Boyle, Off the Shelf
It has been a productive Tuesday afternoon on the set of “Everybody Loves Raymond,” and Peter Boyle is feeling playful as he shows a visitor around his dressing room.
It’s a small place, but warmly lit, with family photos, an overstuffed leather chair, a heavy wooden desk and a large couch that’s perfect, he says, for napping.
“A sitcom is not the highest level of show biz,” he explains, plopping down in the chair. “But this is pretty nice!” Perhaps a recent nomination for a Screen Actors Guild award for his work on “Raymond” has leavened his mood.
Boyle pulls an oversized boxing glove from a bookshelf that serves as a repository for show-biz odds and ends. “This was in a gift basket,” he says, sliding the glove onto his right hand. “When people come to visit me, I like to do this .... “ With that, Boyle takes a swing at himself and lands a punch on the chin. A device inside the glove emits the sound of broken glass. Boyle’s face lights up. He pounds the glove against the wall. More “broken glass.” The glove goes back to the shelf.
It’s hard to imagine that this is the same Peter Boyle who once walked out on Terry Gross when the beloved National Public Radio interviewer asked him about his years as a monk in the 1950s, long before he became an Emmy-winning actor. Reminded of the Gross interview, Boyle, who’s 68, raises his eyebrows in amazement. He doesn’t remember it. In fact, Gross’ name doesn’t ring a bell. But he tries to explain his reaction. “It’s hard to talk about it because it’s religion, and religion is such a personal thing,” he says. “There’s no way to describe it. Imagine in 1953, you suddenly went back to 853 AD. It’s not an easy story to tell.”
A brief pause. Boyle holds an unsettling gaze, then he’s back at the bookshelf. “This is a TV Guide Award,” he says, holding a small gold trophy. What did he win for? “I don’t know.” A top shelf holds his award for being named one of the Top 100 Irish Americans
Boyle reaches for another favorite prop. “These are knee pads,” he says, pulling a pair off another shelf. “In show-biz, these come in handy.”
Pop Art and Magic
Art dealer Jonathan Novak, cornered near the martini bar by a group of women carrying champagne, had just finished explaining why he was wearing a Campbell Soup can name tag. This was the opening of his new Century City gallery, so the answer, naturally, had more to do with art than soup. “Everybody’s asking me about [Andy] Warhol,” he said, between hugs and kisses from clients. Ever since the Museum of Contemporary Art announced its May retrospective of the artist, he said, works by Warhol and his peers have practically been selling themselves.
Suddenly a woman pointed to a bright painting behind the bartender. “I need you to put that Hockney on hold,” she said. “It’s for a friend. She’s very ill, and that would really cheer her up.” Novak smiled and kissed her cheek. “See what I mean?” he said.
He had to move on. Past the Sam Francis. Past Warhol’s “U.S.Weather Map/G.E.” Past Dan Douke’s “Verdant Section.” Past the dozens of business-suited art enthusiasts who had crowded into the gallery on a blustery Tuesday evening.He found the evening’s entertainer, magician Howard Posener, doing card tricks with his back to Fernando Botero’s painting “The River.” A woman named a card, Posener shuffled, and suddenly the card appeared. “He did it!” she shouted. But that wasn’t enough. Posener had to show them the trick that so thrilled a Saudi prince that he gave the magician his sapphire and titanium watch. With a turn of the hand, Posener switched the card from one suit to another.
Novak is betting it won’t take magic to get people into his new appointment-only space. On the first floor of a high-rise on Century Park East, it is decidedly out of the way. But Novak isn’t concerned about visibility. With a solid 20-year reputation and a 6,000-member mailing list, he figures people will find him.
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Sightings
Barbra Streisand and James Brolin ordering sushi on Tuesday night at Chaya Venice.... Dave Navarro walking through Real Food Daily on Monday in Santa Monica.... Beck at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood last Thursday to catch the Smokey and Miho performance.
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Quote/Unquote
“We’re pleased to note that we correctly identified Laurel and Hardy,” the Palm Beach Post editors wrote in a correction published Wednesday that states the newspaper misidentified Curly of the Three Stooges and Abbott and Costello.
*City of Angles runs Tuesday-Friday. E-mail: angles@latimes.com.