D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A big, big star on the music and concert scene and, therefore, in Hollywood. The rage. She was what the local kids called “rad.” I didn’t get her but a lot of others, especially the younger generation, did. I did see her once in a live performance at the Wiltern Theater, a rendition of her “Vogue” in costumes that looked like the court of Versailles in the 18th century. She had a big chorus and they danced and sang. She was totally sensational. I got Madonna then and there. Then I saw her in a movie. No. Madonna is not an actress. She’s a phenomenon, but not a thespian. She was The Moment and since
then she has demonstrated the natural shrewdness or genius of being able to selfperpetuate as a performance. Because that’s what she does. She’s now a star, our Madge. Ya gotta love her. Looking at the pictures of the Cinema Society Screening and the after-party, it’s not about the movie or David and Wallis Windsor. Who do we want to look at? Madge, herself. She’s now about the age that Wallis was when she and David began their nomadic lives as the “must haves” of international society. But Madonna’s much younger-looking. In those after-party pictures, I was reminded of Dietrich.
The face has “matured” into that. She’d be perfect for a Dietrich role. Maybe Shanghai Express? Or even The Blue Angel (or did she do that already?). Back when we were “neighbors,” although I didn’t know her, I saw her frequently because she often jogged. She had a route that I was told was five miles. Sometimes she did this daily. She wore black and she was tan-less and buffed. Buffed. She began her jogging routine at her gate on Oriole Place, would run down Oriole Lane, up over Thrasher, down Rising Glen to Sunset Plaza, and then west to Beverly Hills and the Beverly
Hills Hotel. There she would turn around and run back to Doheny Drive and Sunset, at which point she would turn herself around and run backwards up Doheny to Oriole. Backwards up very steep hills maybe a mile or so. You can see the route on a Google map. It remains awesome in retrospect. I’ve never met Madonna (did I say that already?), nor does the idea interest me particularly. But I do admire her as a professional artist, her natural ambition, and her claim on her life. It’s the best story of all and she keeps telling it and moving it along. She’s a working girl, and that’s her nature. u
D AV I D A N D J U L I A KO C H L AU N C H E D J O S H UA B E L L ’ S A L B U M AT T H E I R H OM E
Christine Baranski and Gayle King
Joshua Bell, David Koch and Jeremy Denki 44 QUEST
Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts
Olga Votis and Brad Comisar
Bronson Van Wyck and Keith Lieberthal
PAT R I C K M C M U LL A N
Julia Koch and Carolina Herrera