Celebrity Watch

Teddy Bears & Titans

by George Christy

   Ann Getty always manages a surprise. For the Snuggly Soirée that she & Gordon Getty hosted at their opulent Pacific Heights compound to benefit the Glogau Teddy Bear Rescue Fund, Ann tracked down Hermès neckties with teddy bear designs for Gordon (gold) and dermatologist Richard Glogau (blue) to wear. Let us bow to the Gettys for opening their doors for these frequent charitable events and for any number of cultural enticements that benefit the city.
   And a stout brava to Snuggly Soireé’s Pamela Baj Glogau, who dreamed up the Fund to provide cash support that covers food, housing, travel, tutors, interpreters for youngsters and their families hospitalized at UCSF Pediatric Hospital. “We raised $150,000 tonight,” beamed Pam, admiring the children who stuffed teddy bears, decorated teddy bear cookies, had their faces painted, and played arcade games in the large covered courtyard.
   Indefatigable glamour girl Dede Wilsey was among the early arrivals, and there was the news that Dede is taking on the capital campaign for the new UCSF Pediatric Hospital that will be built on the water in Mission Bay. “She aims to raise $560 million,” revealed Richard Glogau, “and knowing Dede it’s as good as done, although most men know that if they’re her dinner partner they’ll likely leave with their bank account a little lighter.”
   Vanessa Getty flew in from Manhattan, and Gordon Glogau arrived from the Groton School in Massachusetts, having gathered pals and former high school classmates to participate in the evening that attracted more than 500 guests that included children, moms and dads and grandparents. Special guest Mark Laret, CEO of the UCSF Medical Center, commended Dede Wilsey for volunteering to take on this enormous financial undertaking, as she did for the de Young Museum.
   Not long ago, Dede celebrated the marriage of son Trevor Traina to beauty Alexis Swanson with a grand dinner in the museum’s new Wilsey Court that included the Who’s Who of the Bay Area and the East, and which we detailed in a previous NHG column. Trevor & Alexis are infanticipating their firstborn this spring.
    As always with the Gettys, glorious florals abounded, designed by the inimitable Stanlee Gatti, and mixing at the Snuggly Soirée were Mayor Gavin, Hillary Newsom & husband Geoff Callan with their two daughters; Beth Townsend, who’s Ann Getty’s niece and assistant, and was off for a week’s cruise to Mexico; Jo Schuman Silver, the longtime, I-hate-to-leave, Getty houseguest (Ann’s decorating Jo’s luxurious Nob Hill flat), Adrianna Pope Sullivan & Bobby Sullivan, Elizabeth Thieriot, Austin Hills, Denise Bradley, Pamela Deikel with daughter Nicole and granddaughter Katrina, Paul Pelosi, and Guy Muzio,
   Also there: Diane Lloyd-Butler with son John, Melissa & Patrick Barber, Brandt Hooker, Maryon Davies Lewis, Shelley Lazar, who’s managing the Police tour with Sting, and Karen Lott, all taking home swag bags with bear blankets, Bliss body scrubs and Hydraflight skin cream created by Richard and his sought-after dermatologist colleague Arnold Klein in Beverly Hills.
   As the evening wound down, hearty partygoers such as the Glogaus, UCSF’s Kelley O’Brien, and Rosella Blanding trouped over to the Balboa Café for a wrap-up on the soiree’s success and to chow down on everybody’s favorite burgers.
   Several nights afterward, Gordon toasted Ann with a birthday dinner at home with family and friends. And two weeks later, the Gettys entertained ABC News’ Bob Woodruff & wife Lee, who’ve written In An Instant, just published by Putnam, about the carnage in Iraq and the January 2006 explosion that left Bob with life-threatening injuries. A family memoir that invokes compassion about their life and four children and the soul-rattling confusion they faced.

