Kirk Douglas RIP: The Oscar Sunday I Almost Met The Actor, And Will Never Be Able To Again

Kirk Douglas RIP: The Oscar Sunday I Almost Met The Actor, And Will Never Be Able To Again

ONN – Kirk Douglas RIP: The Oscar Sunday I Almost Met The Actor, And Will Never Be Able To Again

Kirk Douglas passed away after 103 great years on Earth. The sad news reminded me of the time I almost and could have met the Hollywood icon, and so I reprint and vlog part of a story I originally told in 2010 in my SF Gate City Brights Blog:

The famous Beverly Hills Hotel Polo Lounge is described by the hotel as “favorite breakfast spot and watering hole for generations of stars and Hollywood deal-makers” and it does live up to that claim. Before the Night of 100 Stars Oscar Party started, I made a bee line for The Polo Lounge for lunch.

Just about five minutes after I was seated at a prime table for seeing people or just being left alone, I saw a great pair of athletic female legs in a killer backless black dress walk elegantly but briskly by me, followed by a man in a dark grey suit with an upright walk and very tightly combed and moused hair. The man turned out to be the legendary actor and author George Hamilton, who I’m told is a regular at The Polo Lounge.
George Hamilton

Then Hamilton and his lovely, leggy blonde female companion were seated at a round booth already occupied by a man who looked very much like Stephen Fry, who was also with a female companion. I’d never seen Fry in person before. It just so happens that Fry and I follow each other on Twitter, so I messaged him to confirm this. An update soon, assuming he answers back.

Just five minutes after that small celebrity event, and the arrival of my Ahi Tuna appetizer, I overheard someone behind me talking about what food orders their friends wanted. The voice was so close I had to turn my head to see who it was. It’s was a casually dressed Byron Allen.

Byron Allen is best known as a television talk show host who most recently had a show I remember called The American Athlete but I don’t know what he’s up to now. To find out for this blog post, I did some quick internet poking about and learned he’s head of a very interesting new media company called Entertainment Studios. The company produces shows like Comics Unleashed With Byron Allen. From what I’ve read Allen’s fought to build an entertainment business on his own terms; it seems like he’s finally found something that works for him.

And here’s the thing: I did reach out to Mr. Fry on Twitter via private messaage, and he wrote back “Why didn’t you come over.” AHHH!

I could have met Kirk Douglas, George Hamilton, and Stephen Fry. I had good reason for not going over, but it was based on how a friend of Goldie Hawn’s treated me during my visit to CNN in New York – that was 2008, and this was 2010.

I should have wiped that from my brain. The lesson was that those moments seldom come more than once: take charge and seize them!

Oh well. Kirk Douglas, RIP.

Stay tuned.

Note from Oakland News Now Technical: this video-blog post shows the full and live operation of the latest updated version of an experimental Zennie62Media , Inc. mobile media video-blogging system network that was launched June 2018. This is a major part of Zennie62Media , Inc.’s new and innovative approach to the production of news media. The uploaded video is from a vlogger with the Zennie62 on YouTube Partner Channel, then uploaded to and formatted automatically at the Oakland News Now site and Zennie62-created and owned social media pages. The overall objective is smartphone-enabled, real-time, on the scene reporting of news, interviews, observations, and happenings anywhere in the World and within seconds and not hours. Now, news is reported with a smartphone: no heavy and expensive cameras or even a laptop are necessary. The secondary objective is faster, and very inexpensive media content news production and distribution. We have found there is a disconnect between post length and time to product and revenue generated. With this, the problem is far less, though by no means solved. Zennie62Media is constantly working to improve the system network coding and seeks interested content and media technology partners.