Life Imitates Art in “Delirious”

Gina Gershon makes time for the little people in Delirious's look at celebrity obsession.

Right on schedule for the tenth anniversary of Princess Diana’s untimely demise, a captivating new tale about paparazzi and the cult of celebrity has secured U.S. distribution for August. Delirious, a film by director Tom Dicillo, stars the eccentric Steve Buscemi, pretty boy Michael Pitt (no relation to Brad) and “Bound” babe, Gina Gershon. The movie looks and feels like Midnight Cowboy with hints of All About Eve.

Buscemi plays Les, an imbalanced but good-hearted paparazzo in New York City who ironically suffers from star-struck episodes when he meets idols like Elvis Costello. He reluctantly invites Toby, a homeless aspiring actor played by Pitt, to be his assistant and to live in his stylishly grungy apartment. “Always grab the goodie bags” is his advice to the youngster when they attend events in search of the perfect photo, what Brooklyn native Les calls “the shot heard round the world.”

Les educates Toby in the ways of the paparazzi.

More dish on Delirious after the jump!

Gina loves the photogs at the Deilirous premiere, at least.

The budding buddies seem to be harboring a boy crush by the time Les takes Toby’s headshots one drunken night, but their friendship sours after Toby becomes enchanted by a pop star played by Alison Lohman. He eventually crashes the inner sanctum of the A-list where Les and his all-access pass could never reach. Les is crushed, and you probably would be, too, if somebody regurgitated your one-liners in interviews with Access Hollywood.

Delirious, which appeared at Sundance in January, made its New York premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music over the weekend. Dicillo was on-hand to relay the hilarious nugget about how Gershon came to be hired at the last minute to play the role of the hot casting director. It seems that Anne Heche, who had been tied to the film, balked when she learned that she would have to share a honeywagon rather than revel in her own private trailer.

How fitting for a film about the inanities of fame.

Like the best mirrors, Delirious shows that celebrities are no different from the rest of us. Insecure. Slightly depraved. And shockingly ordinary.