“It's about Ben,” said Anne Meara to her
husband Jerry Stiller at the Museum of the Moving Image's salute to their son
at Cipriani's 42nd Street,
“it's not about you.” “Am I the father?” countered Jerry and the laughs went on
from there. Sean P. Diddy Combs said he auditioned for this year's hit “Tropic
Thunder” with Stiller starring and directing but Ben didn't find him black
enough. Apparently Robert Downey Jr. was. Jack Black, who did make it into the
film was also on hand for a brief tribute. He is married to Charlie Haden's
daughter Tania and both perform on the jazzman's excellent new bluegrass CD.
Black claimed to have had some trouble at Bergdorf Goodman's, finding his neck
size for a tuxedo shirt. Yes,New
York is challenging, but Tania says the kids who grow
up in the city are savvy and smart. Ben was one of those kids and Meara said,
“He survived us. And the upper West Side” Of
course he now moved back. Mike Myers said that Stiller had such a brief stint
on “Saturday Night Live,” he thought his career was surely over. Ha! Triumph
the Comic Insult Dog mistook the event for a cancer research fundraiser. When
he was corrected, he quickly praised Ben Stiller for his dedication, using his
unique talent to wipe out moving images. With an eerie nod to the economy, he
looked at the posh Cipriani's and pointed out this was an appropriate use of
old deserted banks. As is customary at such an evening, movie clips alternated
with speeches. You have only to see Stiller in the “flesh in the fly” scene of
“There's Something About Mary,” or his posturing as “Zoolander” to be reminded
of how funny he is. So there's much more of the 43 year old on the way: in
”Night at the Museum 2” the shenanigans move to the Smithsonian. Robert De Niro
plays Stiller's father-in-law in the “Meet the Parents/Fockers” movies-and no
surprise, a third one is on the way. De Niro said there's no question that Ben
Stiller is the premiere comic actor of his generation. “You heard me say this
about Robin Williams, Jim Carrey, Steve Martin, and others--but this time I
mean it.”
Regina Weinreich
Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura
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