Bend it like Beckam
Tonight I was supposed to spend an evening at home with the dog, reading and listening to music. Instead I came home early, went to the gym, wolfed down a grilled chicken sandwich and went to see a preview showing of "Bend it like Beckham", an incredible comedy combining Indian Weddings with English Football (soccer if you prefer). The film grossed 11m pounds at the box office or 17m dollars and was made in 35 days on a budget of about 3m pounds, 5m dollars according to the writer and director Gurinder Chadha who gave a Q&A session after the preview by Fox Searchlight pictures held at Phipps Plaza in Atlanta. The film is good fun and should do well based on the remarks of most of those in attendance. It stars Parminder K. Nagra, the lovely Keira Knightley(see photo or more pictures) and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (it's only fair I should include a link to his fansite). Good for British film-making and good for Bollywood, which helped inspire Gurinder. Her next piece is a Bollywood style musical encompassing British, Indian and American musical styles in a remake of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.
The funniest story of the night came from a friend before the movie who made no obvious objections to me passing this on. My friend Simon (not travelling Australia Simon but the Brit in Atlanta) told me about his date last Monday with a girl we met in the Darkhorse on the Saturday before. He called her after getting her number and had arranged to meet at 7.30pm at the Soho Cafe in Vinings. As he arrived at 7.15pm he was horrified to see the bar was closed and was beginning to feel like this would be a bad date since he didn't feel to great to start with. A large BMW pulled up outside and Simon was mortified to see the girl inside with leopard skin pants on, lots of make-up and chatting on a Betty Boop cellphone ushering him to the car. She detached herself from her call and instructed him to get in. He got into the car thinking her a little forward and her BMW span away to find another restaurant, with her still on the phone. He was really not interested at this point since what he had seen was not his type by any stretch of the imagination. As she hung up the phone she introduced herself as Mimi. This is the point where I would have loved to see Simon's face. The girl he was waiting for was not called Mimi. Explaining the terrible mistake it turns out that she was set up for a blind date by a friend with a guy who wasn't called Simon. Since she had never seen her date before she just asked him to get in. They span back to Vinings to the restaurant and per Simon's request she pulled up around the back so he wouldn't be seen stepping out of another girls car by his date.
Mimi pulled around the front and as Simon walked back around he met a guy who looked equally dismayed. He asked if he was waiting for Mimi. Yes. Simon explained and pointed out the BMW out front. The other guy pointed to another car close buy indicating that she was Simon's date. They both got into their respective cars and drove off for a rather embarrassing first date, with the ultimate ice-breaker as a conversation piece. Classic.