Names and faces

LITTLE ROCK — Actor Billy Crystal baby-sat for his granddaughters for five days, and from the experience, a movie was born. On Friday, Crystal walked the red carpet for a screening of his latest film, Parental Guidance, which opens in theaters later this year and co-stars Bette Midler and Marisa Tomei. “It was exhausting,” Crystal said of his baby-sitting experience as he walked the red carpet in New Orleans. Crystal, who turns 65 next year, said the movie is a fun, touching and comedic take on “the phenomenon of being able to take care of your kids’ kids.” The film’s director, Andy Fickman, said it was “a dream opportunity as a director to work with two comedy geniuses” in Crystal and Midler. Fickman, who also walked the red carpet, said he was drawn to the story because many people can relate to the subject matter. “Every generation thinks they know more than the previous generation,” Fickman said. “We all like to talk about how we were raised.”

The song remains the same, as Led Zeppelin once observed. But Zeppelin fans can visit the band’s music anew thanks to a film of the rock titans’ last show together in 2007. That was the band’s first full show in 27 years. Singer Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page and bassist John Paul Jones got together again Friday to promote the concert film Celebration Day, but that may be as close as fans will get to a new reunion. At a news conference in London, band members flatly declined to answer when asked if they were tempted to perform together as Led Zeppelin.Plant said that even lining up onstage to answer questions - “like a bunch of soccer managers being interviewed after a match” - was not his idea of fun. The December 2007 concert at London’s 02 Arena, attended by 18,000 ticket-holders selected from more than 1 million applicants, was a tribute to Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun, an early mentor of the band. For the performance, the band was joined by Jason Bonham, son of original drummer John Bonham, who died in 1980 at the age of 32. Celebration Day will be released in 1,500 theaters around the world Oct. 17 and on DVD and other formats Nov. 19. Jones laughed off a question about why there had been a five-year gap between the concert and the film. “Five years - that’s five minutes in Zeppelin time,” he said.