42 Photos
The kitchen by Bakes and Company leads into a casual seating area by Old Town Crossing. MICHELLE TRAURING
The 29th annual Guild Hall Academy of the Arts Lifetime Achievement Awards & Dinner. MICHELLE TRAURING
Blythe Danner. MICHELLE TRAURING
Blythe Danner. MICHELLE TRAURING
Alan Alda. MICHELLE TRAURING
Bob Balaban and Blythe Danner. MICHELLE TRAURING
Wild turkeys frequent the Elizabeth A. Morton National Wildlife Refuge in Noyac. DANA SHAW
Alan Alda and Hilaria and Alec Baldwin. MICHELLE TRAURING
Alan Alda and Hilaria and Alec Baldwin. MICHELLE TRAURING
Alan Alda and Hilaria and Alec Baldwin. MICHELLE TRAURING
Guild Hall Executive Director Ruth Appelhof. MICHELLE TRAURING
Guild Hall Executive Director Ruth Appelhof. MICHELLE TRAURING
Wild turkeys frequent the Elizabeth A. Morton National Wildlife Refuge in Noyac. DANA SHAW
Chuck Close and Eve Xanthopoulos. MICHELLE TRAURING
Chuck Close MICHELLE TRAURING
Alec and Hilaria Baldwin. MICHELLE TRAURING
Alec and Hilaria Baldwin. MICHELLE TRAURING
Nile Rodgers and Keith Urban. MICHELLE TRAURING
ExtraTV interviews Ruth Appelhof and Hilaria and Alec Baldwin. MICHELLE TRAURING
Roy Furman and Bob Balaban. MICHELLE TRAURING
Barbara Walters MICHELLE TRAURING
ExtraTV interviews Barbara Walters. MICHELLE TRAURING
Wild turkeys frequent the Elizabeth A. Morton National Wildlife Refuge in Noyac. DANA SHAW
Detail in the master bedroom. MICHELLE TRAURING
Bob Balaban milled about the seventh floor of Sotheby’s International Realty in Manhattan on Monday night with scissors, tape and an old Playbill for “Summer and Smoke” by Tennessee Williams.The actor/director was a half hour early to the 29th annual Guild Hall Academy of the Arts Lifetime Achievement Awards and dinner. And no one knew what he was up to.
All was revealed two hours later when he took to the stage to announce his longtime friend, Tony- and Emmy Award-winning actor Blythe Danner.
“I thought I knew all about Blythe, but let me read this little bio of Blythe in the Playbill,” he said, “and it will speak much better than I can possibly do.”
With that, he flipped to an inside page, folded over the cover and began.
“Ms. Danner, who comes from a long line of well-known Latvian circus performers, made her auspicious theatrical debut at age 6 as the farmer in ‘The Farmer in the
Dell.’ During a lower school assembly, she sang all 17 verses of the song while riding a unicycle and juggling hot knishes, refusing to leave the stage until her mother and the school guidance counselor had to drag her from it, kicking and screaming. They haven’t been able to drag this beloved performer off the stage ever since.”
The audience of 250 performers, artists, philanthropists, patrons and publicists roared with laughter as Mr. Balaban continued, stopping only to applaud as a bemused Ms. Danner accepted her Lifetime Achievement Award for Performing Arts and pressed her palm to the announcer’s forehead.
“Are you feeling okay?” Ms. Danner asked, feigning concern, before kissing him on the cheek. “He’s been hanging out with [director] Wes Anderson too much,” she said, referring to the pair’s collaboration on the upcoming film “The Grand Budapest Hotel.”
When the audience settled down, she turned from the podium and joked to Mr. Balaban, “Well, you don’t have to stand there.”
“I don’t know where to go,” he said, awkwardly switching his position on the stage before exiting.
Ms. Danner, an East Hampton resident who left a film shoot in California to attend the ceremony, smiled to her friend and adjusted the microphone.
“I really can’t get over this,” she said. “I’m very, very grateful. How can I possibly, a little jet-lag certainly will not deter me at all. I’m a relative newcomer to Guild Hall, having first performed there four years ago. And I’m certainly old enough, I guess, to receive this award, although I really should tread boards for another 10 or 20 years, if possible. If it’s in the cards. I guess Angela Lansbury is going back to Broadway at 88, so I just have to cross my fingers that perhaps I’ll get there and really deserve this award.”
Hosted by Alec Baldwin—who quipped, “It’s true that I do want to drop out of society as we all know it, and I thought, ‘What better place to hide than here with [publicist] Peggy Siegal, Christina Cuomo and Barbara Walters?’—the evening also honored Philippe de Montebello, director emeritus of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, for Visual Arts. Philanthropists Jo Carole and Ronald Lauder won the Special Award for Leadership and Philanthropy. And journalist Ms. Walters walked away as the Literary-Media Arts winner.
“When Barbara’s on camera, she’s really there,” actor Alan Alda said while introducing the seasoned news veteran. “You’re seeing a real person. She’s not just asking a set of questions that anybody could ask. She’s there with the other person. I’ve been at the other end of it and I know.”
Forty years ago, on the set of the television series “M*A*S*H,” lead actor Mr. Alda found himself in the hot seat across from Ms. Walters in his show’s infirmary, listening to her ask a “long, really heartfelt question.”
So, naturally, he took a roll of surgical tape and wrapped it around her hands, tying her to a nearby bedpost.
“You get really close to people when you do that,” Mr. Alda said. “So I get the opportunity, now, to apologize to Barbara for my mischievous prank. And, also, to present her this award, which is long overdue.”
When Ms. Walters joined her friend on stage, she said, “You know, it’s true! He tied me to the bedpost! He wouldn’t untie me and I had to do the whole interview that way.”
After five decades in television—and 37 years with ABC News—Ms. Walters will retire from “The View” in May, the host explained.
“I have very mixed feelings about it,” she said. “But I know it’s time. And I want to leave while I have events like tonight instead of, ‘She’s still here?’ So, I thank you so much. Even though I’m leaving, you’ll stay with me and remind me of all the work I have enjoyed so much and the work that there is still to do.
“So I am flying with genuine pleasure as I receive this distinction,” she continued. “It is an honor. I look at all of you and I think, ‘Aren’t I lucky?’ And I thank you for coming when you could be home...”
She paused, and finished, “Watching television?”
on Mar 11, 2014