Last night, the stars were out for the Star Trek XI premiere in Hollywood.

According to Celebuzz, plenty of celebrities were flashing the Vulcan salute at the Star Trek XI premiere at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood last night.

In addition to Star Trek cast and crew past and present, some of the stars in attendance were: supermodel Heidi Klum, Hayden Panettiere, Leighton Meester, Peter Facinelli, Michelle Monaghan, Neil Patrick Harris, Sophia Bush, Amanda Bynes, Nicollette Sheridan, Tori Spelling, Kristin Cavallari, Kendra Wilkinson, Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson and Emma Roberts.One Star Trek actor not in attendance last night was the original Captain Kirk, William Shatner.A picture gallery can be seen here and a video report on the premiere is located here.

New Commercials and PhotosTrekMovie reports that two new commercials have appeared, offering some new scenes. Screencaps of some of the new material include a shot of Captain Robau on the USS Kelvin, several McCoy-Kirk shots which include Kirk receiving multiple injections from Doctor McCoy, George Kirk commanding the USS Kelvin, Winona Kirk in the turbolift of the USS Kelvin and the alien Alnschloss K’Bentayr at his station.

TrekWeb has posted Star Trek XI photos from Paramount including a baby shot of the future Captain James T. Kirk.

As reported by SciFi4Me, helping out someone paid off big for Star Trek fan Tom Sharp. “I thought about attending the event, but didn’t really want to stand in line, hoping for a seat to a movie I already own on DVD just for ten minutes of footage to a movie I will probably be able to get a screening pass for, anyway,” said Sharp. “And then I got an email from Jason Hunt, asking me to me the Austin correspondent for his new science fiction fan site, SciFi4Me.com,” said Sharp. “I agreed, if he could get me a seat, I’d go to the screening at the Drafthouse and report back on the ten minutes of new footage.

As reported by TrekMovie.com and Trekweb.com, there were thousands of fans waiting outside of the Sydney Opera House as well as the sixteen-hundred invited guests inside, which included media, celebrities and bloggers.Fans standing outside were able to see, photograph and talk to some of those associated with Star Trek XI, including J.J. Abrams, Zachary Quinto, Chris Pine, John Cho, Karl Urban and Eric Bana.

The crowd was enthusiastic, but respectful during the almost two hours in which the cast members worked the rope line.The actors took time to answer some questions asked by those behind the ropes. Bana explained why he was attracted to the role of Nero. ” I just thought it was a really well written script. I think even if you change the title, if it wasn’t ‘Star Trek,’ I still would have done it. It was really well written and Nero was really interesting. The thing I love most was that I found the whole thing really cheeky and it had a sense of fun, and that extended even into the villain. I just wanted to be a part of it.”

Urban was quite content with playing McCoy. “I couldn’t be more happy with the character I played, are you kidding? To me Star Trek was cult of personality than a science fiction show. My favorite scenes in the original show were where Bones and Spock to sort of argue and bicker with each other, and that is why I tuned is, is the characters on the show and that is the wonderful thing about this movie, is what J.J. and this extraordinary cast has managed to do is capture the very essence of what Roddenberry created.”

Heading into the Opera House, fans were obliged to hand over their cellphones and cameras, and metal-detecting wands ensured that no contraband would make its way inside. Once inside, a screen showed a live telecast of the red carpet interviews being conducted outside.

The premiere opened with speeches from Paramount executives. They were followed by J.J. Abrams, who explained why the premiere was held in Sydney. “Because I honestly love this city!” he said.Abrams was followed by the stars in attendance, including surprise guest John Cho as well as Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Eric Bana and Karl Urban. The crowd greeted them enthusiastically and the stars joked around onstage.

The film began and those in attendance were wowed by the movie. When it ended, the crowd applauded wildly, finishing with a standing ovation. The fans then left the Opera House to find another surprise; the white sails of the Opera House had been transformed with the addition of blue, gold and white lights to form two huge Starfleet emblems.

To read more, head to the articles located here and here. Video interviews of the stars answering questions before the premiere can be found here. Trek News Germany has photos from the premiere located here.

As reported by Just Jared.com, the two Star Trek XI leads were spotted recently in a Sydney park having a bit of exercise as shown in photos located here.Some sixteen-hundred guests will be in attendance at the Star Trek XI premiere, as reported by couriermail.com.au. Eric Bana, who plays the villain Nero, was rumored to have been instrumental in bringing the premiere to Sydney, but a Paramount Pictures spokeswoman set the record straight, saying that the US studio wanted to launch the film in an “iconic building” in a leading city.

