Going Bananas Over HBO’s ‘Josephine’

The Scene: Monday night’s premiere of “The Josephine Baker Story,” hosted at the Directors Guild of America in West Hollywood by Home Box Office. The pay cable service, which will air the movie later this month, pulled out all the stops at a lavish after-party in the lobby of the DGA.

The Buzz: Everyone was talking about Lynn Whitfield, who played Baker. In the course of a two-hour movie, Whitfield got to suffer in a St. Louis ghetto, become a Parisian cabaret star, join the French Resistance, lead a civil rights crusade and adopt a “rainbow tribe” of a dozen children from different countries. Josephine Baker was a woman of many accomplishments, but the scene everyone was really talking about was Baker’s scandalous “banana dance” re-created in the movie. (What’s a banana dance? Don’t ask.)

Who Was There: Stars Whitfield, Ruben Blades and David Dukes, and director Brian Gibson (who married Whitfield midway through shooting). Also on hand: Debbie Allen, Paul Bartel, Mr. Blackwell, Mayor Tom Bradley, Jackie Collins, Bud Cort, Anne Francis, Howard Hesseman, Telma Hopkins, Judith Ivey, Jackee, Beverly Johnson, Swoosie Kurtz, Taylor Negron, Jayne Kennedy, Rachel Ticotin, Dionne Warwick, Hal Williams and Alfre Woodard.

Dress Code: At least one man read “black-tie optional” to mean “go ahead, wax your mustache and wear your leather top hat.”

Chow: Lamb chops, coq au vin, ratatouille, and a dessert table with banana everything--banana splits, banana nut bread, banana cream puffs and bananas swimming in some hot bubbly liquid that looked like a banana oil spill.

Noted: Judging from the number of latecomers, Angelenos will never, ever learn how to drive in the rain. People were still coming in, complaining, after the film had begun.

Quoted: “This was the first time I’d seen it. My stomach was in knots,” said co-star Dukes after the screening. Asked about the pros and cons of shooting a movie in Hungary (which stood in for 1920s Paris), he said: “The best part was the people of Hungary. The worst part was that they spoke Hungarian.”

Triumphs: The DGA lobby, which is as spacious (and as charming) as one of those football field-sized airport lounges, was decorated in a Parisian music hall theme. Thanks largely to the band and the food, the party was still going strong close to midnight (but no one attempted the aforementioned banana dance).