SportsHollywood / A Happy Place
Sundance
Film Festival Gala and Police Raid

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PARK CITY, Utah - Robert Redford's Sundance Film Festival is recognized internationally as a showcase for the best in new American independent film, and the World Cinema program of the Film Festival presents new works by today's most innovative international filmmakers. More than 20,000 people from around the world attend the Sundance Film Festival, and millions more see films developed through annual programs held by the Sundance Institute.

Film Festival
There was some sort of film festival going on, too, but we didn't pay too much attention.
Yeah... Whatever. Mainly it's an opportunity to ski and go to parties. And we, your favorite celebrity whores at SportsHollywood, did our part.

A Happy Place Productions and your very own SportsHollywood teamed up to throw one of the most talked-about parties at the festival (and at the police department). You may have even read or heard about this one in the national press (can you say "Temporary Restraining Order?" That's how big it was). It was covered by everyone from Entertainment Weekly to CNN to Tiger Beat... and probably soon on Court TV. But here's what they didn't tell you....

Sam Adams
When the SportsHollywood / A Happy Place party was first in its planning stages, there were two major questions of the day:

  • "What beer distributor could we get to give us free beer?"
  • "Who's the right band to entertain the guests?"

    We knew that any evening which included seeing film studio and record company executives nearly naked in a hot tub would require a lot of beer, and our good friends at Samuel Adams were lightning-quick in helping us out with Question #1.

    But then, there was strill the dreaded Question #2 to deal with...

    Tiffany
    Tiffany (photo credit: Ron Davis)
    ... The band had to be current, but not too trendy, like all the other bands playing around Park City; Mainstream, yet fun; Retro, yet hip; We were stuck...

    ... "Until We Saw Her Standing There." You can imagine our surprise when we heard that "I Think We're Alone Now" maven Tiffany wanted to perform at our party! The teen pop idol that SportsHollywood board member Rich Hull had once mooned over at a Houston shopping mall rock concert as a lovesick teeny-bopper! Those days of covering his walls in Tiffany posters and scribbling "Mr. Tiffany Darwisch" all over his textbooks in high school had never left Rich, and we knew fate was sending us a strong message.

    There was but only one incredible choice...and it was obvious (everything seems obvious after drinking about a dozen bottles of Sam Adams). Besides, it was either that or have one of us sing, and that would have brought the police down on us too early.

    Tiffany
    "I (Don't) Think We're Alone Now:" Tiffany performs for the partygoers.
    The guests were a who's-who of SportsHollywood friends and family, including Babyface, *N Sync's Lance Bass, actors Leelee Sobieski and Jesse Bradford, Academy Award nominee and Slamdance bigwig Justin Henry, former Miss South Carolina and Passions star Kathryn Hancock, and various celebrities from the TV, film and music worlds who will sue us if we mention their names. Hundreds of incredibly hot girls were there...and maybe an exotic dancer or two... And we even saw SportsHollywood's very own sales manager, Karen Bailey, take her first drink!

    Kathryn & Karen
    Actress Kathryn Hancock and our own Karen Bailey head-butt in the mosh pit during "I Saw Him Standing There."
    The party marked the announcement of a new Miramax movie which begins production in March, starring Bass and fellow *N Syncster Joey Fatone. The movie, On the Line, will also star a host of professional athletes, pop stars and movie stars. And it'll be produced by SportsHollywood's Hull, (who also produced screenwriter and SportsHollywood subscriber Lee Fleming's She's All That, and the upcoming Kirsten Dunst movie Get Over It), Wendy Tholakson (former exec from Tom Hanks' Playtone Company), Bass, music mega-manager Johnny Wright, long-time music attorney and guru Joe Anderson, and legendary Hollywood hipster Andrew Panay. Really groovy studio exec Robbie Brenner (can you tell we like her already?) will oversee the movie for Miramax.

    Leelee
    Actors Leelee Sobieski and Jesse Bradford.
    The romantic comedy is about a young man (Bass) who is on a Chicago train when he has a chance encounter with a girl he thinks may be his soul mate. He doesn't get her phone number, so he and a friend, played by Fatone, try to find her by putting posters up all over town. In the process, the two become local celebrities. It's currently being rewritten by the writing trio of Jonathan Bernstein, Mark Blackwell and James Greer. It is based on a short film, On the L, written by Eric Aronson and Paul Stanton. Eric Bross, who filmed the USA cable movie The Chippendales Murder, will direct.

    Bass, Tiffany
    Tiffany fishing for Lance Bass of 'N-Sync, who says "Hi, Hi, Hi."
    Production is slated to begin in March, and the film's soundtrack will be released on Jive Records, 'N Sync's label.

    Cut to the party: While a certain SportsHollywood-er crashed-and-burned (Rodney Lee hitting on Leelee Sobieski -- she's 17, dude!), Tiffany and her acoustic band totally rocked the house. The crowd loved her (Rich Hull was visible in front of the stage, squeezed into his old "'Hold An Old Friend's Hand' Tour" T-shirt). Lance Bass then jumped onstage and performed with Tiffany as revelers partied well into the night in the dance hall, bar and jacuzzi. Sam Adams flowed, Rodney Lee got slapped by more actresses, and everyone sang, danced, and partied..

    Tiffany and Lance
    Tiffany and Lance rock out onstage as the police pound on the front door.
    ... Until the police delivered a 'Temporary Restraining Order', preventing any further parties for the week. Apparently the neighbors were a bit ticked off that the several hundred partiers were still going at sunrise... which is usually a quiet time around Park City, I guess.

    Whatever. We had a great time...and so did everyone who came. Thanks to all those who made it a really great, fun, exciting, noisy, obnoxiously loud, dangerously illegal time! (And no, we're not posting anybody's bail.)

    And don't forget...sign up now for SportsHollywood's free newsletter for a chance to win an invite to the next SportsHollywood shindig. The next arrest could be YOU!!!

    Photos by Karen Bailey; Report by Jeff Hause

    "ON THE LINE" EXCLUSIVE FEATURES

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