This New Orleans Times-Picayune story was printed before the screening. They’ll probably print another one tomorrow.

I read something good about Brad – usually the crew doesn’t welcome the cast/director/etc. to their screening, but Brad’s OK because he treats them right. He’s got a good rep on all the sets.

HOLYWOOD SOUTH
Curiosity comes to town

A red-carpet, invitation-only screening of the locally filmed big-budget fantasy “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” will give many of the local cast and crew who worked on it their first chance to see what $150 million can buy.

A handful of lucky locals finally can stop being curious Monday about the locally shot “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” as Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. host an invitation-only, red-carpet local screening expected to draw at least a handful of Hollywood insiders.

By the end of the week, organizers were publicly expressing doubt that the film’s A-list star — and perhaps the most famous Big Easy rebuilder — Brad Pitt, will show at the event, to be held at the AMC Palace 20 Elmwood in Harahan.

But for gawkers hoping to catch a glimpse of big-name arrivals, a Paramount Pictures representative said that among the confirmed guests are the film’s director, David Fincher (“Zodiac,” “Fight Club”), and multi-Oscar-nominated mega-producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall (“Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” “The Sixth Sense,” “Back to the Future”). Producer Cean Chaffin, a frequent collaborator with Fincher, also will attend.

Arrivals are expected to begin about 6 p.m., when a pre-event party is scheduled to take place. The screening will begin at 7.

The Oscar-hyped, special-effects-laden fantasy epic, which is based on the 1922 short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald and which filmed in the New Orleans area in late 2006 and early 2007, doesn’t open until Dec. 25.

Monday’s cast-and-crew screening, however, is being seen as a Tinseltown-flavored thank-you to local film-industry workers who played a part in the making of the film, one of the more eagerly awaited of the holiday movie season.

Although Monday’s screening will be the first time “Benjamin Button” is shown locally, it won’t be the film’s world premiere. It has unspooled at least twice in Los Angeles for press and VIP invitees, and has been prompting mostly positive reviews.