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<TITLE>95-09-14 REEL LIFE: Sean Penn, party of 20 (plus two goats)</TITLE>
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eye WEEKLY                                           September 14 1995
Toronto's arts newspaper                      .....free every Thursday
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REEL LIFE                                                    REEL LIFE
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<h1>SEAN PENN, PARTY OF 20 (PLUS TWO GOATS)</h1>
<H2>by<BR>
LAURA LIND</H2>
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Once again the city is stacked with famous actors. Of course, these people won't 
be attending the film festival like the average Joe. They'll waltz from limos, through 
lineups and into luxury hotels. <P>

Reel Life was wondering just how far Toronto's service industry will go to show 
these thespians a good time. Impersonating the personal managers of Uma 
Thurman, Woody Allen and Sean Penn, Reel Life called some Toronto hotels, 
restaurants and tourist attractions to find out.<P>

Surprisingly, Uma Thurman couldn't even get a reservation for a room at the 
Royal York. (We didn't get a chance to ask for a horse hair mattress.) And the 
SkyDome's PR director Howard Starkman said Woody Allen could not play "The 
Star-Spangled Banner" on the clarinet to open a Jays/Yankees game. <P>

But Sean Penn's name opened doors very quickly at Bistro 990. This transcript 
of the phone call tells it all. <P>

eye: <I>Hi, I'm calling on behalf of Sean Penn. I'm trying to make a dinner 
reservation for him on the 16th of September for a group of 20 at 9:30 p.m. We'd 
like a room that is private.</I><P>

990: Let me look at my book. He doesn't want to sit with the public 
downstairs?<P>

eye: <I>Absolutely not.</I><P>

990: I could put him upstairs, yeah, I can give him a private room. Is 9:30 after his 
gala?<P>

eye: <I>Yes.</I> <P>

990: I have a second floor so nobody will see you. <P>

eye: <I>He's very sensitive -- he doesn't want any disruption. Especially not 
photographers</I>. <P>

990: Definitely not. That's a policy -- I don't get them in there. I'll have security 
guards at the door. <P>

eye: <I>We'd appreciate it if no one outside the immediate staff waiting on Mr. Penn 
would know that he's in the restaurant.</I> <P>

990: No one will know. We'll keep that very quiet. Andy Garcia came in today -- 
nobody knew. <P>

eye: <I>He'd like to screen a few of his outtakes from feature films. We'll need a 
projector and a small screen.</I><P>

990: I do have a projector and a screen already in that room.<P>

eye: <I>In terms of menu... Sean had goat's-head soup while filming Casualties Of 
War in Malaysia. He talks about it all the time. Would you be able to do something 
along those lines?</I><P>

990: I'll have to talk to the chef. (To the chef) Can you make... Sean Penn would 
like to have for dinner some goat head soup (sic)? The chef will look it up. We'll 
find out what that is.<P>

eye: <I>It's got a goat's head in it, apparently.</I><P>

990: It sounds weird... but it could be tasty.<P>

eye: <I>Could you slaughter the goat during the salad?</I> <P>

990: Slaughter the goat in the salad? A real goat in the restaurant and slaughter 
it?<P>

eye: <I>Like they do in Japanese restaurants.</I><P>

990: OK, I have... I have to check what it requires for me to have. To be more 
specific, you want the actual goat there, or...<P>

eye: <I>Two goats. Two goats. It takes one day to cook the goat in the soup. But I 
think he wants the appearance that the goat that was just slaughtered turns up in the 
soup.</I> <P>

990: Oh. I see.<P>

eye: <I>So you take the goat out, and sacrifice it and then take it away and come out 
and serve the soup with a goat's head in it. Like a cooking show, with one live goat 
in the dining room and a dead goat in the soup. I think he wanted that drama.</I><P>

990: Literally pieces of the goat head?<P>

eye: <I>Not the goat head that was just slaughtered but the day before.</I><P>

990: I don't think we can do that. <P>

eye: <I>So it would have to be pre-made?</I><P>

990: We would have to look it up.<P>

eye: <I>He wanted to do something shocking. He's talking to studio heads. Is there 
any way to have a piata hung from the ceiling?</I><P>

990: A real one?<P>

eye: <I>Papier-mch.</I><P>

990: That I can probably get.<P>

eye: <I>We'd like it made in the shape of Madonna and filled with flies.</I><P>

990: Filled with real flies? Alive?<P>

eye: <I>Live flies.</I> <P>

990: A papier-mch piata made in the shape of Madonna filled with live flies? I 
don't know. This is very confusing. What does he mean, the shape of 
Madonna?<P>

eye: <I>He wants Madonna the actress as opposed to Madonna the Virgin.</I> <P>

990: Madonna the singer in a piata. Does he want the face of Madonna?<P>

eye: <I>The whole body. It doesn't matter which era.</I> <P>

990: OK, I'll see what we can do. I'll see if we can find a local artist to make the 
piata. If the soup doesn't work we'll try something else. Other than that, are there 
any other requests you have?<P>

<HR SIZE=200><P>

Unfortunately, after the goat sacrifice and the Madonna piata we couldn't think 
of anything more bizarre, except maybe to ask if they had Prince Albert in a can. 
Anyhow, Bistro 990 phoned back to say that he couldn't do the goat sacrifice 
"because I have parties afterwards and before." <P>

<CENTER>-30-<P></CENTER><HR SIZE=4 WIDTH=50%><BR><FONT SIZE=2><I>

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