Lester (the incredible Phillip Seymour Hoffman) is a legendary rock critic (and real - life mentor of Crowe) and a personal hero for young and talented would - be music journalist extraordinaire William (Patrick Fugit), and in fact after they meet Lester assigns the first big writing assignment which will lead William to bigger and (arguably) better things, namely joining up - and - coming rock band Stillwater on their «Almost
Famous» tour and learning a thing or two about life and love while trying to complete a Rolling Stone cover story on Stillwater and compete with lead
guitar player Russell Hammond (an impressive Billy Crudup) for the affections of infamous not - a-groupie-but-a-Band-Aid Penny Lane (a so - so [in my opinion] Kate Hudson).