Estate Sleepy No Longer
The grand and storied Canfield-Moreno estate in Silver Lake proved the perfect setting for the Wednesday night post-premiere party of director Tim Burton’s spooky fairy tale “Sleepy Hollow.”
The 4 1/2-acre hilltop estate, now called the Paramour, was built in 1923 by Charles Canfield as a wedding present to his daughter Daisy and silent film star Antonio Moreno. Daisy died in a car wreck in 1933 and the house was turned into a school for girls run by Franciscan nuns. The site has been abandoned and in disrepair for almost a decade and has only recently been reopened by new owner Dana Hollister for private parties.
Guests included the film’s Johnny Depp (and his girlfriend, French singer-actress Vanessa Paradis), Christina Ricci, Martin Landau, Casper Van Dien (with wife Catherine Oxenberg) and Burton and his companion Lisa Marie (who portrays Depp’s Wicca-inclined mother in the movie’s flashback sequences). Party-goers romped through the 22-room mansion and, poolside, ate sumptuous dishes of oak-planked salmon with horseradish-mustard glaze, sage-roasted whole turkey and cured Virginia ham. (Cienega catered the party.)
A fog machine produced atmosphere, literally, and a headless horseman (not literally, we assume) circled the grounds on a gorgeous black stallion.
On the way out (guests were shuttled down the hill to their cars in mini-buses), everyone received a 6-inch “Sleepy Hollow” action figure, in likenesses of Depp’s Ichabod Crane, Christopher Walken’s Headless Horseman (yes, head detachable) and Miranda Richardson’s Crone of the Western Woods.
The Tuesday night premiere of Universal’s apocalyptic thriller “End of Days” drew what could only be described as an eclectic mix of people: The film’s stars Arnold Schwarzenegger (with wife Maria Shriver), Gabriel Byrne, Robin Tunney, as well as guests Mayor Richard Riordan and rocker Rob Zombie partied in a pop-art style Times Square replica, which was constructed in a parking lot across from Mann’s Chinese theater. “End of Days” opens Nov. 24.