Around Town: Daniel Radcliffe, Michael Urie, and More Honor Casting Agents
September has been a hectic month for the Ronson clan, with Charlotte’s runway show on the 10th and brother Mark’s wedding to Josephine de la Baume on the 3rd.
At a party for Marc Rosen’s book Glamour Icons: Perfume Bottle Design on the 27th, mother of the groom Ann Dexter-Jones dished about the nuptials.
She described the wedding, in Aix-en-Provence, as a fairy tale, with great food and music. “To play at the wedding, Mark flew in from America the Pointer Sisters and The Meters,” she said.
The two groups played throughout the entire night for dancing; it was only at 5 a.m. that a DJ finally took over.
Among the guests was Kate Moss. “She was wearing some fabulous yellow flowery chiffon dress,” Dexter-Jones said. “She looked amazing, and so happy, and her husband [Jamie Hince] is fabulous.”
Other notable attendees included Boy George who wore a powder blue top hat and tails, and Rufus Wainwright, who, the night before the wedding donned a Moroccan djellaba that he was a bit unsure about. “He said to me, ‘Do you think I should put on something more conservative?’ I said, ‘No, you look perfect,’” Dexter-Jones said, laughing. “And he did.”
On the the 26th, a slew of actors came out to support the people who give them jobs—casting agents—at the Casting Society of America’s Artios Awards for outstanding achievement in casting. What? You’ve never heard of these awards? Well, Daniel Radcliffe, Whoopi Goldberg, Brooke Shields, Justin Bartha and Alan Cumming were just a few of those who came to grovel at the feet of the casting directors.
Rachel Griffiths is just starting rehearsals for her Broadway debut in the play Other Desert Cities. “I am über-pumped,” Griffiths said. “My quest is to not screw it up. That’s pretty much what I say to myself when I wake up—don’t screw it up. Don’t make people wish they were seeing the other actor in the role,” the Brothers & Sisters star added.
Mike Nichols, who has cast just about every A-list actor in his movies and plays, was philosophical about having to tell people they didn’t get the part. “Well, every good actor knows that it’s not just about how good they are, but it’s about who is right for the part,” he said. “They’re cool. And there’s another job down the block.”
Michael Urie (the hilarious Marc St. James on Ugly Betty) hosted the ceremony and kept the crowd roaring with his jokes, including this pitch for a role on Law & Order: “Law & Order has had all kinds of different detectives, like the cranky cop; they’ve had lady cops; they’ve had hot cops, black cops; they’ve had, like, streetwise cops. They’ve never had a gay cop,” he said from the podium. “So my pitch: Straight in from the dangerous streets of Provincetown, a tough-as-nails flatfoot with a heart of gold and a tailored trench, New York’s latest crime-solving badass, it’s Lieutenant Jessie Tyler Patrick Harris, homosexual detective!”
We’d watch that!