Gun accidents aren’t new
The Alec Baldwin tragedy. Security types who guard movie sets say: Essential professional weaponry training is required even to handle swords. Anyone handling even a prop gun is in a controlled cordoned-off area. Away even to a trial actor, an extra or someone sitting in for a day.
In place of never-used real bullets are what’s called squibs. They mimic the appearance and create the sound. You see smoke. Ears might suffer. It’s the look of bullets plus their electrical detonation mimics a bullet’s trajectory. There is never live ammo.
The weapons are isolated and tested. Anyone handling even a prop gun goes through training. At no time is it pointed in anyone’s direction nor is it carried.
Some have lost their lives on a set. Others harm themselves. 1983, Jennifer O’Neill accidentally shot herself in the stomach.
Back when the movies starred “The Three Stooges,” actor Curly shot himself in the foot with a rifle.
Peter Fonda mishandled a pistol which then pierced his stomach.
Sally Kirkland’s experience nipped off half her index finger.
Christian Slater, packing a gun in an airport, landed him in jail for 90 days. James Brown carried a shotgun into an office building demanding to know who just used his private toilet.
1913, Louis Armstrong fired a pistol and got sent away. 1961, Al Pacino arrested for carrying a pistol.
David Crosby did four months of solitary confinement for weapons charges.
How . . . how . . . could Baldwin have possibly been handed a hot gun?
Return of the ball gowns
Catholicism’s annual black-tie Alfred E. Smith Dinner dragged out long gowns and high heels — none of which got worn for two years. Attorney General Letitia James even shucked her shoes in the elevator and walked barefoot. Previously at the Waldorf, which remains perennially indisposed, the dinner was at the Javits Center. Condoleezza Rice kept her footwear on, but blew her brain power. Her note about our senator wrote his name as Chuck Schemer. Bloomberg, Pataki, the Cardinal drew applause. For de Blasio the entire ballroom went silent.
50 years of aid
January 1972, Geraldo Rivera exposed the horrors of Willowbrook. That was Staten Island’s state-funded institution for mentally disabled children. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy called its conditions “a snake pit.” Now comes the 50th anniversary of Geraldo’s exposé and subsequent charity he created for its replacement. Journalism’s Three Mouthketeers — Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Rivera — New Yorkers all, may snarl professionally, but they unite personally. Each contributed his own $50,000 to fund this special organization, which was founded half a century ago. Immigration, abortion, infection and all such issues require support — but, they say, “Other Americans also need help.”
Odds & ends
Celebrity garage sale a while back. Jeremy Irons went to bid for his own Armani jacket, but lost to a lady fan, who swooned: “I hope he hasn’t washed it.” The castle owner host held aloft a red thong that had starred in “The Full Monty.” A buyer remarked: “Just think where that has been.” . . . And something new to buy now: The Countess of Carnarvon’s just-published “Seasons at Highclere: Gardening, growing and cooking through the year at the Real Downton Abbey.” This real Countess of Carnarvon owns and operates the real Highclere Castle, where the reel “Downton Abbey” is filmed . . . BICE Cucina’s opening spots while others are closing. There’s BiCE Cucina midtown, BiCE Cucina downtown, now BiCE Cucina Chelsea’s under construction.
Tough neighborhoods? The way we’re going these days, nobody asks you for the time anymore. They just heist your watch.
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.