Gossip Central

Danny Boyle Goes Bollywood

“Trainspotting” director Danny Boyle does not shy away from excrement-which does not mean he's full of shit. His new film “Slumdog Millionaire” features a revolting scene: a Mumbai street kid jumping into a latrine to fetch a coveted photo is coated head to toe---yuch!-- rivaling the dive into the toilet of his earlier work. Last week at a private dinner at Circo del Osteria, the British filmmaker demurred as I pointed out this preoccupation. Fortunately that's not all there is to say about “Slumdog Millionaire,” a feel great movie with television's “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” as a central conceit. The show's multiple choice format allows the film-scripted by Simon Beaufoy-- to flashback to scenes of contestant Jamal Malik's (Dev Patel) childhood in which he is orphaned with his brother and a third child, Latika (Frieda Pinto), forming “the three musketeers.” Their adventures involve Dickensian villains who want to traffic them as beggars, prostitutes, exploiting them in whatever way. But just as events grow grim, the film veers unexpectedly into a Bollywood dance number in a train station and happy ever after. You cannot do better in this holiday season.

Regina Weinreich

Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura

Dustin Hoffman Plays Jazz

Dustin Hoffman's character is Harvey Shine is en route to his daughter's wedding in London in the optimistic romantic comedy “Last Chance Harvey.” Emma Thompson's Kate is a 40ish workaholic, an employee of the Office of National Statistics, with bad luck on blind dates and a smothering mother (Eileen Atkins). A jingle writer whose career is on the wane, Harvey is the consummate loser. Once in London, his daughter tells him her stepfather (James Brolin) will walk her down the aisle instead of him. Deciding to miss the party and missing his flight back, he lands at the airport bar downing bourbon. Then he meets Kate. This happy coincidence leads to Harvey attending his daughter's reception after all, with Kate as his date. And in one poignant scene, Harvey plays piano for her. Last Wednesday, both stars were on hand for the premiere's after party hosted by The Cinema Society at the Hudson Hotel, attended by an eclectic crowd that included Ivana Trump, character actor Richard Kind, and “Brokeback Mountain” director Ang Lee, as well as some young New York actors who were thrilled to be in a room with Dustin Hoffman. Emma Thompson said she had a great time making the film, but had laryngitis and couldn't speak over the din. Dustin chatted with everyone. Here is a bit of our conversation:

Me: Did I note a little Ratso in your gait? (For those too young to remember this legendary film from 1969, I was referring to his role in “Midnight Cowboy.”)
Dustin: Laurence Olivier said we only have 3 characters and the rest are variations.

Me: Was that really you playing the piano?
Dustin: Yes, I played the piano and composed that tune for the movie. I wanted to be a jazz musician.

Me: You strike me as the kind of guy who can do anything. What stopped you?
Dustin: Talent. [He laughs.] If I could, I'd be doing it right now.

Regina Weinreich

Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura

American Buffalo / Magic at the Metropolitan Room

 
 
It would be luck, a happy coincidence. A mimi Mamet festival graces Broadway with ”American Buffalo” joining “Speed-the-Plow,” two tour de forces of language --with attitude. I have already told you about the “Plow” revival featuring Jeremy Piven, Raul Esparza and Elisabeth Moss., but now John Leguizamo, Cedric the Entertainer, and Haley Joel Osment (the Oscar nominated kid from “Sixth Sense” grown up-almost) fire up the Belasco in another Mamet ménage a trois. The mood is set even before the actors appear, when the announcer says, “the cast and David Mamet request that you shut off your fucking cell phones.” “Fucking” in a Mamet play is not simply fucking, but a significant signifier, a punctuation. With these excellent actors all playing wannabe con artists, the f word is a manipulation, the perfect metaphor for theater itself. Converging on Santo Loquasto's magnificently detailed junk shop set, this unholy trinity plots the theft of a rare coin collection. Cedric's performance is especially affecting as the pivotal Donny; at center of the scam he has to keep the menacing Teach (Leguizamo) and child-like Bobby (Osment) in line. Needless to say, their bluster masks their weak egos, and worse, their low expectations of life itself. Unfortunately, as if life follows art, the play may end its run this weekend. See it while you can.

 

And if you want coins, there are coins aplenty -disappearing and re-emerging in odd places in Eric DeCamps' magic show at the Metropolitan Room on Sunday at 4.  Coin tricks are just the warm up for other illusions: transmigration, calling of the cards, and Houdini's challenge from this magician's magician.