To read more, head to the article located here.

As reported by Picture Production Company, the premiere of Star Trek XI takes place Tuesday, April 7th at the Sydney Opera house. PPC Interactive will have a team of bloggers to bring live coverage to fans all over the world, using social media such as Twitter, Ustream, Flickr and Phreadz.
Fans are encouraged to submit questions for film-makers and cast members to answer, including J.J. Abrams, Eric Bana, Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto via Twitter. Use an #ashtrek hashtag. To see what people have asked so far, click here.

Video responses to some of the questions will be published to a channel on Phreadz, along with a live Twitter feed and photos served via Flickr. A live Ustream feed directly from the red carpet will bring the premiere to life for fans in all four corners of the web. This feed will be going live at 7am GMT on Tuesday, and will be archived and available to view throughout the day.

Links to all of these channels can be found in one place, the Star Trek Homepage Fan Kit, located here. This “social media microsite,” launched today, was created to promote the release of Star Trek XI by Paramount Pictures International and the Picture Production Company and houses a wealth of Star Trek-themed tools for fans to use on their profiles across the social web.

The Star Trek Homepage Fan Kit includes a variety of cool, creative and compelling customization tools. One can create a profile picture of Captain Kirk or Spock; find a themed skin to use on one’s MySpace profile, blog or Twitter page; download wallpapers, screensavers or buddy icons and much more.

More will be added to the website, including peelbacks, fan banners, iPhone content and also a live stream from the global premiere in Sydney.

To read more, head to the websites located here and here.

As reported by The Australian, Star Trek XI will premiere on April 7th in Sydney, Australia, where 1600 invited guests will join J.J. Abrams, Bana, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and Karl Urban to see the latest offering in the Star Trek franchise.“Not only are we honored to have J.J. Abrams and the cast here in Sydney for the world premiere of the stunning new Star Trek, we are also very excited to present this event at one of Australia’s, and the world’s, most famous locations, Sydney Opera House,” said Paramount Pictures Australia Managing Director Mike Selwyn.

Star Trek XI opens May 6 in Belgium, France and the French-speaking part of Switzerland; On May 7 in Australia, New Zealand, Germany, The Netherlands and eighteen other countries and on May 8 in the U.S., Canada, Austria, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the U.K., and most other countries where it will be offered. Hong Kong and Japan will have to wait a bit longer to see Star Trek XI, it opens in their countries on the 28 and 29 of May.

To read more, head to the article located here.

As reported by The Calgary Herald, Vulcan Tourism Coordinator Dayna Dickens thought she was being “punked” when she received the phone call from Mr. Spock himself. “I was courteous and professional,” said Dickens. “We are in a bit of a target position.” But the call was legitimate. Nimoy was disappointed that Vulcan had apparently failed in its bid to host the film. “I read it on the Internet,” he said. “It’s a very sad story. My people in Vulcan and very disappointed and something needs to be done about it. Paramount has made this gigantic film and it should be in Vulcan, Canada. They should be able to get it worked out.”

Over a year ago, Vulcan launched their campaign to bring the premiere to the small town of 2,000, which included setting up a Facebook page to “Help bring Spock home to Vulcan.” But Paramount deemed the logistics to be inadequate, since Vulcan didn’t have its own movie theater. Setting up the high school gymnasium with a custom-made projector and screen would have taken too long, in Paramount’s opinion, to make the idea workable so they nixed the idea of Vulcan hosting the Star Trek XI premiere.

Nimoy told the Calgary Herald that “You need to put out a story that I’m behind this and care about it and would come to Vulcan if they had it up there. It seems to me they could arrange it if they put their mind to it but they’re not being serious. They don’t realize the enormity of this issue. To not do this is an insult to the Vulcan people. I would say they are sad, but that’s too emotional.”

To read more, head to the article located here.

As reported by Intel, the New Frontier sweepstakes with a grand prize of a trip to the Star Trek premiere in Hollywood, is in progress. One lucky winner will win travel, lodging, spending money and tickets for four people to attend Star Trek XI‘s premiere in May.From now through May 8th, U.S. residents can enter the sweepstakes daily. The New Frontiers sweepstakes is a joint venture between Intel and Lenovo to promote Star Trek XI. There are two prizes; the first being the trip to the Hollywood premiere of Star Trek XI and the second a trip for four including travel and lodging to experience a “zero g” flight.

To read more, head to the article located here.