Examine
my crude
cell
phone
photographs
of a few
stars on
the Red
Carpet
Perp
Walk at
The
Hamptons
International
Film
Festival.
Like
detectives,
look for
clues to
the
suspects’
inner
soul…
Matthew
Modine
may be
one of
the few
open
actors,
devoid
of a
veneer
or
pretense,
at home
with
himself
and the
world.
Notice
how
guileless
is his
smile.
Think
about
his
films
from the
past.
The Red
Carpet
reveals
the man
from the
bottom
up…
Alexander
Skarsgard
is
actually
as tall
as he
seems at
6’4”.
Sensitivity
is coin
of the
realm to
an
actors’
ability
to
transform
the
imaginary
world
into a
performance.
As a
young
actor
Alexander
has not
quite
learned
to
manage
the
scrutiny
of that
kind of
event.
But, not
many
actors
ever do
learn
this
trick
that
goes
contrary
to what
they do
as a
living.
Guild
Hall had
a
Special
Screening
of
Matthew
Broderick’s
“Election
(1999)”.
Broderick’s
calling
card is
benign
strength,
confusion
mixed
with
humor
and an
understanding
that
fear is
a part
of life
and we
must
press
on. He
has
mixed
that
cocktail
of human
traits
in all
his
films
and
theater
performances.
The
audience
roots
for him
to win
against
all
odds.
He’s a
family
man and
becomes
very
comfortable
when in
the
company
of
cohorts.
Mat
Broderick
does not
pretend
to know
what’s
happening
to him
in his
films
the way
Tommy
Lee
Jones,
George
Clooney
or,
quintessentially
-
Alec
Baldwin
seem to
know
that it
is the
world
around
them
that has
the
problem.
Baldwin
struggles
with his
own
fearlessness,
his
extra
ordinary
intelligence
and his
saving
grace –
a savage
sense of
humor
that
could
outwit
most
comedians
anywhere
in the
world. I
used the
word
“struggles”
because
Baldwin,
as much
fun as
he is to
watch
(even
more to
listen
to his
anecdotes
and
stories)
has
found
himself
in the
wrong
business.
He hates
the Red
Carpet
and this
bold
contempt
is why
audiences
want to
watch
him
constantly
and
admire
his
unflinching,
inability
to lie
for his
job. He
could
have
been a
great
Police
Chief
who runs
for
local
office,
then
runs for
President
of The
United
States
and
wins…
Alec has
just
announced
to us
all in a
loud
voice
“Enough
of this
Bull
S***)
As I
stood on
the
press
side of
the
Guild
Hall Red
Carpet,
the
camera
people
would
mutter,
“There’s
George”
or “I
heard
Susan
Sarandon
is
coming”
and they
would
not
appear.
I saw a
beautiful,
tall,
blond
woman
walk
behind
us and
slip
into
Guild
Hall
while
all the
paparazzi
fixated
on the
red
carpet,
waiting
for
stars.
But she
made a
fast
right
and then
another
fast
right
and
suddenly
the
cicadas’
screamed,
“Christie,
over
here”…
Christie
Brinkley
is not
an
actress.
She was
and is
one of
the most
beautiful
models
the
world
has ever
known
and a
great
businesswoman.
She,
better
than any
actor
who ever
strode
the Perp
Walk,
knows
how to
work a
Red
Carpet.
The
stunning
woman
who
walked
into
Guild
Hall had
no
smile,
seconds
later,
the one
who
shocked
us by
striding
out to
surprise
the
exhilarated
press,
worked
us like
children
in a
park at
a
birthday
party.
No one is that happy all the time but she knows how to keep us jumping out
of our
lenses.
What she
revealed
was why
she has
been so
successful
for so
many
decades.
She
knows
how to
make
being
“on”
into an
art
form.
