing Crosby's.
When the Bing Crosby's women arrived and saw others sitting in what they believed had been their special seats, words were exchanged. Pretty heated words. Shouting, arguing. The yelling continued as the previews began.
Someone must have called for the manager, because the previews were shut down, and a Century employee came into the theater to break up the fight, which my friend thought could turn into some bitch slaps and hair pulling.
The manager approach the squatters in the Bing Crosby's reserved seats and told them that if they didn't leave, he would call the police.
Reluctantly and angrily these women complied, relenting to the claims of the Bing Crosby's folks.
Everyone settled in finally... My friend, though still keyed up about what she saw, was able to relax and enjoy the movie. She added that she is aware that critics had slammed it, but she figures that if men can have their Ironmans and Judd Apatows action and juvenile male comedy blockbusters, women can have their Carrie Bradshaws and Meryl Streep romantic comedy blockbusters.
