Hamptons Journal: Alec Baldwin Takes the Heat

Guild Hall's John Drew Theater was packed on Friday night for the second film in the documentary series HIFF Summerdocs: Page One: Inside the New York Times. This fine glimpse at newspapers in the digital age so fits the Zeitgeist with the huge to do about ethics in journalism generated by the British tabloid scandal, that the film's main character, David Carr has become a television pundit facing off on Charlie Rose and other shows since the time of this documentary's June premiere at Lincoln Center. At a pre-screening reception at the Maidstone, Carr said the medium of television is not natural for him. “I'm just surviving.”

Page One was playing in Sag Harbor but savvy Hamptonites knew the panel following in East Hampton would amp up the entertainment value, and so it did, starting with casual Carr, in shorts and sport shirt, exclaiming about the Hampton jitney, “hey it's only a bus.” Ever smooth Alec Baldwin, in jacket over khakis, reset the discourse defending the vehicle that in these parts is more than a bus, its a Jitney, the irony of his role on 60 Rock not lost on the crowd. The sparring went on from there. Bill Keller, Times editor in chief for many years, joked he had a new career, straight man for Carr, and in a wistful moment on the Times building on 43 Street, where the newspaper of record resided for many years before moving to the modern edifice near the West Side Highway: it's now a bowling alley, “my office is lane 12.”

The following day we took respite at Montauk's Six-Six-Eight with delicious iced cappuccinos and green tea madeleines. The homemade Proustian cookies put us in a literary mood and so later it was back to Guild Hall for Wordtheater, the brainchild of LA-based Cedering Fox, who brings together Pushcart Prize winning stories and poems with gifted actors reading them. This year Amy Irving, Coleman Domingo, Vincent Piazza, Chris Bauer, Harris Yulin, and Kevin Corrigan were among those performing work by James Salter, Andre Dubus III, John Edgar Wideman, and others. Poets Philip Schultz and Harvey Shapiro read from their work.

Regina Weinreich

Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura

 

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