Interview

Monday night at the Esquire Apartment at Soho Mews, Will.I.Am of The Black Eyed Peas hosted the launch of MASSIVEGOOD, an initative dedicated to fighting HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in one fell swoop. The program encourages anyone taking a trip—buying a plane ticket, reserving a hotel room, or renting a car—to make a $2 contribution toward global health crises. "I've done my thing for these causes in the past," said Will.I.Am, who wants people to donate every time they travel. "In the next couple years" he would like this charity to be a part of  "all major airlines, car rental companies, and hotels." He also hopes that people will begin to make their travel choices based on companies that support the cause. "People need to know that $2 here and there while you're traveling can do massive good for people in need."

Attendees previewed the first organization's first non-fiction film, directed by Spike Lee. Called Masterpiece, the film focuses on ideology over plot and stars Mary J. Blige, Samuel L. Jackson, Susan Sarandon and author Paul Auster. Doing their best to make every moment count, as the party was in full swing, Will.I.Am and South African singer Yvonne Chaka Chaka took to a  recording studio adjacent to the event space, recording and producing music that will become the MASSIVEGOOD campaign song. The song doesn't yet have a name—"One vacation for man, One vacation for mankind is still available."

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Hosted at the Battersea Power station, Nike Football Plus launched an iPhone application designed to help you learn from football players (That's London Fashion Week football, not New York). It coincided with the lunch of Nike's new Vapor Superfly II, a new soccer shoe. Now an iPhone and sneaker launch might not sound like your cup of tea, unless Cristiano Ronaldo shows up to host. He settled in front of a large image of himself, wearing Nike and Armani jeans and two very big diamond earrings. The casual conversation covered what Ronaldo does to get ready for all those Armani underwear campaign ("I love to sing in the shower") and his predictions for the football season (he's "confident he will beat Barcelona and win the league"). The future is in his hands.

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The greatest advice Michèle Lamy ever gave me was, "Always surprise your friends." It's an ethic borne out by her own peripatetic and virtuosic life—one that has included successful careers as a defense attorney, clothing designer, performer, film producer, and restaurateur. Over the last ten years, Lamy's life has also included her work as creative collaborator with her husband, fashion rock star Rick Owens, whose Fall/Winter women's wear collection hits the runway in Paris on March 4.

As a friend and longtime employee at her Hollywood hotspot Les Deux Cafés, I have, at various times over the last decade, heard and perpetuated a zillion fantastic tales about Lamy: She's Algerian, a gypsy; she was born in a resistance camp in occupied France, was raised by wolves in the Ardennes; she's an arms dealer, a vampire, a witch, and she's 1600 years old (the number is consistent, as if it were exact, vetted by a team of experts).  The truth is she's Parisian and used to perform in a cabaret. She met Owens through his then-boyfriend and hired him as a patternmaker for her own line, Lamy.

Anyone who found their way through the unmarked door in a Hollywood parking lot that led to  Les Deux Cafés between 1996 and 2003 felt Lamy's invisible hand directing events. It was in the ‘30s clapboard Craftsman house she moved to the site, and in the eucalyptus trees she planted herself to gird the Provençal-style brick garden. You could feel it as she strolled the patio in Owens' early designs (droopy, gothic pieces reminiscent of Lamy wear), or when she sang, "I thought it was Tangier I wanted" in her Benson & Hedges-marbled voice in Les Deux's jazzy back bar. You knew it was there when you crossed that threshold to find, say, Madonna accidentally doused in hot candle wax at her own birthday party.

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MERCHANT, GERVAIS, AND PILKINGTON

The Ricky Gervais Show is the latest project from Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the British duo responsible for Extras and the original incarnation of The Office (they also have a film coming out in April). The series, an animated adaptation of the pair's Guinness Book of World Record-breaking podcast, premieres tomorrow night on HBO. We spoke to Merchant about The Flintstones, universal humor, and the show's third star, Karl Pilkington, the bizarre radio station employee–and cult celebrity–who ties it all together.  

INTERVIEW: Did you have any approval of the way the cartoons look? I noticed that it looks a lot like The Flintstones. Ricky, in particular.

STEPHEN MERCHANT: Well, actually, we asked them to do it in the sort of style of The Flintstones. Or, I don’t mean the style–I mean to invoke the spirit. ‘Cause there’s something very charming I think about The Flintstones, and so they probably self-consciously have made Ricky look a little bit like Fred.

INTERVIEW: And why did you decide to do it as a cartoon?

MERCHANT: Well, a couple of reasons. One is that there’s something very appealing to us about trying to bring Karl to a wider audience—an audience that’s not familiar with our audio books and our podcasts. We’re sort of fascinated by him and the way that his mind works. And it seemed like an interesting way to present him, coupled with the fact that a lot of fans had already taken it upon themselves to do sort of animated versions of our conversations, just for YouTube and places. Just doing stuff in their bedrooms.

INTERVIEW: So, for you, the show is all about Karl.

MERCHANT: To be honest with you the show is about Karl. Ricky and I used to do a radio show many years ago, and one day they presented us with this guy called Karl that would just press the buttons and play records. And we asked him a few questions and, suddenly, he just started coming out with these extraordinary anecdotes. And then he switched to just everyday occurrences in Manchester, where we grew up. Some people he knew had a horse that lived in a house with them. That seemed like a pretty standard event to him, whereas we found that extraordinarily bizarre. And we would ask him questions, we’d get his opinions on things. And he just seemed to sort of be this kind of endless well of bizarre, left-field ideas and opinions

INTERVIEW: From what I understand, Karl has achieved a real cult fame in the UK. I was wondering what you think it will take for him to become equally famous here in the US.

MERCHANT: Well he actually has a cult fame all over the world, weirdly. I mean, we used to get emails from as far afield as the States and Canada, but also I think we had some from Australia and Japan and Germany. I think we even had some Inuit people contact us once…I think if you get beyond his peculiar way of talking–actually, we often describe him as a kind of global village idiot. I think he sort of reflects—or he reminds us, I hope—of sort of idiots we’ve met all over the world.

INTERVIEW: So you’re exploiting Karl?

MERCHANT: Oh, we’re exploiting him, yeah–undoubtedly. But, you know, the man’s not a simpleton–not actually. Not a kind of medical idiot! So, he’s truly aware of what’s happening. And to him, it’s like, “Why is anyone interested in this?” He’s happy to turn out and have a conversation, but to him it’s bizarre that anyone would care.

INTERVIEW: Is there anything that you’ve found that people US find funny that people never do in the UK?

MERCHANT: People have often asked me about that difference between America and the UK, and I’ve really never really identified it. My hope is that–particularly with someone like Karl–is that idiots are idiots the world over. We asked him about evolution once, and he said, “Yeah, I know about evolution. It’s pretty simple: It started with bacteria, then it was a fish, then it was a mermaid, then it was man." Now, I have never heard mermaid included on the evolutionary ladder.

The Ricky Gervais Show premieres February 19th on HBO.

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