Regina Weinreich

Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura

Frost/Nixon

 
August 8, 1974. Whoever was around remembers that day, the day Nixon resigned. But his resignation was not enough. People wanted to hear him say he had committed criminal acts as president. The very popular British talk show host David Frost wanted to capture that moment, and invited Nixon to tell his story in an interview and finally got him to talk over a four week period taped in 1977. That's the substance of the stage play “Frost/Nixon” by Peter Morgan, and now a movie to open on December 5 with Michael Sheen and Frank Langella reprising their theater roles. “A Beautiful Mind” director Ron Howard had seen the play and recognized it was the record of an era, bringing a moment of closure to a deeply disturbing time. A question arises: how well can a stage play depicting an interview be opened up for a film? At Monday night's premiere, the answer was resounding: that feat can be done brilliantly. At the Four Seasons after party, Gay Talese waxed poetic about the power of Frank Langella's close-ups, something you would not get in a play. Having met the real Nixon, Talese extolled Langella's extraordinary incarnation of this historical figure. “I felt Nixon there,” he exuded. Charming Rebecca Hall, so good in Woody Allen's summer hit, Vicky Christina Barcelona, plays Frost's girlfriend. The British actress said you can not help but see the parallels of Nixon with our American president. She's currently living in New York, in rehearsals for the plays The Cherry Orchard and A Winter's Tale to be staged in repertory and directed by Sam Mendes. Sam Rockwell, Oliver Platt, Kevin Bacon also part of the excellent supporting cast celebrated the movie, as did Kyra Sedgwick, Debra Winger, Dick Cavett, Liz Smith, Nan Talese, Lynn Nesbit, Brian Williams. Having taken a risk, Sir David Frost is now quite pleased with having made history himself. His handshake is firm. And, in a moment of television following, eh, television, Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes was getting high praise for his interview with Michelle and Barack Obama that aired Sunday night. Only this time, the president's coming in.

 

Regina Weinreich

Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura

Nothing But the Truth

 

Kate Beckinsale's hair is swept up when we meet her in her new movie “Nothing But the Truth,” Rod Lurie's original film about a journalist who refuses to reveal her sources. In real life, the British born actress wears her raven hair up too. The Oxford graduate with a degree in Russian and French does American so well onscreen, her accent comes as a surprise. On Thursday, at a special screening sponsored by Self Magazine -she graces the January cover-- she was joined by Sam Rockwell who pummeled her playfully with popcorn, Ben Gazzara, Dan Abrams (who plays himself in a cameo), Felicia Taylor, Morley Safer, Judith Miller (the NY Times reporter who is no stranger to this subject), and many others including her very pregnant co-star Vera Farmiga. You may remember her from a New York Times Magazine cover story, from Lynn Hirschberg's article about actresses who work steadily but are not well known. Of course that put this fine actress on everyone's radar, just in time for her performances in Anthony Minghella's “Breaking and Entering” and Martin Scorcese's Academy Award winning “The Departed.” Currently she plays a mom in “The Boy with the Striped Pajamas,” a fable about two little boys who forge a friendship from different sides of a concentration camp's barbed wire. In “Nothing But the Truth,” she's also a mom, and a CIA operative who is outed by Kate Beckinsale's character in a newspaper piece that almost wins the Pulitzer Prize. As a prosecuter paid to force her to speak, Matt Dillon is so vicious you want to hiss every time he appears. And here is the strength of this engrossing movie. That he does his job so well makes you reconsider what's at stake: integrity, first amendment rights, freedom of the press, justice, as well as the human concerns of compassion and good parenting. As these treasured values are challenged, Kate Beckinsale spends a lot of screen time in jail with her hair stringy and down.

 

Regina Weinreich

Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura

Ben Stiller Saluted

“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

Pray the Devil Back to Hell

You don't have to know where or what Africa is to be moved by this extraordinary documentary film shot mostly in Liberia now showing at the Cinema Village. Sunday night at a special screening and dinner hosted by Gloria Steinem and Philip Gourevitch honoring the filmmakers and bringing attention to their subject, you could hear the proverbial pin drop in the packed dining room at the Plaza Athenee. Leymah Gbowee, a charismatic social worker turned activist answered the many questions generated by this compelling story about how women banded together to protest violence in Liberia, set their hideous dictator Charles Taylor on a journey of exile, to be put on trial for war crimes, and enabled a democratically elected woman to govern their country. The main question is of course, how is it that we do not know this story? Self-assured and instinctively political, Gbowee is a modern day Lysistrata, as in the ancient Greek satirist Aristophanes' play, a character who organized women in a sex strike to protest the Trojan War. Steinem pointed out that Gandhi used similar non-violent tactics of the women's movement in India. Director Gini Reticker and producer Abigail Disney, two Fieldston moms who decided to collaborate at a school sports event, are now showing this film in Ramallah, Chechnya, Iraq, and other areas of conflict. While Gbowee, adorned in a native headdress utilizing yards of gold embossed cotton, wondered at first how these women could help, she is now gratified she trusted them to tell this important story. The mother of five said children in Liberia must address grownups using a title. Her children now say, “We have so many aunties, and some of them are white.”

