Dirt for Pointer

This is dedicated to Pointer, who mentioned she was trying to get more info on Steve Martin in an earlier post:

I do some work for a former professor who is a moderately-to-large sized deal in the poetry world. She constantly name drops, which would be really annoying if I didn't want to know, but I do. I get the occasional "Oh yeah, I have to go have dinner with Mel Brooks tonight" and "I went to Leonard Nemoy's for a house party. Did you know he's an artist??" She somehow manages to be entirely elegant about it.

Of all these connections she has maintained through the years, she is has remained especially close to John Lithgow -- this is why I felt obligated to discuss something with her. I had watched "LA Story," a decently funny movie by Steve Martin, with a few friends. In the deleted scenes there was an incredible snippet with John Lithgow; he plays a fast-paced big shot named Harry Zell who rides a jet pack (which he checks at valet). He tells Steve Martin not to run if he's late for something, but rather to skip (a slo-mo clip of him in a business suit and briefcase skipping with an entourage is shown). He receives an international phone call and in the conversation he quickly and loudly orders 42 foot soldiers in French, then seamlessly slips into Italian. He was, by far, the funniest thing in the entire movie, but he was entirely left out.

I discuss this with my poetry lady -- how incredibly funny her friend was, and how I didn't understand why he didn't make the cut, and she tells me a related story. She is also a friend of Steve Martin's, so both John and Steve were at a party of her own a few years back. She tries to introduce them with an "Oh, John do you know Steve?" Lithgow boldly says outright that yes, they know each other, and Stevie had completely cut him from his movie. Steve mumbles something and walks away. Obviously, an awkward moment and they avoid each other the rest of the evening.

So voila! A small peek into the upper tiers of celeb society...or something.