It's the morning after and Wall-E was great -- both the movie and the bot. Akhil and his team spent a long, painfully warm day prepping at the "faded red carpet." (They were going for a space-like, reddish dirt effect.) When I saw him he was crouched in a tent, on a headset, getting ready to send Wall-E back out into the open again. They'd gone through about 48 Gatorades and 3 changes of clothes by then.

I took Kendra with me and we hung around outside the theater to see who we could spot. Not too many celebs, just the cast and a ton of kiddie-show stars, like Zac and Cody and that Brenda Song girl, plus Marlee Matlin, Brad Garrett, David Archuleta (American Idol runner-up), and a lot of "So You Think You Can Dance" judges, which is weird, cuz that's on Fox.

Wall-E posed with his castmates, Sigourney Weaver, Fred Willard, Kathy Najimy, John Ratzenberger, etc..., who had fairly tiny parts since there was barely any dialog in the film. Nice gig if you can get it. We were right up against the rail for photo opps, with them and with Pixar execs John Lassiter and Andrew Stantion (director).

The movie itself was cute and clever, moved right along - reminded me somewhat of the few "silent" episodes they did with Bugs Bunny. I love the social commentary; just wish they would've put their money where their mouth is and actually made the premiere green! All those styrofoam props... There's a great Peter Gabriel song for the soundtrack. The after-party was just up the hill at the Griffith Park Observatory, which was completely open, even had a midnight Planetarium show! What a beautiful view. Fittingly, because there were hundreds of kids at this thing, they served plentiful kid-friendly desserts like bakery-made twinkies, devil dogs, and ring-dings plus bon-bons, tarts and cookie pops, and were giving away stuffed versions of Wall-E and Eva. Now life gets a little more chill for a couple of weeks. However, Akhil is off to Europe for international press right after that. He's exhausted. Much more exhausted than he deserves to be. But the robot is great -- I'm proud.

The big secret's been out for a while now, Akhil's latest robot project. But finally, yes finally, the premiere of Wall-E is nearly here, and our real life *might* get back to normal soon.

While he's been zipping around the country and the city as Wall-E's "handler" in the press, I've been learning how to live like a single gal again. Only in the last few weeks has it started to become fun, as I've found a number of other work-widows to play with at my own job, and among friends I never knew wanted to get out of the house so bad.

My big payoff for a year of patience (ok, I wasn't exactly patient about it)... is that I get to go to the Wall-E premiere too, which is this Saturday night at the Greek Theater here in L.A. The Greek is an outdoor theater, Greek style, of course, built in 1929 in Griffith Park. The after-party, which we hear is dry (odd!) is at the newly renovated Observatory up the hill. It'll be my first time getting anywhere near a red carpet and not having to work, too. In the past I was touting a laptop around in my heels or proofing last-second press releases. This time I just hang. If only my date were free as well... alas, still more Wall-E handling to do.

Amidst the chaos I did manage to throw Akhil a surprise brunch for his 40th (40th!?) birthday. 30 people gathered at Firefly in South Pasadena, including his parents, and amazingly, he was genuinely surprised! I have to recommend the place -- what impeccable service. And the cake I ordered from Whole Foods was delish. (See pics).