And so, my beloved bud, my cool co-worker, and I went to a special Bette Davis tribute last night in Beverly Hills, at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Samuel Goldwyn Theater! YEEHA! What an interesting night this was; all to celebrate the centennial of the birth of this acting diva/goddess. Just $5 to get in too! A DEAL! Well, if you don't count the price for parking. LOL!Pretty good-sized crowd and lots and and lots and lots of hot older and young gay dudes! Gee, gay men there to honor a screen legend of Hollywood yesteryear? R U SERIOUS?! HA! In the lobby area, they had some of her memorabilia, including the Oscar she won for Jezebel. What pissed me off a bit was that there were no refreshments, except for members of the press. How f**king rude! I was really craving a smoothie or nachos, but had to keep in mind this wasn't the local AMC theater. That slight annoyance aside, the host for the evening was Robert Osborne, whom you've probably seen introducing old films on Turner Classic Movies. He had lots of great anecdotes and plenty of film clips were shown like All About Eve, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, Dark Victory, Now, Voyager, and The Star. Intermixed with all of this were special appearances by Davis' son Michael Merrill, actress Gena Rowlands, and actress Joan Leslie.
The highlight, the ABSOLUTE apex of the night by far though, was the surprise appearance by Olivia de Havilland, who is forever immortalized as Melanie Wilkes in Gone with the Wind! WOW! This old broad still looks terrific and she's almost 92 years of age! The crowd roared and stood up when she suddenly came out from the side of the stage. My co-worker hilariously remarked that he could not take his eyes of her very big breasts and very meaty legs! AHAHAHAHAHA! She shared with everyone great stories about Bette Davis, then left the stage triumphantly with yet more thunderous applause. A major cast member from Gone with the Wind that is still alive is quite exciting to witness I tells ya.
The overall consensus from almost everyone was Bette's fiery feisty temper. She was a perfectionist, stubborn, demanding, and took her craft seriously. Yes, she could be a royal bitch! Of course, I think you all know by now she didn't much care for Joan Crawford, and yet the irony being they did make that one classic film together. Overall, a really cool night where I learned lots and got to watch film clips that peaked my interest, especially this one movie I now really want to see called The Little Foxes; this one clip they showed where Davis just maniacally sits there cruelly letting her husband die of a heart attack without helping him. That scene was terrific!
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Madonna's getting criticized in this article for being old and dancing all over "Hawk Nose" Timberlake just this past week in New York; I actually find people's disgust/comments about her pretty funny! And my boy Robert Downey Jr. is getting rave reviews for his performance in Iron Man which opens today!
I told ya before, Robert is an acting genius who never disappoints, and I really wanna see the movie now.
10 comments:
Osbourne hosted a mini documentary on Bette Davis last month on TCM. Her son had a lot of nice stuff to say about her. I love 'All about Eve' that cast was so great. Davis was a class act.
I would have loved to see Olivia DeH.
sounds like a fab evening!
Your Night sounds fantastic! How did you hear of this event? So much of this sort of thing goes on here in LaLa land. What a great time you must have had.
Madge still has it, if she is pushing those buttons, in my opinion anyway. lol It's what she does.
Have an amazing weekend.
Wow. What a groovy event. You're lucky you got to go. I think nachos sound a bit out of place for that kind of show. They should have had wine and canapes though.
I can't wait to see Iron Man. Sounds like a weekend I wish I could have.
That sounded like fun, I love shit like that. I didn't know that Bette and Joan were rivals, but it makes sense. I think there are prob. quite a few paralells to be drawn between Madonna and Bette on a personal level.
That sounds like a great evening. I have just finished my "All About Eve" reissue. If you've never seen "Little Foxes", I'd say you're only 60% gay.
All About Eve is one of my favorite movies. Love it. Wish I could have gone. I need to move out of Orlando.
P.S. - I really want to see Iron Man. Instead, we saw Made of Honor. Skip it.
Holy Shit! Olivia de Havilland was there in person. I am so jealous. That is amazing. Sounds like you had a fantastic night.
wow what a great night out! and no shit what a deal - 5 bucks I didn't think anything except the 10 am movie was that cheap anymore!
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