The kid throws a party
The setting -- Woodland, the Beverly Hills estate once owned by Greta Garbo -- is glamorous old Hollywood, and so is the host, Robert Evans -- legendary producer and Hollywood force of nature. For a pre-Oscar luncheon last week, Evans set the stage with black-and-white couches scattered around the frontyard pool and bowls of hydrangeas topped with diamond jewelry from Van Cleef & Arpels.
Every other guest seems to be wearing sunglasses so dark they could stare right into the sun. “Rush Hour” director Brett Ratner glad-hands the crowd, musician Perry Farrell chatters into his cellphone and a surreal cross-section of the Hollywood food chain heads to the flagstone patio along a walkway of black carpet.
There goes Def Jam co-founder Russell Simmons, supermodel Linda Evangelista, actors John Stamos, Eric Dane, Sharon Lawrence and Emmanuelle Seigner (a.k.a. Mrs. Roman Polanski) and party promoter Josh Richman, who arrives clutching his signature eight-ball-topped walking stick.
But where’s Bob?
“Bob needs five more minutes,” one party handler whispers into her cellphone, half an hour into the party. Ten minutes later, the crowd parts like the Red Sea, and the producer of “The Godfather,” “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Chinatown” slowly makes his entrance, escorted by his wife, Lady Victoria White, and nephew Michael Shure.
Sporting a mint-green turtleneck sweater, gray velour sweat pants and white linen jacket accessorized with a silver mesh bolo tie and a pair of his signature dark sunglasses, Evans greets guests and poses for pictures, making his way to the water’s edge, where he deposits himself on a black leather couch.
Across the yard, a cherry-red iPod boombox the size of a commercial air conditioning unit starts blaring, and five bikini-clad, bathing-capped members of the U.S. Olympic synchronized swimming team hop into Evans’ pool and begin a routine full of flips, swirls and dives that would make Esther Williams proud. As they finish, Evans stands up and heads back to his bedroom, where he will hold court for another hour until they perform again.
“I invited 50 people, and 150 showed up,” he says, sitting on the edge of his bed, with a mock gruffness that does little to mask how pleased he is with the turnout. The parties are rarely this big, he tells me, since his screening room burned down in 2003. And today’s fete is as much about the tortoiseshell sunglasses he’s wearing as it is about him.
A thick, rectangular shape that’s flat across the top and wide at the temples, the plastic frame is called the Robert Evans, and it’s a limited-edition, 20th-anniversary collaboration with Oliver Peoples, born after founder and creative director Larry Leight became acquainted with Evans and his vast collection of vintage eyewear. Evans worked with the design team to create a frame that he felt personified him. “They took about eight months to design,” he says. “It would have been easier to build a yacht.”
Evans’ design guidelines were simple. “A better background makes a better foreground. I wanted glasses that accent but don’t overpower. If I went to a party wearing a green plaid tie and 20 people said they liked it, I’d cut it off right there.”
Even though a series of strokes has slowed him down, the 77-year-old Evans still has more edge than a box of razor blades. To advertise the frames, Oliver Peoples shot a fake movie trailer starring Evans and a lissome blond named Kate Nauta. Shot at Evans’ house, it can be seen at www.oliverpeoples.com, but Leight says the company intends to bring it to a movie house near you -- as an in-theater ad.
When asked about a return to the silver screen, Evans snorts. “If I’m going to be in a theater,” he says, “it’s going to be longer than a 30-second trailer.”
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