The combined ages of the Hollywood elite who celebrated Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” for lunch on Wednesday was about a thousand.
Famed B-movie director Roger Corman, 95-year-old legend Norman Lloyd (Dr. Auschlander from “St. Elsewhere”) and Oscar winner Martin Landau hosted the lunch at the equally old and similarly robust Musso and Frank in Hollywood. The event was sponsored by Insignia Productions’ Ranee Bartolacci and organized by Tarantino fan Norah Lawlor of Lawlor Media in New York.
The other guests were people who know their Oscar movies: Cloris Leachman, Ron Howard, Jacqueline Bissett, plus Karen Black, John Milius, Tom Skerritt, Irwin Winkler, JoBeth Williams, Michael Nouri, Ron Perlman, Wayne Kramer, Bruce Davison, Frank Capra Jr, Ron Yerxa, Jon Voight, and the ever popular Norby Walters.
The group toasted Tarantino, partner in crime Eli Roth, and producer Lawrence Bender.
Everyone got a good chuckle when Norman Lloyd stood up suddenly and said, “Quentin, I’m available!”
Cloris Leachman, 83, who was supposed to be in the flm but wasn’t, got a big laugh when she answered, “I was available!”