So, every now and then I get an invite to some unique events and figured I'd share them with everyone. The girlfriend is the one with the connections to these things...I'm usually just the "...AND GUEST". Which is fine with me, as I can usually take in the proceedings (and the food) without having to be too active a participant.
Last Thursday, June 12, was the American Film Institute's LIFE ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: A TRIBUTE TO TOM HANKS gala. Taped for broadcast, the actual show will air on the USA Network on June 24.
The event was being held at the new Kodak Theater, the home of the Oscars that recently opened at the new Hollywood and Highland complex. Which is maybe a fifteen-mile journey from Santa Monica, where I was. And in L.A., on a night of an event after work, that means a two-hour trek. I'll spare you a re-enactment of the frustrations of that drive, and pick up the action after I turn the car over to the valets.
The theater itself is on the property of a large, upscale outdoor shopping mall, which seem to be springing up in L.A. with surprising regularity lately.
Not being a real part of the glitterati, it's nevertheless still kind of a thrill when our "V.I.P." status gets us whisked by the crowd, standing by for a peek at this celebrity or that. Me, in my black suit while most of the attendees adhered to the required "black tie" dress, probably didn't deserve that, but it's nice, nonetheless.
Our status gets us upstairs where the balcony seats are (at a theater like this, it's basically where the "steerage-class" passengers sit. Which made it somehow gratifying that gossip columnist Cindy Adams was in there with us, and not milling around downstairs with Tom Hanks and crew.
The doors opened soon after eight, and the theater itself is amazing. Some places, like the Shrine Auditorium, look so nice on TV that you wonder why the reality is such a rathole. But this theater, barely a year old, is as luxurious a theater as I've seen, filled with nice tables down below, luxury balcony suites and even our balcony section wasn't situated too far away. We sat down at the bottom near the railing, so the view was fine.
The show opened with AFI's Director and CEO Jean Picker Firstenberg introducing the event and mentioning facts like Tom Hanks being the youngest recipient of the thirty Life Achievement winners. Then Steve Martin took the stage.
Martin proved again why he should be hosting the Oscars or something every year-witty, erudite and yet bitingly funny, his jokes about Hanks's talent and early roles nicely offset the lavish praises everyone knew would be coming.
The basic structure of the show was this: a movie clip was shown, mostly chronologically, and then a co-star of that movie came out and said a few words. And yes, the idea of a two-hour show of nothing but back-patting and glad-handing for a guy sounds, on paper, a bit grueling. But not only has Tom Hanks made some of the best movies of any of our lifetimes, he's really universally loved by the community and his fans alike. All the comments were so genuine and heartfelt, that the entire evening had a lot of feeling behind it. Sure, there's a chance for something like this to get cloying, or just plain dull, but it never did.
Peter Scolari came out and showed exactly why there was one breakout star from BOSOM BUDDIES...but at least those old, big-haired clips were good.
Luckily, this momentary lull was saved by the always (even GREG THE BUNNY)-funny Eugene Levy, who had a well-timed joke about his prospects of being a movie star...if Hollywood was located in Turkey...
And it went on from there. Hanks' old drama teacher spoke, and we all had shades of the movie IN AND OUT, but decided its best to not really think of that movie ever again. For anyone who might watch, and I have to say, it's much more watchable than some AFI TV shows, I'll leave some things to the imagination. Like Savion Glover's odd BIG dance re-interpretation or Melissa Etheridge's too-enthusiastic rendition of "The Streets of Philadelphia". For all us up in steerage, which included a large contingent of military from all four branches, we amused ourselves on breaks by looking at the seating chart. It listed who was at which table (obviously), so there were many listings for couples like Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw, James Brolin and Barbra Streissand, Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, and Tom Sizemore and Guest...?
This had me a bit intrigued, knowing who Sizemore's been linked to of late. Was it unknown if she would actually attend the affair, or was there something more sinister in leaving her name off the list? Hmm...
Meanwhile, as the show wound on, we heard from Meg Ryan, "Lieutenant Dan" Gary Sinise, astronaut Jim Lovell and others, and even got a good preview of ROAD TO PERDITION. As the show was beginning to wind down, Steven Spielberg took to the stage, where all the military colors were presented. As he talked about SAVING PRIVATE RYAN and BAND OF BROTHERS, he first had three actors from RYAN take the stage to read a letter from the 1800s that referred to a real-life "Ryan" scenario, as penned by our 16th president. And then he brought out two actual "Easy Company" soldiers, one accompanied by a walker, the other walking out with crutches and his one remaining leg.
Now, it's easy to get jaded by these types of events at times, the back-patting and the self-important talk. And then, other times, you attend these things and leave genuinely touched. Which is exactly how this evening felt, touching. For a number of years now, probably since right after he yelled "Thank God, it's Friday!", Tom Hanks has done little wrong. Everyone loves the guy, and he proves over and over again that this affection is justified. Throughout the night, he met every joke, accolade and toast with the most humility and respect. (This could have been influenced in part by the fact that his mother was seated next to him, but I doubt it) And his speech, as touching as you'd expect, was all class.
So again, as much as some of these events are very skippable, this one comes highly recommended viewing when it airs on the 24th.
As we filtered out of there, steerage-class parting gift in hand, we went down to wait for the valet. Where I stood next to none other than Tom Sizemore's "and guest", Ms. Heidi Fleiss.
See you next time, whenever that may be.
Chris Ryall
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