I knew I would love Enough Said.  It had my name written all over it. Besides, it was written and directed by Nicole Holofcener, director ofWalking & Talking, Lovely & Amazing, Friends With Money, and Please Give, four movies I adored. My sister worked on the production of Lovely & Amazing, and I went to the NYC premiere and even met her briefly. Her films speak volumes to me and to other women. They’re smart, female-driven stories about flawed individuals like you and me. They’re snippets from real life and are completely relatable.

There are so many things to love about this film – from Julia Louise Dreyfus’ departure from Elaine on Seinfeld, the character we most equate her with, Holofcener’s brilliant cast of supporting characters such as Toni Collette and Catherine Keener – one of the director’s staples and an Indie film favorite, an honest look at aging and relationships, and most of all, James Gandolfini.  As soon as he entered the story, my heart sunk, knowing this would be the last time I would see the great actor on screen (although he certainly leaves behind a legacy). Little did he (or we) know when he made this film that he would be delivering his final performance, and it’s stupendous.  It’s a quiet yet revealing portrayal of a man looking for love.  Totally anti-Tony Soprano.  Holofcener is brilliant in her casting choices and this one was no exception, clearly having taken a chance on him in his first romantic comedy.

For her protagonist, Holofcener chose Dreyfus as Eva, who is in nearly every frame of the film. She’s a divorced masseuse (apparently Holofcener gets massages and got story ideas as a result from her masseuse) in her 50s with a daughter who’s about to leave for college.  She meets Albert (played by Gandolfini) at a party early in the film, when they both declare that they aren’t interested in anyone in the room.  He’s not her typical type, but he also has a near-grown daughter and they have that in common.  So when he asks for her number, and calls her for a date, she’s not excited but he’s a nice guy, and her best friend (played by Collette) tells her she has nothing to lose.  At the same party, she meets his ex-wife, Marianne (played by Keener), a poet and free-spirit.  After several massages, the two women become  fast friends…close enough to talk about former relationships and Marianne takes constant digs at her ex-husband.  According to her, he’s fat, bad in bed and boring.  There’s a big reveal about who the ex is and it impacts their friendship in a very big way (Big reveal: Albert is Marianne’s ex-husband!). The rest of the movie is spent exploring Eva’s set of morals. Does she come clean to the former couple or not after discovering their connection or does she continue to have her opinions about the man she’s falling in love with poisoned?

I always find something in Holofcener’s movies to relate to.  In Please Give, my husband couldn’t believe the comparison between me and Keener’s character, and her desire to give to the poor. She always writes brutally honest about relationships and how people demand to be treated, and her female characters always struggle with the same issues we all struggle with (choices, sex, work, dating, balance, parenthood, marriage). In Enough Said, she looks carefully at marriage and having kids and how it changes our lives; what it’s like to live with and for our children for 18 years and watch them leave one day and be left alone; at the choices we make and the influence our friends and family have over our decisions; at what it’s like to be left and/or leave someone with a broken heart. Whether you’re married or single, there’s no easy choice.

As always with Holofcener’s films, I found myself laughing and crying. When Eva’s daughter leaves home for college, after insisting on flying cross country alone, leaving her parents in the airport along after spending 18 years together and separately after their divorce, my heart sank and I burst into tears thinking of the day my own kids leave home.  When Eva and Albert start to have problems (that come as a result of her friendship with Marianne who’s information seems to be poisoning a very solid relationship), I found myself rooting for them to stay together.

Most of all, I found my heart aching for more of Gandolfini, in this film and in real life.  With his warm smile and gentle disposition, his portrayal is so real, honest and romantic. I found myself wishing Eva would go with her heart and not her head as you can’t help but fall in love with his character. He’s a softy (who know Tony Soprano had such a gentle side?). I can’t even begin to think about the performances we will never get to see Gandolfini play, but this is the perfect performance to have to end his legacy which we will have forever.

Disclosure: This is a Fox Searchlights Pictures production.  I did not work with the company and all opinions are my own.

On May 24th, the creators of Ice Age present their latest film Epic, which will be released in theaters nationwide.

I had a chance to interview the a few of the actors and find out what they thought about their characters after I attended the New York City Premiere. I also got to speak to director Chris Wedge and covered some of his thoughts on the film in my post about walking the green carpet. The funniest parts of the interviews came from actors Aziz Ansari and Chris O’Dowd. They play Mub and Grub the snail and slug comedy duo in the film. Considering that these are both comic actors you can just imagine what happened at the interview. This was their first blogger roundtable interview and they had a lot of fun with it. Aziz had worked with director Chris Wedge before in Ice Age: Continental Drift so this was a project he was happy take on. Chris O”Dowd admits he wasn’t sure at first, but after meeting director Chris Wedge and seeing the early designs of the movie he just knew he wanted to be part of this magical world. This was O’Dowd’s first time in an animated film. Although for most of the movie their characters are together they actually recorded the voices separately. They had one session together and then O’Dowd did the rest in Ireland where he was on the set of another movie. I have to say their characters really steal the show. Who knew you could fall in love with a slug and snail?!

The next round of interviews was with actors Colin Farrell and Amanda Seyfried. Colin plays Ronin the leader of the Leafmen and father figure to Josh Hutcherson’s character Nod. Farrell also admitted that after meeting Chris and his team and getting a first hand look at the visuals got him on board to play the part. He loves the environmental message the script portrays in this battle of good versus evil. Colin joked about rolling around in the forest before coming into work to get him in the mood. He also answered some tough questions about lose and being a single parent since his character Ronin deals with similar issues. Seyfried’s character,M.K., is a strong willed teenage girl that also just lost her mother, something that Seyfried says she can’t imagine. When asked if she could relate to the character Seyfried said, “….this girl is somebody I can relate to because she’s very headstrong and honest and wants to know what it is she’s about.  And, I’m struggling with that every day.” An interesting insight to not only the character of M.K., but to Amanda herself.

Epic opens in theaters May 24th, 2013

Disclosure: All assets were provided by 20th Century Fox. I have not been compensated and all thoughts are my own.

Milena Barrett is a freelance writer and owner of Be Your Best Mom.com where she offers her readers reviews, giveaways and a smidge of real life parenting stories from her life.  She enjoys photography, art, and has a love/hate relationship with exercise. She lives in New York’s Hudson Valley with her husband, two sons, and neurotic cat.

