Reynolds is ‘Free’ to shine
Ryan Reynolds is the guy who plays “Guy” in the new film “Free Guy.”
Ryan: “I play a bank teller who realizes he’s in a video game. It’s background people stepping into the light. Original idea. No comic book movie. As a kid, I saw ‘Back to the Future,’ which immersed you into a world and blew your mind. This also takes you somewhere and you walk out grinning. Audiences now need to enjoy something.”
OK, fine. Tell some guy the guy in “Free Guy” sent you.
Vintage & crocs
Julia Roberts’ niece, Emma, loves vintage designer shmatta bargains. In Southampton’s History Museum Flea Market, she bought a Halston gown and green Dior brocade jacket . . . I’M asked to remember the kiddie book “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” about a lovable crocodile who lives with folks on NYC’s Upper East Side. No, I don’t remember and never read the thing. Anyway, he/she/it or transcroc is becoming a film with Javier Bardem. Listen, birds do it, bees do it, crocs do it.
Odds and ends
National polls. The No. 2 Republicans’ Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who never set vaccine mandates, barred students from masks, prohibited CV restrictions and allowed “Keep Your Fauci Off My Florida” tees. His state’s now tops in CV cases. Lotsa luck for his tourist season . . . Greenvile, Tennessee’s recent celebrity auction’s top item was a John Deere mower that brought $2,100 — there was also an autographed “NCIS” script and a signed copy of “Game of Thrones.” Just letting you know.
The big Times at last
Maureen Dowd. New York Times. Yesterday, she wrote a full page on me. I was OK with rulers who’ve turned countrymen into splinters — but Pulitzer-winning Maureen? Sunday, Aug. 22, is “Gossip” — Showtime’s doc on me — followed by four succeeding Sundays. The executive producer, Oscar-winner Ron Howard, stayed underwhelmed. My housekeeper, Nazalene, kept inhaling curry. My Yorkie Jellybean’s opinion was on my parquet floor, not his wee-wee pad. BUT — when it came to Maureen Dowd who came with the Times’ Shawn McCreesh — everyone put on their epaulets. She was prepared. Not only writes great but we’re talking sharp, knowledgeable, smart as hell. Even before the chardonnay. This paper’s ed-in-chief, Keith Poole, definitely impressed, read Maureen’s piece yesterday. I figured I’d now get a raise. He said: “Think Maureen would leave the Times to work here at The Post?”
A masterpiece?
Specialist Evan Beard, involved in Sony’s doc “The Lost Leonardo,” explains: “This old-time ‘Salvator Mundi,’ now the most expensive artwork ever, hung bug-eaten behind a Baton Rouge stairwell. In 2005, owners sold it to a New Orleans auction house for $1,175. A specialist thought he noted overpaint.” A da Vinci expert — whothehell knew such creatures existed? — called it “interesting.” Next, some Italian canvas expert, age 99, OK’d it. Four years later came Sotheby’s. Then a curator. Then a London gallery. Then some Russian billionaire buyer. Then it ended up at Christie’s. Then Saudi Arabia’s boss Prince Mohammad bin Salman buys it for $450 mil plus another $50 million in fees. He wanted it hung in the Louvre opposite the “Mona Lisa.” Like wall-to-wall Leonardo da Vincis. The Louvre said the French version of “Shove it!” So it’s now in his palace. Or wherever. So did da Vinci have any brothers, kids, stepsisters, heirs? No. This work ever appear in a diary or coloring book anywhere? No. Any line drawings, painted sketches, histories or copies exist? No. Yet it is now the world’s most expensive painting. And those nice people in Baton Rouge have never seen another franc. So neither MoMA, the Met, BAM, whatshisname Bezos, not even Maureen Dowd — at least not at this moment — can say: da Vinci’s world-famous “Salvator Mundi” canvas is right here.
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.