Almost more stars than the Oscars
An amazing number of A-list stars attended the American Film Institute gala lifetime achievement tribute to stage and film director Mike Nichols, 79. The gala was held on June 11 and videotaped for two showings on the TV Land network: 9 p.m. Saturday, June 26, and 4 p.m. Sunday, June 27.
Dustin Hoffman, 72, who spoke at the gala, owes much to Nichols. He was a moderately successful stage actor, nearing 30, when Nichols picked him to play the lead in “The Graduate.” Nichols, who won the best director Oscar for that film, has often related how he defied conventional wisdom by casting Hoffman. He thought Hoffman’s “Jewish looks” would signal that his character, Ben, was an outsider amid the “white bread” suburban world Ben grew up in.
Art Garfunkel and Paul Simon opened the AFI tribute with the theme song from “The Graduate,” “Mrs. Robinson.” Several speakers made a joking reference to a recent PBS family history show in which it was confirmed that Nichols is a distant cousin of Albert Einstein.
Director-actress Elaine May, 78, who was in a comedy duo with Nichols in the ’50s, said: “Einstein was a very sad man when he died because he hadn’t achieved a combined field theory … but if he’s watching tonight, he’s got to be immensely happy that he’s Mike Nichols’ cousin.”
A refugee from Nazi Germany, Nichols is one of only a dozen people who have won a Tony, Grammy, Oscar and Emmy. He has won six Tonys for best director of a play or musical and he was nominated three times for the Oscar for best director, winning once. On May 27, Nichols was one of the guests at the White House reception for Jewish American Heritage Month.
Meet the ‘Grown Ups’
“Grown Ups,” which opens on Friday, June 25, has an opening scene a little reminiscent of “The Big Chill”: A group of guys who won a junior high basketball championship reunites at the memorial service for a childhood coach.
However, unlike “Big Chill,” this movie is decidedly a comedy with only a few dramatic moments.
After the services for the coach, the whole group spends the Fourth of July weekend, with wives and children, at a nearby lake house. They compare character quirks and exchange comic zingers. Adam Sandler, 45, who co-wrote the flick, co-stars, with Salma Hayek as his wife.
Also co-starring are Rob Schneider, Maya Rudolph, Kevin James, David Spade, Chris Rock and Mario Bello.
Schneider, 46, grew up in Pacifica and is a close buddy of Sandler’s. He identifies as Jewish in an ethnic sense — his father is an American Jew, and his mother, who isn’t Jewish, is a native of the Philippines.
Rudolph, 37, a former “Saturday Night Live” star, is the child of a Jewish father (music producer Dick Rudolph) and a non-Jewish mother (the late black singer Minnie Riperton). In a recent interview, Maya said that while growing up in Los Angeles, she celebrated some Jewish holidays at the home of her childhood friend, actress Gwyneth Paltrow.
A short tall tale
Congrats to Scarlett Johansson for winning the Tony for best featured actress. Boos to the stage director who paired Daniel Radcliffe, 20, with actress Katie Holmes to present the Tony that Johansson won. Radcliffe is 5-foot-6. Holmes towered over him, wearing heels that raised her height to at least 6 feet. It was unintentionally comic.