And indeed it was.  We got dressed up, a rarity in my house.  We went into Manhattan on a Monday night, another rarity for us.  We entered the most lavish hotel and were shown to the cafe where we were treated like 5th Avenue residents.  With the cover noted as $135 per person, you would expect it to be full of people in mink coats.  And that’s who was there. Fortunately, they do allow standing room only for a much lower price, and film students and younger people came in at the show’s start and lined the walls.

I was one of the many seated to hear Woody Allen live in person, and our view was impeccable.  We splashed out, ordered a bottle of wine and enjoyed the night.  At approximately 8:35pm, Woody walked in to join his band and I buzzed with excitement.

For years, he has been playing New Orleans Jazz Band with his band on Monday nights. I’m not particularly a Dixieland Jazz fan, but put Woody Allen in the band and I’m more than interested. They played just over an hour and my ears and eyes were fixated on my film hero and I grooved to the beat.  It was a phenomenal night and one that I will never forget. For your viewing pleasure, here are a few videos I shot:

I highly recommend that you go see Woody and his band now.  It will cost you a pretty penny, and make sure you are prepared so that you dont’ have the shock of your life when the bill comes.  For me, seeing Woody play was on my bucket list and now I can cross it off. And Woody, good luck on Sunday night! I’ll be rooting for you.

Disclosure: I covered all my own expenses for this experience.

The film is about a strong friendship between a boy and a horse.  Their bond is fierce and when they get separated at the outbreak of World War I, the film focuses on both of their experiences until they are reunited.

The cast is made up of an interesting group of English actors, including the fabulous Emily Watson, who I have loved since discovering her in Breaking the Waves and Hillary and Jackie.  I was thrilled to be in her presence this afternoon and to learn about her experience shooting the film and her career. She was pretty much what I expected her to be like – very down to earth and like someone I’d get along with really well with.

In the film Watson has one line that stands out in particular.  “I will hate you more, but I will never love you less.”  She repeated that line at the start of the interview, per the interviewer’s request, and said that it resonates with any mother.  In the film she plays the boy’s mother with conviction and love.

She said when she was contacted by Spielberg to be in the film, it was a “wonderful day” in her career.   She is very appreciative of being in this film.  She had seen the play at the National Theatre before she had anything to do with the film, when she was eight months pregnant with her last child.  She found it to be incredibly emotional: “In Britain, every family has a story.  When my grandmother was in her 80s, she told me about her brother who was 17 and died in the trenches.  That kind of grief is very powerful and that is why they created the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Britain that everyone could believe was their boy.  It created a kind of poetry.”

On the experience of working with Spielberg, she said, ”He is one of those people utterly compelled to tell stories.  I’ve known a few in my life and it’s a very, very special thing.  He’s awake all night worrying about a shot.  He’s a student film maker, he’s so excited to be doing it.  The great film makers are philosophers in a way, they have a view of the human condition which they give to you through their storytelling.  This is a great, big, beautiful, lush cinematic piece, a love story between a boy and a horse but it quietly looks down the barrel of man’s inhumanity.  The fact that we as a race were prepared to sacrifice millions of young men, a whole generation of Europe was wiped out for nothing.  This was the context through which this film took place.  It was hell on earth.”

On working with the horses Watson said it was a lot easier than working with actors, which made me and everyone in the audience laugh.  They don’t answer back have a real “spirit that you can’t repress”.  We learned that there were fourteen different horses on set.  The scene at the beginning where she is berating her husband for buying a plow horse, it means they are going to lose their house.  Throughout the scene, the horse was nibbling his act, and she was like, “This is my moment!  Please stop that.” She said that all the actors laughed a lot while shooting the film.  She was afraid of horses at first, but that her fear subsided throughout the making of the film.

On being a mom, Watson said that having a young family requires a lot of patience, it’s “testing”.  Her biggest battle is consistency and really being present, really being in the moment. But she loves every minute of it.  When asked about traveling with her kids, she said it’s hard and remembered a very funny story.  On one trip with her kids, even though they were sitting in business class, her daughter started projectile vomiting – all over the place, during the entire trip.  Her mother panic’ed, didn’t know what to do and it was a disaster.  It helps to sit in business class when they’re traveling for work…especially when someone else pays.  You have to love her honesty.

Of course, I asked her about what it was like to be plucked out of obscurity by Lars Von Triers and cast in Breaking the Waves, one of my all time favorite films.  She said the first thing she did was to go off the dole, which made me laugh, and that it changed her life.

But Watson said she lives a very normal life.  She lives in London, doesn’t have a film life.  She is quite domestic, running after children all day, taking them to school. She  limits their TV and tries to instead keep them reading and pursuing other things.

The difference is that she gets to shoot these epic films.  Look for War Horse in your town in a few weeks time.

Disclosure: I was a guest of Moms and the City for this special event.  All opinions expressed are my own.

One of the first posts I wrote on this blog was about the book, Sarah’s Key by Tatania de Rosnay.  I described it as “a very sad, haunting book, whose images and impressions will linger with you long after you’ve set the book down. De Rosnay is a brilliant story teller, and she certainly had an important story to tell.”  There was so much about the book that I appreciated, particularly that De Rosnay was able to bring an important story to the mainstream public.  Even I had never heard of the Vélodrome d’Hiver round-up, when thousands of Jews were rounded up and taken into a stadium for days with no water, toilets or food and then to a transit camp where they were housed being deported to the German death camps.  What is so shocking about this story is that they were rounded up by the French police, not the Nazis.

The story is explored by weaving a story of the past about a little girl whose family was part of this round-up into the present.  Sarah was a French Jewish girl who lived in Paris during the Holocaust, and when she and her family were taken away, she hid her brother in a locked cupboard, hoping to save him, and making him promise not to try to escape.  It becomes immediately clear that she is not able to return for some time, and she lives in fear, thinking of him constantly, clutching the key in the palm of her hand whenever possible.  Later, after she escapes the camp and returns to the apartment, she finds her brother dead.

Julia is a journalist in Paris who is researching the events for a story in the magazine that she works for, and while exploring these atrocious actstaken by the French, learns that the apartment that Sarah and her family were forced out of is the one she about to move into, hence their stories intertwine.

The book moved me to no end. I couldn’t put it down.  It had me in tears on nearly every page.  As an adult who still suffers with what happened during the Holocaust, I could completely relate to Julia and her own personal agony and obsession in finding out what happened to Sarah.

When I found out that a film was being made based on the book, my curiosity was heightened.  How would the story translate to the screen? Would it work as a film?

