Lots of star sightings at Sundance

Monday — Today was a busy day. I left the condo at 7:30 a.m. to attend an 8:30 a.m. screening of "Smart People" starring Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker and Ellen Page. It's a sweet film and one that I hope we can get it for our festival. Then it was on to a screening of "Phoebe in Wonderland" with Felicity Huffman and Elle Fanning . . . a look at a young girl with OCD.

It's 4 p.m. and I'm standing in front of the restaurant Zoom about to enter the Picturehouse party when I see Dr. John Welch, our original president of the festival board of directors, get out of a car in search of the box office. I take him down to the box office so he can pick his tickets up and then get back to the party. Inside I meet up with fellow producer Keri Nakamoto and chat up Peter Levine of the Creative Artists Agency. He is Bill Macy's agent and CAA is repping the film, helping to sell it at the festival.

Peter is also working with us to help bring in some talent to the festival. Since this is the eight or ninth party I have attended in four days, I see the usual suspects that I've talked to at all the other parties. From there it's over to the Heineken Lounge for more sushi and a party that remained a mystery. I never found out what it was for.

When I woke up in the morning it had been snowing outside and a fresh blanket of snow covered everything. The trees were covered with the stuff and everything just sparkles. Now that it's dark outside and there's a full moon, all of the snow is shining and Keri and I are in a shuttle driving up the old mining road to the Stein Erickson Lodge. It's a beautiful mountain resort and we are meeting two producers and two investors in our film who want to discuss other potential projects.

Turns out one of the producers is Matt Battaglia, an old friend from Los Angeles, who I have not seen in 15 years. Matt has been a successful actor who is now turning to producing films. Frank Patterson, the dean of the Florida State University Film School, and Paul Cohen a well-known distributor now join us for a dinner meeting.

The restaurant was full of stars and industry people, with Jodie Foster sitting only a few tables away, Fisher Stevens at the front of the dining room and Adrian Grenier of "Entourage" at another table a few feet away. The food is great, but I'm exhausted . . . it's now 11 p.m. and I've got to try to catch a cab and fight the traffic that is attending the Variety party next door.

I'm annoyed with Variety because I'm usually invited to that party because the Festival spends a fair amount of money with them to advertise and it's a great networking party for industry. Oh well, I'm too tired anyway and have to get some sleep. I have to wake up at 6 a.m. to get in line to try to get a few extra tickets for "The Deal" which will be released at the box office at 8 a.m. — Jody