Liz’s night with the incredible Damian Lewis
“I WENT to a mahvelous party!” as Noel Coward once opined. And following in Noel’s footprints, so did I, your friend Liz.
This in the fabled La Grenouille restaurant on East 52nd Street off 5th Ave.
This most recent party was hosted by a mysterious and charming man who prefers to be nameless. He seated me at the very end of a table of VIPs, with no one on my left. This gave me a golden opportunity to pay full attention to the really big movie-TV-stage actor on my right. He just happened to be one of the hottest men of the moment — Damian Lewis. Born in Britain, he’s made his name here on Showtime’s “Homeland” and HBO’s “Band of Brothers.” He is also the sizzle on the grill in another Showtime series, “Billions,” which returns for its second season on Feb. 19. And Damian also scored big as Henry VIII on the BBC production of Hilary Mantel’s “Wolf Hall.” Emmys and Golden Globes fill his shelves.
Across from the two of us was the diehard proHillary super-fan, the ebullient Liz Robbins. She saw me hand Mr. Lewis my card, as I was trying to impress him with my modesty! (I said to Damian, “This is who I used to be when I was a big deal back in the Dark Ages, before you were born.”) This enthusiastic good-hearted actor began to laugh and said, “I know exactly who you are.”
I answered brightly, “So you have nothing to fear.” (We have never really met. I’ve seen Damian, always looking sharp and sexy, at a number of events, screenings, mostly. But I am actually rather shy, believe it or not.)
The entire dinner party was already stunned at my “VIP” seat and many were getting ready to push me aside and mob Damian, or tell him that they, or their children/grandchildren adored him. But the ubiquitous Liz Robbins, naturally, began to compete with me for Damian’s attention.
Damian Lewis turned out to be super smart, super nice and proceeded to tell us about his two children in London and to laud his wonderful wife, the actress Helen McCrory. (Helen came to visit us and knelt down to chat during dessert.) When I told her how her husband had raved about her, she just laughed, saying, “He is SO lucky!”
Indeed, both these actors are a brilliant cut above the rigors of mere TV and splashy publicity. In the first place, they are highly intelligent and realistic. Their multiple awards and honors would sink a large ship, and Helen is rumored to be coming soon to Broadway in “The Deep Blue Sea.”
If this little anecdote doesn’t exactly blow you away, well I want to give the two Liz’s, Smith and Robbins, their due when it comes to good luck and excellent seating.
Oh, about “Mrs. Damian Lewis,” not that anyone even calls her that, she has her own awards and in London is even better known than her husband.
She played Cherie Blair in “The Queen,” she was seen in the last three Harry Potter films and she is recognized as Polly Gray in “Peaky Blinders.” She even took one award from the very hand of my friend, Dame Helen Mirren.
And I, for one, have known some real stars, not just celebrities selling fake diamonds and such on TV. Let’s just mention Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Jane Fonda, Maggie Smith, Cicely Tyson, Lena Horne, Warren Beatty, George Clooney, Robert Redford, Tom Hanks, and yes, even Dame Helen herself.
All in all, Damian Lewis was everything I’d imagined — and much more — then when I’d merely glimpsed him from afar, among the maddening crowd.