 

Regina Weinreich

Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura

The Party, the Auction, and After

It was a party Dominick Dunne would have loved: the dinner at the Plaza Hotel's newly renovated Oak Room after the screening of the documentary about his life and career: “After the Party.” But the bespectacled writer who perfected the genre of celebrity “true crime” journalism was in hospital. Tina Brown read his statement as the ailing writer prepared for surgery: “Only a catheter in a very private place  could keep me from personally welcoming you to the documentary that Kirsty DeGaris and Tim Jolley” have made. So, his sister-in-law Joan Didion (FSG has just reissued her brilliant essay collection “Slouching Toward Bethlehem”), Nora Ephron, Patricia Duff, Tony Peck, Harold Evans, and many others enjoyed the fine turbot without him. British novelist Ian McEwan crossed the pond to report on our election. “Well done, said the author of “Atonement,” ” and a personal favorite, “The Child in Time.” Good thing we caught up with Dunne at the Hamptons International Film Festival, where Alec Baldwin and others feted him, and congratulated him for his candor: He was not the best husband, or father, as his filmmaker son attests in the excellent documentary. Australian writer Kirsty DeGaris had interviewed Dunne for a magazine piece and realized what a window into American culture he was, going after the celebrities who seemed to be (and were) getting away with murder. Of course that preoccupation comes from personal tragedy. Available at dominickdunne.net Oregon Thunder Road the biopic skillfully tells how Dunne found his voice after he and his wife Lenny separated, how he holed up in and began to write. Then pushing misfortune into tragedy, his beloved daughter Dominique was killed by her boyfriend. How does one outlive one's child under this circumstance? Dunne's response was to investigate similar crimes in “Vanity Fair Magazine.” From Phil Spector to Michael Skakel to O.J. Simpson, none of their excuses would fly with Dominick Dunne. Heal well, party boy!

Meantime, at Town Hall the Bob Woodruff Foundation was celebrating the fine work of our war heroes, many of whom attended, uniformed, some in wheelchairs. Bruce Springsteen sang; his duet with wife Patti Scialfa on “” was particularly great-- as Regis Philbin told jokes to the crowd: Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather, Brian Williams, Felicia Taylor, Christiane Amanpour, Jane Krakowski, Caroline Hirsch, among them. And then Bruce told some jokes. By the time Whoopi Goldberg took the stage with Sotheby's auctioneer Jamie Niven, to raise the stakes on Bruce's 1993 Harley with leather jacket thrown in to sweeten the pot, she feared that he would upstage her. As the bidding rose on that bike, she offered to ride with the winner. Bruce also donated the guitar he had just played for this important event. We know he is generous, but can he tell a joke? Let's just say, he had an unusual way to cure the problem of husbands' snoring, involving tying a ribbon around the old oak tree, if you get my drift

Regina Weinreich

Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura

Instant Edifice for Chanel

 

It's sleek in white fiberglass, erected in modules and looks like
it's built to last, but Zaha Hadid's moving—in the sense of
transportable-- exhibition space, conceived at the Mercer Hotel with
Karl Lagerfeld as a tribute to Chanel's 2.55 quilted bag will move to
London and Paris after its sold out stint in Central Park. As you
enter, you are given a headset with the French icon Jeanne Moreau
instructing your every move, from space to space, projection to
projection, with sexy-voiced platitudes about art, form, vision,lifestyle.
A corridor where you sit beside a stream with reflections
of Parisian buildings accented with Chanel awnings has Ms. Moreau
telling you she loves seeing things reflected, in pools, in mirrors,
encouraging your reflected narcissism. Projected images of flowers
with pronounced pistils, a naked Asian woman in all manner of legs
akimbo, tied loosely with the leather looped chain of a Chanel 2.55
bag suggests the relation of "purse" with genitalia so well
deconstructed by Daphne Merkin in a New York Times Style magazine
piece several years ago announcing the power purse's ascension to
must-have accessory over power pumps. A set of six packing boxes
contains images: nudes competing for, rafting upon the purse, with Ms.
Moreau suggesting we embrace absurdity.  A large coffin-sized purse
houses a video, horseshoes configured to the Chanel logo—you cannot
miss the product placement, the nexus of art and consumer culture. And
finally, you are invited to empty your purse, write your wish on paper
and tie it to a tree. This being difficult economic times, emptying
one's purse has new meaning: while the coveted Chanel 2.55 is indeed
as classic as Moreau herself, surely a sound investment, it seems an
all the more ironic last luxury. This also being the day before
elections, I wished for Barack Obama's swift and unquestionable
victory, and then in the manner of "Miss Congeniality,"
I wished for World Peace

Regina Weinreich

Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura