WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Oct. 2, 2001– In Hollywood, you just never know where the night might take you, or which famous faces you might encounter along the way–especially during a full moon.
Case in point: One recent moonlit night, while driving through oh-so-hip West Hollywood, a quick cell phone call to a friend resulted in an invitation to join her and a gal pal for a night on the town. With another quick phone call her sidekick had us on the list at the Latin Lounge, a very happening night spot next door to the famed Troubadour.
We were hungry and had some time to kill, so we stopped into neighboring Dan Tana’s, the legendary Italian restaurant and bar that’s been so popular with the Hollywood crowd over the last three decades, the producers of the ’70s TV show Vega$ even borrowed the owner’s name for Robert Urich‘s private eye character.
Known for its boisterous bar scene and some of the best (if also priciest) menus in L.A.,Tana’s is one of those places where anything–and anyone–can happen. For example, after the recent America: A Salute to Heroes telethon, an all-star contingent of diners including Ben Stiller, Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, David Spade, Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu, James Woods and Benicio del Toro descended upon the restaurant to watch the tape-delayed West Coast broadcast together.
This night was already starting out promising, as a very svelte Minnie Driver was, appropriately, sliding out of the driver’s seat of her SUV solo (just two days later she would go public with her split from Barbra Streisand‘s stepson Josh Brolin) as we pulled up to the valet station. Inside, a heavy Industry crowd enjoyed a slightly late meal, the most prominent of whom was Judging Amy‘s Tyne Daly, supping with her boyfriend, actor Clarence Williams III (The General’s Daughter).
As I dug into my shrimp scampi, one of my friends complemented Daly on her recent standout work as Maxine Gray (Daly is up for a Supporting Actress Emmy on Oct. 7), prompting the actress to joke back, “Then why aren’t you home watching it?” She had a
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point–the show was just about to air–but was forgiving, because, as she explained, she didn’t appear on that particular episode anyway.
We wrapped up and moved next door to the Latin Lounge, where to my surprise the night’s musical headliner was actor Dennis Quaid, who took center stage in jeans, T-shirt and bare feet–much to the delight of a gaggle of young and uniformly busty young thangs who surrounded the intimate stage, bouncing, bumping, grinding and otherwise hoping to catch the actor’s eye.
But Quaid was all business, focusing on his signature set of rock-solid bar band tunes, including stripped-down and fired-up versions of classics like the Rolling Stones‘ “All Over Now,” Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs’ “Woolly Bully” and a blow-the-lid-off-the-dump rendition of Van Morrison‘s “Gloria.” Unlike a certain other movie star trying to launch a second career as a rocker (someone with whom Quaid has more in common than just guitar licks), Quaid’s music has guts and gusto, and blew the packed house away–especially his knockout version of “Great Balls of Fire,” a sly allusion to the fact he played Jerry Lee Lewis in the film of the name back in 1989.
Even better, Quaid–who has played guitar since he was a teenager–has no pretensions about creating a chart-topping hit. When I ran into him out one night a few weeks ago, he told me that it was all just a fun sideline and the minute it becomes more about the business side of the music biz it would all be over for him, so don’t look for a Dennis Quaid CD in stores anytime soon.
Quaid also brought another fellow thespian-turned-troubadour up on stage for a few numbers. Veteran character actor Harry Dean Stanton (The Green Mile), who has played almost weekly in L.A. with his bluesy band over the last several years, took the mic for
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two songs before Quaid called it a night, leaving many a female audience member panting for more. He ended with a sincere “God bless America’–only hours earlier, Quaid was at the same benefit honoring former presidentBill Clinton that I and half of Hollywood had stopped in to check out.
My friends and I then scurried back over to Dan Tana’s, where we tipped a few back with Harry Dean, who is much more sweet and amiable than his usually intense screen characters. Then we were summoned to join Jay Bernstein, the legendary manager who launched the sky-high careers of a staggering array of famous blondes including Farrah Fawcett, Suzanne Somers and Mary Hart. He is truly the “star-maker”–his belt buckle even says so!
Jay, a classic Hollywood raconteur, reminisced fondly about his idol, actor Alan Ladd (who inspired Bernstein to come to Hollywood) and introduced us to his latest discovery, a stunning young 20-ish lady named Melissa who was, yes, blonde.
The revelry continued into the wee hours, as it usually does at Tana’s on any given day of the week, and the Industry carousing and chatter never ceased. In fact, the only thing that outshone the stars that night was the luminous light of the full moon that loomed high above Hollywood.
