Prairie Home Comes Home

Parade to Exchange Street
Everyone loves a parade. Nobody more than Garrison Keillor, who, along with Robert Altman, the eighty-one-year-old director from Kansas City, led the charge up Wabasha Street from Rice Park to the Fitzgerald Theater in horse-drawn carriages to unreel their film, A Prairie Home Companion, for its Midwest premiere in the very building in which it was filmed.

Following a high school marching band, Keillor and Altman arrived at Exchange Street with a mounted police escort and helicopters whirling overhead. They seemed humbled by the crowd and the greater attention avid fans showed for stars Lindsay Lohan, Virginia Madsen, Lily Tomlin, and Meryl Streep.

Keillor cuddled his daughter, who was glamorous and striking in her role as the daughter of Minnesota's most famous bard, and appeared down-to-earth in the midst of the abnormal chaos surrounding the Fitz. Humility is the calling card of this master storyteller from Anoka.

The significant difference between a patriotic parade along Main Street and this St. Paul parade is the hardcore celebrity-watchers and autograph-seekers. If you thought that you might see how celebrities interact with common folk, you are quickly reminded that there are no longer common folk in age of fifteen-minute fame and highly sought-after media attention.

Red Carpet at the Fitz
First to appear on the red carpet is St. Paul mayor Chris Coleman, who comes straight from city hall after bypassing the parade route up from the Saint Paul Hotel. He is accompanied by his daughters and an aide. "Mayors are a dime a dozen," one of the star-infatuated fans dismisses. But this is Coleman's parade, who promised the gala event if Picturehouse would premiere the movie in St. Paul. I notice St. Paul police officers are respectful and formal with the mayor, who shakes their hands and tells them they're doing a great job with crowd control. This is so Minnesota!

The next big appearance on the red carpet is the comedian and newbie politician Al Franken, who doesn't seem to want to occupy this hot-spot public space by himself. Franken crosses the rope, but steps back out. He signs a few autographs for little girls at the crowds' edge while waiting for the parade to arrive. I am thinking that for Franken, it's always awkward to be the first person to arrive at the party—especially if you crash it.