The first John Grisham (26 novels, 1.5 billion copies, 42 languages, nine movies) book to hit B’way is because agent wizard David Gernert suggested producer Daryl Roth expand her book on dogs. Ta-da! He also rep’d Grisham. Maybe no kind of miracle like Moses parting the Red Sea but . . . hey . . .
Opening night of this thrilling 2 ¹/₂-hour play, Grisham told me: “I wrote ‘A Time To Kill’ longhand. On a yellow legal pad. In black pen. Not even a marker pen. Listen, it’s all I had. I was a small-town Mississippi lawyer. It took me three years. And I was actually skeptical they could stage it on Broadway.”
He remembers the ending? “I remember one ending, but who knows what they’ll do?”
And what did he do with its first earned money? “Can’t remember. I think I put it on my wife.”
Stunning wife Renee, sitting directly behind me: “We’re married over 30 years. I remember well his writing this. I read every chapter. I felt it was good . . . but you never know . . . ”
Walking in: S. Epatha Merkerson: “I didn’t read those books.” . . . David Hyde Pierce: “Never read him.” Bobby Cannavale: “I read ‘The Firm’.”
What’s going on
Hearing Al Jazeera was into Pat Robertson negativity, he left a lunch to meet with his lawyer . . . Ukrainian boxing champ Vitali Klitschko about world heavyweight champ brother Wladimir, Hayden Panettiere’s fiancé: “I support him with all my energy. My brother better than me. But bad is belief that all fighters are stupid.”
In our backyard
Brooklyn’s Dorchester, Beverly, Argyle, Marlborough roads, and streets like Ditmas, Cortelyou, 17th have film trucks. CBS’s “Unforgettable” (Poppy Montgomery and Dylan Walsh) is shooting almost in my friend’s foyer. She says: “Eight trucks. Tented sidewalk. Littered with used coffee cups, discarded Snapple bottles. It’s disgusting.” Welcome to Hollywood East.
For art’s sake
Oct. 22, Pop Gallery Midtown and Soho. Peter Max’s newest Marilyn Monroe portrait collection. Two days later, Nassau County Museum of Art. His never-before-seen black-and-white ’60s and ’70s drawings. Nov. 19, HarperCollins’ “The Universe of Peter Max.” By next month, you’ll be up to your easel in Peter Max.
Landlord antics
Update: Gossip on Yoko suing a landlord blocking her apartment sale? May have happened to me. A co-op board blocked three buyers for questionable reasons, and I suspected the motive was to force the price down . . . Gossip on A-Rod’s hookers? “PEDs make things shrink so performance stinks,” whispers one who knows, questioning the validity . . . Gossip on Carnegie Deli owner dumping a cheating husband? Good. But Mrs. Levine’s tougher than week-old pastrami. As in shrieking and screaming at some item I ran . . . Gossip on un-loyal Obama stiffing Oprah? Stick a pin in me. Inside knowledge of his longtime M.O. will pour out.
Mayor’s office, Media/Entertainment, Comm. Katherine Oliver and the Broadway League. Just launched Spotlighton Broadway.com . Filmed in B’way’s 40 houses, storytellers Nathan Lane, Laura Linney, Alan Cumming, Alan Menken, William Ivey Long share memories. At the Gershwin, Kristin Chenoweth and Angela Lansbury. The Neil Simon has Matthew Broderick, Harvey Fierstein, Charles Strouse. The Brooks Atkinson, Glenn Close, Victor Garber, Kathleen Marshall. Plus union members on their jobs, plus individual theater architecture, plus Great White Way history.
Coming next, Duffy Square’s steel and granite sidewalk map giving each theater’s location. All the Web site won’t do is keep Madonna from texting during a performance.
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.