Gossip Central

Bette Midler Hosts a Lunch for Twenty Feet from Stardom

Now prominent among music legends, Bette Midler reminisces about her stint as a Harlette back in the day in the much celebrated documentary Twenty Feet from Stardom. Along with Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Mick Jagger, she acknowledges the mega talent of the backup singers—now famously Merry Clayton, Judith Hill-- who make the superstar performers look and sound even greater. Having made the twenty foot leap herself, Bette Midler was perfect for this job: in an inspired moment Peggy Siegal who has a genius for these connections, asked her, superb in her one-woman run as Sue Mengers on Broadway, to front, ah, host a special lunch on Monday, in celebration of this, perhaps the most successful documentary of the year. At the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, in a dining room overlooking Central Park, guests Bernadette Peters, Susan Sarandon, Julie Taymor, Celia Weston, Dan Hedaya, Albert Maysles chatted about the making of documentary films, meeting Prince for the first time, and Ava Gardner’s memoirs.

Hamptons Journal: Heaven and Hell and Lady Gaga

Even Lady Gaga in her most monster-friendly would merely blend in at the Watermill Center’s annual summer benefit, themed Devil’s Heaven. A woman in a red cocktail dress with matching angel wings was a random guest. Artist Evangelia Rantou performed a solo with chairs from Medea, collapsing her stilt-like props mid-pool. A tethered artist struggled Sisyphus-style grasping at dry ground. Another met the crowds at the entrance; hung, he stood for hours on his toes, dangling from a noose. And Hugh Jackman, more song & dance man than Wolverine, played peek-a-boo with performers painted to blend into trees. Coming up on one, with her leg held so high, her most private genitalia at eye level, I had to gasp until she draped herself around her tree. Surely a Satan’s heaven would be Hell, no place for shock, or the demure. Always the benevolent if devilish host, Robert Wilson roamed about the ample space making everyone feel right at home.

Hamptons Journal: Blythe Danner: Puttin’ on the Ditz

Blythe Danner in an evening gown? Yes, of course. How about a clown suit? She does that too, and she sings and dances in the medley of one act plays, Tonight at 8:30, penned by Noel Coward and directed by Tony Walton now showing at Guild Hall. The third play, “Red Peppers,” features Danner in a vaudeville duet with Simon Jones. This sublime actress, as comic as DeNiro’s wife in The Focker movies as she was playing Matthew Broderick’s socialite mom in Nice Work if You Can Get It on Broadway, channels Lucille Ball.

Cate Blanchett as Tragic Hero: Woody, Women, and Williams

“Jasmine was a gift of a role,” said Cate Blanchett at the New York premiere of Blue Jasmine, Woody Allen’s new movie. As the wife of a shady financial wheeler-dealer who has bankrupted his clients and was, by the way, a philanderer as well, Blanchett’s Jasmine is Ruth Madoff, fragile by way of Blanche DuBois, even though, as she said, “We never discussed that,” that is, the resemblance to the tabloids or Tennessee Williams’ Streetcar Named Desire: “her downfall is so present for a lot of people.” Of course, Woody was absent for the star-studded premiere, sending a text that was read out loud at MoMA: “I am in the south of France and cannot attend. I truly wish I were in New York and cannot attend.” In fact, he is shooting his as-yet-unnamed French movie with Colin Firth and Emma Stone. While his films are not in competition with each other, he has to go far to best Blue Jasmine, one of the finest in his prolific career, turning in this one from his signature comedy to tragedy.

Hearthrobs and Heart Breakers: John Gallagher, Jr. in Short Term 12, The Cheshire Murders on HBO

Mason, as played by The Newsroom’s John Gallagher, Jr. does not scream sexy when we first see him in the new film Short Term 12. Recounting an incident involving a runaway from the facility for difficult teens where he works, he describes a moment of taco tummy, when his body fluids give out all over his shorts and sneakers. Eeew, TMI, you think, thanks for sharing, but as this movie progresses and you see his dedication to helping his charges extends to anything that will reign in their impulse to act out, he becomes more and more appealing. A foster child himself, lucky to have landed in a loving family, Mason especially adores his girlfriend Grace (Brie Larson), the soul of this movie.

