That snowy, awful blizzardy night Cinema Society hosted Universal’s “Green Zone.” Boy, was it not green. The screening was 7:30. Matt Damon, I was told would show 6:45. Sweet, easy, affable, friendly, just not punctual, he showed about 7:45.
I made absolutely no attempt to meet his wife, who stood alongside me 20 minutes. I was too tired, too damp. She was surprisingly un-Hollywood. She was refined. Very today in a blue silk one-shouldered sheath and beige spikes, but elegant. Small bracelet. Unostentatious ring. Good but not freaky earrings. Classy. Not hogging the spotlight. She stayed in the background.
Always polite, Matt — hair now slightly flecked with gray — took time with everyone. Only his feet, which he turned out onto their outer sides, showed the inner impatience.
Any adjustments for you because you made this movie in Morocco?
“Ridley Scott‘s doing all his films in Morocco. Their crews, since they work all the time, are great. Like the crews in Canada 10 years ago. I’ve worked with them a bunch. As for adjustments, you automatically don’t think if when you talk about your tummy getting upset, you think when.
It’s usually first day.
Amy Ryan, female lead in this, grinned: “I’ve traveled before to Morocco. It’s wonderful. I love it. What’s best about it is that you can’t get it on 14th Street.”
Fresh off “The Bourne Supremacy,” Bourne Conspiracy, Bourne whatever, he plays a single warrior uncovering a plot and weapons stockpiled in the Iraqi desert and he rockets from one treacherous situation to another and he’s being shot at and beaten up and he’s fighting and running and jumping and leaping. So, any scratches?
“Naah. They take good care of you.”
He also had the semi-junky beginnings of a moustache. “This is for my new movie with the Coen Brothers. We’re redoing ‘True Grit.’ I’ll show it to them this week. If they like it, fine. If not, I’ll try again. I actually hate the thing.
“Y’know, this is all I ever wanted to do in life. Be a movie actor. Since I was a kid. My first essay at Harvard I wrote: ‘For as long as I’ve been alive I’ve wanted to be an actor.’
ALL of this focus on RFK’s grandson Joe Kennedy III maybe gearing for Congress and now not running makes me want to tell you a thing or two about the Kennedys.
Now, this palaver about how Operation Caroline Kennedy turned the clan against David Paterson and how they’re gloating it’s now Andrew Cuomo? wronggggg! He’s their worst nightmare. They hate Andrew. All the K’s ganged up when he and wife Kerry Kennedy got their unattractive divorce. The fever between Kennedys and Cuomos is Hatfield & McCoy. You may recall the ex Kerry even mumbled around about running with Paterson as Lt. Gov.???
We should all be grateful Richard Ravitch is in place or — just in case, temporarily — it might have had to be Pedro Espada, which I guess would be OK since for the moment he doesn’t seem to be in any specific trouble.
So, listen, where’s Albany’s dysfunctionality come from? Everyone there grows from the state assembly, state senate, state legislature. Everybody’s been in the dirt. It’s a place where nothing is a crime and, so, if so, so how bad could it be?
THE non-tsunami in Hawaii. Barry Slotnick and 200 lawyer colleagues were awakened 7 a.m. by phone calls to their rooms on Kona Island. Hotel personnel told everyone, “Bring a small bag, valuables, overnight clothes. Be downstairs 7:30.” He brought his cell and cash. She, her makeup and jewelry. School buses took them to higher ground. There they had brunch, barbecue, board games, carioca music, coffee and drinks around a pool overlooking the ocean. Came the 2 a.m. All-clear, they were bussed back down. I’ll tell you one thing. Honolulu got its act together. It knew exactly what to do –and did it.
We’re all grateful everyone’s unharmed, but possibly I am the only one who knew — didn’t “think” — knew — Hawaii would dodge the bullet. I’m no oceanographer or meteorologist. I’m just practical. Kona was holding a Federal Bar Council convention. Two hundred lawyers. You really think any force — even a divine one — would battle 200 lawyers?! The problem wasn’t how one would find a way to bring an injunction against the Man Upstairs. The problem was, how would you serve Him?
ANOTHER thought. Just last month I was in Chile, walking those same streets, same airport in Santiago, shepherded by Heraldo Munoz, Chilean ambassador to the UN, who since the earthquake has been all over the dial . . . Another thought. The night of last week’s all-day blizzard, Le Cirque was packed. Not filled. Packed . . . Another thought. Social Secretary Desiree Rogers bounced because that couple crashed her White House state dinner three months ago? She’s sort of Chicago sort of royalty, but she’s done nothing for me so I don’t care, and she’ll end up on top plus another 60 magazine covers. However, I tell you that in DC you can be arrogant, high-handed, a liar, a little bit of a thief — but you cannot be pretty and Prada.
FRIDAY, late morning: In the middle of the snowstorm, a car gets stuck in the middle of 53rd between Broadway and Seventh. Cops try to dig it out. They had no choice — it was their police cruiser.
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.