UPDATE Sunday January 15th: I’m told — reliably — that Pitt and Voight actually hugged and spoke to each other. I didn’t see it, but Voight’s companions informed me later when I ran into them at dinner. PS to the crackpot sending me unwanted texts: this did all happen.
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No words were exchanged — maybe just a nodding glance — but the art world brought together an unlikely meeting between two movies stars last night. They were Brad Pitt and his former father-in-law Jon Voight. (Pitt, you know, has six children with Voight’s daughter, Angelina Jolie, his ex wife.)
This was all at Larry Gagosian’s star studded art gallery in Beverly Hills. The occasion was the opening of an exhibit of sensational photos by Bennett Miller, famed director of “Capote,” “Moneyball,” and “Foxcatcher.” Given the opportunity to be the first to use an AI program called “Dall-E,” Miller produced a series of black and white photos that are already the talk of the art world.
Was it all just AI, I wondered? Miller affirmed that the human element is very much alive even working with the program. But basically he types in descriptions or stories and the Dall-E comes up with a basic idea of it. Then Miller works to manipulate the medium.
Pitt — who starred so memorably in “Moneyball” — and Voight were not the only celebs who turned up. The great Catherine Keener made sure she got a look at every one of the arresting pictures. So did LucasFilms president Kathleen Kennedy. (She starred in Miller’s “Capote” as Harper Lee.) Oscar winner Adrien Brody was there with designer Georgina Chapman. Chris Rock stopped in to see the exhibit, as did director Spike Jonze, Zachary Levi, and Edward Norton. I ran into Lou Ferrigno, the original Hulk, and even Sam Ashgari, now former husband to Britney Spears. Director Andrew Dominick — currently making a film out of Bono’s “Songs of Surrender — toured the room. Top agent John Burnham took a turn, and several people told me when I arrived, “Brian Grazer was here.”
Brad Pitt? He looked like a movie star. He sort of glows as he walks through a room, especially holding the hand of his beautiful girlfriend, Ines de Ramon. Women flocked to his area in the gallery as if they’d just heard a siren song. Men tried to look cool but could not turn away.
What is he working on, I asked? “Just a Jerry Bruckheimer movie,” he replied, referring to his F1 racing film directed by Joseph Kosinski. He and Voight never came too close within reach of each other, and it was a total fluke that they were each present. Just another nod from the universe that Hollywood, like everywhere else, is really a small town.
(Another example of this was a rare picture taken of Brad Pitt with Sam Ashgari. Talk about chance encounters.)
Next up at Gagosian, for the Oscars: a still unannounced exhibit of rare Jean Michel Basquiat paintings from his time in Los Angeles. The crush at the front door should be unreal.
Just another night in Tinsel Town, followed by dinner at Craig’s — the mecca of all of this — where the delicious cuisine was almost outdone by the $100,000 Ferrari’s and Rolls Royces parked out front!
