SAG Award Givers Also Receive--Free Stuff
In the backstage lounge behind a black curtain, a tiny girl sits on a white couch, her small legs crossed delicately as she answers a reporter’s questions. Eight-year-old Dakota Fanning, co-star with Sean Penn of “I Am Sam,” maintains the poise of a seasoned show-biz pro. (Of her film role, she says: “It was just unbelievable working with Sean. I just learned so much.”)
It’s Saturday afternoon at the Shrine Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles and Dakota has just finished rehearsing for the Screen Actors Guild Awards (shown Sunday night on TNT). She’s a presenter this year and like all presenters, the actress is eligible for a visit to the “Talent Retreat,” a carefully decorated room where upscale merchandisers compete to give away their goods to the celebrities.
Dakota is wearing one of her gifts: a $1,500 sterling and gold bracelet. She lists her other goodies: “I got some perfume ... I got three dolls. I got a back massage and a watch and some sunglasses....It’s unbelievable!”
People move in and out of the room all day. They sit on the bright yellow couch, lean against the faux mink blanket, sip bottled water and watch celebrities choose high-priced lingerie, watches, bracelets, shoes and perfume from the tables. Uma Thurman was in earlier. She hit every kiosk and rushed out because her baby was waiting in the car. Ian McKellen and Kate Beckinsale also stopped by. Ed Asner sat down in the spa area of the room for a paraffin hand treatment. He joked with the woman kneading his shoulders and held up two mittened hands. “You want me to take my shirt off?” he asked.
Vendors are chosen by the lounge’s creator, Karen Wood, and pay up to $5,000 for a spot inside the lounge and a salesperson to pitch their wares to the stars. And if they’re lucky, the result will be “product placement” as a celebrity walks away wearing one of their items. “They’re really doing us more of a favor than we’re doing for them,” says Britt Johnson, whose public relations company, Mediaplacement, was representing a new perfume. “When they start wearing stuff, it can be a national trend.”
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Art and Charity in a Temple of Fashion
Gallery owner Paul Kopeikin pushes his way through the crowd of art enthusiasts, searching out his favorite photographs at the reception on the women’s clothing floor of the Barneys New York store in Beverly Hills.
He points to a black and white portrait of Andy Warhol in which the artist wears his trademark turtleneck and white mop of hair, staring directly at the camera. Kopeikin says he’d never been a huge fan of the photographer Greg Gorman, but after seeing this shot, “I kind of got Greg Gorman.” It’s a setting Warhol might appreciate: Right next to the $1,800 portrait hangs a beige vinyl jacket priced at $2,555.This Saturday night reception is sponsored by Focus on AIDS, a nonprofit that supports AIDS research, care and education. Photographers clamor to have their donated work featured in the charity’s high-profile fund-raising art auction, which takes place about every 18 months. Among the featured photographers are David LaChapelle, Bruce Weber, William Wegman, Herb Ritts, Wim Wenders and Annie Leibovitz.
The evening preview gives potential buyers a chance to view the 220 pieces before the auction Friday that organizers hope will raise $300,000 for the charity.
Kopeikin owns a contemporary art gallery in Los Angeles, and several of his featured artists have donated work to the auction. Moving on, he stops at a black and white photo of a man standing in the shadows. The picture is titled “Hollywood Boulevard.” The man appears to be homeless. “How about that Diane Keaton?” he asks, referring to the actress-photographer. “Isn’t that disturbing?”
Then he spots a black and white photo depicting a blank billboard shot at night by Matthew Betcher. “I don’t even know who that guy is,” he says. “But I think it’s a great picture.”
Next to Douglas Kirkland’s $1,700 close-up black-and-white of Audrey Hepburn’s young face hangs a black leather jacket for the same price.
Nearby, guest Yvette Gilpin takes a break from the photos to scan a row of skirts and pants. “I think it’s a nice parallel,” she said of what art and fashion demand of viewers. “One isn’t asking more [than] the other.”
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Celebrating a Film, Mourning an Event
A month after Matthew Shepard’s death in 1998, five members of the Tectonic Theater Project arrived in Laramie, Wyo. Their project: to interview residents about how the brutal murder of the 21-year-old gay student changed their town and their lives.
The theater group stayed for a year, and their conversations with townspeople became the basis for a play and for an HBO movie, “The Laramie Project,” which premiered at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood on Thursday night.
After the movie, some lingered in the lobby while others sought refuge in the restroom, wiping away stripes of mascara.
“It’s sad this movie had to be made,” said a somber Camryn Manheim, who stars in the movie, alongside Christina Ricci, Janeane Garofalo and Peter Fonda, among others. Manheim was standing outside the theater, getting ready for the after party. “It’s strange,” she said about the celebrations, but added, “I guess it’s a good time to hug everybody.”
At the Sunset Room, few people were actually hugging. Roxy Music’s “More Than This” played in the background as guests in the dimly lit restaurant talked about how moved they were by the movie.
Soon, however, people were back to business deals, celebrity-spotting and joking about the amount of oysters, shrimp and sushi some guests piled on their plates.
In one booth, former Hollywood Reporter columnist George Christy huddled with a friend. Nearby, Steve Buscemi ate his oysters.
Ian McKellen (who wasn’t in the movie) said the party was like a wake. “After the funeral, you have the celebration of life.”
Still, Hollywood felt like a long way from Laramie.
