WENDELL, THE WILSONS, AND THE W

As we previously stated, Stephanie and I went to the Dallas premiere of “The Wendell Baker Story” last night at the Inwood Theatre. Luke, Owen, and older brother Andrew were all in attendance (Andrew and Luke directed the film, and Luke and Owen starred in it), as were Harry Dean Stanton, Seymour Cassel, and Dallas attorney-turned-actor Steve Stodghill (by the way, way to go Steve.) After the jump, our synopsis of the evening.

Not that we are movie critics, but we thought “The Wendell Baker Story” was a cute romantic comedy with a Texas twist. References to Dallas were made and of course, since the film was shot in Austin, tons of nostalgia for Austin-loving viewers. You could tell the film had heart in it.

As the crowd packed into the theater, we noticed that Kate was indeed there, and sitting next to Owen and family. We tried desperately to get a glimpse of what she had on, but could only see her heavily highlighted blonde locks from our seats. Alas, after the film was over and we rushed to the ladies room, there she was — sweet and adorable Kate Hudson — holding the bathroom door for us to come in. We all stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to say if anything. No one said a word (or thank goodness, took a photo). She kindly held the door and waited patiently with the rest of us. Sarah even supplied her with some toilet paper when she discovered her stall had none (Yes, I grabbed some TP AND HANDED IT TO KATE HUDSON). She was wearing a very of-the-moment white trapeze-style mini dress with 3/4 length sleeves and Christian Louboutin leopard print patent pumps.

After that bit of excitement we headed down to Ghostbar, with visions of FrontBurner readers in our heads. We wanted to get a quote for the blog from the Wilson trio. We were not in ANY way trying to flirt with them, hang out with them, or be annoying. We had no tape recorders, notepads, or anything else reporter-ish. Just two girls hanging out. (We should mention, before the movie, Luke was hanging out in the Inwood Lounge, chatting with everyone. Being very friendly. We heard him saying hello to Alan Peppard right behind us, and he couldn’t have been more gracious. We had every reason to think he was Mr. Nice Guy). We get up to the Ghostbar and it is madness. There is a huge mob of people around Owen and Kate the ENTIRE time they were there. Note to Dallas: Chill out. I know this was exciting, but following around movie stars in a club and flashing 10 million cell phone pictures makes us look very small town. There is a way to look, and be discreet. Learn how.
Anyway, we avoided the mob and went out to the balcony, where we saw Andrew. We were sitting close to where he was standing, and when the moment seemed right, we tapped him and introduced ourselves. Andrew was wonderful. Sweet, humble, engaging…everything we would expect from a Wilson brother. He thought the script for the movie that Luke had written was great so that was inspiration enough for him to help direct it. They love Austin and the movie was really written for that city, so that is why it was filmed there. He comes to Dallas (as his parents live here) from time to time and has in fact been to Ghostbar before. He currently resides in Santa Monica. We talked to him for no more than five minutes before he was grabbed away by someone else, but he was definitely making a point to be nice to everyone and field questions from reporters and strangers like us.
Riding on this high, we ventured back inside. Owen and Kate were gone, but Luke was there. We were actually on our way to the door when we were pretty much forced right into his path. Steph and I looked at each other and nodded. This was our moment. We walked a couple steps toward him (just as handsome in person, no surprise) and Stephanie said in her sweetest voice, “Hi Luke. We’re Stephanie and Sarah, and we work for D Magazine. We were hoping to ask you a couple questions?”

Pause. Pause. He’s not looking at us. I wonder if he heard her. He is looking down. Finally, he speaks.

“Uh, not right now.”

With that, he pushed his way past us, and headed back into the mob.

We sat there in stunned silence. Did that mean later we had a chance? Was it something we said? We got the total Luke Wilson brush-off. Deflated, we went to talk to some friends and learned that Luke had been less than friendly to some of them as well, none of whom were reporters, just regular people trying to meet him.

We really thought that a Dallas guy coming to his hometown to premiere his movie would be a little more gracious to local press. We’re sure it’s a beating to answer questions all the time. We would never have taken up more than 3 minutes of his night. Honestly, we are a little disillusioned. We know, that’s Hollywood (at least that’s what everyone was saying last night). But we always imagined that Luke would be humble, grounded, and polite. Guess who was? Andrew. That’s why he’s our new #1 Wilson.