Christopher Hitchens was remembered as much for his “monumental legacy” as his ability to “hold up under the most liquid of late-night libations” at Vanity Fair’s memorial for him.
Movie stars, poets, playwrights, physicists and family members gathered at Cooper Union yesterday to remember the contrarian who was once “lashed . . . across the buttocks with a rolled-up parliamentary order paper” by Margaret Thatcher during a political argument.
The 2 1/2 -hour ceremony was rife with readings of author, journalist and provocateur Hitchens’ wisdom on topics from eating dog in North Korea (“in a Pyongyang restaurant never order a doggie bag”), to getting in shape (“walking is overrated”), drinking (“cheap booze is a false economy”) and cigarettes (“smoking is a vice, I will admit, but one has to have a hobby”).
Speakers included Graydon Carter, Tom Stoppard, Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan, Christopher Buckley, Sean Penn and Olivia Wilde.
Stephen Fry recalled Hitchens’ list of “the four most overrated things in life — champagne, lobster, anal sex and picnics.” (“You got three out of four, Hitch,” Fry quipped to the audience.)
Martin Amis said Hitchens, who died at age 62 in December, often referred to himself in the third person as “The Hitch,” with sayings such as, “Wherever there’s injustice . . . the pen of The Hitch will flash from the scabbard.” Amis added that the two literary lions’ “idea of happiness was to take a bottle of whiskey into [a violent movie] like ‘Sexy Beast’ or ‘Scum.’ ”
Alex Gibney made a film tribute showing Hitchens’ takes on religion, Mel Gibson, Princess Diana, Henry Kissinger and circumcision.
Music selections during the moving ceremony included Eric Idle’s “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.” And Wilde, who sat with boyfriend Jason Sudeikis, said Hitchens, a family friend, was “the world’s best baby sitter.”
Bagpipers played outside as the speakers later headed to the Waverly Inn for a fitting, liquidenhanced continuation of the tributes.