When Sir Elton John reached the row behind mine as he walked down an aisle at the Leicester Square Odeon, he stopped to plant a huge kiss on the head of the seated Boy George.
What was I doing at the London premiere of Gnomeo and Juliet, the garden furniture version of Shakespeare's tragedy? What were any of us doing?
We all had excuses. Sir Elton composed the score, a melange of past hits and new material, and - though I am not his greatest fan - very good it is, too. He is also executive producer, his partner David Furnish producer. I have a daughter involved in the film's publicity and Boy George was there because, well, he's Boy George and people like him tend to get invited to such events.
First things first: it is out in the UK on Feb 11 and you should take the kids or pretend to be one yourself, not for my daughter's sake but because it is an engaging treat, enhanced by impressive 3D effects. The children in the premiere audience seemed to love it, which must be a good sign.
The voices for the animated characters belong to proper actors; they include Emily Blunt at Juliet, James McAvoy as Gnomeo, Sir Michael Caine as Lord Redbrick, Maggie Smith as Lady Blueberry and Patrick Stewart in the role of someone listed as Bill Shakespeare.
Popcorn, soft drinks and CD specs were placed in each seat and everyone was offered red or blue gnome hats on leaving.
As the film credits rolled, Sir Elton's piano was swiftly mounted on the stage for a lively burst of Crocodile Rock. I looked behind, but Boy George was no longer there; I am not saying he failed to repay Elton's effusive gesture by staying to hear his song since he had luvvie friends elsewhere in the cinema and may have gone off to join them.
Sadly, his departure robbed me of the chance to ask whether he remembered the last time we were so close: the Saturday lunchtime, before he watched his team Charlton Athletic at Sunderland, that he walked up to the bar of the Marriott on Seaburn seafront and asked for fresh steamed broccoli with his bar meal.
Now the Marriott has many things going for it. Pleasant seafront location, friendly staff, a decent leisure centre for those left behind when partners head off to the match. Fresh steamed broccoli with the bar meals, however, is not among them. Or wasn't on that occasion. He'd have had more chance in the vegetable patch of the Gnomeo and Juliet gardens, and my wife - behind him at the bar as he tried to place his order - may well have burst out laughing.
And in case you were wondering, Salut! didn't get where it is today by being a photographer. Equipped only with a mobile phone, which I could not switch to camera mode fast enough, I missed the Elton-Boy George kiss, just as I had missed the moment that preceded this blurry nonsense ...
... so blurry, so bad that I've just deleted it.
The moment I missed was a warm embrace between Elton and David Furnish. He, Sir EJ, was clearly in a good mood; I should have asked him to wait until I'd got the Blackberry ready and pose the Boy George kiss all over again.
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