LITTLE ROCK — DAYLIGHT, STAR BRIGHT: This columnist settled inside Little Rock’s Capital Hotel last Saturday to people-watch before a rally that drew musicians and an A-list movie star to town.
High points? A sighting of Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder and a brief chat with late Beatle George Harrison’s son, Dhani, who absent-mindedly paced the lobby as he spoke on the phone clipped to his ear.
Meeting Dhani, it was breathtaking to see how much he resembles his dad - especially his eyes.
Mostly, the scene was low-key and quiet, save for a growing buzz and scurrying about at 4:30 p.m., when word came that mega-movie star Johnny Depp was about to arrive.
No sweeping entrance through the brass front doors for him, though.
Instead, he slipped in through the side service entrance. But when it came time to traverse the two blocks to Robinson Center, instead of catching a limo, this Hollywood leading man hoofed it.
CONFLICTING INTEREST?
This comes from the “Things that make you go hmm...” department regarding last Saturday’s benefit concert for Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, convicted as teens of the May 1993 murders of three 8-year-olds, Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers, and James Michael Moore of West Memphis.
Last week, someone who’d volunteered to assist with public relations called this paper’s city editor to pitch an interview with singer Natalie Maines (Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder wasn’t giving interviews).
The volunteer helping with PR? Arkansas Times journalist Mara Leveritt, who wrote the book, Devils Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three.
Anybody else see a problem here?
FIVE YEARS LATER:
For the first time since forming after moving to Little Rock from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina’s Aug.
29, 2005, flood, members of the New Orleanians to Little Rock group didn’t gather on this most recent anniversary.
Instead, they met the next night at the Rave theater for a last-minute, single screening of Harry Shearer’s The Big Uneasy.
Here’s hoping the film on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ role in the flooding and the problems remaining has a wider audience in the future.
DOGGONE IT!
The hunt is on for another lost dog, this time via a display ad in this paper.
Rhythm, a female black and-white mixed-breed slipped away from her owner, longtime local entertainer and TV personality Betty Fowler (KRTV’s, now KATV, Betty’s Little Rascals) at Palm and Kavanaugh in Hillcrest. If you see Rhythm, call (501) 225-4883 or (501) 766-4444.
OOPS:
Linda Howell of Haunted Tours of Little Rock provided Paper Trails with the wrong number for her business; her number is (501) 681-3857.
Paper Trails appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Contact Linda Caillouet at (501) 399-3636 or at lcaillouet@arkansasonline.com.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 09/01/2010