Gossip Central

Bettye Lavette: Worthy at the Café Carlyle

Wiry and wise to life’s vicissitudes, soul singer Bettye Lavette took the stool at the Café Carlyle, commanding from that small perch a powerhouse of songs featuring her new album, Worthy. Building up to the title song, Lavette’s set included tunes from Bob Dylan (“Unbelievable”), Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (“Complicated”), John Lennon and Paul McCartney (“Wait”), not one of them a hummable known despite the fame of the songwriters, which made the evening a treat of discovery, providing a glimpse into some soul-searching moments in those artists’ careers. Another tune was inspired by Lucinda Williams: “Don’t Count Me Out Just Yet;” her “Before the Money Came” caused her to admit, “I have the worst time remembering the words because I wrote them.” Bettye Lavette explained her choices: “I recorded these songs because I liked them. They didn’t sell.”

Hamm-Strung at the Gotham Awards

The annual celebration of indie films kicking off the vibrant awards season every year gets more glamorous, honoring the outstanding and risk-taking films that are going to make it to Oscars—like Boyhood and Birdman, as well as those that are just great, likes’Laura Poitra documentary Citizenfour, Ira Sachs’ Love is Strange, Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin, and other exceptional films that do not fit any Hollywood formula. This week at Cipriani Wall Street, the sponsor Calvin Klein’s Euphoria embellished the stage, the fragrance’s name perhaps a metaphor for the high spirits: Bennett Miller was feted alongside Ted Sarandos and Tilda Swinton, the crowd of film insiders included Rene Russo in a French twist, and Scarlett Johansen in a short, smart do—it was decidedly downtown and chic.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s Eyes in Nightcrawler

Jake Gyllenhaal’s Leo Bloom in Nightcrawler is as creepy as the movie’s title suggests. A bug-eyed loner who preys on the misfortunes of others, Bloom’s very language appropriates television-speak with information garnered on the Internet to make him reptilian. Negotiating his way through interactions, he acquires a camera and means to follow disasters, and finds a career as a videographer filming beyond the scope of decency: a man with gaping wounds after a car crash, a family shot in their mansion, their plush white carpets soaked in blood. Racing around in a beautifully shot L.A. in a red car, he doesn’t just follow crime scenes, he creates them.

Helena Rubinstein at the Jewish Museum: Mascara for the Masses

In a week when talk focused on the revamping of Renee Zellweger’s face, whether or not the Oscar winning actress went generic with plastic surgery, a voice from history affirmed choice for women of all ages and economics when it comes to feminine enhancement: “Beauty is power,” said Helena Rubinstein at a time when makeup was only associated with showgirls and prostitutes. A canny businesswoman, as a splendid new exhibition at the Jewish Museum establishes, the four foot ten inch Polish-born Rubinstein led the cosmetics field in face creams, and reinvented mascara wands; a rival to Elizabeth Arden, Helena Rubinstein surprisingly kept her Jewish name.

Fashion Week: Killer Heels at the Brooklyn Museum and Vivienne Tam’s Clothes That Kill

A fashion insider once told me, the clothes displayed on runways are entertainment. They don’t exist. In the case of the Brooklyn Museum’s spectacular history of high heels, Killer Heels, many will thank heaven: the footwear in videos and traditional museum cases looks that thrillingly treacherous. A Christian Louboutin ballet flat hoisted vertical on a stiletto for example may be a fetish item, to be worn perhaps by a prima ballerina in perpetual en pointe. True, some historic pumps from Delman’s dated late 1930’s look chicly dowdy, some Asian influenced styles look like artful clogs, Ferragamo’s pumps for Marilyn Monroe are simply elegant, but Louboutin’s “Lipspike’s Bootie” or Koolhaas’s “Gaga Shoe” are pure weaponry.

Kevin Spacey: Museum of the Moving Image Tribute

Sprinkling his talk with the “F” word, Kevin Spacey recounted the wellworn story of how his idol Jack Lemmon encouraged him when Spacey was a 13 year old. “That was a touch of terrific,” Lemmon said to the aspiring actor, after seeing him perform at an acting seminar in Los Angeles, and 13 years later Lemmon auditioned him for the Broadway production of Long Day’s Journey into Night, to play his son. He became his mentor, friend, and father figure. Yes, as we know Spacey is a major movie star: clips from The Usual Suspects, American Beauty, Margin Call, Glengarry Glen Ross, and many other films at the Museum of the Moving Image’s annual fete this week on Park Avenue attested to that fact. But for this viewer, his Richard III at BAM was Spacey at his very most stellar, followed by a modern version of that Shakespearean malevolence on Netflix’s House of Cards. You could say, mean and vicious are his calling. However, when MMI chairman Herbert S. Schlosser fainted at cocktails, Spacey was the first by his side.