Mister Big
A new custom shirt arrives from Donatella Versace by FedEx every year for ICM agent Ed Limato to wear at his pre-Oscar party, which he’s hosted for 18 seasons, and nobody attracts the powerhouse players of Hollywood as Ed does. While celebrities are fun, it’s the studio heads and the top executives who green-light the movies, and they gather, these hotshot moviemakers, more than 550 people you should know, at his historic Beverly Hills mansionette, schmoozing through the unforgettable Friday night before the Oscars that they’ll talk about for days.
   Ed’s evening is that party with no agenda — come and sip, sup and schmooze with your fellow movie titans. Most Oscar weekend parties are benefits, such as Elton John’s for his AIDS Foundation, Vanity Fair’s Sunday fanny bumper promotes Vanity Fair, Saturday’s Night Before party benefits the Motion Picture and Television Home. Only Ed’s is the major event that invites you for a stay-as-late-as-you-like good time, without writing a charity check. 
   They jostle for drinks on the terrace and in the house with its prized antiques and its movie-star provenance. Nestled in the high canyons of Beverly Hills, this Gone with the Wind “Tara” was built by Dick Powell for Joan Blondell, and later sheltered lovers Betty Grable and George Raft. Drinks are followed by the night-long buffet dinner catered by Mary Micucci of Along Came Mary in the cathedral-ceilinged marquee that covers the swimming pool and tennis court. We’re talking about a half-football field in length.
   In the center, the bar’s bigger than a palatial courtyard, with bartenders pouring nonstop, serving studio tycoons and Ed’s clients, who include Denzel Washington with wife Pauletta, Steve Martin with Anne Stringfield, Liam Neeson with Natasha Richardson, Matthew Fox, Claire Danes, Jim Caviezel, Derek Luke, Calista Flockhart, Thomas Jane and Hayden Christensen.
   Ed also represents Mel Gibson and Richard Gere, who were out of town. During Ed’s birthday party for Richard several decades ago, we christened Ed as “the barefoot host in the Versace shirt.” It stuck and became his signature, and to this day, he’s barefoot greeting his illustrious guests.
   By contrast, on Oscar night, Vanity Fair’s Graydon Carter feeds 150 guests that include star-struck New Yorkers at Morton’s, and the “toothpicks” (as the French call those after-dinner invitees) swarm in like bees for In-N-Out burgers, although this year the “toothpicks” list was mercifully trimmed.
   At Ed’s you’ll find Warner Bros.’ Cindy & Alan Horn, Fox’s Ann & Jim Gianopulos, Jessica & Tom Rothman, Sony chiefs Jeff Blake and Amy Pascal with mates Barbara and Bernie Weinraub, Sony Classics’ Michael Barker and Tom Bernard, Universal’s Kelly & Ron Meyer and Louise & Marc Shmuger, Overlook’s Jamie & Chris McGurk, DreamWorks’ Jeffrey & Marilyn Katzenberg and Stacy Snider with husband Gary Jones.
     More names: Paramount’s Jill & Brad Grey, Linda & Jerry Bruckheimer, Barry Diller & Diane von Furstenberg, Mavis & Jay Leno, Sherry Lansing & Billy Friedkin, Disney’s Bonnie & Dick Cook, CBS’s Les Moonves with Julie Chen, Dodgers’ Bob Daly with Carole Bayer Sager, Anne & Arnold Kopelson, Joanna & Sidney Poitier, Helen Mirren & Taylor Hackford, Keisha & Forest Whitaker, Kate Winslet & Sam Mendes, 300 producer Mark Canton, Anjelica Huston & Robert Graham, Clive Owen, Winona Ryder, Harvey Weinstein with Marchesa designer Georgina Chapman,
  Other attendees: The Queen director Stephen Frears, Hugh Jackman, Will Smith & Jada Pinkett Smith, Norman Jewison & Lynne St. David, Terrence Howard, Scott Rudin & John Barlow, Ellen DeGeneres & Portia De Rossi, Diane Sawyer, Jodie Foster, Don Cheadle, Shirley MacLaine, Djimon Hounsou, Faye Dunaway, Victoria & Dennis Hopper, Bette Midler & Martin Van Haselberg, Tobey Maguire & Jennifer Meyer, Nora Ephron & Nick Pileggi, Christina Ricci, Luke Wilson, Penny Marshall, Garry Marshall with daughter Lori, and Giorgio Armani with niece Roberta.  
     Hundreds more included hot young blondes and buffed dudes, many checking out Ed’s Marlene Dietrich Theater, named after one of his favorite leading ladies, where he screens classic films for his loyal assistants Todd Maginn, Walker Davis and Andrew Finkelstein to be aware of the rich artistry of Hollywood’s past.
  
