Burt Reynolds (left) gives a peck to the Burt Reynolds Scholarship winner, Lauryn Eisenstein, at Palm Beach International Film Festival’s Student Showcase of Films. Photo provided
By Thom Smith
"The health of Hollywood legend Burt Reynolds has deteriorated severely, and pals fear he’s facing his final days!”
That’s from our favorite old rag The National Enquirer … three years ago. But while he’s not nearly as quick on the gas as he was in those “Bandit” movies or as fluid on the Chattooga rapids of Deliverance, old Burt, at 79, is hanging in there.
Walking with the aid of a cane when he arrived at Lynn University in Boca Raton to present scholarship awards at the Palm Beach International Film Festival’s Student Showcase of Film, he appeared frail and a bit disoriented.
That all changed when his name was announced and he walked onto the stage with a sure, if short gait, and hoisted himself upon a stool to engage in some banter with film producer and one-time Burt Reynolds Institute apprentice Suzanne Niedland before making their presentations.
“I tried for a long, long time to make movies here,” Reynolds noted, “and didn’t get a lot of cooperation from a lot of people … a lot of governors who shall go nameless, and I think they are nameless now. But I also had some very wonderful people who tried very hard to make some things happen. I did a series down here that did very well.” (B.L. Stryker, which in one episode featured an unknown child actor named Neil Patrick Harris.)
The quips were quick, and each winner was greeted with the appropriate handshake or hug. When Niedland mentioned the Smoky and the Bandit features, Reynolds said he lost track of the number he made. “I’m now down to pedaling the car. … The first two were wonderful because I was driving the car and falling in love with Sally Field. Not bad. I can’t remember which I liked better.
“But,” he added sincerely, “the best part of my life has always been here.”
Following Reynolds wasn’t easy, but then Rob Van Winkle doesn’t seem to do anything easy these days. Van Winkle, better known as Vanilla Ice, stuck to the script as he presented awards to the winners for features and shorts in the collegiate division.
The star of Vanilla Ice Project, a home renovation show on DIY Network, made no mention of charges that he had members of his crew remove furnishings from an unoccupied home two lots away from his “project” on Hypoluxo Island in Lantana and take them to a home he owns in suburban Lake Worth.
The pilfered items: an iron table with glass top valued at $450, patio chairs ($1,000), sofa ($1,000), two bicycles ($400), large mirror ($500), and a pool heater ($3,000). Van Winkle first told Lantana police he owned the property and claimed he thought some of it was at the curb and thus fair game. However, the Iceman’s foreman said his boss also told him he owned the place and told his crew to enter the house and remove specific items.
After posting bail and being released from Palm Beach County Jail, Van Winkle said it was all a misunderstanding and would soon be resolved. He’s due in court April 9 and has hired Brad Cohen, a frequent legal commentator on CNN, NBC and FOX and former contestant on Donald Trump’s The Apprentice.
Meanwhile, DIY Network is waiting, but don’t look for a new show called Jailhouse Makeover.
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Thirty years ago, in the spring of 1985, construction began on Mission Bay, a $200 million, 565-acre residential development on Glades Road west of State Road 7. It would offer 1,500 homes, a tennis center, a shopping center, a school site and office park.
But instead of the usual golf course it would feature an international training aquatic complex — three pools, a diving tower and 4,000-seat stadium — and would be staffed by the world’s top coaches and attract Olympians.
And for five years, Greg Louganis, the greatest diver in history, electrified spectators and competitors alike, training and winning national titles at Mission Bay while pursuing an unprecedented second double gold performance at the 1988 Olympics.
Then Mission Bay ran out of money. On April Fool’s Day 1991, it closed. Eventually it became Boca Raton Preparatory School. The pools were filled with dirt, the dive tower demolished.
“I haven’t been back,” Louganis said before speaking recently at the 30th anniversary luncheon for the Comprehensive AIDS Program at Embassy Suites in West Palm Beach. “I’ve seen pictures, but I couldn’t bear to look at it in person.”
Louganis, now 55, lives in California, acting, giving motivational speeches and grooming dogs. He has returned to South Florida several times, but his March 6 visit was special: He was diagnosed with HIV while training here and he planned to talk about living with HIV. Thanks to a strict regimen of drugs, a special diet and physical training, he has remained healthy.
“I don’t like to use the word survivor. I’m pretty much living my life,” he told the audience. “Sure I take my meds in the morning. Sure I take my meds in the evening. But the rest of the time I go about the business of living. And that is something that is truly, truly a blessing. I’m living my life, doing what I do.”
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Rita Hayworth. Star. Over a 37-year career, she appeared in 61 films and was rated among the 25 top female movie stars of all time. But at 68, an age when most stars were basking in the accolades, her world was crumbling and she was powerless to do anything about it. She was alcoholic, even psychotic, critics charged.
