May 06, 2003
Lights, Camera, Galway
Aahh, Hollywood. Anjelica Huston hosted a fundraiser in Los Angeles in aid of NUI Galway's School of Media and Digital Media, which is dedicated to her father, the director John Huston. The Galway connection is that John Huston used to a house in East Galway (near Craughwell) that is now a hotel and restaurant called St. Cleran's. I had dinner there once a couple of years ago and it was simply superb. It was pricey but worth every penny (unlike half the restaurants in Galway that are merely pricey). The fundraiser was held in Merv Griffin's Beverly Hills hotel - Merv, who now owns St. Cleran's, is quite a character. He invented the game show Wheel of Fortune (and promptly made one), owns a stack of hotels, and, at the age of 77, has just written a second autobiography (that's nearly as many as Geri Haliwell).
Speaking of tenuous Galway - Hollywood links, belated congratulations to Galway-born Peter O'Toole on his honorary Oscar. Rumours that the gold statuette was in the shape of a giant ham, or indeed Kenneth Brannagh, are entirely unfounded, and typical of the sort of begrudgery that is beneath this blog.
Posted by Monasette at May 6, 2003 11:50 PM