Off The Rack
As for the Oscarcast, which lost half of its male viewers midway, but gained a million more viewers (most likely women) than last year, Hollywood sympathizes that it’s a killer show to produce. Laura Ziskin did her best to bring a fresh creativity to the program, and while we like and admire Ellen DeGeneres, her hostessing of the Oscars seemed more suited to daytime television rather than nighttime.
   Vacuuming, chumming up to Clint Eastwood for a cell-phone photo op, asking Marty Scorsese to read her script. All daytime stuff. Where, oh where, is Billy Crystal or Johnny Carson? Also, delaying until after the midway run, the excitement of the usually up-front winners for the best supporting male and female actors (won by Alan Arkin, which infuriated sore loser Eddie Murphy, who quickly stormed out of the Kodak Theatre, and Jennifer Hudson, which was anticipated for weeks).
   Some folks in the audience didn’t quite know what the Pilobolus dance troupe was about with their shadow-imaging the nominated films. And all the hoo-hah about Gucci designing special outfits for Ellen to wear — well, they looked like they came off the rack at a thrift store.
  
Burt & Sammy
“One of those friendships that clicked during our first meeting,” says Burt Boyar about dining with Sammy Davis, Jr. at Danny’s Hideaway, a steak house hangout for showbiz folks in Manhattan when Sammy starred in Mr. Wonderful on Broadway. Burt Boyar’s Broadway column in the Morning Telegraph, with its racing forms, was a must-read at the time, as was the late Herb Caen’s in San Francisco. “Sammy said let’s have dinner every night, or at least five nights a week, and we more or less did.
   “After Sammy died, his wife Altovise, who was well-looked-after after his death (better than 99 percent of America), told me about a huge storage facility where Robert Blooming-dale and Howard Burkons and I unearthed cartons and cartons of photographs, a veritable treasure chest, that we cleaned and restored for the documentary Yes I Can, based on the biography my late wife Jane and I wrote about Sammy.
   “A Zelig with the Rolleiflex, Sammy became the house photographer for the Rat Pack, which included Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop, and Shirley MacLaine. His first important camera was a gift from Jerry Lewis, and he carried his equipment everywhere: San Francisco, Las Vegas, Broadway, even the civil rights march in Washington, D.C. in 1963 when Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his I Have a Dream speech.
   “We discovered a fantastic range of photographs: Marilyn Monroe, Kim Novak, Ava Gardner, and wife, Swedish actress May Britt with their children Tracey and Mark. He loved photographing beautiful women, as you’ll see in the picture book Photo by Sammy Davis, Jr., which I’ve compiled for HC Books (formerly ReganBooks). Kim Novak was the love of his life during the 60s, they had clandestine meetings; he visited her family secretly in Chicago for a Thanskgiving weekend. When Harry Cohn, who headed Columbia Pictures got wind of it, he was outraged. Kim was his golden box-office star, and her relationship with Sammy would hurt his movies and wreck her career.
   “Sam Giancana, the FBI”S Number Two man, caught up with Sammy when he was performing in Las Vegas to warn him that Cohn had taken a contract out on him, unless he broke up his romance with Kim. ‘Otherwise, they’ll break your kneecaps,’ he told Sammy. ‘I can protect you in Las Vegas, Chicago, New York, but I don’t have any juice in L.A. And these guys enjoy hurting people.’ The affair ended, Sammy was advised to marry ‘a nice colored girl.’ He wed dancer Loray White, and later married classical dancer Altovise. When Sammy was dying at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Kim was one of the last people to see him.”
    Burt reveals the Ava Gardner romance was trumped-up by Confidential magazine that ran a headline: “What Makes Ava Gardner Run for Sammy Davis, Jr.” “Sammy explained that she’d seen him perform at the Apollo Theatre where they met, and the magazine wrote, ‘Sammy Sends Me,’ but left out ‘as a performer,’ quoting her as Sammy being ‘exciting, thrilling, masculine,’ which was about his performance, but they alluded that those descriptions referred to Sammy in bed, making it sound like they were having the swingingest affair of the year.”
   Burt was feted last month at a drinks party hosted by Vanity Fair in New York at Ports 196l, with huge young crowds anxious to meet him and buy the book that features stars and more stars. From Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton to Judy Garland and Paul Newman, Mae West to Sean Connery, and the Rat Packers, dozens upon dozens of fabulous faces from those golden years of Hollywood. Photo By Sammy Davis, Jr. with the text by Burt Boyar is a Peeping Tom’s eye-view of Hollywood history, an ideal coffee-table tome and a best buy, considering the extraordinary range of photographs, for only $49.95.

