| EVENT REPORT 12.15.06 11:48 AM |
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| Happyness Party Honors City by the Bay |
| Guests got a feel for the movie’s San Francisco setting with Bay Area-inspired buffets at the premiere for the new Columbia TriStar picture. |
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| Although The Pursuit of Happyness has been on lots of Hollywood lips since its release, at the party following the film’s Los Angeles premiere, 15/40 Productions’ Craig Waldman largely left the film’s name off the celebration. Waldman—whom Columbia TriStar vice president of special events Alison Bossert called upon to design the fete—projected the title artwork of star Will Smith standing hand-in-hand with real-life son Jaden onto two 20-foot-long water walls that cascaded down the center of a 24,000-square-foot tent venue located at the Sony Pictures Studio. |
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PHOTO GALLERY |
 | | At a tent at Sony Pictures Studios for The Pursuit of Happyness premiere, spandex squares hovered over elevated lounge areas, helping break up the massive space. |
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 | | Craig Waldman of 15/40 Productions scattered tables throughout the space to accommodate the 1,500 guests and discourage people from crowding around the bar. |
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 | | Two 20-foot-long water walls shimmered with the film’s title art and served as the only direct reference to the movie. |
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 | | White ultrasuede sofas and mirror-topped tables were reserved for donors. |
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The only other references to the film at the party were the songs off the soundtrack that DJ Biz Markie worked into his set, and two giant screens that flashed images of the Golden Gate Bridge and other locales in San Francisco—the city where the movie is set.
Buffet stations reminiscent of that city’s neighborhoods completed the Bay Area feel. Wolfgang Puck Catering took its inspiration from Little Italy and Chinatown for some dishes and from Fisherman’s Wharf for two chowder bars that offered Pacific white-clam chowder, dungeness crab cakes with remoulade, and crab cioppino, among other seafood treats. In a move that acknowledged the film’s depiction of a homeless man’s struggles, the evening’s leftovers went to Angel Harvest, which delivered the food to shelters and soup kitchens.
The event benefited the American Film Institute. Waldman created sophisticated seating areas for donors with mirror-topped tables and white ultrasuede furniture, while 1,500 guests of studio executives and filmmakers could chose from smaller four-person tables scattered throughout the venue. Elevated lounge areas with coffee tables and ultrasuede couches offered guests comprehensive views of the tent. Waldman suspended 40- by 40-foot squares of spandex over the lounge areas to break up the massive space and combat a cavernous feel.
—Rosalba Curiel
Photos: Line 8 Photography
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