Music in the air -- and on the screen -- at Nashville Film Festival

There were enough festive ticketholders to fill two auditoriums at the Regal Green Hills Cinema for Thursday’s opening-night screening of 500 Days of Summer at the Nashville Film Festival. It was something of a major coup for NaFF to land the much-buzzed-about kick-off film – the directorial debut of up-and-comer Marc Webb, who joined me for a post-screening Q&A with the warmly responsive fest audience – and NaFF board president Stacy Widelitz could not have been more pleased by the turnout.

But, truth to tell, Stacy -- a veteran songwriter bent on bringing musicians and moviemakers together at NaFF -- may have been pleased a mite more by a special pre-screening presentation.

Just before the lights dimmed for 500 Days of Summer – set for release this summer by Fox Searchlight Pictures, the same discerning distributor that brought us the Oscar-winning Juno and Slumdog Millionaire -- Stacy received formal notice from BMI, the organization that tracks public performances of songs and collects royalties for songwriters: “She’s Like the Wind,” the enduring popular pop-rock smash Stacy co-wrote with Patrick Swayze for Swayze’s classic Dirty Dancing, had officially charted its four millionth performance.

And, mind you, that’s not counting the three times it’s excerpted on the soundtrack of 500 Days of Summer.

“Actually, it’s just radio airplay,” Stacy explained when I caught up with him in the VIP Tent during opening night hearty-partying. “And I think it might include television, too.”

But not performances by bar bands, wedding singers and karaoke crooners? “No.” Good thing, too: Probably even BMI can’t count that high.

“The funny thing is, I can still remember writing it,” Stacy said. “I remember being in my apartment in L.A. – me at the piano, and Patrick Swayze on my couch with his guitar -- and over the course of two nights writing this song. I can physically feel that still to this day.

“And then, all these many years later, and to be presented with a certificate that says, ‘OK, that thing you wrote over those two nights in your apartment on Orange Street in L.A. – it’s now been played four million times.’ That’s just amazing.”

Stacy has been friends with Patrick since 1983, and he gets regular updates on the condition his ailing-yet-active buddy -- who hasn’t let his widely reported battle with prostate cancer get in the way of sustaining a showbiz career.

“We still keep in touch,” Stacy said. “And he’s doing very well. Spoke to his wife two weeks ago. And they’re both very upbeat. Just doing great.

“They counted Patrick out very early on. But he’s still hanging on.”

Coming Friday: William Shatner, C&I’s April cover boy, will boldly go where no Star Trek alumnus has gone before – on the red carpet leading to Regal Green Hills Cinema, for the Nashville Film Festival’s world premiere of the musical documentary William Shatner’s Gonzo Ballet.