Forget the headlines. Nice good people — like actor Paul Rudd — still exist.
A bowling alley on 12th Avenue. Two more steps west, and you’re in Weehawken. Entrance is through a crowded noisy behind-to-behind bar. Some behinds rounder than the bowling balls. The inner room? Louder, busier. Astronauts have more air.
Inside, a calm poised “Antman” Paul Rudd in a sweater. So why’s he there?
“2006 when I played a stutterer in ‘Three Days of Rain,’ I realized the pain such a challenge causes. This is my annual All-Star Bowling Benefit for SAY, an association that aids young stutterers.”
Over the din behind us — supposedly including all-star bowlers Janeane Garofalo, Rachel Dratch, Alex Brightman, Jane Alexander, Richard Kind, Daphne Rubin-Vega — he said: “Having just launched ‘Living With Yourself,’ my new Netflix show, I now can relax and just enjoy Thanksgiving. I live in New York. I’ll watch the parade. Watch football, which I love. Then feed 30 people, family and friends.
“And best of all, play with the 12-pound Cavapoo dog I bought two years ago.”
As a staffer blocked bodies to get me to my car, a black-sweatered man stopped me. “I’m Mo Rocca’s manager.” OK. “Mo’s just written this book ‘Mobituaries.’ It’s wonderful. It’s now out. He spent a year doing research on it. I’ve been Mo’s manager 20 years.” OK.
Pay attention
Hugh Jackman has a bromance with director James Mangold. They’ve worked together on three movies. But he’s not in Mangold’s new “Ford v Ferrari” starring Matt Damon and Christian Bale.
Jackman: “Big movie. The kind they say Hollywood doesn’t make anymore. Original story. Huge scope. Matt and Christian are at the top of their game.
“But,” adds jokeman Jackman: “I’m pissed off he didn’t cast me.”
Odds & ends
Bryant Gumbel and Jane Krakowski at chefs Vic Rallo and Dave Pasternack’s new reincarnation of Theater District restaurant Esca. Everyone’s love affair is with its signature crudo and branzino baked in salt … Nov. 21, NYU, art collector Isabella Rayburn will launch the book “Before: After — Roma: New York” and discuss her friendship with Andy Warhol.
Bits & pieces
Here’s how it works today: Someone sent a photo of Jameela Jamil, whom I don’t really know, wearing patterned tights from Calzedonia, whom I don’t know, with James Blake, whom I don’t know. I’m wildly grateful, but the sender I also don’t know … Next week Lin-Manuel Miranda screens his fourth episode of “His Dark Materials.” Invitees are told, “You must present photo ID” … Hong Kong submitted action thriller “The White Storm 2: Drug Lords” for an Oscar nom. The territory needs more action thrills?
What she said
Instantly any head rises up, it gets beaten up. Nobody’s betting on Barfy Sanders or Boy Bootleg. But Trump’s getting it, Biden’s getting it, wigwam Warren’s getting it. Years back when Bloomberg first pondered his Oval Office run, Georgina said she’d be a reluctant first daughter.
She told reporters she wouldn’t like it. Seeing its scrutiny and “brutal” campaign process, she didn’t relish the mudslinging. She also said, despite whatever politics, she’d maintain a relationship with the president’s kids.
To mayhap be said when introducing a debating crateload of Dem president-maybes: “Here are special persons. Activists. Wherever there’s poverty, social injustice — or a free chicken dinner — you’ll find them.”
Only in America, kids, only in America.
The post Paul Rudd’s bowling benefit for stuttering charity rolls through eighth year appeared first on Page Six.
