This is a trip Maribel and I have been waiting for ever since September of 1999. Back then we had planned to travel to New York and see Harry in the show If Love Were All. But that one closed early, and I canceled my flight, not wanting to go to New York City unless seeing Harry was a sure thing. Since then, it's sometimes felt like a goal akin to finding the Holy Grail. First he didn't get a show there for the longest time, then of course 9/11 happened, and then my car wreck happened. After all that, when we got the news that he was finally starring on Broadway again, in the Nora Ephon play Imaginary Friends, coming at a time when I had slightly more money than usual from the accident settlement, it seemed like.... a sign!!
Then, in time-honored tradition... it was announced that Imaginary Friends would be closing early too-- the same day we got into town. I almost canceled my flight again. But M and I decided it would be better to go anyway, at least we'd get to hang out together again. And then-- Harry invited us to dinner with him and his wife Dawn. He'd felt bad that we were going to miss the show, and they wanted to see us again. That sealed the deal! Nothing, not my limpy feet, not the code orange terror alert, not even the fourth worst blizzard in New York history was going to stop Maribel and me from getting there.
2/16-- My flight beat the blizzard there by an hour! The flight itself was fine, sunny, right up till we prepared to land at La Guardia, then it started getting overcast. I thought "oh, a few flakes, no big." Then I ran into trouble at the airport the second I arrived. I couldn't remember the name of the hotel we were staying at (the Milford Plaza.) I had to give the address to the bus that was supposed to take me there. (It's not like it is in the movies, where a guy jumps in a cab and says "Grimore Hotel, step on it" and the cabbie knows exactly where to go-- in real life, the cabbies and everybody need *exact* instructions and street addresses.) I looked at the printouts of my tickets that I had with me, but the address seemed nowhere to be found. Not five minutes in New York, and already lost in the big city..... I tried calling M's cell, but she had it turned off. Thankfully, I finally found the hotel's address on my receipts-- I knew they must have provided it, I just hadn't found it the first time I looked. So I got the bus to the hotel okay. (En route, we passed a tattery billboard for the new Star Trek film Nemesis, featuring a huge image of the "Reman dagger" -- better known to Buffy geeks as the Hibben Jackal, Faith's gift knife from the Mayor. It's a sign!!....) I checked into the Milford. The guy who waited on me at the desk sounded like he had a British accent. He really did. Then he looked at my address and said "Where in Michigan are you from? I'm from Mount Pleasant." ??? I told him where Onaway was, and then asked if Maribel had checked in yet. He said yes, and let me call her room. Still no answer, but I left a voice mail for her. I went to my room, (444) got settled in. Looked out the window (snow was starting)-- and was shocked to find that the restaurant that Harry had told us to meet him at, Angus McIndoe, was right down there across the street from me! I was looking right at it from my window!! What are the odds? I settled in, changed clothes, and waited for Maribel's call. Napped a little.
At about 7, M called. Said she'd knocked on the door twice, but I must have been napping REALLY hard, because I hadn't heard her once! We went to her room, and hugged hello. Said hi to her mom, who'd come along for the ride. It turned out that Maribel had her phone off because she and her mom, having gotten there in the morning, decided to go to Harry's show! So they got to see it, at least. She told me later that they'd gone backstage and said hi to Harry, and he was real glad to see them, and wondered where I was, at which they'd told him my plane got in later. If I'd had a morning flight, I might've made it too, but oh well. He told them that Dawn wasn't going to be able to make it to our dinner on Monday after all, since she had a commercial to film, and had also snagged a part on the NBC sitcom Ed! So she wouldn't be able to make it. We felt bad about that, because we hadn't been able to talk with her much last time.
During this time, the later-christened Blizzard of '03 was coming down on New York, Boston, the whole three states around us. Really funny, because I'd left sunny skies in Michigan-- sun that was coming after blizzardy sub-zero weather of our own. (It was *following* me, man....) The truth is, I honestly didn't think the snow was that bad. I've seen a lot worse. But every news station I turned on, everybody we talked to kept saying this was the worst weather they'd seen since another bad storm back in 1996. Snow was burying cars that people had been dumb enough to park on Times Square, and puddles of icy slush swallowed our feet whole as we crossed streets. Me with my unsure footing had to be Very. Careful. And. Very. Vigilant. as I slowly planted one foot in front of the other trying to carve through the snow piled around every street. The road crews and street shovelers, who are there for that exact purpose, were trying really hard to keep it clean, salting and shoveling. But it was just too much for even them. There's more at stake for New Yorkers in a blizzard than for rednecks like us when it dumps snow, because New York is where everybody works important jobs. Financing the world, entertaining the world, providing credit service and internet service and a million other things-- so no matter what, they *have* to keep going. There was something really inspiring about being in the middle of that, after years of living in a place where stuff might get done, might not, doesn't really matter either way.
2/17-- woke at 8, downstairs to Celebrity Deli for breakfast at 10. Grilled cheese for me. (Wasn't really the breakfast time of day, so we could choose from their ordinary menu.) Went out to Times Square to shop around a little. I was busy taking photos of everything like a dorky tourist-- a pigeon was the star of one photo, a real New York taxi cab filled another, and of course the requisite photos of really tall buildings!! Really bright neon signs with moving flashy things!! There is something a little disconcerting about the moment you realize that you are IN Times Square-- *that* Times Square, the one they show on TV every New Year's, in New York City, the *real* New York City-- and that all around you are literally thousands of people who are completely indifferent to the fact that they are on Times Square in New York City. Kind of the way some of us Michiganders treat the tourists here-- "fudgies", we call them. Those out-of-staters who go ooh and ahh at the Mackinac Bridge and the fudge and the lakes, and meanwhile we're going "It's water! Get over it!!"
On Times Square, every third step brings you to the door of a new store. We covered most of the little (and larger) shops on our street. Of course, I grabbed the ubiquitous tourist I <3 New York tee. A bear for Alan, a coffee cup for my mom, but they're special, see, cause they've got New York on them and we bought them on Times Square! :) Outside one shop, the Indian storekeeper sitting outside encouraged us to take a picture wearing the geeky plastic 2003 glasses he was selling. Which we did, and then of course we felt kinda obligated to go in and buy something (the ruse works). But it turned out great because that's where M found a golden ticket-shaped keychain for Harry's old blockbuster show, Crazy For You. That was unique to find because it's an "older" play. They had keychains for lots of different plays, Cats and Phantom of course, but that was nice to find. She decided to give it to Harry later if he didn't have one, and keep it for herself if he did. We were both pretty sure the company had long since loaded him up with every CFY souvenier ever manufactured, but she figured she'd try giving it to him anyway.
We mushed through the drifts and slush to the Barrymore theatre, where Imaginary Friends had been playing the past two months and had closed the day before. Of course we got photos of us in front, just to prove we'd made it there-- against all odds, in spite of all foes; we were THERE, at least!! We passed a lady skiing down the street on skis; she was later featured on a lot of news shows and on Conan, my mom says. At that point it was a couple hours to showtime, and we were getting tired from all the hiking over snow. So we went back to the hotel and neatened up. I napped a little.
At 8 it was time for Thoroughly Modern Millie. It was a really cute show. Even though we were watching the understudy in the lead role-- the star actually used to be the understudy herself, so we were in fact watching the understudy's understudy-- but it was a good show, lots of fun. M said it was pretty close to the movie, and the feel of it was a lot like CFY, same time frame, same "up" vibe. There was a subplot about Chinese launderers who were running an underground slave trade, and every time the two Chinese guys had to speak (very fake Chinese), a screen would come down and their dialogue was "translated" into English for us the audience. It was all done very tongue-in-cheek, and they used it for a lot of funny gags. It lent a real nice Godzilla vibe to the whole thing for me. :) At ten, show was over... and it was time to go to dinner with Harry.
We went out to the theatre lobby, where they had a huge, tall pillar which lighted elevators were zipping up and down, really pretty. We walked back to our hotel and down the street, around the side of the building to where the Angus McIndoe restaurant was. When we arrived, Harry and Dawn were standing out front, all bundled up, waiting for us; they'd just gotten there. Dawn had shown up too! Due to the whacked schedule the weather was dealing everyone, somehow she got to come after all; she still had the commercial but it was rescheduled or something. Harry gave me a *huge* hug, asked how I was doing, how my feet were. We went in the restaurant and I gave Dawn a hug, she asked how I was doing too. They both seemed very glad to see us!
We checked our coats-- actual coat check!-- and the waiter seated us at the five-person table over by the window. Gave us menus (a lot more expensive than McD's. That's another thing-- Harry and Dawn were picking up the check, I mean, who does that??) I had no idea what to get. Dawn helped me out-- "I think you'd like the chicken, or the red wine"-- which was very sweet of her. I had a chicken sandwich which came with lots of onions, french fries (also not like McDs, they cut up the whole potato and you have big slices of potato when you eat at restaurants). Maribel had Penne, with sausage, and I think her mom had eggs. Harry had salad with red wine, Dawn had mussle clams.
We talked about the blizzard first thing. Harry said they were digging it, they'd gone out the previous night and walked/played in the snow, had some champagne. We talked about being in New York for the first time, and how it was different from the rest of the world. Harry talked about how Times Square used to be more dangerous before the "disneyfication" of it (general New Yorker's term), how there used to be many more bums, hookers, strip shows, as opposed to now, where it was a lot safer. But that a lot of locals preferred it the way it used to be-- not so much the danger, but rather the "hardcore"ness of it, all the strange and unusual people you used to come across there. He talked about one street guy in particular who used to sound exactly as if he were a deposed diplomat, ranting about politics, but not in the messed way most "laymen" would rant; this guy seemed to know what he was talking about, which made Harry wonder whether he really did used to be some foriegn dignitary who'd eventually gone nuts.
He talked about different places they'd visited, Puerto Rico and Turkey and others. He remembered a fruit somewhere that was like a kiwi, with fur, and when you bit in it was like an eyeball inside! He joked about really enjoying that eyeball. (I later found out the magenta-colored fruit is called rambutan-- thanks Patti!) They'd been to Delphi in Greece, and Dawn talked about how she'd sat in the seat of the oracle of Delphi, even though it's supposed to be very bad luck to do that. They'd ended up losing their camera and some of Dawn's underwear. The tour bus they were with even turned around and went back, with the whole bus, to help find their camera, because the locals were very concerned about not looking bad in front of tourists. But they never got their camera back. Dawn said it was probably because she'd sat in the oracle's chair; the camera had ended up being a "sacrifice". Which was too bad, because they'd had some great pictures on it.
We told them we'd been to see Millie, that it was really good. They'd gone to Flower Drum Song that day, and they really loved it; said they were weeping by the end of it, and that we should get to see it if we had the chance. (Maribel had been looking into other shows we could see, so that one was immediately put at the top of the list.) The restaurant we were in was directly next to The Producers, which is like the Grateful Dead of shows right now-- impossible to get tickets to, one everyone wants to see, a huge box-office breaker for months and months. Even though Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick aren't headlining it anymore, still everyone wants in. Some shows you can get tickets the same day, but a show like that you need to reserve weeks in advance. However, the snow was tilting the odds in our favor a little, so we thought we might have a better shot than usual at seeing one of the bigger shows.
The reason Dawn had originally not been going to be at dinner was because she'd had a commercial, and a guest spot on the NBC sitcom Ed. We got to talking about films she'd been in, and I said how Dance With Me had been kind of disappointing, since I had heard she and Harry had a dancing scene together in that movie, only to rent it and find that she wasn't in it at all-- just a barely-there flash in the end credits all by herself. She told us that there *had* been a scene filmed with her and Harry dancing, but that the director of the film later fired the cinematographer who'd filmed it, and refused to use anything he'd shot-- which included every scene Dawn had been in. Which means even if they ever re-release DWM on DVD sometime in the future, they still won't ever use that footage, since the director and the cinematographer still hate each other. I thought that was hugely unfair, much like the way Dawn was going to play Harry's wife in About Schmidt, until the producers decided Connie Ray was "more to their vision" of how Harry's character's wife should be. Dawn seemed to be okay with it-- she would have loved the work of course, but she assured us that's just how the business works most of the time. All I can say is she's got much, much more patience than I would have, in that situation! :)
Harry and Dawn have been together for over twenty years, and they are clearly still thoroughly, madly in love with each other. Of course I spent most all the evening gazing moonily at Harry, and when he wasn't talking, and when Dawn was, he spent most of the time gazing moonily at her-- chin in hand, listening to her talk, breaking into his sweet goblin grin every once in a while. :) Dawn is a very sweet person; she has a certain Debbie Reynolds/Piper Laurie thing happening. I told her I plan to get a page together for her on site, detailing the career she's had. She's done more theatre than TV or movies, but she still has a huge repitoire that seems to be ignored by the public most of the time.
Maribel had gotten playbills from Imaginary Friends, and had given me the ticket she'd bought for me. I had Harry sign them. (We tried really hard not to act like dorky fans, but still....) She gave him the CFY keychain, which it turned out he didn't have -- so success on the gift portion of the evening! She also showed him one of the fliers that I had made for her Wings tribute concert Bands On The Run last September. I couldn't believe it, that was very cool of her!! Harry and Dawn kindly posed for a couple photos with us (I had two-- but my stupid Walmart shredded one of them. :P) We were glad to get photos of Dawn this time-- we'd gotten a few of her in Indiana, but out of three photogs not one of us was able to take a nice normal picture of this poor woman that day-- all our Indy pics of her were in blink/duck/not good poses. Finally we got a good pic of her!.... probably because neither of us was taking it. :) The photo was snapped by Angus, the restaurant owner, who was a good friend of Harry and Dawn's. At this moment the background music, which had been playing all the while, broke into a song which I had taped on my tapes at home, which was very pretty and sad, and which I couldn't remember the name or band of to save my life. (It was In My Place by Coldplay. After I got home I heard it playing overhead at a Sam Goody's, and after asking the clerk who the heck that was, I grabbed the CD-- it's a sign!!)
It was time to say goodbye. Harry is NOT one of those celebs who just kind of gives you a fake squeeze and pulls back real quick. He really hugs, and he let me hang on to him for a while each time. Last one was the best one, he even kissed my hair. :)
We all got bundled into our coats again. Both Harry and Dawn had matching snow caps, open at both ends; the tops could be either drawn closed with a drawstring or left open so the cap could be used as a neckwarmer. Dawn said they'd gotten them as freebies during a fundraiser for Broadway Cares. Target had provided them, there was a tiny target on the mouth of each one.... which ended up in the middle of the forehead when you wore the cap. We had a laugh at the fact that your forehead is never the best place to put a target..... especially in New York!
By now it was one in the morning... we'd made the restaurant stay open late! We all bid goodbye to Angus, and stepped out into the snowy street. We crossed the street, waved goodbye to each other for the last time... and turned the corner to our hotel. Then we gals went back up to Maribel's room and spent an hour or so gushing over how freaking cool the evening had been!!
More to come.....
More photos
Maribel with 'Harry' outside the Barrymore theatre
Mel and 'Harry'
Look at the way the poster's text is positioned by our heads..... now that's not very nice. :)
This is a piece of modern art that used to stand in one of the Twin Towers. After 9/11, it was found damaged and dented, but still in one piece. They placed it in Battery Park, as a symbol of the city's survival.
Cats!..... no, not that Cats. A little vet/shop on the bus tour we took. You can't see him but there was a cat who looked a lot like my Sneakers sitting in a cage in between those two neon kitties.
The Imaginary Friends playbill that Harry signed for me :)
I checked into the Milford. The guy who waited on me at the desk sounded like he had a British accent. He really did. Then he looked at my address and said "Where in Michigan are you from? I'm from Mount Pleasant." ??? I told him where Onaway was, and then asked if Maribel had checked in yet. He said yes, and let me call her room. Still no answer, but I left a voice mail for her. I went to my room, (444) got settled in. Looked out the window (snow was starting)-- and was shocked to find that the restaurant that Harry had told us to meet him at, Angus McIndoe, was right down there across the street from me! I was looking right at it from my window!! What are the odds? I settled in, changed clothes, and waited for Maribel's call. Napped a little.
