Last week when I wrote the blog entry a few hours
before the 86th annual Academy Awards, I planned to watch the show,
as I mentioned. I even talked two young colleagues, Ben and Peter, into coming
over at 3:00 AM to watch with me. I got up at 2:45 AM, prepared the Oscar-watching
food, the two young ones showed up, and then we spent 90 minutes flipping
channels trying to find the Oscars!
Ben tried to live-stream them, all to no avail! So, ultimately, there was no
Oscar-watching this year…such a shame, oh well, but not tragic…but I did decide
that this next edition of “Dropped Names” should feature some of the Oscar
winners and nominees I have bumped into (of course, I have already mentioned Al
Pacino, Sissy Spacek, George Clooney, Whoopi Goldberg, Helen Hayes and Olivia
de Havilland). So let’s see…let’s start with an Oscar winner whose birthday I
share—that would be Susan Sarandon.
Susan
Sarandon Way
back at Christmas time in 1994, I attended the new A Christmas Carol playing at Madison Square Garden, and who should
be sitting beside me, but Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, and their children! One
unusual costuming note: Susan and Tim were dressed all in black (naturally, in
New York) and their children were all in white. Hmmm… Obviously I would think
of reasons to turn to my right, discreetly, over the next two hours and check their reactions. I didn’t
bother them, but I did love looking at Susan’s gorgeous skin. Ten years later I
found myself next to Ms. Sarandon again, at a basketball game, between Hackley
School and Dalton (the school where their little children grew up to attend). I
almost commented to Ms. Sarandon that we had sat beside each other years ago,
but reasoned that she would just stare at me a la Sissy Spacek. I almost told her that we shared the same
October 4th birthday, but in the end, I just sat and cheered when
Hackley scored. I was such a non-plussed celeb watcher!
Daniel
Day Lewis This
three-time Oscar winner and I were out at the same restaurant one summer night
in 2011 in Greenwich Village. I was with the Unger family, one of my favorites
in the world, and we noted that we had come in at the same time as Daniel D-L,
and just kind of kept watch of him throughout dinner. I made sure we crossed
paths, one more time as we left, and he commented to me, “Mate, we came and
left at the same time!” I nodded and smiled, again, such a jaded, non-plussed
celeb star-gazer!
Sigourney
Weaver The
autumn of 1994, when I moved to New York to be a Klingenstein fellow, was a
goldmine of celeb sightings—and that fall I went to Brearley School to see a musical.
I found myself in line to enter behind a tall, stylish woman, who,
wait-a-minute, this was Oscar nominee Sigourney Weaver! I noted that no one
acted like they saw the Brearley mom there, but I could also tell that everyone there knew exactly where she
was that evening!
Glenn
Close I saw multiple-nominee
Glennie jogging in Central Park once, but my favorite encounter with Ms. Close
was at a donut shop in Armonk—a shop known for its unbelievably good and
in-demand donut treats. The shop had a rule that one could only buy one bag a
visit at the shop of the donuts, and Glenn, two people in front of me, pleaded
that she wanted more. The weary clerk sighed and responded, “Ms. Close—you know
the policy!” I almost volunteered to sell her my bag of the donuts!
Candice
Bergen Years
before I loved her in Murphy Brown on
TV, this Oscar nominee was in Salzburg, Austria, and we bumped into each other
in the American Express office in the Old Town (bumped into each other?? That suggests
that Candy and I are old friends!). She was with husband Louis Malle and looked
every bit as lovely as one would hope. Again, I kept my cool…
Barbra
Streisand This
may be my most tenuous Dropped Name
connection, but years ago I spent a weekend with a friend of college friend
Jill’s in Connecticut who sold a piece of furniture to Barbra Streisand. Come
to think of it, I guess that hardly counts. But I had a great conversation
about 17th century furniture and how the Thirty Years’ War affected
furniture production. She said Barbra was a picky buyer.
Liza
Minnelli Liza,
oh, Liza, you have been a source of joy and bizarre-behavior for years. I saw
Liza in concert several times in the 1980s, and she was always a mesmerizing,
riveting performer. However, when I saw her in the late 1990s subbing in Victor/Victoria on Broadway she was in a
fog of something and it was a night that I almost gave up theater-going.
However, my encounter came when I was in line to enter my favorite NYC cabaret
spot, 88s, around 2003, and all of a sudden, a
woman cut in line, and brushed past me, going right in. I turned to say
something, and noticed that it was La
Minnelli herself. While we waited for singer Sally Mayes (who is superb!) I
made my way over to Liza’s table to thank her for the concerts of the 80s and
her stupendous star quality. She smiled, looked grateful and sincere, and gave
me a hug. She also enjoyed the show—I made sure to look over and note her
reactions throughout the show!
Jane
Fonda At
Brown University, the night before graduation every year is the Campus Dance,
and all alumni are invited back every year. I have gone only once, the year I
graduated with my Master’s degree from Brown, but the dance was a great affair.
I was there with my History peeps and all of a sudden I heard a voice from
behind me that I instantly recognized! I turned and there,a few feet away, was
Jane Fonda. I went over and said hello (husband at the time Ted Turner is a
Brown alum, as was her daughter) and told her that I was a big fan. (I didn’t mention
to her that I wrote her for my 7th grade Oscar project and never
heard from her.) I gushed that the year I got into the Oscars—1977—I rooted for
her to win for Julia. She was
pleasant.
Wendy
Hiller This
Oscar winner (she won for Separate Tables
in the late 50s) starred in Driving Miss
Daisy in London in the summer of 1988, and Tony and I went to see her and
then met her afterwards. She was so gracious—insistent that we chat with her
while she signed our programs, and asked us about our travels and if we enjoyed
the play. I adored her performance and also enjoyed her kindly grande dame persona after the show.
Meryl
Streep Okay,
this is maybe me at my most stalker self…I have yet to meet Meryl Streep,
although that would be a thrill. But in the fall of 1994 I spent a day at the
boarding school Hotchkiss, shadowing a French teacher, and she pointed out Meryl
Streep’s son. I made sure I bumped into him during lunch, and almost spoke to
him about his wondrous mother, but restrained myself instead. I hope to drop
the name Meryl Streep someday!
Celeste
Holm One
evening in Manhattan I came across an elegant, older lady, and I realized it
was Celeste Holm—an Oscar winner from the mid-1940s. She was outside of Le Bernardin, a wonderful, expensive
restaurant. I did decide to go up and speak to Ms. Holm, telling her how much I
enjoyed her in a movie, Tom Sawyer,
from my childhood, from a TV film about the Presidents, and seeing her in All About Eve. I also confessed that I
had watched her in a soap opera (see in the next installment of Dropped Names) when she joined her
husband for a few months on the soap. She was thoroughly sweet and a reminder of old Hollywood,
old Broadway, early TV, and totally classy and glam. Note to musical theater
enthusiasts: Celeste Holm was the original Ado Annie in Oklahoma in 1943. Lovely lady!
So those are my encounters with Oscar winners. There
was a summer that I walked around the Turtle Bay area in Manhattan, hoping to
bump into 4-time Oscar winner Katharine Hepburn. I never saw her coming out for
milk or her dry cleaning! I have seen Oscar winners in plays, but my favorite
Oscar-person moment might be watching Joanne Woodward, the director of an agitprop 1930s play in the late 90s, watching her own
play she had directed. Splashed across her face was such a love for the work, a pride, an excitement
(she had gotten a great performance out of Oscar winner My Cousin Vinny’s Marisa Tomei) and a pure joy. It wasn’t about her
being “famous,” but just the thrill of the work.
Tomorrow I will complete
my Dropped Names project…
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