For the most part, I’d say “absolutely”.  I was engrossed from the film’s start.  Director Gilles Pacquet-Brenner makes each part of the story interesting and relevant to each other.  I remember when my book club discussed the book, many of the members said they had trouble with the modern context of the story, while I quite related to how the character’s life was being impacted by this horrific part of history.  The narrative about the past is so heart-breaking that when each part of the story fades out to bring in the modern story, it is almost a relief.  I had to catch my breath and move on, until the film went back in time again.  There was a lot of attention to detail in the making of this film – sensitivity to the plot line, casting, costumes, and cinematography – and they achieve an effective result. The scenes in the stadium and concentration camp are riveting and very upsetting.  When Sarah escapes the camp with a friend, they find salvation in the arms of a French couple. Her friend does not survive, but Sarah lives with them her whole young life.  The scenes between Sarah and her new parents, not by either choice, are important.  At one point, they shield her from the Nazis and it is clear that she is about to be raised by a loving family.

The actual issue of the round up and ignorance of the French weren’t explored as deeply as they could have been, and though I understood what the film was trying to do, I did not cry as much as I could have.  In the book, every which way Julia turns, she is met with disdain from the French when she is researching what happened to the Jews in Paris during World War II. In the film, she isn’t met with any resistance.

Julia gets pregnant in both the book and movie, and her French husband has a hard time accepting parenthood at such a late stage of life.  In the book, he is actually having an affair with a woman and the storyline is pertinent to why his relationship with Julia is falling apart.  It also gives her even more determination to keep the baby and pursue what is important to her, in terms of finding out the truth behind his family’s involvement with forcing the Jews out during the war.  The film does not address this point, but we do see their marriage unraveling.  Perhaps this information would have given their falling out more meaning.

Also, in the book and the film, Julia and Sarah seem to be developing a relationship near the end of the book, and this seemed to make the story more Hollywood than it needed to be. Perhaps this could have been mitigated in the movie.

As for acting, Kristin Scott Thomas plays Julia, who goes back and forth from English to French with ease.  She is so skilled as an actress, and gets better with every film.  She is quite believable as a woman coming to terms with the past and present, and I can not imagine anyone else playing Julia.

The two French actresses that play Sarah are really good: Melusine Mayance and Charlotte Poutrel.  Ms. Mayance plays the younger Sarah and handles every scene with poise.  The pain and agony of discovering her brother in the closet are so extreme and her scream is so piercing, that when we met the elder Sarah, played by Poutrel, there is no wonder that she, too, is haunted forever.  She barely speaks, but we understand why she feels the way she does and why her life is haunted by so many ghosts.  We do find out what happens to Sarah, with the help of Julia’s clever journalistic abilities, and it is not a Hollywood ending.

Source: The Guaridian

One of my favorite actors makes a brief, but important, appearance.  That’s Aidan Quinn, who plays Sarah’s son.  At age 49, he has never heard about his mother’s past as a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust, until he meets Julia. His performance is spot on, as usual, and his face brilliantly conveys his hurt of never really knowing his own mother whose fate was dictated by her horrible experience during World War II.

However, overall, I think the film set out what it needed to do: express the pain and unravel an often neglected part of French history that the world needs to be aware of.  The director, who is friends with the author, clearly cared enough about the story as much as she, herself, to bring to the world with grace and dignity.  After over 60 years, we must never forget nor let the world forget, and this film puts us one more step in that direction of preserving the memory of the 6 million Jews who were murdered savagely during the Holocaust.

I had a feeling I’d like this movie.  I read the book by Kathryn Stockett last year and finished it in 2 or 3 days.  I couldn’t put it down.  Born and bred in the south, I’ve always had a keen interest in racial relations.  I related strongly to the character of Skeeter.  When I was growing up, there were still remnants of this period lurking around Atlanta.  I rebelled against anyone who had racist tendencies.  I remember being glued to the mini-series Roots: The Saga of an American Family.  

But I admit I was queasy about seeing a film where black women play maids.  It’s a stereotype we don’t need to perpetuate.  But the film is much more than that.  It addresses civil rights, female equality, being a mom, infertility, domestic violence, class issues, gender relations and most of all, it’s about an important part of history that we can’t ignore.

In the book, the maids do everything for the white women – they cook and serve meals, change diapers, wash clothes, clean the house, clean up shit.  What in the world were they doing, you have to wonder?  Going to Junior League meetings, making sure their maids don’t sit on their toilets and ignoring their own children.  The maids are basically raising the children, and the mothers could care less.

Skeeter is the character I remember most in the book.  She’s played by Emma Stone.  Right out of college, she takes a job at the Jackson Journal. She has dreams to become a journalist and writer, at a time when most women got married and had children.  Her mother, played by Allison Janney, tells her, “Your eggs are dying.  Would it kill you go on a date?” But she’s not interested in following her friends’s footsteps, and she comes up with the idea to interview the maids her friends are employing.  She pitches her story to a publisher in NYC, played by Mary Steenburgen, and sets her goal to make writing about a novel happen.  Her first interview request goes to Aibileen, played expertly by Viola Davis, who then sets her sights on Minny, played by Octavia Spencer.  I read that Spencer is a newcomer, and I find that hard to believe.  Her performance shoots through your heart.

But interviewing the maids is not as easy as it sounds.  During the time of the Jim Crow Laws, which Skeeter studies, black people can’t talk to white people honestly.  The punishment could be too severe. But after several incidents that make their blood crawl, the maids start to speak.  When they have had enough of being bullied by Hilly, played by Bryce Dallas Howard, they let their secrets out.  Hilly is responsible for having her friends put colored bathrooms behind their homes.  She’s mean.  She’s a nightmare, but she’s not the only one.  All the white maid owners are bullies.  Some are influenced by Hilly to be bullish but nonetheless they are guilty.

Aibileen and Milly share lives of pain.  Milly has an abusive husband and a house full of children who can’t escape his torture, and Aibileen’s son was killed several years earlier.  The white women they work for don’t help at all and they are made to feel small and worthless.  With Skeeter, they laugh, they share, they hope for a brighter future.  What they are doing is dangerous, and we are not sure whether more maids will come tell their story until well into the film.

I cried a lot, I have to admit, but I also laughed.  Sissy Spacek plays Hilly’s less snobby mother who mocks her repeatedly in front of the maids and provides relief from their sadness. Cicely Tyson’s performance as Skeeter’s former nanny, brought a smile to my face, though her scene is very brief and very sad.

I have to recommend this film to you.  For one thing, it’s a faithful adaptation of the book.  For another, it’s a film FOR and ABOUT women and it stars amazing women.   Every member of the cast clearly cared about this story and put their heart into their performance.  My advice: bring tissues and prepare for a well acted and well told story, and a heart-wrenching two hours.

