You think Hollywood sounds glamorous.
But the Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard, where Hollywood dignitaries have been getting bronze stars inlaid in the sidewalks for decades, is pleasantly seedy.
Yesterday, Colin Firth–possible Oscar winner this year for “The King’s Speech–received his star during a traditional ceremony. His star was embedded next to that of fellow Brit Emma Thompson, in the sidewalk in front of the Pig ‘n’ Whistle bar, one door down from Grauman’s Egyptian Theater. It was declared Colin Firth Day in Hollywood.
I thought it was a nice touch that as I walked a block from the parking garage, I stepped over a discarded bra and women’s underthings strewn about on the concrete.
Firth’s fellow “King’s Speech” actor Guy Pearce made the introductory remarks on the platform outside the Pig ‘n’ Whistle before Colin accepted his honors–which included a paper diploma and a loaf of bread from the monastery that sits below the Hollywood sign.
He was very gracious about the whole thing.
Later, a lunch thrown by New York philanthropist Jean Shafiroff at Delphine restaurant–just down the street in the new W Hotel and across Hollywood Boulevard from the Frolic Room–Firth, Pearce, and director Tom Hooper accepted kudos from real Hollywood cogniscenti including another castmate, Claire Bloom, as well as Cloris Leachman, Robert Morse, Robert Loggia, Jon Voight, Jacqueline Bisset, Salome Jens, Peter Mark Richman, Juliette Lewis, Peter Medak, K Callan, George Takei, Tony Shalhoub and Brooke Adams, Stuart Pankin, Dennis Christopher, John Singleton. Roseanna Arquette, Ellen Kuras, Haskell Wexler, Jane Seymour, and Danny Huston, among others.
Wow: I have to say, very cool.
Cloris and Bobby Morse reminisced about a national tour of “South Pacific” from four or five decades ago.
Bisset and Voight discussed a 1975 movie they made in which Donald Sutherland played a corpse.
“He was a very good corpse,” Jackie — a Hollywood great– remarked.
Claire Bloom threatened to leave unless she was seated next to Colin Firth. Several guests mouthed the words “I voted for him” to me, and winked.
And just as it had been declared in front of the Pig ‘n’ Whistle, it really was Colin Firth Day in Hollywood, California.
