Celebrity Sighting
Home Slice Pizza "hires" Academy Award nominee Jesse Eisenberg
Around noon today, actor Jesse Eisenberg clocked in for his first – and only – shift at South Congress staple Home Slice Pizza. Don’t worry, the Oscar-nominated star of The Social Network hasn’t hit hard times – he’s in town to promote 30 Minutes or Less, a slapstick comedy co-starring Aziz Ansari, Danny McBride and Nick Swardson.
Eisenberg was working the lunch shift, but devoted fans showed up much earlier to guarantee a place in line. Austin Hyde, who snagged the first spot, got there at 8 am just to be safe, while Megan Simon and Ariel Greenspoon (second and third, respectively) had rushed over around 9:30 after hearing about the event online. Their patience paid off when they were treated to a meet and greet, free slices and plenty of smiles from the 28-year old New Yorker.
Today’s Home Slice photo op is just one stop on Eisenberg’s pizza publicity tour; over the past week, he’s gotten face time with fans in Miami and San Francisco, joined by co-star Ansari. The film’s promoters contacted Home Slice directly to set up this unique event, which shows even out-of-towners know where to find the best pizza in town. The team wasn’t sure how many people would show for the mid-Monday event. After a slow start – with a line of only 40 fans around 11:15 – the lunch rush showed in full force, forming a line around the corner.
30 Minutes or Less (out August 12) features Eisenberg as a lovelorn delivery guy who gets caught up in a hilariously out-of-control robbery scheme. McBride and Swardson are perfectly cast as a pair of clueless, crass bullies who bumble through a kidnapping-slash-bank robbery by forcing Eisenberg's nice (but generally apathetic) Nick to carry out the crime. Oh, also, he has a bomb strapped to his chest. 30 Minutes or Less marks Eisenberg’s return to less serious subject matter, and it also reunites the actor with Ruben Fleischer, who directed 2009’s Zombieland.