Disclosure: I was a guest of Dreamworks for a preview of  The Help but all opinions expressed are my own.

Kodak is providing a pair of tickets to see the film to a Culture Mom reader!  One Day opens in theaters on August 19th and your free tickets will be redeemable virtually everywhere, with the exception of AMC movie theaters.

All you have to do to win is leave a comment below.  Please be sure to leave an email address or Twitter handle IN YOUR RESPONSE below (this is important!)

Winners will be chosen at August 15th at noon.  The winner will have 24 hours to accept the prize or it will go to the runner-up.

Disclosure: Giveaway courtesy of Kodak.

Here’s a clip from the film:

When I was asked to take part in a conversation with Andie MacDowell this week, I was thrilled.  She is an actress I have grown up with and adore.  To come face to face with one of your life long heroes is pretty amazing.  I was told I’d be on a phone call with a few other bloggers and would be allowed to ask a few questions, so I asked about her film career, balancing motherhood and her career, on being an advocate and bringing culture into her children’s lives.

Do you have one famous person that you’ve been told you look like your entire life?  For me, it’s actually Andie MacDowell.  I have similar curly brown hair and when I was younger, and she had one popular film after another from Four Weddings and a Funeral, Ground Hog Day, Green Card, Sex, Lies and Videotapes and so many others, it was a constant comment from strangers.  And what a compliment it was.  When I was living on the Upper West Side, we saw her pushing a stroller with her husband at the time.  It was a moment I’ll never forget.

So, talking to her yesterday was like meeting an old friend.  I’m also from the south.  She’s from South Carolina, I’m from Atlanta.

I also recently just saw her in the new film Monte Carlo with Selena Gomez, out July 1st.  She plays her mother.  It’s a small role, but I’m glad she’s back.  She’s got a lot in the works coming to the big and small screen this year, and we talked about that, her children, how she balances work and family, and more.  She was very honest and candid.  Here are my favorite pieces from the interview:

How have you balanced your career and motherhood?

MacDowell: It’s always a challenge for any working mother.  And there were moments that I would say to my kids, I can’t do this any more, I don’t want to work any more.  My girls

Source: Zimbio.com

in particular would say no, we’re so proud of you.

And as it turns out, I think my kids will be working moms. That’s going to be their choice of what they want to do with their lives.  The generation that I came from was sometimes harsher on women making that choice.  I think times have changed.

I think being a stay-at-home-mom is a lovely choice.  But, having the option to be able to have a career and feel good about yourself as an individual and still be a great mother is definitely a possibility.  It takes teamwork.  My kids learned to be independent. We had rules and regulations, and everybody had to work together.

And all of them can cook.  That’s one wonderful benefit is everybody learned to cook, so they were very helpful.  They were really good kids.  And now, they’re doing their own things.  They’re very independent.

What can you could share from your experience of raising three teenagers and do you feel like you’ve been a different parent with a different parenting style for that younger child?

MacDowell: It all happened perfect for me because I had my son [Justin] first.  And I was 28 when I had my son, and he just was a handful.

I lived in New York at the time. I remember taking him to the park, and he would be on the edge of his stroller rocking the stroller as we got there.  I had to have the fanny-pack on my waist before I released him, basically because I had to run. And then, I had Rainey, two and a half years later, and same mothering, I did everything exactly the same.  She was just a different person.  So, I do think they come with a personality.  And she was one of those laid back kids.  You would stroll them in the stroller and you would say, come on, let’s go.

By the time I had Sarah Margaret, she was somewhat of a mixture of the two of them.  But, I had help because she had an older brother and an older sister.  And they really did help.I remember Rainey changing Sarah Margaret’s diaper and giving her a bottle.  It was like her baby doll.  So, it all worked out great.

I actually had seen an interview with you about Monte Carlo that you were really impressed with the teens in the movie. I would love for you to share the story of how you were sort of thinking of yourself when you started out and how these girls are also really at the beginnings of their careers.

MacDowell: Right, they’re at the cusp is what I would say. Well, I was very impressed with Selena.  I have my 16 year old that has watched her on television for years, so she was in our living room.  And you never know with kids that grow up working in the business what they’re going to be like.  But, her mother did a beautiful job with her.

She is just such a lovely young lady, very kind and professional.  And it was fun.  I went to dinner with all of them, and just watched their energy.  I could remember what it was like to be that age and to have the world before you and to be working on a movie that was huge.  I think they all realized that they had scored big time by getting these jobs in Monte Carlo.  They were very excited and happy. There was a lot of joy on the set because they know that they were working on something really special.

And Thomas Bezucha was just a great director and April Blair is a beautiful writer. It was just a magical experience.  The movie’s a magical experience, and making it was one, too.

You’ve been in so many incredible movies – Sex, Lies and Videotape, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Groundhog Day, Green Card, so many of my favorites.  What film experiences are you proudest of and who are your favorite leading men?

Source: IMDB.com

MacDowell: Not that I’m not proud of the movies that have gotten the most attention.  But, I think because the ones that were highly commercially successful, people always remember them.  I favor some of the ones that maybe got overlooked because they didn’t get the attention that I felt they deserved like a movie I did with Diane Keaton that she directed called Unstrung Heroes is one of my favorite movies and my kids love this movie that I did called Shadrach with Harvey Keitel that Susanna Styron directed.  It’s William Styron’s daughter, and it was taken from a piece that he had written.  And they loved that movie.

I did a movie called Harrison’s Flowers, which was a really difficult role for me.  And I loved the movie Crush.

And so, there were some of the movies that I did that were smaller independent movies that I think were substantial that didn’t really get the same kind of attention. I’m really thankful that I did them.

And who were some of your favorite leading men or even directors?

MacDowell: –John Malkovich.  I did a movie called Object of Beauty, which was also a little rather obscure.  But, he was amazing to work with.  He loved to try to make you laugh.  I mean, he was so comfortable.  He is so good at what he does that everything was different and it was always fun.

Monte Carlo is kind of a girlfriend adventure that these girls got to have, and so I wondered, what is your favorite way to connect or to spend time with your girlfriends today?

MacDowell: Well, my sister and I belong to a hiking club here.  We are doing this challenge where you have to do 40 peaks over 6,000 feet.  It’s very specific peaks.  So, you have to do bushwhacking.  It’s not an easy achievement.  It’s less than 200 people that have achieved it.  And so, I’m doing that with her recently.  We did a two night overnight trip where we did nine peaks over 6,000 feet in two and a half days.  And it was really hard.  But, that’s a bonding experience that you will not forget, I promise you.  So, I’m doing that, and I’m really thankful that my sister got me involved in that.  There’s also 100 waterfalls that she wants to do and 100 fire towers, so I’m going be doing a lot of hiking.

