Baz Luhrmann's "AUSTRALIA" world premiere [UPDATED]

[UPDATE]

This morning, in a fluke, I told Kim to SMS an entry into a competition, and we WON two free passes to see the public premiere (26th Nov) of "AUSTRALIA" at the Fox Studios Entertainment Quarter's Hoyts La Premiere (yeah, check out how nice this "luxury cinema" is - click here - "personalised in-cinema waiter service [and] enjoy complimentary popcorn and soft drink" - how cool is that?!).

Ok, so back to the original blog post...So, it wasn't until after I [Brad] had arrived in Artarmon off the train this morning for work that I realized I left our camera at home.  Luckily I borrowed a point 'n shoot from someone at work - however, it nearly proved fruitless, as I quickly realized cameras using over the shelf "AA" batteries don't cut it if you're attempting to pass as a paparazzo as they take forever to write data to the card and get back to the point you can shoot again (lets call it the "orange flashing light of death", or OFLD for short, shall we?)  I plowed through 3 pairs of AA's and only took 24 - 5MP stills...how does that work?

View looking down the largest red carpet ever laid out for an Australian home grown movie premiere, just outside the Greater Union on George Street, Sydney.

Sam Neill (Jurassic Park) and David Ngoombujarra (finally found his name)

So, Nicole Kidman came right by me a couple different times (I stood eye to eye with her, she's quite tall), but as I took a shot, someone would invariably get in the way, and by the time the OFLD finished and let me snap another, she was down the carpet further...

I yelled out "Mr. Jackman", and Hugh came by and I got to shake his hand.  We're pretty much the same height...tall fellow

Keith Urban turned around from signing autographs and came straight for me and shook my hand (maybe because I was the tallest and stood out?).  What do you say to someone famous?  I told him, "hey, thanks for flying down to Sydney for 24 hrs" (as I knew he and Nicole were only in Sydney for literally, 24 hrs, and then flew right back to the US - man, they must be hating the jetlag - probably fell asleep mid-way thru Baz's 2:45 film (yup, "AUSTRALIA" is 2 hrs and 45 mins at the time of this writing, Baz is, however, still editing of course, much to many a Fox exec's dismay :)

Seemed like no one knew who Miranda Otto was, so I blurted out her name, and she turned and waved to me 

The only decent snap I could pull off of Hugh and Nicole doing round two back down the carpet.  Hugh stopped by again and shook my hand (yeah, twice in one night, weird).  I really wanted to say hi to Baz Luhrman (the director of the film), whom you can see over Hugh's right shoulder, but, blame it on the OFLD and the fact that Baz was running late and he sped walked up the red carpet.  I did yell out "Baz!" after he had passed, and he turned and grinned (my claim to fame), but kept walking

Jennifer Hawkins, (2004 Miss Universe) stopped and flashed a peace sign for me.

Needless to say, I was surprised at how accessible these "stars" all were.  I mean, the fact that Hugh came and shook my hand twice???  And Keith Urban came up to me?  It really makes it just feel like they're regular people, which was great.