‘Grey Gardens’ premiere: Drew Barrymore can’t let go of Justin Long
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At Tuesday night’s ‘Grey Gardens’ world premiere in New York — a very swank and clearly expensive affair that began with a screening at the enormous Ziegfeld Theater and moved to the ballroom of the Pierre Hotel — it was agreed that body language didn’t lie. In attendance, Steve Buscemi, Jimmy Fallon, Gay Talese — and Jessica Lange’s apparently speedily healing collarbones. And what’s more:
1. Drew Barrymore and Justin Long. Yes, they are back together. They had broken up last summer after about a year of dating. After the premiere he was dutifully on the lookout to help her make her escape. At the Pierre, surrounded by thousands of dollars’ worth of parrot tulips, with Lady Barrymore in a little white net veil, she clasped him to her and they held each other as tightly as could be for literally more than a minute. Mr. Long is much more handsome in person, for those who find him rather unsightly in his Apple commercials.
2. Drew Barrymore and Michael Sucsy. When a star and her director express admiration for each other in interviews, a reporter has no way of knowing if they are lying. But interplay between the two last night was, if brief, quite friendly and natural. Nice to know!
3. Arthur Sulzberger and Dan Abrams. The publisher of the New York Times arrived early for the screening and spent a long time in conversation with Dan Abrams, the former general manager of MSNBC who is now the operator of a PR business which seeks to employ journalists as paid ‘expert sources’ for corporations. We went by twice to interrupt but could not tear them away from each other, and overheard nothing terribly interesting except Mr. Abrams using the word ‘media’ frequently. They were all smiles and buddy-buddy touches, however. Frightening!
4. Roger Friedman and the world. The just-fired Fox News gossip columnist, who ran afoul of his parent company by reviewing a leaked copy of 20th Century Fox’s ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine,’ was all smiles (an unusual condition for him!) at the Pierre. He was overheard telling people that the firing was entirely News Corp. honcho Rupert Murdoch’s doing. It was suggested by a sympathetic passer-by that Friedman had been treated like, let’s say, ‘dog doo,’ by Murdoch & Co. ‘That’s exactly right,’ said his date. Here’s a guess: That tingling feeling we are all experiencing is our Spidey-sense for expensive lawyers planning litigation, don’t you think?
— Choire Sicha