IPhoto App not loading... anything.

Question

I recently updated iPhoto to 8.0.2 and (I think) iPhoto was still fine afterwards. I tried the faces thing and although it took forever, it all seemed OK. It was certainly OK with the 8.0 or 8.0.1 from the install DVD.
However I opened the app today and got a blank window – I don't just mean an empty library, I mean absolutely nothing – an empty window with just the tinted bar down the left hand side where the events etc should be. No text, no buttons - nothing. Tried to quit and iPhoto said something like "iPhoto can't quit – photos are being imported", even though none were (no camera or card was attached to laptop, just my son's iPodTouch charging in its dock - but no syncing or anything going on at the time).
I then force quit the app, and relaunched – same again – just an empty window.
I assumed a corrupted library and tried both the iPhoto rebuild and iPhoto Library Manager rebuild – nothing. Then removed all the traces (that I know of) of iPhoto and reinstalled the app from DVD – again nothing.
After searching forums for similar posts (only finding 1 very similar, but unanswered), I tried:
• moving the library back from its external fw800 (where it's been happily for years) to the internal HD, into my User/Pictures folder
• deleting all cache files that I could find (with onyx)
• re-deleting the pref files
• reinstalling whole app again
• creating a brand new library, again by both methods
• repairing and re-repairing permissions on HD
• checking HD with Disk Utility and Drive Genius
• ensuring no external disks connected (even ipods)
All to no avail...
The only clue I can find is that when I open an existing or new library and get the blank window – if I then open the prefs window and close it again (with or without changing any settings) the events, photos albums etc all re-appear. However I still can't then open an event or album (although I can view old slideshows, books and calendars). If I click on an event or album – I either get nothing (no response), or a blank grey window, or a crash. In almost all cases the app won't quit either.
Frustratingly, the entire library is perfectly accessible and usable from iWeb, so there doesn't seem to be too much wrong with the library itself. I still suspect some kind of prefs or permissions issue, but I don't know what to try next to identify it.
MBP running perfectly normally otherwise...
Anyone fancy a challenge?

Answer 1

Yes ...well mostly.
It was the Helvetica Neue issue. iPhoto 8.0.x won't open without the Apple Helvetica neue (.dfont) activated, and I had deactivated it as I'm a graphic designer and need to run the Postscript version instead.
This was where I found the tip:
http://discussions.apple.com/click.jspa?searchID=-1&messageID=8902008
I have tried running both versions at once (despite realising that this isn't recommended), and although I've had no disasters with it yet, I can see that the Apple font doesn't seem to be listing all its weights in the font menu (of InDesign at least). I need to do further investigation to see if this is likely to cause serious issues either with font substitution or system behaviour, but it hasn't reached priority status yet. Perhaps someone else can shed some more light on it?
Ultimately of course Apple need to STEP AWAY FROM THE HELVETICA NEUE! To ride into town and claim a font that so many designers like myself rely on every day (in Postscript form) as 'their own', betrays a lack of knowledge of their creative user base. But having now embedded the requirement for it in applications such as iPhoto, I don't see this happening any time soon...