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).