Pizza and a movie, all grown up
Its the ultimate pizza party: Phil Rosenthal, the creator and executive producer of Everybody Loves Raymond, and his wife, actress Monica Horan (Amy on Raymond), have hosted Sunday movie nights for years. Guests flock to their Tuscan-style villa in Hancock Park and dine on pizza made in the same type of wood-fired oven at L.A.s Pizzeria Mozza. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Rosenthal is an investor in Mozza, which explains how he can finagle restaurant cook Gustavo Canseco into making the food for the movie nights. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Canseco slips a fresh pie into the home’s wood-burning oven. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
While Rosenthal, center left in the dark shirt, chats with a guest, Canseco composes his pizzas using a huge palette of ingredients: squash blossoms, pineapple, prosciutto, Taleggio and mozzarella for starters. E-mail invitations go out to about 50 people, and the first 25 who RSVP are in.
Tonights crowd includes director Jake Kasdan, whose film Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story will be shown after dinner, and actors Valerie Harper and Tom McGowan, who quips, I come to find out what parts I didnt get auditions for. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
A party favorite: rapini, cherry tomatoes, olives, anchovies, Parmesan and chili paste. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Valerie Harpers husband, producer Tony Cacciotti, sums up the scene: Its like high school but instead of watching TV and eating lousy pizza, you have a great screening room with comfortable seats and the best pizza in town. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Walk Hard music supervisor Manish Raval, right, kicks back with wife Sage, an artist and art teacher to Rosenthals daughter. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
The Ravals scoop popcorn from an old-fashioned cart outside the screening room. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
At showtime, guests take their seats in the stadium-style screening room. Its the culmination of something Ive been doing for 25 years, Rosenthal says. Im the luckiest man alive. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
