FOLLOW THE MONEY to A CELEBRITY READING

Bulletin:

There is a celebrity reading of “All the Preident’s Men” Monday night with tickets starting at $1,000 and going up for those who want to rub elbows and party with Very Important stage, screen and television stars. Tickets.

Dustin Hoffman (seated) and Robert Redford in “All the President’s Men” (1976)

Background for those who weren’t born back then. The movie is all about something that happened 50 years ago. Richard Nixon was president. People who had protested the war in Vietnam, and gone Clean for Gene, were shocked by his landslide re-election in 1972 (49 states) against Eugene McGovern. During the election cycle Nixon had dismissed an incident at the Democratic headquarters in a building called the Watergate by saying it was just a “bungled break-in,” something not worth investigating.

Alec Baldwin will be one of the stars Monday night

Still, police had the burglars, who were arraigned. And The New York Times and The Washington Post began digging. “All the President’s Men” details the reporting that two men, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, did at the Post, which day after day, week by week, uncovered bits and pieces of the  story.

After the election, driven by this reporting, the senate held a hearing chaired by Sam Ervin, a North Carolina lawyer. The hearings went on for 51 days, and were broadcast live. They were also repeated at night. The revelations dominated the country. There were colorful spooks, a president who secretly taped people in his office, except for 18 minutes that were somehow missing. There was a whistle-blower lawyer and his ice-pick wife. People in the Justice Department who resigned rather than carry out the president’s orders; (Referred to as the Saturday Night Massacre.)

Nixon came close to being impeached. Instead, he resigned. College students decided they needed to go to law school

The West Park Presbyterian Church, 86th and Amsterdam

The movie version of “All the President’s Men” came out in 1976. Because now is close to its 50th anniversary, the folks at the Center at West Park are taking this opportunity to raise money to save their Romanesque headquarters, a church that functions as their rehearsal space, performance space and workshop. The church, built in 1880, when that part of Manhattan was country, sits at 86th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. It has been targeted by developers who would like to knock it down and build an apartment tower. So far, the Center at West Park, a 501c3, has raised $3 million. It needs $37 million to outbid the developer. That’s why ticket prices for the one-night special performance are high. For $5.000 you get to go to the afterparty. For $10,000 a ticket you can sit through the afternoon rehearsal — a table read probably — go out for dinner, then come back to a reserved seat, watch the performance and then go to the party. By that point you will practically be part of the cast.

Mark Ruffalo

No one is blabbing about who is playing which character in the movie. Dorothy Schiff, the owner of The Washington Post, was a major player in the publication of Woodward and Bernstein’s stories. But the movie left her out. A few women’s roles — Mrs. Stole “This is an honest house” and the bookeeper — are crucial, as are a few female reporters and secretaries. Otherwise the highly talented women will either be playing men’s roles, or will be reading stage directions, of which there are many.

The main character is not Woodward or Bernstein, but Deep Throat, the man who speaks to Woodward in a parking garage and warns him if their investigation has gone off track. His most famous instruction is “Just … Follow the money” in reference to a $25,000 cashier’s check made out to Kenneth Dahlberg, a Minnesota businessman. Deep Throat also sums up the key attitude about the Watergate “burglars” and the Nixon administration: “Forget the myths the media’s created about the White House. The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.”

Besides the Redford part — Woodward, a preppy newcomer in the newsroom — and Bernstein, Dustin Hoffman, playing a gruff, seen-it-all newspaper pro, there is Ben Bradley (sort of an Alec Baldwin part), the executive editor, who says “These are all non-denial denials.” Another top editor, Harry Rosenfeld, was played by Jack Warden in the film, another strong, decisive part. There are great parts for all of the men who get tracked down and refuse to talk, until they talk. Functionaries in the administration. Money guys. People at CREEP, the Committee for the Reelection of the President. No problem for a casting director.

Nathan Lane

Alas the script does not have that many juicy female roles. While Dorothy Schiff was the owner of the Washington Post when Woodward and Bernstein did their investigations, she was not in the movie.  Still, the women who have signed on, who include Julianne Moore and Gwyneth Paltrow, will have some good parts to play, like Mrs. Sloan (“This is an honest house”) and a big emotional part, the bookkeeper. Other than that, secretaries, receptionists, girlfriends. Someone has to read stage directions.

Gwyneth Paltrow

When the movie came out, showing Hoffman and Redford as a team working almost like spies, in what is portrayed as dangerous circumstances, out on the street, pounding on doors, in competition with a rival newspaper, against deadlines, fighting to nail down a second source, to get someone on the record, hammering on typewriting keys — it made being a reporter and working on the story of the decade look like fun. College students, as a result, decided to skip law school and go to journalism school instead. — LINDA LEE