Crashing In Two Documentaries: The Crash Reel on HBO and EPIX's TWA Flight 800

Kevin Pearce is lucky to be alive. When you see this expert snowboarder taking the near fatal plunge in Lucy Walker’s riveting documentary, The Crash Reel, to air on July 15 on HBO, you know the outcome won’t be good. His rival for competitions and the Olympics, Shaun White, was the subject of a 2008 documentary, Don’t Look Down, about this sport, which many think is not Olympic-worthy. White too has had his share of spills and, in this movie’s most painful moments, some athletes have died. But the movie is more than a cautionary tale about an increasingly more dangerous sport as athletes become more challenged. Detailing Kevin’s long period of recovery, the film is about the strong family that supported him along the way. You see Kevin blowing glass with his dad Simon, whose Park Avenue shop displays his state-of-the-art glassware. The film pays special attention to his brother David, who has Down Syndrome. When David pleads with his brother not to return to the sport Kevin loves, saying “I don’t want to see you die,” you see the tear-filled eyes of mom Pia, and the film’s tension is to see how Kevin will resolve his longing to compete in this sport, and his new reality.

Edward Albee and Faith Ringgold at ArtHamptons in its Sixth Installment

At the VIP (polo) lounge set up at Nova’s Ark, a Bridgehampton sculpture field, two giants went head to head: Edward Albee and Faith Ringgold. A former assistant to Larry Rivers was on the panel too, but David Joel, executive director of the Larry Rivers Foundation, did not get quite as many questions from a crowd that had gathered at this year’s ArtHamptons. Why did you choose Montauk? a woman asked of Edward Albee, honored for his philanthropy in the arts. Have you ever been there? was his cheeky reply, before moving on to a riff about the beauty, nurturing and relaxed atmosphere, of artists outside the commerce of art who are invited to his foundation set up at the remote end of the east end. What plays do you like? None that are popular now, was the reply. And what books are you reading? Zoobiquity, about the relation of man to animals, said the playwright of Zoo Story, pointing out, we are the only animals consciously creating art. Faith Ringgold, honored for lifetime achievement, a red scarf wrapped about her head, said she was inspired by Albee to make a painting, “Who’s Afraid of Aunt Jemima?”

Hamptons Journal: The Mystery of Irma Vep at Bay Street

Introducing Bay Street Theater’s current production on Saturday night, of Charles Ludlam’s 1983 breakout masterpiece The Mystery of Irma Vep: A Penny Dreadful, the actor Richard Kind had to kill time. Opening on the same night as Sag Harbor’s fireworks, Vep was set for 7, but the audience, delayed by more than usual heavy Hamptons traffic, was still making its way, including Joan Copeland, Arthur Miller’s 91 year old sister, who was driving from Amagansett, from obstacle to detour. “Soon you will hear the sounds of a popcorn maker,” said Kind, and then the revival began its camp mash up of Daphne DuMaurier meets the Werewolf, Vampire, and Mummy.

Fruitvale Station: Hoping for Oscar

“It’s a film about justice and injustice,” said Harvey Weinstein, introducing Fruitvale Station, a debut film by Ryan Coogler who wrote and directed, based on a true story in San Francisco. That story is unfortunately echoed in a trial we are all watching on television, seeking resolution for the death of Trayvon Martin. In the 2009 case, a BART policeman shot Oscar Grant who was out celebrating New Year’s Eve with friends in Oakland, at the Fruitvale Station train platform. With a screenplay masterfully leading up to this fate, the events evolve like a thriller, and even though you know scene by well-constructed scene how it will end, you still root for Oscar, hoping the violence will never come.

Fireworks in the Water Line: Gasland II on HBO

What would the July 4 holiday weekend be without fireworks? Somehow the ones emerging from the faucets of ordinary citizens who happen to live where fracking chemicals have infiltrated the water system are not what the patriotic have in mind. The onscreen vision of pipes aflame, along with director Josh Fox’s banjo playing, were part of the spectacle of a special evening at Guild Hall, the second of the Hamptons International Film Festival’s Summerdocs series. When Josh Fox made his Oscar nominated documentary Gasland in 2010, the thorough expose had many thinking, what more could he have to say? The answer is plenty, to judge from the two-hour sequel to air on HBO Monday night. This story is an ongoing investigation of the practice of hydraulic drilling, meant to end our dependency on foreign oil and keep our energy sources here at home. Which sounds like a good plan, but as the documentary demonstrates, we need to pay attention to a hidden agenda that benefits the fossil fuel industry, while raping the environment. Fracking for the Fatherland? Think again.