By Sarah Sluis
FJI writer Harry Haun reports from the recent Lincoln Center tribute to Wall Street and Solitary Man star Michael Douglas.
One day after Catherine Zeta-Jones picked up the Drama Desk Award for A Little Night Music and three days before she received the Outer Critics Circle Award for same�going halvies both times with Memphis' Montego Glover as Best Actress in a Musical�the man of the house flexed his acting muscles May 24 and accepted the 2010 Chaplin Award from The Film Society of Lincoln Center.
This math was not lost on the honoree's 93-year-old father. "Michael, can you hear me?" Kirk Douglas yelled into the audience at New York's Alice Tully Hall. "That's two awards. You only get one." This was apparently fine with Michael Douglas, who already has won two Oscars�for producing (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the film of his dad's Broadway vehicle) and acting (Gordon Gekko, the "Greed is good" guy of Wall Street, soon due a post-prison comeback in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps).
The elder Douglas, who was considered for Lincoln Center honors in the time past but never quite made the cut, drew a thunderous long-time-coming ovation from the assemblage. He relayed that Michael showed no interest in entering the family business until his sophomore year when, out of the blue, he announced, "Dad, I'm going to do a play." It was Shakespeare's As You Like It, and Kirk checked it out. Afterward, when asked directly, he replied directly, "Michael, you were awful." Learning nothing from that experience, Michael attempted a two-hander. "After the performance, �Dad, how was I?' �Michael, you were terrific.' And from that day on, Michael was terrific in every role that he played." Kirk said that he relished "the opportunity to present the Chaplin Award to my son, the actor, Michael Douglas."
The son rose to the occasion: "It was such a treat to have my father come out here and present this award to me, particularly because it's an award that he has not won�and I hope that him seeing me get this night will encourage him not to give up show business. A couple of weeks ago, he sent me a script and said, �Michael, I'm thinking of doing this movie. Will you look at the script?' I said, �Dad, the insurance alone will cost as much as the movie.' He said, �I guess that's their problem.'"
Douglas got the secret of his success into two words: "Good genes. Both my mother [Diana Dill Douglas Darrid, who was also in attendance] and my father have been working actors their entire life. Dad just finished a one-man show. My mother just finished writing a play. They have never lost their passion for acting over 70 years. I think it was that great philosopher, Yogi Berra, who said you can observe a lot by watching."
In addition to his parents, Douglas thanked his first TV-series co-star, the late Karl Malden.
Zeta-Jones was brought on after a montage of her hubby making love to a glamorous gaggle of Other Women (Glenn Close, Kathleen Turner, Sharon Stone). "We did appear in one movie�Traffic�but we didn't share any scenes together and I wasn't his wife," she said. "The only actor I'd love to work with would be Michael Douglas.
"But the role that I am most proud of�and, as you've seen tonight, there have been many roles�is the role of a father, because he has shown our children a love, a commitment to the three of them�Cameron, Dylan and Carys�and the love he has for them is extraordinary, and I thank you every day for that, darling."
These last words came with some emotional difficulty because of recent events, and she paused twice to compose herself. The New York Post, earlier in the day, ran an exclusive photograph of the meth-dealing Cameron, 31, roaming "his new home," the federal penitentiary in Lewisburg, PA. His earliest release date is Dec. 16, 2013.
On film, introducing Zeta-Jones, was Barbara Walters, who's on the mend from heart surgery. ("That makes her one in a million," Douglas cracked, "a journalist with a heart.") Walters noted she shared the same birthday as Douglas and Zeta-Jones (Sept. 25)�"not exactly the same year," she added. Ron Meyer, his agent of 25 years and now Universal president, does share the same year and day.
It was a clip-and-testimony evening, with an assortment of Douglas colleagues stepping up to the plate to sing his praises. Young co-stars who cheered him as a mentor and protector and leader on the set included Erika Christensen from Traffic and Tobey Maguire from Wonder Boys. The director of the latter film (which Douglas and others tend to think is his finest screen work), Curtis Hanson, and Milos Forman of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest had their say as well. Frank Langella, imperious as ever, trumpeted Douglas' acting in the film they did together, the Wall Street sequel�and also in the just-released Solitary Man.
A couple of wild cards popped up on stage during the course of the evening. Jimmy Buffett favored the audience with "Margaritaville" and gave Michael Douglas full credit for it: "Once upon a time there was a liquor company called Seagram's that bought this film company called Universal, and Michael�on my behalf, without me knowing it�reminded The Powers That Be one day that they had an artist on the label who had a song called �Margaritaville' and they were a liquor company that had no tequila, so, in a way, Michael is the cornerstone of the Margaritaville empire."Also out of left field came newscaster Brian Williams to throw a light on a Douglas "role that hasn't been highlighted here tonight that can best be described as �the best of his brilliant career.'" With that, the lights dimmed, and the intro of his news program unreeled, with an unseen Douglas intoning solemnly, "From NBC News' world headquarters in New York, this is NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams."
"Oscar, schmoscar, he's the announcer of NBC Nightly News," Williams revealed to a startled crowd. "�How did this happen?' I am often asked. "I wrote him a letter, and I said, �How would you like a permanent place in television news?' And he said yes."
Danny DeVito, who just finished his fourth film with Douglas, came out shorter than the podium but wired for sound and feeling rather expansive. (Douglas later said he was "glad to see him standing after 12 limoncellos.") DeVito broke into a hilarious riff about the travails of location shooting�in particular, the Jewel of the Nile ordeal in Mexico when Douglas was horsing around with a rattler and got bit on the arm.
Like a shot, DeVito bolted into action and sucked the venom out. It built to a great exit line. Wagging his finger at Douglas: "I just want to say from the bottom of my heart, Michael, you'd be a dead man now if that snake had [struck below the belt]."
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