You Never Know Who You'll Meet at an Eastman House Gathering

Trustee Victoria Cherry refers to this as the Eastman House "portal", and it was in full effect this past Tuesday evening in New York City.

Actor Julian Sands and trustee Victoria Cherry.

Victoria and her husband Bill hosted a gathering in their New York City home, where British actor Julian Sands gave a poetry reading of the works of the late Harold Pinter. Julian worked closely with Pinter before his death on tone and inflection, and it is with both Pinter and his widow Antonia Fraser's blessing that Julian uses his gift to keep the voice of Pinter alive.  If  you're not familiar with Pinter....do an imdb search and ogle at the list of 29 screenplays he wrote. I venture you've seen many of them. As for Julian, you know him from Merchant Ivory's A Room With a View, Boxing Helena, and many more, including the upcoming David Fincher version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (check out the trailer on YouTube!)  And now i feel like i'm writing page 6: 

Artist Edward Mapplethorpe, Trustee Elaine Goldman, and actor Julian Sands.

In attendance was artist Edward Mapplethorpe, whom had last seen Julian 22 years ago in Los Angeles when he photographed Julian.  Julian maintains that the portrait Edward took of him has become the iconic photograph of him, with fans often sending downloaded copies of it to him for autographs.  Without much urging, Julian coaxed Edward into a new edition of the photograph, which was auctioned off Tuesday night with proceeds benefiting Eastman House.  Incoming trustee Elaine Goldman was the winning bidder. 

 

 

Barbara Steele, Julian Sands, and Lisa Marie.

Also attending were actors Barbara Steele and Lisa Marie and I have to admit my head turned a bit. It's not every day you meet someone who worked with Fellini, and it's not every day you meet someone who was in several of your favorite films (I'm a sucker for Ed Wood and Sleepy Hollow).  I hope to see them both at Eastman House one day soon.  Eastman House trustees Susan Robfogel, Nathan Benn, and David Neill were also on hand, as were photographers Jessica Burstein and Renate Aller.

 

Julian Sands with his brother -in-law Rob Citkowitz.

Julian's brother-in-law, Rob Citkowitz, lives in New York, and he and his wife joined us for the event as well.  As it turns out, Rob's father Israel Citkowitz had has portrait taken by Stieglitz a number of times....and there may just be a photograph of his father in the Eastman House collection.  okay, enough namedropping....it was an amazing evening....and we hope to repeat it soon.  let us know if you'd like to organize an event like this in your neighborhood!