I have a great group of friends that I do yoga with.  It’s a completely different group.  And I do a lot of teacher training, yoga training, just because it really helps me calm down, keeps things in perspective.  It’s not just a physical experience for me, but it’s a spiritual experience. I really enjoy doing that, too.

Are there any books that you’re reading, your favorite summer books, or have you had time to unwind to do that?

Source: www.anusara.com

MacDowell: I belong to two book clubs.  One of them, I haven’t been great about showing up.  One of them is a yoga book club.  I’m reading something called Exquisite Love, and it’s written by a teacher that teaches at Davidson [William K. Mahony].

But, I did finish Shantaram.  Do you know this book, Shantaram?  My gosh, I think it’s 900 pages.  So, I started reading that. It’s by author Gregory David Roberts.  It takes place in India.  It’s fabulous.

In Monte Carlo, the locations and the backgrounds and the colors are so beautiful that it’s such an inspirational movie.  For people who want to travel or maybe have thought about doing it, it seems as though this could be a movie that could make them want to book some tickets. Are there any places that you’ve traveled to that you would like to travel to again or that are kind of on your top two or three that you would recommend people visit in their lifetime?

MacDowell: Oh, wow.  Okay.  I’ve been to a lot of different places in Africa. And I loved Egypt. I thought that was just a fascinating experience.  I loved Paris, oh my gosh.  Who doesn’t love Paris?  I mean, it was just unbelievable.  Prague is a really sweet little city.  It’s like a miniature Paris.  I just went to St. Petersburg, Russia and was pleasantly surprised at how beautiful it was.

But, this may sound corny, but it’s really the truth for me – I love any of the beaches in North Carolina and South Carolina. There’s a place called Edisto, which looks like you’ve gone back in time because it’s so remote to get to.  It’s kind of hard.  It’s off the beaten path.  So, there’s no modern construction.  You have to drive down this two lane road, go past all these trees that are covered in Spanish moss to get to this tiny little island.  And I think it’s one of the most beautiful places I’ve been to, and it’s right here in the Carolinas.

When your kids were growing up, did you take them to a lot of cultural experiences, concerts, theater, etc. and sort of nurture that interest?

MacDowell: Yes.  They were going to museums when they were two before they could really even understand what they were experiencing.  But, they grew up loving art and going to musicals and plays.

And actually, when we lived in Missoula, they started studying acting.  They had a wonderful children’s theater group in Montana, so they started dancing, taking dance and piano.

And since they were tiny, they were exposed to the arts. Rainey has some kind of a strange gift. I can’t do what she can do.  It’s as if God blew air in her lungs.  She has lungs like you wouldn’t believe.  Sometimes God blesses people with particular talents, and that was hers.

What are some roles you would like to tackle over the course of the next like couple of years?

MacDowell: I think the great thing about what’s happened with me this year is I’ve had the opportunity to work on Monte Carlo, which I think is going to be a huge success.  It’s very well done.  It’s beautifully directed, beautifully written and very well acted. It’s nice to be in movies that people will actually see that are huge commercial successes.

I was talking earlier about some of my favorite movies that were more obscure, but it’s important to be seen in movies that people go to and have a commercial success.  Also, having the opportunity to be in Footloose was I think a really big coo for me.  I’m so thankful that I got that job. Again, I got to watch the director direct it because I had a smaller part.  I got to watch how he orchestrated it.  He was just so talented and so gifted.

And I love Kenny Wormald [Ren MacCormack in Footloose].  I knew Kenny Wormald because my daughter’s a dancer.  I’ve known him for years in the dance world.  He worked really hard.  I think he had 12 auditions to get that role.  And Julianne [Hough], of course, everybody loves her and knows that she’s a gifted dancer.  So, it’s fun to be in these movies.  Even though my role may be smaller, it’s fun to be in movies that people are actually going to see.

It’s great.  And then, I’m going to be working on an ABC Family television show called Jane by Design that happens to be written by the same writer as Monte Carlo, April Blair.And the role for me is perfect.  I play an editor that’s sort of like a little bit like The Devil Wears Prada.  And the young girl that they’ve hired to play my assistant is Erica Dasher, just does a great job.  She has great comic timing.

So, it’s fun right now.  I’m working with a lot of young kids, young energy.  It’s a really interesting time for me.  I don’t know how to project out to next year.  I think I have so much happening in the present, I don’t know that I can jump ahead and even project for what I want for the future, but just continue to work.

I enjoy my job.  It’s my creative outlet.  And now, particularly as my children are leaving, it’s important for me to have something to do that makes me feel as if I’m enjoying my life.

And when I work, it’s part of my life.  I like to do other things, as well, but work is a big part of what brings me pleasure.

Well, I know that you do a lot of philanthropic work, as well.  I’d love to hear about some of it and if you feel like your celebrity status has helped to make certain issues, bring them more to the public eye.

MacDowell: Yes, I enjoy very much doing philanthropic work.  I think it’s important.  I get a lot of attention.  And I’m actually, believe it or not, somewhat of an introvert.  I’ve had to learn to be an extrovert.  And fame was not something I really anticipated.  It’s not like you can take a Fame 101 class and learn how to handle the attention you get.  But, I do think that if you can take that attention and turn it and use it and shine it on something that has value and that you find worthwhile, then it all makes sense.

I admire L’Oreal’s experience with ovarian cancer, and I not only do it on a national level, but I work locally with ovarian cancer.  I also help out the community in the arts a lot.  I really enjoy dance because my daughter dances.  So, I support the arts in my community locally.

Habitat for Humanity, I donated enough wood off of my ranch to build a couple of houses.  And it was great, because I actually had the family come back and they replanted trees.  And that was a really nice connection because you could really feel that you had made a difference in someone’s life.

I really like it when it’s personal, when you can actually meet the people.  I’ve met a lot of people that have ovarian cancer and worked directly with them.  And that’s very satisfying to actually see that the fame has a really big purpose that you can use it for something positive.

I wondered if you traveled with your kids a lot when they were younger, whether it was on fun vacations or just trying to visit family, and if you have any tips that made that easier or just some stories about seeing things through your eyes.  You mentioned culture, and so it’s exciting to be able to share something with the kids and see something new through their eyes, as well.

MacDowell: Yes. I think it’s always fun when you get to take someone with you and you don’t have to do a trip alone.  And I was really lucky.  I got to take my kids.  You know, they went with me when I made Four Weddings and a Funeral.

