The Premiere of American Buffalo

They had a plan. It wasn't worth a nickel.

Click on the photos to display a larger version

"The Samuel Goldwyn Company and Independent Feature Project/West
cordinally invite you to the premiere of

American Buffalo

A benefit to support Independent Feature Project/West
Thursday, September 5th, 1996
7:30pm
Writers Guild Theater, Beverly Hills
PARTY TO FOLLOW
Chasen's"
Paraphrased
Isn't it cool when you receive neat stuff in the mail like this? As an Indie Alliance Member of The Independent Feature Project/West, I get things in the mail like this every so often. Since I have done a couple scenes from American Buffalo, and have read several other of David Mamet's plays and shorts, such as Glengarry Glen Ross, and decided to head on down to see what a premiere was all about.

The movie is about three characters, Don (Dennis Franz); Teach (Dustin Hoffman); and Bobby (Sean Nelson). It takes place in Don's Junk store with a few street scenes (the movie was filmed in Pawtucket, R.I), and involves a plan to steal an American buffalo nickel. However, as the film progresses, far more harm than good happens to the three.

Pictures from the Movie

Part One: The Premiere

Maybe I was naive or something, but I expected to go to the movie, park the car, walk up to the theatre window, get the tickets and go on in. HA! Click on the picture to the left. That crowd behind the gate is not the line to the theater, but the press! Newscasters were interviewing people I didn't recognize (I'm so ashamed), and flash bulbs were going off all around the place (Unfortunately, not at me). I don't know if you can see if or not, but there is a red carpet down on the sidewalk on the left side of the gate. And it wasn't just the paparazzi who were there. There were a whole bunch of people there with notepads. At first I thought they were from the newspapers and such, but later I found out (after peeking over one person's shoulders) that they were autograph hounds! That blew my mind! This was just a small low budget feature, and it was nuts outside! Someday I have to go to a big budget premiere just so I can have something to compare the experience to. THAT must be a nightmare.

I'm bummed about the fact I didn't get too many pictures before the film started. It took me a little while to get to the Writers Guild Theater, as it's on Doheny Drive, which changes street numbers between West Hollywood and Beverly Hills. There was a place in West Hollywood which had the same street number (A hotel, I think). Guess where I wound up first? Yeah. So there was no time for me to take snapshots of anyone before the movie started. However, I did get one good picture. See the guy in the middle in the picture on the right? That's Dennis Franz, one of the stars of the movie and one of my favorite actors. I didn't talk to him then, but did at the party later, and it was a major embarrassment for me.

We all sat down in the theatre, and the head of the IFP/West got up to the podium on the stage and welcomed everyone. She introduced the film's producer Gregory Mosher, a bald chap with a beard and a Mamet freak (He has directed 23 of Mamet's plays), and the film's director Michael Corrente. They gushed about each other and how Gregory first met Michael at a film festival showing one of Michael's previous directing endeavors, Federal Hill. The person who received the most gushing, however, was not who I expected it to be. It wasn't Dustin Hoffman, but Dennis Franz! I'm paraphrasing here, but what they said basically went like this, "Long before production began, long before we cast anyone, we knew who we wanted to play Don. ... Dennis was the center of this movie". Wow. Hope someone says that about me someday, and not be talking about programming.

Part Two: The Party

On the left is is the interior of Chasen's, a famous restaurant in West Hollywood. This is the same Chasen's that on Feb. 6, 1996, held Ronald Reagan's 75th birthday party, the one he couldn't attend himself. Act-Up also crashed the same party. But I'm digressing. Look how many people are in there. And I took this picture when most of the crowd had already left! This doesn't even show the crowds out back in the courtyard. It was packed.

One of the things I learned that night was a simple axiom, "Where's there's flashbulbs, there's a star". After driving from the theater and parking the car in the boondocks away from the valet parking, I was walking up the sidewalk towards the entrance to Chasen's when dozens of flashbulbs went off about ten feet in front of me. Straining to peek over some six-foot brunette with an autograph notepad (they were there too), I saw what the hubbub was all about: Jimmy Smitts had arrived.

Lemme tell ya something. I was nearly in heaven when I took the picture on the right. Do you know who the gentleman with the silver hair in the middle is? That's Steven Bochco, creator and/or producer of Hill Street Blues, Doogie Howser, M.D., LA Law, NYPD Blue, and a classic in television production, Cop Rock. To the left of Mr. Bochco, in the white, is his wife Barbara Bosson. And look! On the right! It's Renko! Charles Haid from Hill Street Blues and Altered States. Charles Haid is also a lot taller than I thought he would be. I expected this short guy, yet he's taller than I am.

So what happened during the party? I mostly wandered, took a few snapshots, and talked to a few people. Jeff Foxworthy bumped into me and went on by. The food was..

well, actually, I couldn't stand any of it. It was one of those really ritzy buffets where you couldn't recognize half the items on the table. They had some kinda stuff that looked like cottage cheese, with a yellowish tint. The stuff that looked like tuna salad sure as heck wasn't. Tasted awful. The only good thing that I munched on the whole time were some crackers, and the cookies. Yes, the cookies. I would repeat eating all the awful stuff to get at those cookies again. Jimmy Smitts wandered up to the bar while I was waiting for a Pepsi. His companion, wife or whatever, mentioned to him that there was no food left. I said to him, looking up, "The cookies out back are great." He left, and I overheard him mentioning to the lady, "The cookies are supposed to be good."

Now comes the good part. Dennis Franz was at the party, and all night I was trying to get up enough nerve to go over and say hi or something. Finally, towards the end of the night, I crept over while he was talking to some film guy and butted in. I shook his hand and said, "Damn good job. I've loved you ever since Hill Street Blues". He was very gracious and said thanks with a big smile. I then realized what my mouth had said. I meant to say, "I've loved your WORK ever since Hill Street Blues". I hightailed it out of that conversation before I said something really stupid.

No, I did not see Dustin Hoffman. I don't know if he made it to the party, but I do know that he was at the movie premiere. A seat was reserved for him, and several weeks later, while reading an account of the premiere, he was there in a picture with Richard Lovett, the new president of CAA, who took over from Mike Ovitz when Ovitz went to Disney.

Why do I have a picture of Army Archerd, the Daily Variety columist here? Because, as weird as it may seem, he was also at my last little gig which I wrote about, My day on Murphy Brown. I didn't get a picture of him last time. Weird how we keep running into each other.