Caroling with Darlene Love, Lisa Fischer, and Judith Hill

Christmas came early this year. First there was the gift of the documentary “20 Feet from Stardom,” now shortlisted for the Best Documentary Oscar. Then, there were the celebrations: the most recent on Thursday night at the Edison Hotel’s Rum House featuring cast members, Judith Hill and Lisa Fischer, accompanied by pianist Robbie Kondor for Christmas carols. Director Morgan Neville introduced the evening, saying that he never expected the film to have this kind of success: if you haven’t seen it, the documentary tells the story of backup singers with testimonies of Mick Jagger, Stevie Wonder, Sting, Springsteen all singing the praises of the less famous women with the musical chops that make the front men sound so good. In the documentary, Neville unearths a story about race, gender, the consequences of Michael Jackson’s death, making this film resonate in ways larger than the great music performed.

Sarah Jessica Parker and Blythe Danner’s Frozen Assets in “The Commons of Pensacola”

In Amanda Peet’s fine playwriting debut for Manhattan Theater Club at City Center, “The Commons of Pensacola,” Sarah Jessica Parker and Blythe Danner are daughter and mother locked in a domestic dilemma: Judith (Danner) is forced to scale down as her husband has been jailed for a Madoff-mode crime. Becca (Parker) arrives for Thanksgiving with a boyfriend much her junior. Her sister Ali (Ali Marsh) has broken off from their mother for mysterious reasons, so her daughter Lizzy (Zoe Levin) must sneak a visit to grandma now residing in a generic Florida condo. All would be cozy, complete with a fold out couch, except that the wrong couple ends up sleeping there.

Eva Longoria: Action Hero in “Project Imaginat10n”

At Alice Tully Hall last week, at a “global premiere” showcasing 10 short films, Eva Longoria announced that she had always wanted to be a stuntwoman. The five foot tall actress was turned down for that career, but a film she stars in and directs was featured among the 10 for “Project Imaginat10n,” a film festival inspired by photos, the brainchild of Ron Howard working with Canon. His daughter Bryce Dallas Howard, who made an acclaimed feature in the festival’s inaugural year, was one of the judges. Eva Longoria joined Jamie Foxx, James Murphy, Georgina Chapman, Kalman Apple, Biz Stone, Ronnie Allman, Jared Nelson, Julian Higgins, and Arrius Sorbonne for this distinction. In “Out of the Blue,” Longoria cast herself as an action hero mom fighting off a formidable foe. In Georgina Chapman’s delicate love story, “A Dream of Flying,” a girl played at one stage of life by Dree Hemingway, is stopped from flying. Jamie Foxx shot his film, “...And She Was My Eve,” about a man searching for the perfect mate, in Brooklyn. Harvey Weinstein, Danny Strong, Alexis Bledel, and Vincent Katheiser were among those cheering the filmmakers on. As to Eva Longoria, she’s clearly ready to be cast in the next great blockbuster; she might even direct.

Regina Weinreich

Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura

 

 

Older Men in Last Vegas

When we first meet them in this laugh out loud comedy Last Vegas, Robert DeNiro, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Kline, and Michael Douglas look like they might have wandered off the set of a movie called Bad Grandpas. But then, as they go off to Las Vegas for a wild pre-nuptial blast for Billy (Douglas), all cleaned up, they veer close to GQ models. The now familiar Sex & the City shot: the four stars walking in slow motion toward you, has you realizing, as one bosomy broad in the movie does, that mature may not be so bad. Disarmingly funny despite being predictable, the movie comes with a message about ageing, mature love, and friendship, points affirmed by a lounge singer in the shimmering sheaths of Mary Steenburgen who wrote a special song for the film. Following surgery, the actress had an anesthesia induced epiphany, discovering that she wanted to sing and compose music—and guess what, she’s good. At the premiere this week, the Ziegfeld was chockablock with well-wishers who made their way to the “21” Club to sample the beef and yes, gamble at roulette. Morgan Freeman affirmed he did his own dancing, and DeNiro reprised his Raging Bull boxing chops. Director Jon Turteltaub said the dynamic foursome took their scenes in stride. In this company, no one dared play diva.

Regina Weinreich

Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura