Steve jokes a bit about Michael Jackson


http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2009/06/28/2009-06-28_much_ado_about_michael_jackson_at_the_park.html

Rush & Molloy
Much ado about Michael Jackson at the park
Sunday, June 28th 2009, 10:20 PM


Even Shakespeare was upstaged by Michael Jackson at the Public Theater’s opening-night performance of “Twelfth Night.”

Nora Ephron, Liev Schreiber, Chelsea Clinton, Jane Krakowski and Amanda Peet had come to Central Park’s Delacorte Theater to see Anne Hathaway do her cross-dressing turn as Viola. But all conversation turned to the King of Pop when ABC News’ Diane Sawyer arrived with fresh news of Jacko’s passing.

“I was a writer on ‘The Smothers Brothers Show’ when he sang ‘Ben,’ ” Steve Martin recalled. “He sang so beautifully. I remember saying, ‘Who is this guy?’ ”

Still, Martin couldn’t resist whispering to tittering tablemates that Jackson’s death was untimely because “he had just one more round of plastic surgery to go!”

Martin Short told us solemnly that Jackson was a “huge talent.”

“That’s not what you said to me!” interjected Martin.

“Well, it’s what I thought!” snapped Short.

Director Mike Nichols recalled once trooping to Jackson’s Helmsley Palace suite with studio head David Geffen and “SNL” producer Lorne Michaels.

“We had an idea for him,” said Nichols, who was honored by the Public along with entertainment exec Susan Lyne. “David suggested I tell Michael the idea, but I couldn’t remember. So I asked Lorne and he couldn’t remember it. Michael said to us, ‘Am I on ‘Candid Camera’?”
- posted by sookeyjane 7/01/2009 05:49:00 PM PERMALINK 0 COMMENTS