Michael Caine starred in "Hannah and Her Sisters" with Max von Sydow

My DD went to Columbia University in NYC and the campus is compact enough that her dorm was only a few minutes from her class rooms. She was in the habit of only allowing 5 to 10 minutes of walking time to go back and forth. I can't tell you how many times she'd call from her cell phone complaining that another TV show or movie was shooting on campus or nearby and the streets were blocked off and that she was going to be late for class. Law and Order was a frequent sight on campus. My DH and I would be watching an episode and all of a sudden we'd realized what part of campus was on the screen. Julia Stiles was in one of her Literature classes and Uma Thurman's brother was in another. Their father is a professor of Buddhist studies there. Those are the ones I remember. They shot several scenes of SpiderMan and Ghostbusters on campus and something with the Olsen twins. I remember she called and said they were so tiny they resembled 6 year olds. The luncheonette (Tom's Restaurant) that the Seinfield characters ate at frequently was on campus - they didn't film there but shot the exterior scenes. She nearly knocked Dustin Hoffman over when she was a freshman. She was returning to her dorm room carrying her laundry basket when he came out of her room and they bumped into each other in the doorway. His daughter's room was 2 doors away and he had walked into DD's by mistake. She frequently saw famous people around town but that's normal in NY. When I visted her I saw Jimmy Fallon, David Letterman, Regis Philbin, Erica Slezak, Kelly Ripa and some other soap actors who I'd recognize from the show but didn't know their real names. I passed Hayley Miles on the sidewalk and and gushed like an idiot telling her how I loved her films when I was a kid - Pollyanna, Moon-spinners, Tiger Bay. I'm only 90 minutes away so I've been up to see The View several times, Regis and Kelly, Rachel Ray, Conan. It's a fun day trip. A commercial for Toro lawn mowers was shot at my neighbor's house years ago but no one has ever seen it.

George Clooney was married to Talia Balsom for 4 years...'89 - '93...then divorced. Neither talk about it and he said he'd never do it again...or have kids. If he's as sensitive as his statements have indicated over his long career...his experience obviously left a very painful mark...and he'd rather not chance repeating it. Who can blame him. He's not the first to react in that manner...nor will he be the last. And perhaps he just discovered he's not cut out for marriage. From my observations over my 72 years...there are a lot of people who should have acknowledged that fact and gone along their way without upsetting someone else's life. Just a thought. Anne

Yes - I also thought that 'open letter' (that someone posted in full further up the thread, I think - the link in DrewM's post above didn't work when I tried it) was either extremely self-centred, or the author was ignorant of the purpose of an awards ceremony and mistakenly thought it was just another show put on solely for public entertainment. In fact it's a professional/industry awards night for showbiz people along with the Press, who sponsor the event. The high level of public interest is the only reason they now broadcast it, so the public can get to see what goes on, and no doubt the sponsors get a nice bit of revenue from it. But even though some adaptations are naturally made to cater for the TV cameras and the wider audience, viewers should not expect or demand that the whole, essentially private event be repurposed into something it's not. Recipients of lifetime achievement awards are generally given a bit more time and leeway to say whatever they like in their acceptance speeches than are other lesser award winners, in keeping with it being the highest honour of the night. If one such honoured recipient chooses to use their speech to draw attention to a recent notorious and very unwelcome performance from a different kind of actor, and to appeal to the Press to continue to do their job despite the current campaign of intimidation/attempted suppression against them, to vigorously defend the rights and dignity of those many professionals in the industry who would fall into the unwanted/ scapegoated groups the PE has chosen to stir up and magnify a dark seam of xenophobic anger and hate against - that is a somewhat unusual, but topical and entirely industry-relevant use of that platform. As VedaB said, if members of the general public happen to find this not entertaining enough and/or offensive in some way and/or don't understand its relevance, that's fine - it's not their industry's awards night anyway, and they don't have to watch!