Steve Coogan, who’s Stan Laurel in “Stan & Ollie,” learned the character’s catchphrase. “His name was in Santa Monica’s phone book, so when kids rang his apartment he’d say, ‘Your mommy know you’re doing this?’ That’s now a line I use.”
Coogan, who can do impressions of Richard Burton, Sean Connery, John Gielgud and Michael Caine, hits Greece next spring for his fourth “Trip to . . .” documentary with British comedian Rob Brydon.
John C. Reilly, who plays Oliver Hardy in “Stan & Ollie”: “I perfected the pair’s timing, like a great scene’s where one enters a building’s door exactly as the other exits. It’s precise. I’d step in its door on the right, silently count one . . . two . . . three . . . turn . . . then step out at the very second Stan Laurel, also walking and counting, would walk out its door on the left.
“And I had three hours of makeup every day. Just sitting there three hours doing nothing every single day while somebody’s slapping prosthetics on you, what do you do? Nothing. You can do nothing. You just sit there.”
‘Beale Street’ star can sure talk
“If Beale Street Could Talk,” it might say “Good for Regina King.”
And she would say, as she has: “I want whatever it takes to get people into a theater. I want everyone to see it. I haven’t made a movie like this in years. This gives the audience a hug.”
Of its New York circa 1970s background: “We shot in the last un-renovated house in Harlem. Everyone, cast, crew in that one space, and it was tight. They were about to remodel this house. We said ‘No. Don’t. The place will be worth more when we’re done.’ ”
Bits & pieces
Springing for Springsteen on Broadway once cost up to — give or take a buck — $3,000. Now you can hear, see, hum with him for nothing. Zero. Borscht. As long as you have Netflix. Catch him starting Sunday . . . Shops may be empty, but eateries are packed. Due restaurant, on Third between 79th and 80th, was SRO, waiting for tables this weekend . . . Nathan Lane, in armpit-to-armpit Ralph Lauren cashmere, seeing Bryan Cranston in “Network.”
Relic reveals
Antique dealer Vito Giallo: “Long ago, in my shop, Brooke Shields was examining the vintage jewelry case. Her mother, loudly to nobody standing there in particular: ‘Want to see a picture of my daughter?’ She then opened a large portfolio with a photo of this child, age 10, sitting in a tub, taking a bath.”
Odds & ends
Harrison Ford, Michael Douglas, Stephen Colbert and Reba McEntire autographed tchotchkes at CelebritiesForSmiles.com. It was to benefit Operation Smile, an international medical charity for kids . . . I hear that Tommy Hilfiger, selling almost as much real estate as gents BVDs, is finally unloading his Plaza Hotel duplex for $40 mil . . . If you haven’t heard, Tom Hanks’ actor son Colin now sells handkerchiefs. Hanks’ hankys are called Hanks Kerchiefs.
Dem hopeful
Terry McAuliffe. Ex- Virginia gov. “I’m thinking of running for president. I’ll decide in the next quarter. Last election, millions didn’t vote . . . Taking out Donald Trump won’t be a walk in the park . . . As its most progressive governor, I got an ‘F’ from the NRA. Virginia has more confederate statues than any other state, yet people there today don’t know whothehell Robert E. Lee was.”
“MonicaLewinsky is suddenly everywhere. Newspapers, magazines . . . I think it’s because she’s become biblical. She’s teaching presidents the 11th commandment: ‘Thou shalt not show thy rod to thy staff.’ ”