At about 7, M called. Said she'd knocked on the door twice, but I must have been napping REALLY hard, because I hadn't heard her once! We went to her room, and hugged hello. Said hi to her mom, who'd come along for the ride. It turned out that Maribel had her phone off because she and her mom, having gotten there in the morning, decided to go to Harry's show! So they got to see it, at least. She told me later that they'd gone backstage and said hi to Harry, and he was real glad to see them, and wondered where I was, at which they'd told him my plane got in later. If I'd had a morning flight, I might've made it too, but oh well. He told them that Dawn wasn't going to be able to make it to our dinner on Monday after all, since she had a commercial to film, and had also snagged a part on the NBC sitcom Ed! So she wouldn't be able to make it. We felt bad about that, because we hadn't been able to talk with her much last time.
During this time, the later-christened Blizzard of '03 was coming down on New York, Boston, the whole three states around us. Really funny, because I'd left sunny skies in Michigan-- sun that was coming after blizzardy sub-zero weather of our own. (It was *following* me, man....) The truth is, I honestly didn't think the snow was that bad. I've seen a lot worse. But every news station I turned on, everybody we talked to kept saying this was the worst weather they'd seen since another bad storm back in 1996. Snow was burying cars that people had been dumb enough to park on Times Square, and puddles of icy slush swallowed our feet whole as we crossed streets. Me with my unsure footing had to be Very. Careful. And. Very. Vigilant. as I slowly planted one foot in front of the other trying to carve through the snow piled around every street. The road crews and street shovelers, who are there for that exact purpose, were trying really hard to keep it clean, salting and shoveling. But it was just too much for even them. There's more at stake for New Yorkers in a blizzard than for rednecks like us when it dumps snow, because New York is where everybody works important jobs. Financing the world, entertaining the world, providing credit service and internet service and a million other things-- so no matter what, they *have* to keep going. There was something really inspiring about being in the middle of that, after years of living in a place where stuff might get done, might not, doesn't really matter either way.
2/17-- woke at 8, downstairs to Celebrity Deli for breakfast at 10. Grilled cheese for me. (Wasn't really the breakfast time of day, so we could choose from their ordinary menu.) Went out to Times Square to shop around a little. I was busy taking photos of everything like a dorky tourist-- a pigeon was the star of one photo, a real New York taxi cab filled another, and of course the requisite photos of really tall buildings!! Really bright neon signs with moving flashy things!! There is something a little disconcerting about the moment you realize that you are IN Times Square-- *that* Times Square, the one they show on TV every New Year's, in New York City, the *real* New York City-- and that all around you are literally thousands of people who are completely indifferent to the fact that they are on Times Square in New York City. Kind of the way some of us Michiganders treat the tourists here-- "fudgies", we call them. Those out-of-staters who go ooh and ahh at the Mackinac Bridge and the fudge and the lakes, and meanwhile we're going "It's water! Get over it!!"
On Times Square, every third step brings you to the door of a new store. We covered most of the little (and larger) shops on our street. Of course, I grabbed the ubiquitous tourist I <3 New York tee. A bear for Alan, a coffee cup for my mom, but they're special, see, cause they've got New York on them and we bought them on Times Square! :) Outside one shop, the Indian storekeeper sitting outside encouraged us to take a picture wearing the geeky plastic 2003 glasses he was selling. Which we did, and then of course we felt kinda obligated to go in and buy something (the ruse works). But it turned out great because that's where M found a golden ticket-shaped keychain for Harry's old blockbuster show, Crazy For You. That was unique to find because it's an "older" play. They had keychains for lots of different plays, Cats and Phantom of course, but that was nice to find. She decided to give it to Harry later if he didn't have one, and keep it for herself if he did. We were both pretty sure the company had long since loaded him up with every CFY souvenier ever manufactured, but she figured she'd try giving it to him anyway.
We mushed through the drifts and slush to the Barrymore theatre, where Imaginary Friends had been playing the past two months and had closed the day before. Of course we got photos of us in front, just to prove we'd made it there-- against all odds, in spite of all foes; we were THERE, at least!! We passed a lady skiing down the street on skis; she was later featured on a lot of news shows and on Conan, my mom says. At that point it was a couple hours to showtime, and we were getting tired from all the hiking over snow. So we went back to the hotel and neatened up. I napped a little.
