::: George Christy ::: From the Beverly Hills Courier

Seatmates we were on a flight from LAX to Washington, both involved with our work, reading and writing, but we caught up during our meal service. We had met from time to time, he was always vibrant with his greetings, and during our flight I was mesmerized by his tales of life with Lyndon B. Johnson and advocacy work with the Motion Picture Association of America. To know Jack Valenti was to be in the presence of a titanic Texan. It was he who served as the press officer for that tragic day in Dallas during the November 1963 visit of President John F Kennedy and Vice-President Johnson, and heÕs in the photograph of the vice-president being sworn as president aboard Air Force One. Appointed then as a special assistant to President Johnson, he lived in the White House during those first two months. His wife Mary Margaret, daughters Courtenay, whoÕs an executive v-p of production with Warner Bros. Pictures, and Alexandra, a music video director based in Austin, along with JackÕs Internet entrepreneur son John welcomed the friends and associates filling the Cinerama Dome last week to remember Jack, who lost his life in April. We learned of his impassioned efforts in behalf of Friends of the Global Fight, battling AIDS, TB and malaria in Africa, for which Bono commended him. News Corp.Õs Peter Chernin, Warner Bros.Õ Alan Horn, Steven Bochco, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa acknowledged JackÕs integrity and loyalty, as did Matt Gerson, now a music industry executive. Co-hosts also included Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Warner Bros.Õ Barry Meyer, DisneyÕs Bob Iger. ÒI had the good fortune to work for and with Jack for some eighteen years,Ó Matt commented. ÒJack straddled two of societyÕs fascinations Ð politics and Hollywood. For Republicans and Democrats, for senators and young aides, for celebrities and all the people behind the cameras, interactions with Jack were graduate seminars in history, politics, human nature and common sense. This extraordinary communicator punctuated every conversation with a Texas witticism, a pithy line from the classics, or a rule passed on to him by his mentor, Lyndon Johnson. ÒOne life lesson was that character is defined by loyalty. In Washington, people often desert their so-called friends at the first whiff of public disfavor Ð I know that might shock those of you here in Hollywood. Jack insisted that you never abandon someone who was going through a rough time. At JackÕs funeral, Kirk Douglas captured the essence of his longtime friend when he said, ÔYour problems became JackÕs problems.Õ JackÕs word was his bond. But some of JackÕs habits took getting used to. It wasnÕt easy to act like a professional while being called Ôdarlin,Õ and it wasnÕt much better when he called you Ôsweetheart.Õ ÒEven though he was a gifted public speaker, Jack would rework his text behind closed doors, reciting it until the cadence was just right. It wasnÕt unusual to walk past his office and hear him preparing to testify as if he had never done so before. The people that did not know Jack would see the perfectly tailored suits accessorized with cowboy boots, hear one of his eloquent speeches, watch him on the Academy Awards, and think he was just a showman. But Jack was the hardest working person I ever met.Ó During her remembrance, which weÕll highlight with excerpts, Alexandra Valenti admitted, ÒMy fatherÕs death rocked me. ItÕs like he was the space station and IÕm the astronaut and IÕve been cut loose and now IÕm floating perilously adrift in the cosmos. ItÕs an acid trip without any of the psychedelic fun. Anyone whoÕs lost a parent can relate to that on some level. And there is no way to prepare for it. My dad would have been a pig in poop at this party. This is the kind of party he would have flown out for from the East Coast just to have been here for 10 minutes and then he would have flown right back home. He had a lot of expressions. One of them was Ôhunker down like a jackass in a hail storm.Õ I didnÕt know what that meant until recently. I feel like the rest of my life will be me hunkering down, because thatÕs what it feels like that heÕs not here anymore. ÒWe didnÕt always agree on everything. But to my dad that meant for a lively conversation, especially around the dinner table ... He ate his popcorn too loudly, he watched TV too loudly. He got frustrated so easily, changing a battery in the TV clicker was an ordeal É There were some who didnÕt get him. Like that son of a bitch who wrote the obituary in the New York Times. They didnÕt get his love of language. They called it flowery and baroque. They didnÕt get that a man who wore cowboy boots could also quote Disraeli and Trollope ... That man had more energy than me, than any of you. ThereÕs a half-written book on his computer right now. ÒWhen we brought him home from the hospital, we put him in the living room so he could face the garden. At first we thought we were going to be alone with him. This was not the way my father would want it. So we opened the front door and for the next three days it turned into a party with all of us, drinking wine and telling stories around his bed. They say, ÔIn West Texas they are there when youÕre sick, and they come when you die.Õ His friends and his family behaved like Texans that week.Ó Mary Margaret Valenti confessed itÕs never easy following Alexandra, as she had once before. She related how she and Jack met, his enthusiasm for movies and Shakespeare, his love of pasta and Corona beer, and that Òwe had the best 45 years together.Ó As the host and executive producer of Dialogue, the English channel for China Central Television, Yang Rui, 4l, has interviewed U.S. presidents, the chief of the U.N., foreign ministers and ambassadors, criminals and academics, among others. Visiting Los Angeles to find an agent and publisher for his memoir, he also would like to meet Larry King. Yang Rui shares the scoop that China Central Television is expanding soon with an English-speaking network in North America, and another network in Europe. Super-rich China is moving right along. A police detail of 100 uniformed officers guarded and protected the huge perimeter around the Geffen addition to the Museum of Contemporary Art, where Scientologists, CAA agents and clients, Rogers & Cowan PR staffers and their celebrity clients, rappers and athletes were shuttled downtown for the Tom Cruise-Will Smith hoedown on Sunday night to welcome the David Beckhams. Tom Cruise politely orchestrated the photo-ops. No matter what youÕve heard, George Clooney was not there. The Beckhams PR blitz these weeks has been exhausting, and their Rogers & Cowan reps merit bonuses. ÒBut the Beckhams have been in the U.S. for months already and have been prononced flops,Ó assesses our queen of columnists Liz Smith. ÒThe whole Posh/Beckham thing seems so ... desperate. She and her husband have come to represent a kind of uncontrolled (and unnecessary) mania for success in the United States. ItÕs not appealing.Ó Patina chef Joachim Splichal flipped burgers that were wrapped like the In-N-Outs. Valet parking king Chuck Pick smoothly manuevered the crowds, Police Chief Bill Bratton joined the guests, with many wondering if CAA or the Scientology Center underwrote the party, and were our LAPD teams paid with taxpayer dollars? Online at www.bhcourier.com.