Attention: Oct. 31, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Guernsey’s auctioning two lots. Highclass stuff.
1938. Herbert Salzer, 23, noted an error in Einstein’s mathematics. Einstein replied Salzer’s “mistaken.” Reworking equations, the great Einstein’s second letter apologizes, stating three times he’s “wrong,” Salzer’s “right,” and how a graduate student better understood his calculus.
With the movie “Gravity” a hit, this original letter, about gravity and electromagnetic fields, governed by different scientific and mathematic principles, is Einstein’s Distant Parallelism Field Theory — the means toward projecting space-time relationships.
May the letter buyer understand it.
Lot 2. 1941’s original film noir masterpiece “The Maltese Falcon,” among cinema’s great works, directed by John Huston from Dashiell Hammett’s novel, it starred Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor and the infamous “black bird” Maltese Falcon. “Encrusted beak to claw with rarest jewels,” no movie prop, this original sculpture comes officially authenticated with written testimonies.
No props for Ms. Jones
Cherry Jones on her new “The Glass Menagerie” grabbing high-fives and talk of a Tony: “Our set’s sparse. Couch and chairs. Tennessee said he hates props. That ice cubes and Frigidaires were the death of American theater. He loved young directors, young expressions. So what we didn’t do was an antiquated expression of Tennessee Williams. And if you can’t understand what I’m saying, then come see it.”
And where was Cherry Jones her night off? At the movies.
Airport eats
Delta’s Terminal 2, 6 a.m., Senegalese hip-hopper Akon downed a farmer’s omelet, wheat toast, peppermint tea. What the lady and two gents with him had, I don’t know. Or care . . . Hedge-funder Steve Cohen unloading art to pay his SEC battle’s legal fees . . . Actor Ron Perlman’s written “Easy Street — The Hard Way: A Memoir” because: “This is personal for me. Cinema’s too sacred a Humanity to leave to passionless, creativity-killing corporate bottom-liners.”
‘Lost’ boats
Two-hour movie with only 20 lines of dialogue, the script of Robert Redford’s “All Is Lost” was 37 pages. Director J.C. Chandor told me: “I’d never met him but I wrote it especially for him. We checked him out over only one meeting. Despite stuntmen standing by, Redford did all his own stunts.
“For the original boat we used three. Repainted them and chopped them up in different pieces for different shots. The owners figured we’d give them back. Lotsa luck.”
Angela’s hall
Angela Lansbury, who graced their stage, inducted into Bucks County Playhouse’s Hall of Fame . . . Thanks to George Rush and Joanna Molloy’s “Scandal: A Manual — The Inside Story of America’s Infamous Gossip Columnists” for treating me well. Also, thanks to their quitting I no longer need worry about them . . . Emmy Rossum in Hollywood Reporter: “I recognized a man but couldn’t figure out how. Leaning over I said, ‘Do I know you?’ He said, ‘I’m your gynecologist.’ ”
Ray cooks
For teaching the art of eating, the Sylvia Center’s “Art of Cooking” honors Rachael Ray tonight at Sotheby’s, which also specializes in the art of jewelry . . . More cooking. Helen Mirren, learning to play a chef in “The Hundred-Foot Journey” by working the Beverly Hills Hotel’s pots and pans . . . On the 24th Ron Howard’s “Project Imagination” presents 10 short films directed by Jamie Foxx, Eva Longoria, Biz Stone, Georgina Chapman. Says Ron, “We’re all creative.”
* * *
Woman walking her dog on E. 57th. The dog growled at a passerby. “He doesn’t like people wearing hats,” she explained. “Yeah? Well, I don’t like being bald,” the guy said.
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.