The premiere party for the big, important movie ”The Color of Money”
took place at Manhattan`s Palladium nightclub a little while back. As luck would have it, the Palladium is next door to an actual pool hall, Julian`s. This was a big, important party. It was worth any effort.
The socialites who chaired the benefit were willing to stop at nothing in the interests of atmosphere. So a piece of wall between Julian`s Billiards and the Palladium was removed. To enhance authenticity, the party planners inserted actors dressed like pool players into Julian`s, along with the regulars. This enabled guests to enter the party through an actual pool parlor. It was too-too perfect.
The Palladium people were pleased with the pool hall. ”It just worked out extremely well,” said the Palladium public relations person. ”It was a great event. The hole was filled up the following day.”
The hostesses gloated about the pool hall. ”Most people think they built it for the party,” Claudia Perelman said of the pool hall. Perelman`s husband, Ronald, the head of Revlon, chaired the event.
TALK ABOUT STYLE
The guests glowed. ”Let`s talk about style,” Calvin Klein said to the fashion paper W. ”We`re talking about a poolroom that already existed and breaking through a wall to get to it. And just look at all these balloons”–6 feet across, resembling billiard balls. ”If this isn`t style, I don`t know what is.”
This was style, all right, and this bunch knew it. Guests at the Palladium included ”Money” stars Paul Newman and Tom Cruise, each of whom has created a certain style for his generation.
Style isn`t style unless it`s deliberate; style is never an accident. Style is never anxious, either. Style looks effortless, but implies that effort has been taken. Sometimes it`s hard to tell.
Paul Newman`s acting style–minimal, increasingly mush-mouthed–looks effortless, which is why you know he`s working like crazy. In life, Newman wears cheap sweaters, races cars, cooks for charity and lives in Connecticut. Like the acting, this stuff looks unrehearsed. Maybe it isn`t.
Cruise, on the other hand, tries very hard–”100 percent,” his directors are always saying about him. Because Cruise is 24 years old, he is forgiven for working hard and saying ”sir” and ”ma`am”. He is too young to have developed a lifestyle, but, because he will probably get $2 million for his next movie, he is considered, in spite of himself, to be a person with style.
Calvin Klein talks about style all the time. This would be anathema for most style-seekers, but Klein is a fashion designer, a style-setter. He can get away with making an effort; it`s his business.
So we are left with the pool players next door. Were they as stylish as the actors who played them? ”Money” has turned into a hit movie, which means that at this moment, thousands of teenage boys are likely practicing Tom Cruise`s moves with the pool cue in front of their bedroom mirrors. Cruise learned those moves by practicing at Julian`s Billiards; you would expect the pool players to be awash in glory.
Hard to tell. W reported that toward the end of the evening, the hole in the wall linking the Palladium to the pool hall was blocked–to keep the partygoers from bothering the pool players. A guard stood watch, ”as the regulars leaned protectively against their pool tables and peered in at the partygoers.”
Did the pool players peer in with envy, or with disdain? The Palladium public relations person said she had heard of no tension. ”Oh, the evening was so star-studded,” she said. ”I think they were thrilled to see Paul Newman and Tom Cruise, Diandra and Michael Douglas, Danny DeVito. . . .” We phoned Julian`s. When we asked our questions, a guy named Charlie hung up on us–twice. Some people just have no appreciation of style. —
