At the premiere of Jason Reitman’s new film Up in the Air— based on the 2001 novel by Walter Kirn—at the Paris theater on Thursday, Nov. 5, Mr. Reitman’s father, Canadian producer-director Ivan Reitman, said his son was a “good kid,” who “never took drugs or drank.”
Perhaps that’s because it’s pizza that’s his poison? The younger Mr. Reitman (Juno) told the Transom he recently flew from L.A. to Chicago on a whim to buy a deep-dish at Giordano’s, just to maintain his high frequent-flier status. “You can’t eat the whole thing,” he said, displaying a picture of the pie on his iPhone. “It’s like a wheel of cheese, that’s impossible.”
O.K.! On to the movie: Exploring solitude and transience, Up in the Air stars George Clooney as Ryan Bingham, a professional job terminator who flies around the country 340 days a year firing corporate employees in major U.S. cities.
Playing opposite Mr. Clooney as a new-media–oriented young company upstart is primly pantsuited Anna Kendrick, a 24-year-old Maine native who, during a post-screening party at Tomate Rouge hosted (appropriately) by Travel and Leisure, sipped a cocktail and declared that she “flew all the way to New York just to drink … just kidding!”
Ms. Kendrick pronounced herself appalled at the recent ruling against gay marriage in her home state.
“It’s really depressing, I was upset,” she said. “It’s not easy to feel ashamed of where you’re from.”
Co-star Vera Farmiga, who plays Mr. Clooney’s oft-traveling love interest, was wearing black Ferragamo pumps—“one part athletic shoe,” she joked—and a fetching Dolce and Gabbana cocktail dress. She said she savors the travel time required by her job. “It’s so rare to be still. It’s very meditative, I really cherish it.”