We went to all the museums together.  We walked all around London, did all the regular tourist things that all the other tourists did, and the same as in Paris.

My youngest daughter [Sarah Margaret] fell in love with Paris so much that she plans to move there.  She wants to be bilingual.  That’s her dream.

Mostly, I think I would say that I enjoyed our simple vacations, which were done with all of my family where we would go to the beach, either in South Carolina or North Carolina such as Polly’s Island. We would go to Polly’s Island, Debidue or Edisto or some place like that and get a house.  And all my sisters would come down and my dad.

And those memories, the simpler times, were the fondest.

Well, you were obviously talking about living in South Carolina.  I love the fact that you have sort of stayed close to your roots.  And can you share how that’s had an impact on your kids, by really staying close to home instead of moving to Hollywood?

MacDowell: Well, I wanted my kids to know my family.  I mean, I grew up knowing my cousins, and I wanted my kids to have that experience.  And it really turned out great.

My youngest daughter and my sister’s daughter are the same age, and they went to school together from the age of four until she left.  She went to North Carolina School of the Arts last year, but they went to school together.  They have this just really beautiful relationship.

And I wanted them to know what my roots were like. I really admire a lot of things about the culture here about as far as manners and we have some old fashioned things here that I really enjoy.

And also, at the same time, I wanted their lives not to be about my career.  I wanted it to be about whatever was happening in their lives and for the focus to be on normal things and not to be about my job.

And it was interesting because they really did turn out well.  My work was never the focus of what we were doing.  It was always whatever was happening in their lives.

And I was a great dance mom.  I did the dance circuit with my daughter, my son’s basketball too. That’s what we were doing, and it was a lot of fun.

Disclosure: I was asked by the team at 20th Century Fox to be on the call with Andie MacDowell.  I was not compensated for this interview but I was given total freedom on asking whatever questions I wanted and was able to post whatever part of the interview I chose to.

Monte Carlo, a new film starting Selena Gomez, is hitting theaters nation-wide on July 1st.  I saw it last week at a special press preview with my daughter in tow.  You can read more about that here.

When Grace (played by Selena Gomez), a new college graduate, and her best friend (played by Katie Cassidy) and step-sister (played by Leighton Meester) get to Paris, they check into their not very nice hotel and set off on an organized tour around Paris.  They hit the Louvre, Notre Dame and, of course, the Eiffel Tower, where their tour bus leaves them high and dry, leaving behind while they admire the city’s views from the top.  What transpires after that is a fairytale.  Each one of their lives is transformed during their week long stay in France.  When Grace is mistaken for a Princess, Cordelia Wintrhrop Scott, the three head to Monte Carlo and steal her life, wearing her clothes, staying in her palatial hotel room, even romancing her potential suitors.  They each experience major changes and their lives will never be the same again at the film’s end.

Two of my favorite actresses are in this movie – unfortunately, I guess I have entered the middle-age , since both women play older roles.  Andie McDowell plays Grace’s step-mother, and the fabulously funny Catherine Tate plays Cordelia’s aunt Alicia who has doubts about Grace’s identity from the get go, particularly when “Cordelia” pretends to care about the children’s charity she’s in Monte Carlo to support.  She’s hilarious and I loved every scene that involved her.

The movie has its charms; it also has its cliche’s and predictability.  But for a romantic at heart like myself, I didn’t care.  My 8YO daughter and I enjoyed it immensely and found all the actors charming.  I highly recommend it for kids ages 7 and up, but I’ll actually be taking my 6YO when it comes out.

Right now you can win an official  mini poster from Monte Carlo on the Culture Mom, and a Fandango $25 Gift Card!.

All you have to do to win is leave a comment below and join The Culture Mom Facebook page and leave a comment here (or let me know you are already a member).  Please be sure to leave an email address or Twitter handle IN YOUR RESPONSE below (this is important!)

Winners will be chosen at 9am on Thursday, June 30th at 9am.  The winner will have 24 hours to accept the prize or it will go to the runner-up.

Disclosure: The mini-poster and Fandango gift card were provided to me free of charge for this promotion and I was not paid any compensation.

Giveaway courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox.

We’re headed to France in a few weeks and my 8YO daughter has been very non-chalant about the upcoming trip.  Sometimes I wonder if taking my kids around the world since they were a few months out has impacted their love of travel.  In the weeks before we leave, they both complain about leaving their friends and everyday lives behind.  As soon as we arrive in our destination, they tend to be as happy to experience new sights and sounds as much as we do.

When I received the invite to screen a preview of the film Monte Carlo (out July 1st) and a chance to attend a press conference with Selena Gomez and get a chance to interview her, I was intrigued. For one thing, my 8 year-old daughter adores her.  For another, it takes place in Paris and Monte Carlo.  What better way to introduce her to the beauty of Paris than a major film with her favorite star?!

Yet I was hesitant to ask the publicist if she could join me.  How professional would that sound to ask if i can bring my daughter?  So, when just a brief amount of time later, I got an email inviting her, as well, I accepted gladly.  While I have lived in NYC for quite a while now, I’ve met many celebrities (having worked in TV), yet my daughter has yet to have her first major celebrity encounter.  When she got into the car that very afternoon, I asked her, “Who’s your favorite singer?”  Her immediate answer was Selena Gomez.

The morning of the film, we woke up bright and early to attend a screening of the new film, Monte Carlo, in the city.  I’ll feature a review of the film later in the week, but I can tell you that it was really enjoyable.  After a recent onslaught of terrible feature films for kids, or at least the ones I’d seen, I was glad to see one that we could both enjoy.  Selena Gomez plays Grace, an ordinary girl who becomes an accidental princess when a family summer trip to Paris turns into the fantasy of a lifetime.  Living like royalty, Grace, along with her two best friends, discovers who she really is – by assuming another person’s identity.  The movie is a fairy tale come true, and it appeals to that side of me, and for my daughter, it appealed to her love of Selena and watching someone go out into the world.    Needless to say, she loved it – even at 8am in the morning!  The cast is stellar and includes Selena Gomez, Leighton Meester, Katie Cassidy, Cory Monteith, Andie MacDowell and the fabulously funny Catherine Tate.  Nicole Kidman was one of its producers.

After the film, my daughter’s feelings were very different about our upcoming trip, particularly after discussing the city with Selena Gomez and Leighton Meester.  We’ll get to that in a minute.  Meanwhile, here’s the trailer from the movie.