At 8 it was time for Thoroughly Modern Millie. It was a really cute show. Even though we were watching the understudy in the lead role-- the star actually used to be the understudy herself, so we were in fact watching the understudy's understudy-- but it was a good show, lots of fun. M said it was pretty close to the movie, and the feel of it was a lot like CFY, same time frame, same "up" vibe. There was a subplot about Chinese launderers who were running an underground slave trade, and every time the two Chinese guys had to speak (very fake Chinese), a screen would come down and their dialogue was "translated" into English for us the audience. It was all done very tongue-in-cheek, and they used it for a lot of funny gags. It lent a real nice Godzilla vibe to the whole thing for me. :) At ten, show was over... and it was time to go to dinner with Harry.
We went out to the theatre lobby, where they had a huge, tall pillar which lighted elevators were zipping up and down, really pretty. We walked back to our hotel and down the street, around the side of the building to where the Angus McIndoe restaurant was. When we arrived, Harry and Dawn were standing out front, all bundled up, waiting for us; they'd just gotten there. Dawn had shown up too! Due to the whacked schedule the weather was dealing everyone, somehow she got to come after all; she still had the commercial but it was rescheduled or something. Harry gave me a *huge* hug, asked how I was doing, how my feet were. We went in the restaurant and I gave Dawn a hug, she asked how I was doing too. They both seemed very glad to see us!
We checked our coats-- actual coat check!-- and the waiter seated us at the five-person table over by the window. Gave us menus (a lot more expensive than McD's. That's another thing-- Harry and Dawn were picking up the check, I mean, who does that??) I had no idea what to get. Dawn helped me out-- "I think you'd like the chicken, or the red wine"-- which was very sweet of her. I had a chicken sandwich which came with lots of onions, french fries (also not like McDs, they cut up the whole potato and you have big slices of potato when you eat at restaurants). Maribel had Penne, with sausage, and I think her mom had eggs. Harry had salad with red wine, Dawn had mussle clams.
We talked about the blizzard first thing. Harry said they were digging it, they'd gone out the previous night and walked/played in the snow, had some champagne. We talked about being in New York for the first time, and how it was different from the rest of the world. Harry talked about how Times Square used to be more dangerous before the "disneyfication" of it (general New Yorker's term), how there used to be many more bums, hookers, strip shows, as opposed to now, where it was a lot safer. But that a lot of locals preferred it the way it used to be-- not so much the danger, but rather the "hardcore"ness of it, all the strange and unusual people you used to come across there. He talked about one street guy in particular who used to sound exactly as if he were a deposed diplomat, ranting about politics, but not in the messed way most "laymen" would rant; this guy seemed to know what he was talking about, which made Harry wonder whether he really did used to be some foriegn dignitary who'd eventually gone nuts.
He talked about different places they'd visited, Puerto Rico and Turkey and others. He remembered a fruit somewhere that was like a kiwi, with fur, and when you bit in it was like an eyeball inside! He joked about really enjoying that eyeball. (I later found out the magenta-colored fruit is called rambutan-- thanks Patti!) They'd been to Delphi in Greece, and Dawn talked about how she'd sat in the seat of the oracle of Delphi, even though it's supposed to be very bad luck to do that. They'd ended up losing their camera and some of Dawn's underwear. The tour bus they were with even turned around and went back, with the whole bus, to help find their camera, because the locals were very concerned about not looking bad in front of tourists. But they never got their camera back. Dawn said it was probably because she'd sat in the oracle's chair; the camera had ended up being a "sacrifice". Which was too bad, because they'd had some great pictures on it.
We told them we'd been to see Millie, that it was really good. They'd gone to Flower Drum Song that day, and they really loved it; said they were weeping by the end of it, and that we should get to see it if we had the chance. (Maribel had been looking into other shows we could see, so that one was immediately put at the top of the list.) The restaurant we were in was directly next to The Producers, which is like the Grateful Dead of shows right now-- impossible to get tickets to, one everyone wants to see, a huge box-office breaker for months and months. Even though Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick aren't headlining it anymore, still everyone wants in. Some shows you can get tickets the same day, but a show like that you need to reserve weeks in advance. However, the snow was tilting the odds in our favor a little, so we thought we might have a better shot than usual at seeing one of the bigger shows.
