Gossip Central

Hamptons Journal: The Big Bang at The Watermill Center, Branford Marsalis and Joey Calderazzo, Babette’s Feast, Garden as Art

The Big Bang may have been the theme of this year’s Watermill Center extravaganza of a summer gala, with its outsized red phalluses, neon ninjas, and popping balloons, but many East End events make big noise.

At the Watermill Center on Saturday night, even a heavy downpour did not deter a dancer clad in wedding white from writhing in dirt. A few minutes in, she was muddied, as if coated in primal ooze. A woman in yellow used a leaf blower to inflate giant white latex that went POP from the exertion. The rain caused onlookers to retreat from the art laden paths the better to view the art for auction under a tent: works by Marina Abramovic, Sandro Chia, William Wegman, Shirin Neshat, Dennis Oppenheim, Alexandra Posen, Lola Schnabel, to name a few. The challenge to stay dry also brought viewers to the edgy video installation, Mike Kelley 1954-2012 in collaboration with the LUMA Foundation, in the center’s exhibition space.

Documentaries of Summer: Ai Weiwei Never Sorry, Detropia, About Face

Is it too soon to think about Oscar contenders for non-fiction films? Several summer/ early fall releases are especially noteworthy. Not only is Ai Weiwei Never Sorry the story of a major visual artist in China who has felt the wrath of his government for speaking out, but a film that utilizes the social media, as this savvy artist’s blogs, tweets, and emails have had a huge impact on his artistic/ political message.

St. Barth’s in the Hamptons: What Recession?

In case the Hamptons edenic sun and sand are not enough, you can always shop. That was the message at a deluxe event sponsored by Social Life Magazine and Rand Luxury at East Hamptons Studios last weekend. Bringing St. Barth’s to the Hamptons is not much of a stretch, as some of the promo materials pointed out. Surely you will need a Lord of the Rings pinball machine in your mini mansion, or Pac Man. For dining out you may accessorize with diamond jewels from Dannini and a suit with pin stripes woven in of 22 karat gold thread, starting price $30,000. If you want to spend money on something that moves, try a champagne leather lined Ferrari convertible. And while all of this may seem excessive to those of us who remember the times when you were overdressed at the beach if your jeans were clean, this lifestyle jump makes Tiffany’s in East Hampton look quaint.

The Campaign: Politics as Usual

The Campaign plays the current election season for laughs. Candidates for Congress, Will Ferrell as Cam Brady and Zach Galifianakis as Marty Huggins vie for votes in a how-low-can-you-go campaign. Forget issues; by the time facial hairs on one provide mud slinging evidence of ties to Taliban for the other, you know the real butt of the humor: the ethics of winning at all cost.

Garden Party at Goose Creek: The Odd Life of Timothy Green

Before you meet the young boy with a curious accessory, leaves growing from his ankles, in the new movie from Disney, The Odd Life of Timothy Green, you think the message may have something to do with the environment. Although there’s plenty of dirt from the garden, this feature, conceived by Ahmet Zappa and written and directed by Peter Hedges, is more a story about a childless couple, played ably by Jennifer Garner (the would be mom from Juno) and Joel Edgerton (the Australian actor best known for testosterone fueled flicks like Animal Kingdom), who prove they have the right parental stuff.

Coming from the ground, Timothy is not quite real, but once he arrives, he tests the family, and the town, small enough that everyone knows everyone.

Valery Simpson Joins Sam Moore at City Winery

A great showman, Sam Moore brought his creamy sound to a packed City Winery this week for a generous set featuring standards: “Let the Good Times Roll,” “Knock on Wood,” “What I Want,” and “I Can’t Stand the Rain.” As promised, surprise guests joined in: Sam sang “Happy Birthday” to D. A. Pennebaker, who turned 87 last week. And, Valery Simpson took the stage. In the manner of a well-seasoned couple, their patter went something like this: “Do you know the song?” “I’m gonna sing it anyway.”

And they dazzled with “When Something’s Wrong with My Baby.”

American Dream Gone Gilded Age: Queen of Versailles

You remember what happened to that queen of yore, the one who in a moment of mythic indifference to her subjects’ suffering suggested they eat cake. That queen is so deliciously portrayed by Diane Kruger in Benoit Jacquot’s fine Farewell, My Queen. In a new documentary, Queen of Versailles, an American version of her, a distortion of her regal imperious posturing is found in Florida. When photographer/filmmaker Lauren Greenfield was photographing Donatella Versace for Elle Magazine, she interviewed a woman who spent about a million dollars a year on her wardrobe, much of it Versace, and learned the woman was building a home in Orlando that would be modeled on the famed French palace as well as the Las Vegas Paris Hotel. Intrigued by the idea of the biggest, grandest house in America in her exploration of the influence of affluence, Greenfield set out to photograph, then film this 90,000 sq. ft. erection.

Albert Maysles Rocks Guild Hall

At 85, legendary documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles still has “IT.” This week to commemorate The Rolling Stones’ fiftieth anniversary, he was on hand at Guild Hall for a screening of his early film of the iconic band, Gimme Shelter (1970). The next night, he spoke at a screening of The Love We Make (2011), a post-9/11 tribute concert film starring Paul McCartney with appearances by the Stones, the Who, Bill Clinton, Stella McCartney, James Taylor, David Bowie, Eric Clapton, Billy Joel, Buddy Guy, Billy Crystal, Ozzy Osborne, Howard Stern, Sheryl Crow, to name a few who performed for the many firefighters and their families. Maysles told the rapt Guild Hall audience the secret of his direct cinema style was just turning the camera on his subjects as they are experiencing something.

Deconstructing Dad: An Anxiety of Influence

Perusing a photo of his father in a boat on his honeymoon, smile wide and happy, in his documentary Deconstructing Dad, noted film editor and director Stan Warnow says ruefully, I never saw him this way. Filling in the Freudian gap might be reason enough to make this film, but there’s also the fact that dad, Raymond Scott, was famous. Really? Who was he? You might well ask. In this film’s informative and entertaining trajectory, a workaholic emerges behind the made up name, the nose job, and the trophy wife: A genius in the entertainment field, you could say, who as a dad was M. I. A.

I’ll Have What She’s Having: Nora Ephron Remembered

“Hey Meg-a-la,” shouted Rosie O’Donnell, trying to get Meg Ryan’s attention at, yikes, Alice Tully Hall, just after the memorial tribute to writer, director Nora Ephron. Gathering in the lobby for pink champagne, the crowd looked like a who’s who of film, theater, and media: Bette Midler, Charlie Rose, Matthew Broderick, Rob Reiner, Larry David, Annette Bening, Lauren Bacall, Jon Hamm, Mike Nichols, to skim the surface of a very long list, including too Jenny Allen, Halley Feiffer, and Ilene Beckermann, author of the book on which Love, Loss, and What I Wore was based. And then of course her husband Nick Pileggi, and ex-husband Carl Bernstein; marriage to him was the inspiration for her novel, Heartburn. The book was so popular, even Paul Bowles living in Tangier wrote to me about how it made him laugh.