After the screening, we were led to a press conference in a nearby hotel.  We were told Selena and Leighton would be joined by the fabulous Cory Monteith from Glee.

We sat in the first row, surrounded by reporters from CNN, BBC, People Magazine and of course my fellow bloggers joining us that day: NYC Single Mom, Kidsvuz and Coast to Coast Mom.  When they did come out, we were up front and personal.  My daughter was a little too shy to ask a question during the press conference, but we knew there would be another opportunity.

My daughter shot the entire press conference.  You can probably tell, the videos are slightly shaky.  But she felt like a real reporter, it was her job.

After the press conference, we were taken into a suite in the hotel where we gathered with all the other media to await our room number for the interview we’d be performing with our colleagues. When we walked into the room, I saw that two chairs were set at the end for Leighton and Selena (Corey had to leave early to rehearse for the “Glee” concert that night in NY, so I told her to sit at the end of the table.  Right I was, Leighton sat right next to her.

The two actresses could not have been any nicer.  There were 5 bloggers and a small group of kids.  The kids asked questions, we asked questions.  They were candid and lovely.  My daughter was literally pinching herself.  After all, she was sitting at the same table as two women she had just seen on the big screen.  Here is a photograph of our group – my daughter is the very smily one in pink:

The interview was really fun, a real  journalistic experience for the kids.  My daughter actually asked the first question.  By the way, this was a very kid-friendly interview.  There were no questions asked about Justin Bieber, so if you’re looking for that, you’re in the wrong place.  Here’s the transcript:

Olivia:  My name is Olivia.  I loved your song.  What is your favorite song that you sing?

Selena Gomez: Well, thank you.

My favorite song would be Who Says.  I think that the message of that song is probably the most meaningful song I’ve recorded.  And I feel like it should be an anthem for everybody.

Kid Reporter: What inspired you to sing?

Selena Gomez: I was actually named after a singer.  I would sing a lot around the house, and I loved entertaining people.  So, I think music was kind of always in my blood.

Blogger: Who are you named after?

Selena Gomez: Selena Quintanilla.  She was a Chicano singer based out of Texas.

Isabel: Hi.  I’m Isabel.  I’m from KidzVuz.com and I was wondering what your favorite costume was in Monte Carlo.

Selena Gomez: My favorite would be all of Cordelia’s clothes.  She was very high fashion and it kind of matched her personality. I thought it was really fun to dress up.  The heels were very painful, but they were very fun to kind of create Cordelia’s demeanor.

Maddie: I’m Maddie from KidzVuz.com, and I want to know, what was the most challenging part of both your characters in Monte Carlo?

Selena Gomez: I think with Grace, it was just trying to find that she was very comfortable with herself, but at the same time, she wanted to break loose.  It was very hard for me to kind of make that transition.

I’m very loud on a set, and I like to make everybody laugh and just be myself.  So, it was very hard for me to contain that and be very straightforward.

As for Cordelia, it was hard to be mean.  I was looking at these people’s faces and having to just be rude was really hard for me, because every time I’d be mean, they’d say cut, and I’d say “I’m so sorry.”  I hated saying that to people. It was fun, though.  It was good, and it was different.

Sophia: I’m Sophia from KidzVuz.com and I was wondering how nervous are you before filming a movie?

Selena Gomez: Very.  But, you know what helps is going in and making a complete fool of yourself.  And then, you can start filming.

I feel that if you just let it all go and everybody already sees you as kind of, okay, she’s embarrassing herself, that’s who she is, it kind of lets you be lose a little bit.

I’m very nervous in trying to prepare, and the first day of shooting is really nerve wracking.  But, by the second week, you’ve got it down and you’re just kind of enjoying it.

Right here, Mr. Trump?

Danny: What apps or games do you play on your phone?

Selena Gomez: Love it, I love it.  Of course, I play Angry Birds because everybody in the world plays Angry Birds.

Kid Reporter: Not my mom.

Danny: Me, too.

Selena Gomez: Donald Trump here was asking me about my favorite apps and games to play on my phone.

Leighton Meester: Yes.

Selena Gomez: Leighton gave me the Doodle Jump game.

Leighton Meester: Yes, Doodle Jump. It’s really addictive.

Selena Gomez: And Scoops, which is the ice cream game where you kind of have to catch on your iPhone.  And then, she also gave me the Moron Test, which is really funny.  It’s not a very nice word, but it is very fun to play because you kind of test it yourself.

I got all my games from Leighton in Budapest.

Leighton Meester: Yes, and now I’ve banned them for myself because all I will do is just sit there and play them and then be mad when I lose.

Blogger: Okay.

This is for Selena.  I know you didn’t plan on being a role model, and you’ve embraced this role. Do you think about doing things differently now or where you go, what you say?

Selena Gomez: No.

Blogger: Do you think about it more as you’re just yourself?

Selena Gomez: Yes.  Like you said, I didn’t necessarily sign up for it.  I didn’t say, okay, my job title should be I want to be a role model.  But, once I had the title, I did embrace it, and I was very aware of my audience.

I’m pretty normal. I have a great mom, and she’s always keeping me in check.

Blogger: Woo.

Selena Gomez: So, yes.

And I’m very lucky.  I know my audience.  I would never want to do anything that would offend you, and more importantly, I’d never want to do anything to offend the moms.  So, I don’t have to tippy-toe, but just kind of do my own.

Kid Blogger: What is one of your favorite places that you would like to go back to?

Selena Gomez: When we were was shooting the movie?

Kid Blogger: Yes.

Selena Gomez: I want to go back to Corinthia.

Leighton Meester: Yes. It was fall when we were there.

Selena Gomez: I want to go back there. It was the hotel that we stayed at in Budapest.  It was really nice.  The pool was really fun.  They have a steam room with stars.

Did you go in the steam room, Leighton?

Leighton Meester: Yes.  The steam room was fabulous.  Remember, we saw each other in there after about 20 minutes?  We were just lying next to each other–.

Selena Gomez: –Oh, yes–.

Leighton Meester: –And I looked over and said, “Selena?”  You said, “Leighton?”  It was dark in there, so we didn’t even know we were in there at the same time.

Selena Gomez: I forgot.  Good times.

Blogger: The movie has such like an inspirational like message around travel, especially around high school and college age.  Do you anticipate that you’ll see people asking about visiting Monte Carlo who previously may not even heard of it?

Selena Gomez: You know what’s funny is someone in an interview told me that probably a lot of people are going to want to go to these places.

Leighton Meester: Definitely.

Blogger: You’ll have to write a book, Monte Carlo on a Budget.

Leighton Meester: That’s not possible.

