(NEW YORK) Escaping reality at the MoMA by way of a highly imaginative work doesn’t have to involve fine art, per se: Just ask the fashionettes that packed, quite literally, into last night’s Cinema Society and Brooks Brothers screening of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. The joyous, lushly-shot, often cheeky flick starring, directed by, and produced by Ben Stiller brought out co-stars Kristen Wiig, Joey Slotnick, Paul Fitzgerald, and Adrian Martinez, along with the likes of Pat Cleveland, Jeff Koons, Kelly Bensimon, Candy Pratts Price, mod Julie Henderson, The Good Wife‘s Jess Weixler, and Stiller’s wife Christine Taylor.
“I want to thank Brooks Brothers for sponsoring this; I’m wearing Calvin Klein,” said Stiller, to the amusement and giggles of the crowd. “It’s just because I don’t have a Brooks Brothers suit!” Stiller said in explanation. As for the crowd, Stiller summed it up as friends and family plus “very stylish, hipster-type people, too.” He gave props to his castmates in the audience from the “not really a straight-ahead ‘studio movie'” and, yes, cajoled them into standing up for some applause. “My favorite thing is to be called out and told to stand up before watching a movie,” Stiller joked.
After the movie is the after party, of course, which went down a dozen-ish blocks downtown at rooftop boîte The Skylark. The libations bore thematic names, as any Cinema Society shindig ought to. This time around, the Qui Tequila creations were dubbed the Walter Mitty (obviously) and the Icelandic Elixir. The crowd wound through the multilevel space, drinking up splendid views along with those cocktails, as June Ambrose, resplendent in a fully fur-trimmed getup, hammed it up for the photogs on the lounge’s couches with Caroline Rhea. Adorable alert!
ALEXANDRA ILYASHOV
