Director Alfonso Cuarón, swirling around the Oscarsphere like Sandra Bullock, on how his idea for “Gravity” came about:
“Not my idea. This excitement is my son’s fault. He told me: ‘You’re too rhetoric. Old-style. You repeat the same stories over and over.’
“So I said, ‘So?’
“So he said, ‘You need something new.’
“So I said, ‘Like what?’
“So he said, ‘Like something cool. Like about the future. Like exploring technology.’
“So I said, ‘Please. I’m low-tech. I know nothing about that. I barely can do my cellphone.’
“So he said: ‘We should do a project about technology, tomorrow’s tool.’
“Anyway, we never imagined we’d do anything that blew people away. Not our idea to revolutionize the industry or science or outer space or anything. I figured OK, it’s an interesting idea, I’ll wrap it up in a year. It took four years!”
Emerald lady
Saturday’s Page 3 dealt with the late dear gentle UN official cum designer Shail Upadhya, my friend since I visited his native Nepal in 1961. The Post alleges he was bilked by “evil . . . scheming . . . scary” Baroness von Langendorff. I know this beefy heifer who shows at every NYC event swathed in emeralds. Always emeralds. In the loo, she’d squat in emeralds.
What she did or didn’t, I don’t know. I do know where the feds or fuzz can find her now. In a Palm Beach suite with her current sheik on a reinforced bed at the Colony Hotel. She swans by the pool in emeralds.
Pay attention
Golf ball with presidential seal and facsimile “Bill Clinton” signature can be yours for $25 at memorabilia place Norma Jeans . . . Jersey juice: “The Gov’s very quiet. Doesn’t know what more to say. A) Hopes it’ll die down. B)Knows more’s coming.” . . . “Downton Abbey” popularizing Ellen Easton’s book “Afternoon Tea: Tips, Terms and Traditions.” Her ancestors were tea bags’ largest packagers.
Yankee Stadium update
Alex Rodriguez’s temporary adios is getting equalized as Romeo Santos, born in The Bronx just a fly ball from home plate, is saying muchas gracias. First Latino performer to headline a Yankee Stadium concert, Santos will celebrate his new Sony Records album “Formula, Vol. 2” there. We’re talking July.
Meantime, until July, Santos and Yankees, go right now . . . take two giant steps . . . to West 46th’s Paramount Hotel. Where once was the Diamond Horseshoe is now the acrobatic/burlesque-antic bejeweled, bejazzled sextravaganza “Queen of the Night.” Drinks, dinner, 7:30p.m., 2 ½ hours.
GOP comments
Political pollster/commentator Frank Luntz: “America’s only hope is to win the Senate. Socialist reformers are moving to the right because of the economy. Never voting Republican before, they’re newly donating to the GOP because with this government’s taxation, regulation, litigation, legislation, they’re afraid.
“We can’t keep afloat. Our society’s reached the tipping point. Can’t come back. Like Greece, Italy, Turkey, Russia, France, Britain, we’ll be unable to take the poison out of society. The baby boomer population’s aging. We can’t keep up. Soon we’ll be unable to afford anything.
“Our country won’t be good. Kids will be dumber. Intelligence will go to Korea. China’s our threat. Hard-paying taxpayers will get it the worst.”
How to cheat
Cheaters’ calorie counter. Dressing afterward: 32 calories. Doing It in a hurry — 98 calories. With your wife or husband knocking on the door — 3,521 calories.
Court-appointed counsel to the new client: “Tell me about your case.” Defendant: “You won’t believe it.” Attorney: “You kidding? I’m a Legal Aid lawyer. I’ll believe anything.”
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.