Masterful Madonna
Madonnas star turn at Yankee Stadium:
She asked, How fars the stage? A staffer tried to explain the actual walk-on, and she replied, Talk to me in f - - king English. He answered: About 300 feet.
In hair, lashes, makeup, mike, costume, backup dancers running alongside, she grabbed her bicycle, pedaled to the entrance, hopped off, onto the stage, and in 90 degrees greeted the audience without her eyeshadow sweating.
Backstage, just as together. Examined and approved the T-shirts they hawked. Bodyguards, handpicked and handsome. Candles in the dressing room. Very zen. Polite crew members standing at attention. Everything aligned A-1. Military precision. Hair station; makeup station; wardrobe station; washing machines, ironing boards, laundry cleaning station.
A consummate pro. Only the love lifes messy.
CLINTONs star turn at the Democratic Convention:
To handwrite his speech on a yellow pad, hed gone into lockdown. In Chappaqua. No phone calls. Totally focused. Alone. He sent the missus across the seas drafts and passages.
He imported Chelsea to Charlotte with one of her DC school chums from Sidwell. Also his old-time White Housers: fund-raiser Terry McAuliffe, Hillarys press aide Lisa Caputo, chief of staff John Podesta, national security adviser Sandy Berger, Treasury secretary Bob Rubin, who, before the speech, accidentally flopped waist-deep into another events pool. He laughed it off, and somebody sent for a clothes change.
In his skybox, alongside Nancy Pelosis, guests noshed quesadillas, hot dogs, chicken, chips, pretzels, wine, beer, soda. Nobody applauded hungry.
LEFTOVER Charlotte comment: Dems put it here to win over th! e state. But people who moved here when they couldnt get work in the Northeast now cant get work here. Betting is Obama wont carry North Carolina.
RICHARD Geres new thrilling movie, Arbitrage, best youll see this year, depicts our era of Madoff and sleaze and deals with high finance, high players, high risk.
He says: At the end, its about ethical compromises we all make and you cant help but recognize in the types of people you know. Reality in this is not the financial atmosphere, making or losing money, but those decisions that resonate through all parts of our lives.
Its their importance in our existence, wife, children, family, relationships. My character makes shortcuts and learns nothing he or we do can be separated from the real world.
Its a small movie, like they made in the old days and arent making anymore. Nick Jarecki, who wrote it, knows this hedge-fund operation well. I dont know business stuff. Not something I pay attention to. My assistant deals with that. Nicks father and friends were stock traders. He debriefed them. Nick, who hadnt made a big movie before, sent the script to me, and I read it on a plane.
I said, Lets talk about it. He came to see me. I liked him. We talked more. Solid conversation about producers, production people, those making it. I decided to trust this guy.
We pulled the script apart. Just jumped into rewriting parts of it. Maybe an idea of dialogue. He was open to that. Lots of things came to us in rehearsal. We filmed all in New York. Short shoot. Eight weeks. It was a modest budget, and he found sets we could use.
My office was really someones office. A club, some punk 80s place he knew. The apartment of my characters girlfriend was really Nicks. The girl, a bit of a vagabond, is well-known in France, and Ive known her since she was 16.
This is much deeper than the financial crisis. My character made shortcuts. Its relationships. Your head, your w! ife, your! kids, your mistress.
When I told Richard I mentioned this film to a friend, she said: Oh, I still remember him from Pretty Woman.
Sighed silver-haired Richard: Mustve been someone with white hair.
BOB Dylan at Port Chesters 1,800-person Capitol theater reopening was a love-in. The 40-, 50-, 60-, 70-year-old crowd adored him despite sometimes sounding like hed eaten gravel. Even forgave his white pants after Labor Day.
COUTURE Council lunch honoring Oscar de la Renta. F.I.T. president Joyce Brown, Judith Ripka and clotheshorses Sarah Jessica, Anna Wintour, von Furstenberg, Donna Karan cheered Bloomberg, whose speech was funny. He did not wear white pants.
SEPT. 3 Newsday, a Long Island paper employing editors who previously worked at The Post, printed a Republican Convention photo from Tampa. Of four people. Puerto Rico Gov. Luis Fortuno and former Gov. George Pataki watching former Sen. Alfonse DAmato greeting me. The caption mentioned each of those three gents. Me, not. I became an unidentified female.
Instead of giving Alfonse a high five, I shouldve given the photographer the finger.
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.