Five-time Emmy winner, named on Time’s 100 List in 2010 and once one of Entertainment Weekly’s “Entertainers of the Year,” an Oscar host, Emmy host, Tony host. He’s got twins and a documentary that closes the Tribeca Film Festival with his co-producer husband, David Burtka. And he’s in Netflix’s “A Series of Unfortunate Events.”
Neil Patrick Harris is so busy he needs more names.
May 5 he hosts Lincoln Center’s black-tie 60th Anniversary Dinner Diamond Jubilee Gala. It honors four families: Rockefeller, Tisch, Soros and Gruss. Said Audrey Gruss: “I’m the longest board member — 26 years.”
Cocktails at the Henry Moore sculpture, seated dinner at the Met opera, dessert at Alice Tully Hall, plus a 10-person orchestra, 20-person choir, video from 60 years ago’s groundbreaking, and a film of the VIPs who’ve played there.
So, Neil, ever screw up any hosting job?
“You’re there because the night’s special. Because people paid big money. You don’t need to overperform. You just constantly need to make sure they’re having fun. But . . .
“I remember one night was a disaster. Having just flown in from LA, I’d memorized my stuff because I definitely didn’t want to phone this in. I wanted to honor, with whom I’d performed and respected. It’s just that whatever happened I somehow got overwhelmed by the amount of work and could not remember the lines. My look was glazed. They had to paste my lines all around me.
“Watching my performance, he knew it did not go well. Sondheim could see what was going on and he said how unstable I was.”
Plans for NYC’s cultural center for the next 60 years include an acoustic upgrade, a moving escalator and a movable stage.
Lady filmmaker doc
Coming Friday, “Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché.” A doc of the first woman film director. Historians ignored her. The industry erased her. Guy-Blaché handled 1,000 films, the earliest with an African-American cast, plus 150 silents with synchronized sound. Born 1873 in France, gone 1968 at 94.
It’s narrated by Jodie Foster, exec producer’s Robert Redford, and the film includes Geena Davis, Ava DuVernay, Lake Bell, Julie Taymor, Catherine Hardwicke, Sir Ben Kingsley, Evan Rachel Wood and Julie Delpy.
Please pay attention
Two ladies at the “Hillary and Clinton” play wore “Pelosi Blue” dresses . . .
Don’t mess with Mrs. Meghan Markle Duchess. She requests special flowers, and former castmembers mumble she wasn’t always coochy-coo . . .
Let’s all stop a minute and praise Broadway. “To Kill a Mockingbird”? Smash hits don’t come any bigger than this . . .
Claire Foy on handling fame: “I’m unscathed because I’m still staying me. But if I wasn’t an adult, or able to see the reality of the world around me, it could be a scary place.” . . .
Happy April 24 birthday to Barbra Streisand, Shirley MacLaine, Kelly Clarkson, me.
Breaking up hard to do
Amber Heard and Johnny Depp still fighting after divorcing. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie fighting as they’re still divorcing. Organza isn’t as fragile as a Hollywood marriage. Partly, it’s the X factor. As in eXcess. Salaries, percentage points, DVDs, books, tie-ins, appearances, gift bags, paid-for honeymoon photos. The other X factor? SeX. An actor’s paid to wrap his legs and other parts around a glamorous woman 14 hours a day. Nearest movie star couples come to drudgery is being in a film with that title.
“Oh, please, your friend’s stupid. He wants to open a French restaurant. And in Harlem. He’ll probably call it ‘Chez what.’ ”
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.
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