The Insider: 'New Moon' drama accented benefit gala

By Terry Morrow (Contact)
Originally published 06:03 p.m., November 18, 2009
Updated 03:42 p.m., November 19, 2009

'The Twilight Saga: New Moon' stars Kristen Stewart, left, and Taylor Lautner, right, pose for the media at the Regal Pinnacle Stadium 18 during the Variety - The Children's Charity of Eastern Tennessee benefit screening on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2009.

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Here is the final word on all the backstage scoop revolving around Knoxville’s “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” benefit screening earlier this week:

Waiting game. Fans waited for hours to catch a peek at stars Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner at the movie’s benefit screening in Knoxville Tuesday night — but the stars were running late. What happened?

Stewart had a last-minute change of heart about what she wanted to wear. On the other hand, Lautner had no such fashion emergencies.

He was wearing a gray suit with a black shirt. Though delays caused the stars to be almost an hour late, they made up the time by cutting back the glad-handing with VIPs and slicing back time with media.

In all, the screening for “New Moon” only started a half-hour late. And as soon as the two stars made brief comments during an opening ceremony, they were off to New York City to prepare for a full day of interviews.

Past Bella’s bedtime. Poor little Kristen Stewart looked very tired when she came to the “New Moon” benefit screening in Knoxville. She had been traveling all day, and her journey was not over yet. After making nice with Regal executives, other local VIPs and then taking a time to say hi to fans, Stewart looked very weary.

Slim pickin’. Meanwhile, Taylor Lautner, who plays the muscular man-wolf Jacob in “New Moon,” was surprisingly not all hulked out when he showed up for the event.

Oh sure, he’s 17 and probably works out all the time (yes, ladies, it was like looking in the mirror), but he was much trimmer in person than I expected.

And by the way, he’s very mannerly, very personable. I think if we were neighbors I’d ask him over for a Saturday afternoon of video games. I’d also ask him to wash my car and charge admission when he took his shirt off.

Short leash. Some members of the media were complaining after being made to wait for hours on the stars to arrive and having their interview times slashed. Instead of 10 minutes with each star, each media outlet was only allowed a couple of questions.

According to an online report, the same thing happened to Ryan Seacrest during the Los Angeles premiere on Monday night.

No dating zone. Despite reports to the contrary, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner did not bring dates with them to the Knoxville premiere.

Though wags were declaring Robert Pattinson would be there, he, of course, was not. Also, reports that Taylor Swift would swing by were grossly out of line. Yes, Swift has better things to do than crash a small screening event in Knoxville — when she’s never publicly admitted she’s dating Lautner anyway.

The sea of freaks and geeks who attended the benefit were all talking about seeing Jessica Simpson and Miley Cyrus, too. However, neither Simpson nor Cyrus were there. (Well, maybe Cyrus was: After all, she is a master of disguise on “Hannah Montana.”)

Amateur gossips, turn in your badges.

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Terry Morrow may be reached at morrowt@knoxville.com or 865-342-6445. His blog can be found at blogs.knoxnews.com/telebuddy/. He contributes to “Live At Five At Four” on WBIR, Channel 10, and “The Marc & Kim & Frank Show” on WWST-FM, 102.1.

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