Blogger: Right.

Leighton Meester: It’s going to be impossible to go.

Selena Gomez: It was really hard.  But, it was absolutely stunning. I hope it encourages people to travel.  I think travel is very good for you.

Blogger: How do you deal with fame?  For example, is it hard to go out publicly in New York City or even in France?  Did people recognize you?

Leighton Meester: Actually, very rarely.  We were working a lot, so any sort of audience that we got was people watching us film, which is I think fascinating regardless.

Selena Gomez: We don’t think they knew who we were.

Blogger: No?

Selena Gomez: I think they were just wondering what was going on.

Leighton Meester: Yes, as if there’s a big circus around.

Blogger: How about in New York City?

Selena Gomez: Well, Leighton gets a lot.

Leighton Meester: So very rarely.

Selena Gomez: Really?

Leighton Meester: Very rarely.  And I love anybody who is a fan.  Generally, my fans are amazing young women, so I enjoy talking to them and it’s an awesome part of my job to have such cool people who even know who I am.

So, that’s fine.  And being recognized is good.  It means that you’re working.

Blogger: This is a question for Leighton.  I think you’re funny.  Are you gonna do more comedy?

Leighton Meester: Yes.

Blogger: I love your opening scene. I thought that you’ve got to do more comedy.

Selena Gomez: ­She is so funny in real life, too.

Leighton Meester: I’m starting a movie that is not for children.  It’s with Adam Sandler, and I’m starting it in on Monday in Boston.  It’s called I Hate You, Dad.

Blogger: Yay, good.

Leighton Meester: It’s very, very funny.

Olivia: I’m going to Paris in a few weeks.

Selena Gomez: Yay.

Olivia: What were your favorite places?  And did you like the food?

Selena Gomez: We have to hook you up with our guy named Dave.

Leighton Meester: Oh, yes.

Selena Gomez: There was a really cool Chinese restaurant that we went to. I went there like two or three times.  It was so good.  You might see our picture there.

Leighton Meester: Yes, we took a picture of it, and this was sort of an inside joke, but we wrote underneath the picture Momte Carlo because we called each other mom on the film.

Selena Gomez: For some reason, we always called each other “Mom.”

Leighton Meester: Yes, because I would ask her,
“Did you drink some coffee or do you need some coffee?”  She would ask me too. We were just each other’s mom.

Selena Gomez: It was nice. Obviously, you need to go to the Eiffel Tower.

Leighton Meester: You need to eat crepes.

Selena Gomez: Oh, yes, eat some crepes.

Leighton Meester: Crepes is what it’s all about.  Croissants, too.

Selena Gomez: Pastries.

Leighton Meester: Probably not espresso, but it’s really good over there.

Selena Gomez: Hot chocolate.  Hot chocolate’s really good.

Leighton Meester: Hot chocolate is good.

But, even just walking around in Paris, you don’t even have to go to the sites.  It’s a historic city, so every building is so old, and every little like café is beautiful.  It looks right out of a post card, you know?  So, anywhere you go–.

Selena Gomez: –Take lots of pictures.

Leighton Meester: Take lots of pictures and just enjoy yourself.

Selena Gomez: ­Can we come with you?

Leighton Meester: Yes.

Alex: I have one for Selena.  How do you like being on Wizards of Waverly Place with all the other stars?

Selena Gomez: I miss it a lot.  We ended the show about five weeks ago but, it’s still on air.  The last episode has not aired yet, so you will find out who’s going to win the wizard competition.

Alex: My name is Alex.

Selena Gomez: Oh, it is?  Who do you think’s gonna win?

Alex: Justin probably.

Selena Gomez: Really?

Alex: Or Max.

Selena Gomez: Okay, okay.

You’re probably right.  The cast was great.  I loved my cast.  They were so great to me.

Blogger: This is a question for both of you.  How do you guys relax during your spare time?  What do you guys like to do?

Another Blogger: They do this. They’re relaxing when being interviewed by hundreds of journalists.

Leighton Meester: Yes, this is relaxing.

Selena Gomez: If I have a lot of time, I like to go back to Texas.  I like to just relax and go home, see my family or sleep and watch movies.

Blogger: Nice.

Leighton Meester: I like to do that, too.  I like to go back to Florida and spend time with my family.  And I like to write, and I like to cook.  When you can sleep, it’s good to sleep.

Kid Reporter: How old were you guys when you first when you first started doing movies?

Leighton Meester: When did you start, Selena?

Selena Gomez: I started acting when I was seven and then just kind of kept going since then.

Leighton Meester: You’ve really been working.

Selena Gomez: A little bit.

Leighton Meester: I started when I was 11, and that’s really young, too.  But, I worked a little bit and then would spend a lot of time going back to Florida, and then work a little bit. I had a lot of normal time, too, not working.

Kid Reporter: This is for both of you.  What’s the best part about being famous?

Selena Gomez: I think being able to travel and do what you love is very rewarding, having really awesome fans and just kind of enjoying beyond young and exploring.

Leighton Meester: I’m not trying to get too cerebral here, but I think it’s a really good character study on when you meet people, and you get to meet all kinds of different people.  I get to meet, for example, people like you, and then we go out and we work with actors and directors, and I work with musicians and producers and all these different people. That’s really fun because you get to just study people and see what they’re like.

And then, another really fun part is that I’m exactly the same.  When I go to Florida and be with my family, they ask if I can take out the trash.  And I have to do it.

Kid Reporter: What was your favorite thing to do in the movie?

Selena Gomez: I would probably say, everything I did in the movie, I liked playing Cordelia.  I really liked playing her.  She was fun.  But, I loved spending time with Leighton and Katie [Cassidy].  All the scenes that I had with the girls were a blast.  I just had the best time with them.

Selena Gomez: Aw.  That’s it?  Is that it?  Thank you.

Leighton Meester: Thank you, guys.

Blogger: Thank you.

Leighton Meester: You guys are so awesome.

Blogger: You guys are awesome.  Thank you.

Ms. Selena Gomez: Thank you so much.

Ms. Leighton Meester: Thank you.

There you have it.  My daughter now can’t wait to get to Paris to eat crepes, drink hot chocolate, visit the Eiffel Tower….and eat Chinese food!  All we had to do was meet Selena Gomez to get the excitement going.  Stay tuned for a review of the film, Monte Carlo, tomorrow and for a giveaway for an official movie poster and movie passes.

Disclosure: I was a guest of Big Honcho Media at the screening, press conference and interview to facilitate this blog post.  I was asked to cover the film and event but no opinion was asked of me.