Fifteen minutes of fame
Scott Weiss just had his Andy Warhol 15 minutes of fame. After crashing a Tom Cruise party in Hollywood, the Emmys and the 2007 Oscars, he made a documentary about his adventures. A story about the film (appropriately called “Crasher”) ran on page one of the Los Angeles Times on Feb. 20, just before this year’s Academy Awards, and was subsequently picked up around the country and even in the London Telegraph. Weiss grew up in Mill Valley — his dad, Milt Weiss, still lives there — and now lives in Santa Monica. He and his co-filmmakers haven’t found a distributor for “Crasher” as of this writing, but they did serve as security consultants to the 2009 Oscar folk. To read more about it, Google “Scott Weiss and Crasher.” P.S. Weiss wouldn’t mind having a little more fame, so if you have distribution ideas, write to Faces.
Honoring commitment
The S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation’s Business Leadership Council awarded its first Business Leadership Award to Richard N. Goldman last month. In accepting it, he quipped, “I don’t know what this means, but I think it has something to do with age.” The community leader and philanthropist added that his life’s goal has been to donate a third of his time to the community, and encouraged his audience to do the same. “The benefits you gain from it are way beyond anything you may anticipate,” he said.
Fancy meeting you
I was in line at San Francisco’s Tommy’s Joynt on a Sunday afternoon when the guy behind me, whom I didn’t know, started telling me that he had just accepted a check from a woman he didn’t know for his ticket to that afternoon’s ballet. He said her husband, who preferred the movies, had dropped her off there and she planned to get a ticket at the box office, but they were sold out. So she stepped outside to look for someone selling a spare and met my new friend. “She told me she didn’t have any cash, but promised her check was good because her husband had worked for the bank.” He pulled out the check to show me — and two very familiar Jewish community names appeared: Barbara and Richard Rosenberg.
Short shorts …
Peninsula resident Amalia Popell was honored by Peninsula Volunteers for her exemplary and effective work with elderly and others, which includes creating and running the group’s annual Holiday Tea, running the PV’s Meals on Wheels program, and initiating the Children’s Authors’ Salon that brings authors and illustrators to speak with children about writing books … The ADL’s Central Pacific Region’s new officers include Beverly Bornstein Ripps, board chair; Bob Zeidman, executive committee chair; Adam Elegant, Jason Geller, Eric Horodas and Wendy Tonkin, vice chairs; and Adam Cole, secretary. The group’s area includes Hawaii. “I’m waiting for that assignment,” joked Ripps … Proud S.F. mom Dana Blum writes that her daughter Brittany Blum met Archbishop Desmond Tutu last month when she attended the African Leadership Academy’s opening ceremonies in Johannesburg. Brittany was invited to the event, which brings together outstanding teens from Africa for a two-year leadership program, because of her work with children who are affected or infected with HIV/AIDS. She is now building alliances between the HIV/AIDS project at S.F.’s University High School (which she attends) and a similar program at ALA.
This columnist can be reached at [email protected].