Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant are the big names in Paramount’s “Florence Foster Jenkins,” opening Friday to raves and Oscar buzz.

But the other Big Name is from the Big Bang Theory– Simon Helberg, aka Howard, one of the beloved nerds of the CBS hit sitcom. At last night’s premiere of “Florence Foster Jenkins.” Helberg was watching the clock. He was scheduled to fly out of New York at 3:45 am to be in Los Angeles this morning. The 10th season of “Big Bang Theory” is about to commence.

Is there an 11th season for the show? “I suppose there is,” he said. “A lot of people will come back and want to come back if asked,” he said. “And I would be one of them.”

Helberg is the breakout star of “FFJ” — directed to perfection by Stephen Frears— as he plays piano in the film himself, in all his scenes. Nothing is dubbed. Did he have real classical training? “I played in rock bands and popular music,” he said with a self-effacing shrug. “And I kind transitioned that to classical opera.”

He can take more credit than that. Helberg is totally convincing as Meryl Streep’s accompanist — or rather Florence’s. Was he intimidated by being in so many scenes with the World’s Greatest Actress? “I was before I met her,” he told me. “And then you realize how normal she is.”

The “Florence Foster Jenkins” premiere was one of the more laid back I’ve been to in quite a while. Streep and husband Don Gummer mixed and mingled at Brasserie 8 1/2 with everyone, and Meryl was gracious enough to take those annoying selfies everyone wants. She was especially happy to see old friends like one time drama school roommate John Rothman (who’s starring in Tig Notaro‘s Amazon series “One Mississippi”) and the great Carmen DeLavallade (widow of the famed Geoffrey Holder).

I was happy to see Meryl’s sister in law, Emmy winning actress Maeve Kinkead, who played Vanessa Chamberlain on “The Guiding Light” for nigh on 30 years. Kinkead tells me her first hook of poetry is coming from this January from the prestigious Barrow Street Press. It’s called “A Dangling House” and you can read one of the poems here. As she was finishing her run on “Guiding Light,” Maeve graduated from the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers with a degree in Poetry in 2008. This is quite an accomplishment. Bravo!

Also at the “FFJ” premiere: Nina Arianda, hilarious in the film, as always, plus “Crash” director Paul Haggis, and a rare sighting of Cars leader Ric Ocasek and his model wife Paulina Porizkova. They’ve been married since 1989– can you believe it? She must have been just what he needed!

Cher says director George Miller (Mad Max) did not want her in The Witches of Eastwick with Jack Nicholson, Angelica Huston and Michelle Pfeiffer. In the new CAA book “Powerhouse,” by James Andrew Miller, Cher pulls no punches.

“George Miller didn’t want me in any way, and wanted to cut my head off. Every time they would call to say, “George is really excited about you being in this film,” and blah blah blah, I would call him and he would say, “I really don’t want you in this film, but I’m being forced into it now,” and I said, “You know what, dude, fuck you. You’re not finding me under a rock, I’ve already been nominated for Academy Awards.”

“He just hated me so, but Ronnie [Ron Meyers, co-chief of CAA] just kept pushing and pushing, telling me it was going to work out. He probably had to strangle George to get me on that set, but I never heard him raise his voice. And it was such a strange thing. Ronnie was right. The moment we started working, he forgot all the horrible things he said about me and we got along just beautifully. I had such a good time on that movie in certain ways— in other ways, no— but in many ways, it was a lot of fun.”

There’s a new book out about the Creative Artists Agency called “Powerhouse” by James Andrew Miller. It’s an oral history and a lot of it is fluff. A lot of it reads like a corporate PR offering. But as we go through it this morning, there a few nuggets. Here’s an interesting bit from founder Mike Ovitz (Cruise’s agent) and Paula Wagner (Cruise’s agent and producing partner) about dealing with Tom Cruise’s interest in Scientology:

MICHAEL OVITZ: When Tom started to become a big star and got into Scientology, I went to see David Miscavige, the head of the Church of Scientology. But before I did— because I had no idea what Scientology was— I read the book Dianetics. I wanted to know the history of Hubbard. I was in the entertainment business; there’s nothing that could shock me, okay?…

I decided there were two ways to handle Scientology: Tell them how bad it is and fight them, or just embrace it and try to control any fallout. So I called Miscavige and said, “I’ve read everything,” and I said, “I love Tom, he’s been with us since he’s nineteen. He’s probably going to be the biggest star in the world. We’ve got to work together to make sure it all stays chill and cool and his image is right,” and he agreed.

PAULA WAGNER: One of the reasons I think Tom and I worked together as long as we did is that his personal life was his business and my personal life was my business. We were really professional that way.

MICHAEL OVITZ: I gave the wedding reception for Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman at the Barker Hangar at Santa Monica Airport. There’s an airplane museum and a hangar, and that’s where we had the ceremony and their reception. And sitting at the table with me was David Miscavige. By the way, let me tell you something very interesting: When Tom was a client of ours, you didn’t hear any criticisms on that, not while he was with us. We surrounded him, and we were so careful.