Friars no laughing matter
LONG before feds investigated their finances, the Friars meant George Burns, Milton Berle, Henny Youngman, Don Rickles, Frank Sinatra. VIPs are now gone. Today, heavier in dentists and businessmen, so might be the club’s clout.
Their signature was always the annual superstar roast. Like Bob Hope to the dais: “Great to see old friends. Who knew I had so many friends this old.” X-rated Johnny Carson’s: “Alan King drives a Rolls, Alan King owns a mansion. Soon we’ll read Alan King has gonorrhea.” Sammy Davis Jr.: “Tonight, Marilyn Monroe had a bigger audi- ence in the ladies’ room than I have in the ballroom.”
For June 23rd’s coming event, it’s no longer whole tables. Only seats for sale. From once skewering Bogarts and Bacalls, this year’s event roasts Gary Busey.
Presence is a gift
AT the St. James where, 1978, he grabbed his first Tony for “On the Twentieth Century,” Kevin Kline’s marvelous in Noël Coward’s “Present Laughter.” Champagne poured afterward in backstage’s actual Champagne Lounge. Then Kevin’s Gotham Hall party, where a pianist plinked songs from his shows and KK made his quickie appearance — just enough to hug and kiss.
Rickles’ ribbing
DON Rickles was a playmate of my husband’s. I remember his son’s ’83 bar mitzvah at the Jerusalem Wall . . . A California deli naming him “a tongue sandwich” . . . I was there when he told Martin and Lewis’ late loverboy Dean Martin: “You should have your hands pressed.” To Baryshnikov, in an early Florida club date: “Don’t just stand there. Pirouette!” After Streisand blathered endlessly about a friend: “We’ve now dis- covered a cure for diabetes” . . . To Jordan’s royal ruler: “So, king, what’s your first name?” To another king, Larry King: “Larry, you alone are a great couple.”
He likened Johnny Carson to Preparation H. Told Desi and Lucy: “You’re more popular than Hitler and Eva Braun.” Despite his latter fragility, he still had it and decimated me with: “The things she does for her friends can be counted on her little finger.”
They must be applauding him Up There.
Bits & pieces
HERE to do a Donald piece, the BBC so far nailed Alec Bald- win . . . THE very special Jane Goodall premiered Disney’s film “Born in China” on Saturday, 11:30 a.m., way down on the Lower East Side. Per animal behaviorists, gorillas always get up early and they don’t work weekends.
The beauty of NY
INSIDE the Nederlander Theatre, “War Paint’s” Patti LuPone and Christine Ebersole glitter as rival face schmearers Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein. And while she sat unmoving at intermission, Secret Service swelled the aisle, guarding Hillary.
Outside, an Arden specialist intoned: “Today’s beauty trends include health care, like, ‘ Does this cream contain vitamin A or not?’ ” And Vanity Fair’s Amy Fine Collins berated our not knowing Rubinstein treasures had long found a home in her home.
And there was NYC’s other side. A clunky Gargiulo Produce truck backing into a garage and our low and hoi polloi running for Port Authority buses.
Sights, sounds and specialness that’s only in New York, kids, only in New York.