Missed It Meg

Empire Online is feeling rather put out. After waiting patiently for Meg Ryan to arrive at the Opening Gala of the London Film Festival last night we were left standing, microphone in hand, without so much as a nod from the starlet. Quickly checking our deodorant as Ryan breezed past us without breaking step, we noticed we weren't the only ones given the cold shoulder. Arriving to send off her first 'serious' role and what many have described as career-defining, Ryan alighted from her car, gave one half-hearted wave to the crowd then turned her back on screaming fans and stomped inside the cinema. Still, while the congregated press nursed bruised egos, the ever-excellent Mark Ruffalo turned up and proceeded to smooth all the feathers his co-star had ruffled. Doing more than his fair share of crowd-pleasing, Ruffalo signed autographs and took his time with the crowd before popping inside to assure Empire Online that at least one In The Cut star knows how to show some love. "It feels great to be here," he told us. "This film was a real challenge for me as I didn't really have a reference point for the character. I spent about a hundred hours with homicide detectives though, watching procedure and hanging out. We drank a lot of bourbon and I listened to a load of their stories." "I think they love it," said Ruffalo of the (extremely) graphic oral sex scene at the beginning of the film - something that caused more than a few prudish gasps at the screening we attended. "It isn't anything America hasn't done already and they do it better than anyone else in the world." "It's a very strong part, a very passionate part and Meg was very interested in it," said director Jane Campion when asked about the rather atypical casting of Ryan in such a gritty film. "She had been looking for a way to start doing dramatic work, something she really hadn't done before. It's pretty natural really considering how much comedy she's done." Not an ideal start to this year's LFF but Empire Online has not been deterred. There's a fantastic line-up at this year's festival and a rather disappointing start has done nothing to dampen our enthusiasm. "I think it's a great festival this year," BFI Chair, Anthony Minghella agreed. "These two weeks are a mix of movies from thirty-odd countries, which is what the BFI is about. It's not about the mainstream, it's about the controversial, the difficult and the challenging cinema that doesn't really get much advocacy now."