Wedding Bells And Camels
Her ex-mate of 13 years, Hugh Grant, sponsored a monkey in her name at the London Zoo, and the other wedding guests were asked to gift newlyweds Elizabeth Jane Hurley, the face of Estee Lauder for years, and software entrepreneur and textile heir Arun Nayar, with sheep, pigs, and cows for Elizabeth’s organic farm. To avoid any hoopla on their wedding night, Elizabeth and Arun, born to an Indian father and a German mother, were married privately before two witnesses the night before their “blessing” the next afternoon by Rev. John Partington at Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire. Elizabeth’s four-year-old son Damian, whose billionaire father is Los Angeles film producer Steve Bing, served as the ring bearer.
   Elizabeth wore a Versace gown, as did her five bridesmaids, with the wedding and engagement rings provided by Chopard. Elton John and David Furnish flew in on their purple helicopter, joining Donatella Versace, Valentino, our popular ICM agent Ed Limato, Kate Moss, and Elle Macpherson, who dined on guinea fowl and poached pear, simulating the wedding banquet at Sudeley Castle for Henry VIII’s sixth wife, Catharine Parr.
   The following day, 250 guests jetted to Mumbai on a Virgin Airways charter flight, with 400 guests then participating in the four-day celebration before the honeymoon in the Seychelles. At the Hindu ceremony in Rajastan, Arun arrived on a white horse followed by decorated camels and elephants. Men were asked to wear turbans, the women to don pink saris, and Elizabeth’s sari was encrusted with jewels valued at $8,000.
      Kiran, the Pakistani “dancing courtesan,” as she’s described by WWD, performed her famous Katthak dance, which had smitten Elizabeth during a hospital fundraiser in Pakistan. The dance, Kiran tells WWD, “focuses on eye contact, graceful hand movements, lithe waist tilting with long hair swinging, foot drumming and body twirling…I can dance for five hours at a stretch, and still hold my audience’s attention.” She adds that she’s proud to hail from a family of courtesans.
    
Hairspray & More
At the ShoWest convention in Las Vegas where theater owners preview summer and fall films, the smash was Hairspray, with Variety claiming that the movie “will stick it to the summer sequels, and New Line Cinema has something to buzz about big-time, ever since their Hobbits in the Lord of the Ring movies disappeared.” Summer sequels being such as Spider-Man 3, etc.
   Adam Shankman directed and choreographed the Hairspray movie based on the Broadway musical that was adapted from John Waters’ cult flick that featured Divine in the role John Travolta plays in the movie. That of Edna Turnblad, with John in a fat suit, whose daughter Tracey, played by Nikki Blonsky, manages to shake up and integrate her high school. Chris Walken plays John Travolta’s husband — “their dancing scenes are spectacular,” says Adam, adding that Michelle Pfeiffer is the villainess Velma, and Queen Latifah is Motormouth Mabel. “We filmed in Toronto, and recreated 1960s Baltimore, where John Waters is from, with 19 musical numbers. I ended up directing three blocks of extras in Toronto where we filmed, and 150 dancers.”
   “Travolta, Latifah and Pfeiffer got the biggest ShoWest applause,” raved Variety critic Michael Speier, “and it’s clear Adam Shankman has turned a collection of pop culture icons and bubblegum songs into a dandy time at the movies.”
   We didn’t know that Sandra Bullock’s the proprietor-owner of a bistro, Bess, in Austin, Texas, where she and husband Jesse James live, Jesse being a motorcycle builder and the host of Monster Garage. So Sandra informed us during the premiere of her suspenseful film Premonition. “We serve a great gumbo and other New Orleans specialties, and being a bistro, steak frites is a menu staple. Come on by.”
   Chris Rock, who wrote, directed and stars in I Think I Love My Wife, writes every day, keeps notebooks, and says nothing is ever wasted. “That line where Kerry Washington tells me, ‘You’re not in love, you’re in loyal,’ I wrote that 10 years ago. And now it’s in the movie.”
   Karl Lagerfeld praises Andy Warhol to the New Yorker’s John Colapinto “as another prolific creator of the Zeitgest.” But Karl tut-tuts any comparisons between the two. “First of all, I’m better groomed, and there was something more perverted in his mind than in mine.” When his desks are cluttered with piles of books and papers, Karl buys more desks — “and they get buried, too.” Hundreds of Karl’s fingerless gloves, dozens of pairs of jeans and belts are laid out by the hundreds, and Karl shrugs, “To normal people it may look sick, huh. But, then, I don’t know what ‘normal’ means anymore.”  

The author of All I Could See From Where I Stood, a novel written in college, and The Los Angeles Underground Gourmet, George Christy traveled as a roving editor for Town & Country magazine (when he fell in love with San Francisco), before joining the Hollywood Reporter, where his column, The Great Life, appeared for 26 years. He appears in films and on television.