In her last film, The Wrath of God, released in 1972, her lines were written on cue cards; off camera a crewmember speaks the lines for her to repeat. Not until 1980 was she diagnosed: Alzheimer’s, a disease hardly understood then and treatments, much less a cure, still remain in the distance.
Yasmin Aga Khan cared for her mother until she died in 1987, but her mission was only beginning. On March 5 at The Colony hotel in Palm Beach, she and old friend Carlton Varney headlined a Rita Hayworth luncheon to raise money for Alzheimer’s research and care.
“We are not contributors, we are not supporters,” said Varney, who recently completed a major renovation of the venerable hotel, “we are all partners.”
Khan spoke lovingly of her mother and of the burden of care required for 5 million Americans and another 35 million worldwide. Then she let the disease speak.
Bill Dugan stands ramrod tall, alert, courteous — a physical specimen at 72 years. A businessman and inventor, he holds several patents, including one for movable cement. Three decades ago he served as tour manager for several acts, including Fleetwood Mac.
“I believe my memory of events from the past is still good. But if you were to ask me what I ate for breakfast this morning or what day this is or if there was traffic on the road getting here, I could not tell you,” said Dugan, who must read from notes because he cannot remember what he wants to say. “While I do not have a choice in what’s happening to my brain, I still have choices to do things that make me feel alive.”
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The local craft beer community is feeling a lot more bubbly these days. Brewmaster Matt Cox and friends have begun brewing at Copperpoint Brewery in Boynton Beach, just a couple blocks north of Due South off High Ridge Road. The gleaming tasting room is only days away.
Meanwhile, even though craft beers account for less than 10 percent of the market, the mega-breweries don’t like competition. Most recently they seem to have adopted a two-pronged strategy that includes fighting the little guys through legislation and acquisition.
Despite dogged attempts by the Goliaths, such as InBev, that have poured lots of cash into lobbying the legislature, the crafty Davids seem to be winning the lawmakers’ hearts and minds — and palates. Just before St. Patrick’s Day, the Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee raised a glass to SB 186, which, among other things would allow craft brewers to sell growlers (refillable containers) up to 64 ounces. In this instance the party lines were social, not political — the vote was unanimous.
With an earlier nod from the Regulated Industries panel, the bill must be OK’d by the Fiscal Policy committee before heading to the Senate floor. Still at issue are the sizes of tasting samples, regulation of public beer tastings and respecting local zoning restrictions.
Fitting right in with the new craft beer movement is Brew Bus South Florida, which began rolling in February. Based at the Funky Buddah brewery in Oakland Park, the bus makes weekly trips to local beer haunts, of which the South Palm Beach County trip is one of the most popular. Customers pay $50 for a three-hour tour that includes two 4-ounce samples at each stop, or $60 for a 5½-hour trip that includes a pint at each location. Additional samples are offered aboard the 22-passenger bus and riders leave the driving to someone else. The bus is available for charter. Visit brewbususa.com.
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It’s an unusual twist: a book festival at an art museum. But at the Norton Museum of Art, art is a broad term. Instead of using paint and charcoal, the participants in the inaugural Palm Beach Book Festival create images with words.
The one-day event will be short and sweet, running from 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. April 11. First on the bill is a panel on women’s lit featuring Jacqueline Mitchard, Lee Woodfull and Carrie Feron, with James Wolcott moderating. At 11:45, actor Alan Cumming will take the stage to discuss his memoir, Not My Father’s Son, with Christopher Bonanos. After a lunch break, West Palm Beach-based author/biographer Scott Eyman will moderate a 2 p.m. panel discussion on mysteries, thrillers and crime novels with Linda Fairstein, Andrew Gross and James Grippando. For a look at the business side — “The world of publishing” — Time magazine’s Joe Klein will moderate a discussion with Lisa Sharkey from Harper Collins and Doris Downes, wife of art critic Robert Hughes.
Then it’s time to revel as the festival retires to The Colony hotel in Palm Beach for a wrap party (6:30-8:30 p.m.) and a Klein interview with the “mysterious” James Patterson about the importance of reading and literacy.
Festival organizer Lois Cahall offers an impressive résumé as well — author of three books, creator of “The Screen Queen” syndicated film column and budding mixologist. She teamed with Colony beverage manager Marlene Cruz to concoct two festival cocktails — Gin Eyre and Tequila Mockingbird. Tickets for the Norton event and accompanying book signings are $75; for the party, $150.
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A writer of a different ilk will stop by Delray Beach Public Library on April 30. Flogging his new book Live Right and Find Happiness (Although Beer is Much Faster), will be syndicated columnist, humorist, Pulitzer Prize winner and unabashed soccer fan Dave Barry. The party begins at 6 p.m. and will include a Q&A, reception, book sale and signing. Tickets are $35 at delraylibrary.org or 266-0799.
