Took a Trip in a Gemini Spacecraft: My Hollywood Dinner with Bowie & Iman

"E3": The Electronic Entertainment Expo, every May in Los Angeles - a peek at next Christmas's hottest video games, new game platform introductions, and all that.  For a few cycles I led a crew that pitched a large-ish Discovery Multimedia booth in the main hall, across the aisle from Sega.  In 1995 it was the golden age of the CD-ROM...

We did a glitzy launch for Nick Maris' WINGS multimedia line, flying 24 buyers in small groups by helicopter up and down the coastline and inland over the "HOLLYWOOD" sign before landing on the roof of the Bank of America building, and heading inside for a penthouse dinner.  The final day of the show, "my publicist" & press maven Vicki Stearn and I packed up and headed out of town. It was 5:30 and we had a 10:00pm red-eye, so we steered the rental to Chaya Brasserie in Beverly Hills, by Cedars Sinai Hospital: time to review the bidding over a bottle of California cab and a nice steak.

Bowie / Iman: chopstick chicanery

Halfway through the meal, in sweep David Bowie and his bride, incomparable Iman, with another couple (no, not Ricky Gervais).  They all get seated right at the next table.  Now, in those days you could still light up in a restaurant in LA.

Out come the Gauloises, and up go the flames.

Bowie - Hollywood, 1948 ?

Wild, wild ... laughing, laughing, LAUGHING at the top of their lungs, the party of four carried on.  Teeth flashing and voices booming, none flashier nor boomier than Major Tom's.

Of course Iman was a knockout.  But what I recall is the perfectly stylized angularity and natural, theatrical precision of Bowie's presence. Fitted jacket, striking hair, movie-star cheekbones, Kabuki gestures. Most of all, the exaggerated way that the cigarette rested in his fingers as an essential prop: pointing due north at the ceiling as his elbow swept a perpendicular plane through our space, while the smoke - triangular - even seemed to do what he intended it to do.

Bowie - Smoke on Stage

Our dinner was long and leisurely, but their party were settled in for good (Bowie: osso bucco; Iman: spring salad), and outlasted us.  Too soon, too soon: we had our bill and set out on the rental return dash.  When the smoke cleared, we had dined with Bowie and been spellbound in his aura.

I tell you, the mime training really paid off!

"I owe it all to Lindsay"