Christopher Plummer, so wonderful, so many awards. His new riveting WWII espionage thriller film “The Exception” opens June 2.
“I play German Monarch Kaiser Wilhelm II. Haughty, snobbish, very Germanic, flashy personality. Queen Victoria died in his arms. I know about him because when I was little, my mother talked of him. And I’ve read about him. There exists only one recording, but so faint you can’t really tell his speech.
“I was dying to play the Kaiser — maybe because I actually have a roster of playing dead people.
“I loved parading about in those mementoes. In this I didn’t steal a single prop. Just one painting of him that was part of the scenery. We filmed in Belgium, where I lived for a month, but I left before all that horror.
“Through his wife’s love, my imagination and the writer’s ability, we worked to humanize him. He loses his temper, handles guilt plaguing him for starting the Great War and mellows in later life. He knew he was not accepted. He knew he was the poster child for the Nazis. He knew he was the cause of all that was ghastly and happened afterward.
“I watched myself on-screen so that I could see I gave him enough fierceness, but I had to make sure I wasn’t boring and wasn’t overdoing it. The rest of that overdone kind of action I turned down. There’s a bit of King Lear in him. I’ve played King Lear so I used that in those parts where you see the Kaiser fly off the handle.”
Backstage Babs will be back
Streisand, here to grab some green for her absolutely final and forever 35th farewell concert, went to see B’way’s “Dear Evan Hansen.” She and hubby James Brolin hit the Music Box just before curtain. Eyes tearing at the terrific play, she joined the standing ovation, spent 30 minutes backstage with Ben Platt and the other cast members and posed for photos.
Actor Will Roland had a college assignment to play her albums in order to learn how to interpret a song. Said BS: “Must have been a burdensome assignment.”
The sniff is she hasn’t been this warm and fuzzy since her last final forever farewell concert.
Hot stuff in the ‘House’
Laurie Metcalf, Chris Cooper, Jayne Houdyshell, Condola Rashad at the John Golden Theatre in “A Doll’s House, Part 2.” This sequel to Henrik Ibsen’s original destruction of marriage will grab a Tony. Do not — not — miss the limited run of this new stage production.
Hugh Jackman, Brenda Vaccaro, Samuel L. Jackson, Barry Diller, Olivia Wilde, Andrew Rannells, Bob Balaban, Bernadette Peters schlepped down to the Bowery Hotel to party after. Jackman’s pal since kindergarten said, “Hugh was a very good student.” I knew you’d want to know.
Trump stop
His Supremeness the President of the United States of America, Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, Leader of the Free World, Four-Star Tweetee, could be maybe possibly be in residence at his NYC residence Thursday. Might be.
Bravo soiree
Celebrity event planner Larry Scott did Ramona Singer’s birthday in Chelsea Arts Tower’s Glasshouses. Lawrence Scott Events did silver lamps, black patent tablecloths, waiters in Swarovski crystal masks wearing black and white. Plus umbrellas of food like Parmesan bird nests with chicken Milanese. If you weren’t invited, not my fault. Catch it Wednesday on Bravo, “RHONY,” Season 9.
Saturday’s NY Daily News. Editorial Page 18 mentions FiorellA LaGuardia. Might its editor learn NYC’s former mayor was FiorellO, not FiorellA?
Only in New YArk, kids, only in New YArk.