Alan Peppard

Even with a heartthrob actor such as Josh Brolin in the house, AFI Dallas International Film Festival founder Liener Temerlin was the guy who made every woman swoon at Thursday's AFI opening night gala at the Majestic Theater.

It was opening, and it was Liener's 80th birthday. He used the occasion to introduce his wife of nearly 58 years, Karla Temerlin.

"While I've made the living," said Liener, "my wife has made the living worthwhile."

And they all went "aaawww."

At the gala, when former AFI director and CEO Jean Firstenberg presented the evening's first Star Award to Mickey Rooney, people knew that the 87-year-old actor was long-winded. But in Dallas, he went for a new world's record.

As his bizarre acceptance speech neared the half-hour mark, his wife, Jan, rose from her seat, walked onstage and said firmly, "And now it's time to say thank you."

"Always listen to your wife," Mickey said. "God bless America. God bless George Bush."

The audience wanted to love Mr. Rooney. They'd just seen a montage of his oeuvre that was staggering.

When he mentioned that he was married at 21 to Ava Gardner, a man in the audience yelped, "Woo!"

"Yeah, woo hoo!" Mickey answered bitterly. (Apparently, Frank Sinatra isn't the only man who got crushed by Ava.)

When Mickey added that there had been divorces (Jan Rooney is wife No. 8), the audience giggled, waiting for a punch line that never came.

What they got was a lecture on the destructive power of divorce: the lonely crying nights, the injured, innocent children. "Just ask anybody who's been divorced, and you won't laugh," Mickey admonished.

(Few in the crowd remembered that Mickey's fourth wife, Barbara Ann Thomason, and her lover, Mickey's actor friend Milos Milos, were found dead by gunshot wounds in Mickey's bed in 1966. Though the shots came from Mickey's gun, he was in the Philippines at the time, and it was ruled a murder-suicide.)

After that happy note, Oscar winner Helen Hunt was brought up to receive her Star Award and introduce her directorial debut, Then She Found Me, a bittersweet comedy about a 39-year-old teacher trying to get pregnant.

Knowing how to win the audience's love, Ms. Hunt was on and off in 45 seconds.

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