The reason Dawn had originally not been going to be at dinner was because she'd had a commercial, and a guest spot on the NBC sitcom Ed. We got to talking about films she'd been in, and I said how Dance With Me had been kind of disappointing, since I had heard she and Harry had a dancing scene together in that movie, only to rent it and find that she wasn't in it at all-- just a barely-there flash in the end credits all by herself. She told us that there *had* been a scene filmed with her and Harry dancing, but that the director of the film later fired the cinematographer who'd filmed it, and refused to use anything he'd shot-- which included every scene Dawn had been in. Which means even if they ever re-release DWM on DVD sometime in the future, they still won't ever use that footage, since the director and the cinematographer still hate each other. I thought that was hugely unfair, much like the way Dawn was going to play Harry's wife in About Schmidt, until the producers decided Connie Ray was "more to their vision" of how Harry's character's wife should be. Dawn seemed to be okay with it-- she would have loved the work of course, but she assured us that's just how the business works most of the time. All I can say is she's got much, much more patience than I would have, in that situation! :)
Harry and Dawn have been together for over twenty years, and they are clearly still thoroughly, madly in love with each other. Of course I spent most all the evening gazing moonily at Harry, and when he wasn't talking, and when Dawn was, he spent most of the time gazing moonily at her-- chin in hand, listening to her talk, breaking into his sweet goblin grin every once in a while. :) Dawn is a very sweet person; she has a certain Debbie Reynolds/Piper Laurie thing happening. I told her I plan to get a page together for her on site, detailing the career she's had. She's done more theatre than TV or movies, but she still has a huge repitoire that seems to be ignored by the public most of the time.
Maribel had gotten playbills from Imaginary Friends, and had given me the ticket she'd bought for me. I had Harry sign them. (We tried really hard not to act like dorky fans, but still....) She gave him the CFY keychain, which it turned out he didn't have -- so success on the gift portion of the evening! She also showed him one of the fliers that I had made for her Wings tribute concert Bands On The Run last September. I couldn't believe it, that was very cool of her!! Harry and Dawn kindly posed for a couple photos with us (I had two-- but my stupid Walmart shredded one of them. :P) We were glad to get photos of Dawn this time-- we'd gotten a few of her in Indiana, but out of three photogs not one of us was able to take a nice normal picture of this poor woman that day-- all our Indy pics of her were in blink/duck/not good poses. Finally we got a good pic of her!.... probably because neither of us was taking it. :) The photo was snapped by Angus, the restaurant owner, who was a good friend of Harry and Dawn's. At this moment the background music, which had been playing all the while, broke into a song which I had taped on my tapes at home, which was very pretty and sad, and which I couldn't remember the name or band of to save my life. (It was In My Place by Coldplay. After I got home I heard it playing overhead at a Sam Goody's, and after asking the clerk who the heck that was, I grabbed the CD-- it's a sign!!)
It was time to say goodbye. Harry is NOT one of those celebs who just kind of gives you a fake squeeze and pulls back real quick. He really hugs, and he let me hang on to him for a while each time. Last one was the best one, he even kissed my hair. :)
We all got bundled into our coats again. Both Harry and Dawn had matching snow caps, open at both ends; the tops could be either drawn closed with a drawstring or left open so the cap could be used as a neckwarmer. Dawn said they'd gotten them as freebies during a fundraiser for Broadway Cares. Target had provided them, there was a tiny target on the mouth of each one.... which ended up in the middle of the forehead when you wore the cap. We had a laugh at the fact that your forehead is never the best place to put a target..... especially in New York!
By now it was one in the morning... we'd made the restaurant stay open late! We all bid goodbye to Angus, and stepped out into the snowy street. We crossed the street, waved goodbye to each other for the last time... and turned the corner to our hotel. Then we gals went back up to Maribel's room and spent an hour or so gushing over how freaking cool the evening had been!!
More to come.....