Jenifer Fannin of Stuart takes a nap at the new Chick-fil-A drive-in at Linton Boulvard and Federal Highway. Dozens camped out in anticipation of the March 26 opening. The first 100 at the opening received one Chick-fil-A Sandwich Meal per week for a year. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
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For more than two decades in newspapers, magazines and books, Mark Spivak has regaled readers with his knowledge of food and wine. A few years ago, however, he discovered the hard stuff. Iconic Spirits: An Intoxicating History hit bookshelves in 2012.
The logical sequel is Moonshine Nation: The Art of Creating Cornbread in a Bottle. Put simply, he’s been hooked … by the “dark side.”
Spivak likes to set up events at bars and taverns, such as 50 Ocean, upstairs from Boston’s on the Beach in Delray. Patrons pay 30 bucks for a signed copy, sample moonshine — legal, commercial products (comparable to craft beer), a portion of the proceeds go to a worthy cause (the Delray Beach Historical Society) and he tells stories.
Spivak discovered a wellspring of information in North Carolina, particularly Wilkes County, which is famous for moonshine and stock car drivers — hardly a coincidence. In the early days of NASCAR, many of the best drivers were bootleggers and the best of all was Junior Johnson. He’s not racing but he’s still making ’shine — ’cept now Junior Johnson’s Midnight Moon is legal. During a tour of the NASCAR Hall of Fame and his favorite back roads — in a Mercedes! — Johnson revealed the secret to his success:
“Remember that I was doin’ the racin’ with my moonshine cars. I had to have those things strong enough to haul 22 six-gallon cases that weighed 1,200 or 1,400 pounds, and you had to outrun the law carryin’ that. You had to put on big tires, big wheels, two shocks on every wheel, and you had to be fast enough to get away from ’em every time.”
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Together again. Taste of the Nation, the restaurant community’s annual fundraiser to fight childhood hunger comes to the Kravis Center on April 23 with some familiar faces under the toques.
Returning as chairmen are Clay Conley from Buccan and Imoto; Tim Lipman, at Coolinary Cafe in Jupiter: Zach Bell, who left Cafe Boulud in Palm Beach for clubby Addison Reserve in Delray Beach; and Lindsey Autry, formerly at Palm Beach’s Omphoy and Delray’s Sundy House and now exec chef at Firefly on DuPont Circle in D.C.
Among participating restaurants: Eau Palm Beach, Casa D’Angelo, Chops Lobster Bar, Citrus Grillhouse, City Fish Market, Dada, The Sugar Monkey. Sommelier extraordinaire Virginia Philip will handle the vino.
VIP tickets, which include a special lounge and a 6:30 p.m. head start, run $150; general admission (7 p.m. start) is $100. Purchase at ce.strength.org/palmbeach.
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One face you won’t see at Taste of the Nation is that of Darryl Moiles, who has hit the road, literally. After nearly eight years at The Four Seasons Palm Beach and 19 with its parent company, he’s now traveling with Robert Irvine for his Restaurant: Impossible show on Food Network. Such is the crazy world of cheffing: By leaving a constantly demanding hotel kitchen for periodic road trips, Moiles will be able to spend more time with his children.
For a replacement, management went about as far as it could and still stay in North America, pulling Tory Martindale from Whistler, British Columbia. A downhill skiier in his youth, Martindale, 42, has worked in kitchens from Vancouver to Dublin to Santa Barbara; but with a stint also on the West Indian island of Nevis, he should be able to adapt to water skiing in the Palm Beaches.
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Music and more music. The Symphonia Boca Raton celebrates its 10th anniversary April 18 with a monster party at JAZZIZ featuring a cocktail party, award presentation, cocktails, concert, dancing, wine and hors d’oeuvres, and more party. Specifically, The Symphonia will honor founding benefactors Edith and Martin Stein for their decade of support; it will present its first Apollo Awards for songwriting that offers universal appeal; Tony Orlando will sing. Only one songwriter will be present: Dennis Lambert, who lives in Boca Raton. For tickets, $250 and up, call 376-3848.
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A week later, 10-time Grammy winner George Benson headlines the 2015 Generations Concert for the Boca-based Nat King Cole Generation Hope at the Seminole Casino Coconut Creek. The evening begins at 6:30 with a reception and silent auction, followed by Benson at 8 and a VIP meet-and-greet and dessert reception at 10. Tickets range from $75 to $250 for choice seats, all events and a meet and greet. Call 213-8209 or natkingcolegenhope.org.
Contact Thom Smith at thomsmith@ymail.com.
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