Tiki Barber with the penguins but without his sons
at yesterday’s screening.Photo: Getty Images
At what was billed as a family screening of the animated penguin mockumentary Surf’s Up at the AMC Loews Lincoln Square yesterday afternoon, the socialite-to-kid ratio was about five-to-one — which was remarkable in a room full of SeaWorld penguins, enormous beach balls, and a sundae bar. Former Vogue cover girl Liya Kebede rushed through inflatable palm trees and a crowded room full of pint-size people to greet fellow model Veronica Webb. (Her son, meantime, was punting the beach balls to the ceiling.) Tiki Barber was cornered on his way to the sundae station. “All I want is to grab a brownie, but I’m afraid if I move, I’m going to accidentally kick one of them,” he told us, as a crowd of little boys squeaked for autographs. “I mean, they come up to my knees, and they’re all around.” Later, we spotted him dangling his two boys over the live penguins, which were the hot attraction. “Oh, my girls have already seen Pete and Penny,” Veronica Webb said of the penguins. “I took them backstage at SeaWorld, where they met and fed them. But you have to be careful, though — get too close to them, and you’ll end up with a bucket of paint on you.” Paint? That’s mommy talk for penguin poo. —Genevieve Leon
