Daniel Craig. Superrich, superhandsome, supersavvy: “I remember my first screen test. I forget none of it. I know everything. It was 1992, ‘The Power of One’ in London. I tested for it early and back then who knew whether I’d get it or not. Then they sent the audition tape out, and I got the gig.”
In “Knives Out,” he plays Southernfried PI Benoit Blanc. A sequel is already in development with buzz of a franchise.
“Who knows if I’ll do another?”
Me: “I already know you are.”
Big smile, then: “Trouble with you is you think you know everything.”
Next Adam Sandler of “Uncut Gems,” who told me: “You know nothing. You make up things I never said. Where do you work?” Me: “New York Post.” Him: “You from Brooklyn?” Me: “No, New York City.” Him: “You lie.”
National Board of Review president for 12 years Annie Schulhof, dressed in Tom Ford, which cost more than the dinner, said: “Adam Sandler’s one of my favorites. Easy. Wonderful. Nice regular guy. We love him. Everyone does.”
Yeah, OK.
First choice for an award for many was first arrival Renée Zellweger: “I spent lots of time readying to play Judy Garland. It was a celebration of her life. We wanted to deliver our best and tried hard to get things right. Everything was made from vintage authentic fabrics, and I kept whatever I could. Even my rehearsal CDs.”
The Safdie brothers, who wrote “Uncut Gems”: “Took us 10 years. The way we write is with anxiety.” (Plus so many F-words their computers probably disabled the letter.) We grew up in Great Neck. Our father was in the diamond business, we know that world.”
Securitymeister Mike Zimet kept Cipriani in tight lockdown. Nobody unknown walked in. Although Great Neck knows the Safdies, security guys didn’t. One whispered to me: “Who are they?”
Backstage p.r. guy Will Wilbur collared Bruce Springsteen, who then said what he did nightly after his Broadway gig: “Nothing. I did the job, I called nobody, I went right home, I went to bed. I did nothing.”
In trench coat and boots “The Hurt Locker’s” Oscar winner Kathryn Bigelow. The first woman director to break through, how did it feel? Answer: “I was always scared.”
Jamie Lee Curtis, also in “Knives Out”: “I flew to ‘The Cotton Club’ audition alone, waited by myself in a hotel a whole day, watched another actress read her lines, and thought she’s a pro and I’m a failure. And neither of us got the part. Today we’re great friends.” The other actress? Sigourney Weaver.
Please try to pay attention
Meanwhile, in non-showbiz civilization: Friday 8 p.m. a seated Dante de Blasio waited for a friend who was standing to take out take-out at Tal Bagels on East 86th, only a shmear away from Gracie Mansion . . . And let’s congratulate Gov. Cuomo, who hit the podium, TV and close-ups all week, considering he’d canceled appointments, was sidelined and bed-lined and had just had the flu.
Arty party
Palm Beach — where the average age is deceased — Picasso, Matisse, Warhol, Chagall, Calder, de Kooning, Ernst, Hirst, Koons, Pollock, adorned nearly 100 art galleries. Burped Miss USA 1983 Julie Hayek, a true art lover, to her date: “Oooh, I love that bejeweled little blue elephant, and it’s only $22,000!”
Overheard recently: “They’re a great pair. They were introduced a few years ago by a mutual friend — a bellhop.”
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.