February 22, 2002: Coolio, understated and reserved, came to the Iron Entertainment party as planned. Gloria Allred was a guest there and came into the living room where David and I were talking. I introduced myself and gave her a business card; she gave me one as well. 
She shook David’s hand and asked, “What’s your name?”
David said, “Oh, I’m a nobody.”
Gloria looked at him surprised and said, “You are Not a Nobody! Everybody is somebody and we all contribute our different talents.”
David said, “I just meant I’m not in the entertainment business. My name is David.”
“Nice to meet you David,” Gloria said, egalitarian and smiling. “Don’t ever say you’re a nobody again, okay?”
When she left, I told David the same thing, somewhat mortified: “She’s right, don’t say that." David said it was just a figure of speech.
“Well, when you say you’re a nobody, standing right next to me, it looks like you’re my assistant and I’m messing with your self-esteem,” I said. I've seen it, for sure. Gloria was very understated and together and we made casual talk during dinner. The party ended after late night coffee on the balcony and the guests headed out.
March 12, 2002: Good editors are needed sometimes to check some of the more coarse and gauche social skills of some writers. It’s true.
....Wishing the whole David Letterman story would go away. He’s staying at CBS and you’d think that decision would end our current world war. Ted Koppel being treated like last night’s chicken bones. Paternal love and money love being sought from network suits all-around. Letterman and Koppel are both behind The Tonight Show in ratings. CBS affiliates taking some criticism for lame lead-ins with their newscasts.
March 19, 2001: Came back to L.A. today from Las Vegas. Bebbles and I stayed
at the Luxor and had a great time. We lost and won hundreds. We were going to fly, but at the last minute had to take Greyhound there; Bebbles fearful of flying. The Greyhound bus thing really sucks. I hate to generalize but it was a largely depressing scene: an older man staring, dropping French fries on a seat and scarfing them down anyway; footprints in the bathroom where no feet should be standing; one man didn’t even know how old his two daughters were; a Slav with his carry-on pizza box from what smelled like yesterday behind me; a woman taking her two sons to their father for their custody agreement; men fresh out of prison with kicked off shoes, tube socked feet and teddy bears in hand, heading for Lancaster. I got carded in Barstow (“You just don’t look that old!” at 31).Vegas was fun an
d everything went without a hitch. We had our room keys in less than five minutes. I love Vegas. It’s still a bustling place, post 9/11, just not as crowded. Construction is everywhere. We had a great time. No work until next weekend when I work the Oscars from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m.I have the ArcLight Cinemas opening tomorrow which I’m taking David to, the official re-opening of the former Cinerama Dome. I worked with ArcLight at AFM and was invited.
March 24, 2002: It is almost 9:20 p.m. The Oscar telecast is bloated,running on 4 hours, and Halle Berry just won! The Oscar lights in Hollywood and all around the theater looks like Christmas in March. The awards will be over soon and it’ll go back to business as usual with less packed-to-the-minute days and less tight deadline
s. 
Denzel Washington just won and from where I was the females said “Yay!” The guys sat in stony, balding silence. Ron Howard said last week that if Denzel won it would be an apologist vote for those who felt Washington should have won for The Hurricane , otherwise it would be Russell Crowe.
I’m recording Barbara Walters interviews..... Star Jones was so great on Court TV. Now she seems grandiose, like she’s the first woman of color who can order steaks. Enough!
Heard the best Hollywood advice ever: “You need to get out of there. Period. He will stick a straw in your veins and suck every drop of blood out of you that he can and tell you it’s Kool-Aid and not life-sustaining.”
Bebbles and I need to move. I got through this awards season, worked all beats and now I can do more at home.
I just got a furious voice mail on my editorial line from an older New York caller about the In Memoriam portion of the Oscars:
“Mr. Gibson, this is *Ruth Goldberg* in New York. My number is _______ and you don’t have to call me back. I just want to tell you that the Academy is the most bunch of idiotics [sic] of any award show I ever saw! I see they left out Dorothy Maguire, who is an Academy Award nominee, if not a winner. She did The Spiral Staircase. She did Friendly Persuasion, Gentleman’s Agreement and they didn’t even include her in the moratorium?! [voice rising] TNT did a full run of people who died and the Academy should be ashamed of themselves. That’s what I wanted to say: WHAT A BUNCH OF MORONS! It was boring, but to top it off, to leave an actress of that Academy quality OUT in her final years who died around September 11th – they should be ashamed and that’s a bunch of morons running it. Thank you." Click
I played the message on speakerphone. I guess things are tough all over.
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