At last evening's film festival gayla, I met Ruth Buzzy, the beautiful wife and daughter of Ed Bass, came across Billy Bob Thornton, who looked like Dracula as his thin-as-a-bone greenish suite passed in the ballroom at the Ft. Worth Convention Center, eyes covered with dark round glasses even after the sun had gone down some time ago. The film legend, Robert Duval, crossed my path twice on Thursday, but I gained not much more than, "Where's my seat?," out of him. Old and rickety, he was in no mood for chat. Together, he and Billy Bob Thornton moved on Ft. Worth's fast-developing-into-a-big-league film festival like two hookers there long enough for the trick and full payment.
Billionaire Ed Bass's graceful daughter is in high school, she told me. When I posed, "It must be an interesting life," she replied, "Yes, it is sometimes," as she gazed across the room, clearly contemplating the meaning of the Bass name and all it entails.
The high point of the evening was when the producer of
The God Father told
the audience of probably 400 how he convinced three mafia bosses to come to his office and read the script for the movie, as they had reservations of Italians being negatively portrayed. When they arrive to the office, they didn't get past the first page with their limited attention span for reading a 150 page script and gave him the green light on just liking him. He had stood down three mafia figures by simply threatening to make them read.
The most friendly of the bunch was the cigar-toating, Kinky Friedman, who assured me that his plans include a serious run for the Texas governorship in the near future; although, I'm not sure how a man on record with so many comedic twists and limited economic credentials will become a serious political candidate. After all, everyone knows from Governor Perry that even a 2.5 GPA in Agriculture gets you laughed off the stage these days.
I met the Mayor Pro-Tem of Ft. Worth and his lovely wife. While he couldn't tell the difference between Keynesian-Marxism and the Austrian school of economic thought, he does have a business background he related, "with 3,500 former employees." I offered him a smile and a narrow pass on having the credentials for being a politician.
I met a fellow named, Fred Disney, a film festival board member who assured me that the Disney company doesn't send him any stock, as much as he would like to have some. He is a fine fellow with gray hair and a disposition that would lead one to believe he to be the head of the company in that film gayla context. I told him I'd be doing a Google search on him, and it turns out that he's just a good old boy from the neighborhood.
Finally, the kindest soul of the evening was a fellow named, Billy Schafer. As we shook hands upon his entrance into the room, I noticed a finger or two missing on his right hand; yet, he plays the guitar, I understand. He was highly regarded by every star and every guest in the room, as they awarded him this or that. Not that I don't like frivolity, but out of the 75% of the people I shook hands with in that room, he and Ed Bass' daughter were the only two non-frivolous things about the evening, one from billions of dollars and the other from the wrong side of the tracks.
Gene Chapman
TheGandhianEconomist.blogspot.com
