‘WHEN TWO people love each other, they come together – WHAM! – like two taxis on Broadway.”
That was icy cool, red-hot Grace Kelly, trying to talk Jimmy Stewart into marriage in “Rear Window.”
JAKE GYLLENHAAL, all pumped-up and studly, is still shooting Disney’s “Prince of Persia” in London. But his 28th birthday is on Dec. 19, and Jake’s beloved, Reese Witherspoon, had planned a lavish party for him in LA. Both stars, who are super-professional, know the importance of keeping to schedule, so they didn’t hold much hope of being “together” on Jake’s natal day – at least not as Reese had planned.
Good work is rewarded, however. The studio said, “Go, have a blast!” The 19th is a Friday, and Jake will probably be back in his prince costume by Monday morning, the 22nd.
SPEAKING OF Jake, his leading lady in “Prince of Persia” is British knockout Gemma Arterton, seen most re cently dallying with Daniel Craig in “Quantum of Solace.” (She was the delightfully named Strawberry Fields.) Gemma is only 22, but her romantic life is already colorful.
Gemma was keeping company with handsome Spaniard, Eduardo Munoz, who was hired to train her horseback skills for “Prince of Persia.” They discovered other skills in the course of events. Gemma and Eduardo quickly became a couple during the shoot in Morocco. However, when the company moved to London, his job was over. They missed each so much that Eduardo flew to Britain to be with her. It was terribly impulsive and romantic.
Sadly, “Quantum of Solace” had to open. Gemma is suddenly hot, in demand. Between scenes on “Prince . . . ,” Gemma now looks glum. Eduardo is back in Spain. Success – it has its price.
I WENT for a delightful dinner with my host, the perspicacious producer Doug Cramer, sitting on my right. (He is an escapee from Hollywood who became hugely successful working with Leonard Goldberg and Aaron Spelling and is now a philanthropic backer of the Encores! shows in New York.)
My dinner companion on the left was a longtime friend, the gifted actor Michael York, and by the time I departed from these worthies, Michael’s distinguished wife, Patricia, had given me her amazing new photo book with Andy Warhol on the cover. Titled “Fame and Frame,” it is full of artful snaps of artists, actors and legends galore. A grand coffee-table selection.
Michael and I shared a few enthusiastic words about our mutual pal Liza Minnelli‘s dazzling show at the Palace. (Michael was the love interest for Liza in “Cabaret.”)
Michael asked if I remembered when we had first met, and I confessed I didn’t, although I knew it was long ago. Turns out it was 1966 in Rome, during the making of Franco Zeffirelli‘s “The Taming of the Shrew.” (Some people call it Shakespeare’s “Taming,” but Michael and I know the movie’s true title.)
I was puzzled. I’d gone to Italy with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton and I remembered the tempestuous but happy making of the film, and mostly I remembered going out to eat with the Burtons for almost every meal. That in itself was always a production and a festival. Well, Michael reminded me he had his first movie role in the movie and even rode a horse for the first time. “I arrived in the saddle coming into Padua spouting Shakespeare lines at the opening.” I remained stumped. I was embarrassed. I was drawing a blank. I said, “I must have been so involved with the Burtons that I didn’t notice anybody else.”
Michael patted my hand. “Never mind. You know the whole experience was a disaster for me, that movie, and I left under a cloud. Zeffirelli kept busting into my hotel room whenever he liked, and I was always with Patricia, and this made him furious. He said he wanted to teach me a lesson, prove to me that I wasn’t in love with her and if I kept on with her, it was the end of my career. So, we quarreled and fell out. I left Rome thinking I was finished in film. But later Franco and I made up.” (In fact, he was cast the following year in the director’s “Romeo and Juliet.”)
Young Michael had caught the director’s roving eye, and when he brought Patricia along to Rome, Zeffirelli was beside himself. I laughed: “And how did that marriage turn out, Michael?”
The talented Mr. York grinned: “Oh, it was definitely a failure – we’ve only been married now for 40 years.”
I WAS presenting something on the night Sirio Maccioni of Le Cirque hosted a big dinner, screening and cel ebration for his coming HBO documentary called “A Table in Heaven.” The maestro-ringmaster ended up in tears as he watched the masterful replay of his life unfold.
His entire handsome family was on hand, plus Martha Stewart, Fran Drescher, Rachel Dratch of “SNL,” Nicole Miller, Jeff Greenfield, Ashley Banfield, Sherri Saum, who is currently filming “In Treatment,” and dapper Peter Elliot, who works for Bloomberg News and is Sirio’s biographer. Also noted – Drew Nieporent, plus HBO honchos Richard Plepler, Sheila Nevins and Andrew Rossi, who directs “A Table in Heaven,” which airs Dec. 29 at 8 p.m.