Now, the last, the newest, latest, freshest, final and forever-completed and almost done-and-over once and for all and never ever to be continued — temporarily, any way — Harry Potter conclusion, Part 1. Its Alice Tully Hall premiere boasted the longest press line in captivity. The vapor trail of a rocket off to Jupiter wouldn’t have such a long line.
Per the NYPD, the crush of fans on the street for “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1,” numbered 5,000.
Inside was wall-to-wall children. Mommy Sarah Jessica Parker and daddy Matthew Broderick brought eldest kiddie James. Our coming governor’s first-lady-in-waiting and future maybe could be someday Mrs. Andrew Cuomo brought his daughter Michaela. “Her first time going to something like this,” said Sandra Lee, holding Michaela’s hand. Madonna‘s seamstress daughter, Lourdes, showed in some short short thing she created.
The handsome guys came alone. Ralph Fiennes, gorgeous in person, hideously made up in the film, was smilingly happy to see everyone. Liam Neeson: “I don’t read Harry Potter books. I see all the movies.” Whatever he’s doing, he earns enough to wear the smoothest cashmere jacket. I ran my hands over it. “It’s Gucci,” he said.
Daniel Radcliffe paused to talk with me, but some Voldemort-looking security guy pulled him away. Emma Watson‘s person asked me to speak with her, but a security wizard straight out of Hogwarts hustled her away.
The series’ screenwriter Steve Kloves: “Took a year and a half to write this one. When I was offered the first episode I said, ‘Yes. Looks like fun.’ I mean, who knew?” Kathy, his wife of 20 years: “And all this money he’s earned goes to our vet.”
The series’ producer David Heyman: “I originally found the book. It was in 1997.” So what’ll he do now if this should be the last, the newest, latest, freshest, final and forever-completed and almost done-and-over once and for all and never ever to be continued — temporarily, anyway — Harry Potter conclusion, Part 1? “I’ll look for work.”
COLIN Farrell has been offered Schwarzenegger‘s role in the “Total Recall” remake. Lacking total recall, I can’t even remember Ahnold’s job in that thing . . . Lincoln Center’s area features Café Fiorello, the abfab restaurant under Shelly Fireman‘s ownership. Their thin pizza is to die for . . . Judge Judy, phoning from Vietnam: “I’m on a boat near a rice field in the middle of the Mekong Delta. My cell works perfectly. I have a house and 20 acres in Greenwich, Conn., and can’t get a signal!”
SUPER-HIGH-CLASS 15 Central Park West gets all the middle-aged broads running to its gym daily. Why? To watch A-Rod work out . . . “Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark,” costliest musical in history, due to open Jan. 11, still not set with final tech rehearsals. Still in the plotting and planning. With $140 tickets, its producers say it can’t make money unless “it’s sold out every performance for 11 years.” . . . Justin Bieber — I have bras older than he is — vies with Lady Gaga for the coming American Music Awards’ Artist of the Year.
MARRYING third wife Camille Do natacci 13 years ago, Kelsey Grammer was wildly protective and antagonistic to nasties written about her dancing, MTV, Playboy background. Now, two kids later, after a baby with another lady named Kayte, you’ve read he’s getting divorced.
The April 18 night “La Cage aux Folles” opened Camille told me: “I wasn’t here with him during rehearsals because Kelsey said he needed space to learn lines, so I stayed in California and just now came to New York for the opening.”
I didn’t know then they were already split, he had another woman and would file for divorce immediately after. But she knew.
And another lady told me I mustn’t mention it, but she’ll be in TV’s newest reality slop “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” which was then casting. Well, the show made it. Camille Donatacci made it. This lady didn’t. I’m just curious how much truth a Hollywood type — any Lindsay, Paris, Camille, Charlie Sheen — really tells.
RECESSION: When your neighbor loses his job. Depression: When you lose your job. Panic: When your wife loses her job.
GORDON Ramsay, no more the hot shot chef at Claridge’s in London. He’s out . . . Lincoln Square Syna gogue, first-ever such, to peddle naming rights to raise $15 million for construction. So, who knows, eventually this temple could be known as Goldie and Irving J. Moskowitz Katz Jr.’s Synagogue . . . TV star Eliot Spitzer‘s first name misspelled in credits for the film “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” . . . Dec. 15 Christiane Amanpour the keynote speaker at CUNY’s journalism school graduation.
THIS lady, an attorney, gave a classy sit-down dinner. One invitee dragged a serving of salmon out of her purse, handed the damp fish to her stunned hostess to cook and said: “I don’t like to eat other people’s food.”
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.