Speaking of screenings ... Academy award winning actress Holly Hunter hosted a Grand Classics screening of The King of Marvin Gardens sponsored by Karu&Y restaurant at Soho House. Hunter showcased the 1972 criminal drama directed by Bob Rafelson, starring Jack Nicholson andcostarring and Ellen Burstyn.

Burstyn made a special appearance at the screening said “I think it is the most extraordinary work Jack Nicholson has ever done. What he later was so applauded for in About Schmidt, I think he had done earlier and better and deeper in this film.” Holly Hunter went on to tell the audience, “This movie I chose to show, I have never seen on screen before tonight. I rented it about eight years ago when I threw myself my own Bob Rafelson film festival at my house. I just saw all of his movies and this one struck me as particularly wonderful.”

The Nicholson-Rafelson collaboration began in the mid-60s and the movie audiences loved these guys. In their way they fashioned the American film sensibility for an entire generation. The audience loves Jack Nicholson the way earlier generations loved Cooper and Gable, Grant and Stewart. He’s everyman, or Everyman’s version of what he’d hope he’d be. Bob Rafelson was the creator next to the camera when it first unfolded.

Guests included actresses Paz de la Huerta and Kelly Rutherford, Queer Eye’s Thom Filicia, designer Alvin Valley, Behnaz Sarafpour and Secrets of Charm designer Estee Elkayam along with socials Annie Churchill, Luigi Tadini, Zani Gugelmann, Allison Weiss Brady, Gillian and Sylvester Miniter and Alison Minton, enjoyed a special cocktail reception in the White Room courtesy of Grey Goose. Grand Classics cofounders Katrina Pavlos and Vanessa Wingate, both dressed in Alvin Valley designs, mingled with other guests including Carlo von Zeitschel, Emma Snowdon-Jones, Mark Langrish and Bobby Zarem. All of the VIP guests on hand walked away with Karu&Y totes complete with foie gras truffles courtesy of Chef Alberto Cabrera and a Karu&Y CD to help bring the sounds of Miami to the Big Apple.

Grand Classics is a big hit in Miami. First Canyon Ranch Living – Miami Beach sponsored a screening held in May hosted by designer Zac Posen and now the highly anticipated Miami restaurant Karu&Y is on board with the film series. At the screening, Karu&Y owners Cesar Sotomayor and Elliott Monter chose Holly Hunter to be the first recipient of a diamond and pink sapphire necklace in recognition of hosting the screening.

Thirty years ago, filmmakers Albert and David Maysles trained their cameras on the lives of Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edie and produced the classic documentary Grey Gardens, titled after their house in East Hampton. The Beales came to national attention because they were paternal cousins of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis.

Two weeks ago, Albert Maysles was the guest of honor at a private pre-screening reception and dinner hosted by noted animal welfare supporter Frances Hayward at the fabled estate. The reception preceded the sold-out screening of the film at Guild Hall as the inaugural film in its Red Carpet Film Series at the John Drew Theater which features movies by and with celebrated Hamptonites.

Grey Gardens in the Early Years

Thirty years later Grey Gardens, now a cult classic, has re-entered the public eye with the smash musical which moves to Broadway this fall, produced by Playwrights Horizon starring Christine Ebersole and Mary Louise Wilson. Also Michael Sucsy is directing the film version starring Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore and a new book will be published by Aperture later this year.

To celebrate the film’s 30th Anniversary and Albert’s 50 years as a filmmaker, noted animal Francesopened the magnificently restored home for a pre-screening buffet dinner created by Leif Hope and then reception prior to the screening, kicking off Guild Hall’s impressive Red Carpet Film Series featuring movies made by and with our neighbors in celebration of their 75th Anniversary.

The house, which was dilapidated and rundown by the time of the Beales’ deaths, was rescued and returned to its full glory by Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn who continue to own the house and who use it once a year in August.

The attending crowd was a lively mix of theatrical and social figures. Both Mother and Daughter Beale, Big Edie and Little Edie, had aspirations to perform, and would have been thrilled at all the directors, producers, actors and writers strolling through their beach-elegant appointed rooms and lush gardens.

Hayward always looking Hollywood glamorous, this time in a burnt-orange chiffon tea dress, greeted arriving guests. Among the first were Bouvier Beale and wife Eva who had flown in from San Francisco especially for the fete and Len and Sue Sucsy, whose son Mike is directing the film. Len immediately reunited with fellow Harvard classmate Melville (Mickey) Straus, Chairman of Guild Hall.

Also on hand from the arts center were Ruth Appelhof, executive director, Josh Gladstone, artistic director with his wife Kathy Mueth and James Lawson, the whiz behind the Red carpet Film Series, which showcases stars such as Alec Baldwin, Roy Scheider, Tony Walton, Mercedes Ruehl and Peter Boyle. Famed artist Don Duga presented Ms. Hayward with a saucy watercolor of Little Edie coyly lifting her skirt in front of the house!

Director Harris Yulin arrived straight from rehearsals with his wife actress/director Kristen Lowman accompanied by two great ladies of the American stage, multi Tony Award winners Judith Ivey and the incomparable Elizabeth Wilson. Director of the film version, Michael Sucsy came with parents Sue & Len and sister, Laurel. Scott Frankel who conceived the idea to transform Maysles’ film into a musical arrived solo but wasn’t so for long as guests crowded to congratulate the young composer.

Also on hand: Kathy Rayner, Liz Fondaras, James and Ellen Marcus, producers Beverley Camhe, Patricia Watt and Rachel Horovitz, Steven Stolman, Brian Farrell, Robert Long, Judge Bernard Jackson and wife Joyce, Andrew Wargo, R. Couri Hay, Hamptons.com founder & CEO Robert Florio with Nicole B. Brewer and Vanessa Leggard, publisher Dan Rattiner with son David Lion Rattiner, Amy Kane, designer Penny Lieberman, Jenny Mayer, Dr. Julie Ratner, Arlene Epstein, Patrick McMullan, and George Whipple.

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