Could it be my mood?
Dinner party last night with a former LA DA and his wife, a producer and his wife, an art director,and the wife of a former agent (big time) who is now on the UK staff of the Getty Museum.... the usual hollywood type suspects, in a really traditional Beverly Hills mansion type house. The conversation ranged from Gene McCarthy's death (everybody but me and Bryn had a McCarthy personal anecdote...of the can you top this variety) and I drew a deafening silence when I said I was pro RFK from the start, worked advance for him in Indiana and then worked on the Humphry campaign. Next conversation, death Penalty.....because the Governator has a clemency decision to make - that was a fist fight splitting the table in half, with the former DA lecturing at considerable length....then on to the problems being faced by the Director of the Getty - about which I know a great deal - but unlike everybody else at the table, the director is not a "friend of mine" and I haven't traveled with him so whatever I had to say was ignored...it is interesting how active "ignoring" someone can be here in LA.I kept talking about the issues while the "friends" of the director kept talking about whether or not he should have flown first class to Scotland to accept an honorary degree from the University of Edinburgh and whether it's ok for him to drive a Bently paid for by the Getty. I did get a little attention when I said I didn't know what all the fuss was about since JP Getty was a Robber Baron and it should be no surprise that buying looted antiquities or driving extravagant cars paid for with other people's money was a common museum practice..... since behaving like a robber baron appeared to be ingrained in the ethos of not just the firm but the Museum as well.
Fortunately, I liked the host and hostess - he's in his late 70's with a totally eclectic and fascinating collection of paintings and objects....beautiful stuff - all museum quality or better - and obviously selected because he and his late wife loved it. His new wife, in her late 40's but not "a babe" - instead a really intelligent nice woman. They were wonderful. Everyone else was not nice, not pleasant, competative, and for the most part, full of shit. Ira Reiner was DA here until '92 - and his wife is a rent-a-judge, and they are social and political bullies. The rentajudge managed to gleefully insult me about three times through the evening....the quite obviously gay art director was ok at dinner doing a fairly smart rap about the death penalty and sexual repression, but after dinner he actually defended Walmart, saying "it was easy to live in Beverly Hills and be liberal and critical of Walmart" - and when I pointed out that I didn't live in Beverly Hills, and that I had lived where I had to shop at Walmart and that both my cleaning lady and man who helped in the garden had worked at Walmart, and that I actually knew something about it - he just dismissed it like I wasn't there - but my hostess came to my rescue pointing out that Walmart was the only store that had bought the art directors latest film for distribution (some animated clay thing with bears) which gave him an opportunity to go on about how all the major movie companies have buildings in Bentonville Arkansas because they distribute 40% of all the dvds in the country...blah blah blah.
Good thing I wasn't drinking.
Since there were at least 4 members of the Motion Picture Academy at the table I was able to determine that Capote is probably Oscar for best picture and Phillip Seymor Hoffman definately for best actor. None of which I needed to dine with a group of assholes to find out.
Dinner, however, was superb - brussel sprouts tossed with pine nuts and parmagianno; really good dry baked/broiled egg plant and zuchini, brown rice with raisens and caramom, a really bitter salad & some chicken which I ignored.....and an absolutely killer wine. About the food only one complaint - not enough wine. Aging, opinionated Jews do not drink enough to be much fun.
If I could remember what films my host produced it would be impressive, but alas, I cannot.
Fortunately, I liked the host and hostess - he's in his late 70's with a totally eclectic and fascinating collection of paintings and objects....beautiful stuff - all museum quality or better - and obviously selected because he and his late wife loved it. His new wife, in her late 40's but not "a babe" - instead a really intelligent nice woman. They were wonderful. Everyone else was not nice, not pleasant, competative, and for the most part, full of shit. Ira Reiner was DA here until '92 - and his wife is a rent-a-judge, and they are social and political bullies. The rentajudge managed to gleefully insult me about three times through the evening....the quite obviously gay art director was ok at dinner doing a fairly smart rap about the death penalty and sexual repression, but after dinner he actually defended Walmart, saying "it was easy to live in Beverly Hills and be liberal and critical of Walmart" - and when I pointed out that I didn't live in Beverly Hills, and that I had lived where I had to shop at Walmart and that both my cleaning lady and man who helped in the garden had worked at Walmart, and that I actually knew something about it - he just dismissed it like I wasn't there - but my hostess came to my rescue pointing out that Walmart was the only store that had bought the art directors latest film for distribution (some animated clay thing with bears) which gave him an opportunity to go on about how all the major movie companies have buildings in Bentonville Arkansas because they distribute 40% of all the dvds in the country...blah blah blah.
Good thing I wasn't drinking.
Since there were at least 4 members of the Motion Picture Academy at the table I was able to determine that Capote is probably Oscar for best picture and Phillip Seymor Hoffman definately for best actor. None of which I needed to dine with a group of assholes to find out.
Dinner, however, was superb - brussel sprouts tossed with pine nuts and parmagianno; really good dry baked/broiled egg plant and zuchini, brown rice with raisens and caramom, a really bitter salad & some chicken which I ignored.....and an absolutely killer wine. About the food only one complaint - not enough wine. Aging, opinionated Jews do not drink enough to be much fun.
If I could remember what films my host produced it would be impressive, but alas, I cannot.