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The stars were out in force last night at East Hampton’s Guild Hall for a monumental fundraiser.
Like most Upper West Siders, the stars want to stop the razing of the West Park Presbyterian Church on 86th Street and Broadway at this moment in our history could not be more apt. The historic church was where Joe Papp incubated his ideas about the public theater, where today community comes together to inspire young artists, playwrights, dancers, and actors like those on the stage.
And so they came to raise funds for the cause, with a staged reading of William Goldman’s Oscar winning screenplay for “All the President’s Men.”
Robert Downey Jr. and Ramy Youssef led this cast in the reading directed by John Benjamin Hickey and dedicated to Mark Brokaw. The group included Victor Garber as Deep Throat (now known as Mark Felt), and the Washington Post team led by Nathan Lane as Ben Bradlee, spearhead organizer Mark Ruffalo as Harry Rosenfeld, and Julianne Moore as Katherine Graham.
What can you say, really, in the face of so much talent? Downey, now an Oscar winner for “Oppenheimer” after years of playing Iron Man, was a sublime leader of an extraordinary pack.
The sold out audience at Guild Hall and actors on stage were treated to the presence of “All the President’s Men” legendary reporters Woodward and Bernstein, as well as CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. Gywneth Paltrow was seen buzzing around but left quickly for Goopier things.
Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were only 29 and 28, respectively, when they embarked on the unfolding of the Watergate scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon.
After the reading, the journalists who shook our world in 1972 spoke about how youth and naivete led them to make the mistakes and discoveries that led to the truth, important ingredients for a free press. Woodward said he still uses the same strategy of knocking on people’s doors to speak to them. If he leaves at 9, he may be home by 9:30 if a door is slammed in his face.
After they wrote the book, Robert Redford came calling. “Woodstein” — as they came to be known — hung up on him, as you do when Hollywood comes your way. But Redford insisted on making the film as a buddy movie. Two guys with opposite personalities working together to make something historic. His persistence paid off.
Alec Baldwin moderated the post Q&A. When he asked award winning actor Wendell Pierce why he got involved, the actor told his story of his New Orleans neighborhood being the worst flooded during Hurricane Katrina. This being the 20th anniversary of the ravaging storm, he remembered his effort in rebuilding his community, house by house.
Landmarked, the hulking brick church on West 86th St. with its stained glass, and period detail, should of course be defended from the developers who want to strip the space from its history to some commercial blah. All of these protections are threatened, said Mark Ruffalo, in an impassioned speech about why he has gathered an army of celebrities to fight against the crass cruelty of our current political moment. Nixon was bad, they concurred, but the social politics now are much worse.
Closing, Bob Woodward recounted the final words of Nixon resigning in a brief flash of self-reflection: remember, the hate inside you brings you down.
