Al Pacino

“We have a Shakespearean, Elizabethean temper,” Al Pacino informed a seated crowd Monday evening in Central Park. As part of its 50th Anniversary Gala, the Public Theater was honoring Mr. Pacino with an award, in the form of a prop rapier he had once wielded on stage, “I’m a little nervous,” he laughed. “I wish I had water, but I have a sword,”

While the audience of hundreds listened to Mr. Pacino with rapt attention, a secondary scrum gathered across the fence. What appeared to be backup pitchers on a hapless softball team abandoned their game to listen to the famed thespian. Soon, a quintessentially New York amalgam of dog-walkers, skateboarders and bright-eyed Broadway hopefuls paused their iPods, essaying to hear Mr. Pacino over the Central Park din.

Earlier, as guests arrived, many seemed to materialize suddenly from the Where’s Waldo-esque ether of the park. From the throngs of sunglassed and unknowing denizens, Julianna Margulies and husband Keith Lieberthal appeared, followed by Chelsea Clinton and Mac Mezvinsky, Kathleen Turner, Julia Stiles and Lily Rabe.

The red carpet, positioned on the West side of the theater, was situated atop a blind hill. With clipboard in hand, one unlucky PR staffer was tasked with running up and down the escarpment, alerting her superiors when the VIPS arrived—the Public’s own Paul Revere. (Listen, dear readers, and you will hear, her stage-whispering celebrity arrivals from far and near!)

Returning to the Delacorte theater was a sort of homecoming for Ms. Rabe, who acted alongside Mr. Pacino last year in The Merchant of Venice. “Working with Al Pacino was one of the great privileges of my life,” she told The Observer. “He’s a wonderful human being, and being able to spend a year of my life, a very complicated year of my life, with him through all of that was something that I’m very grateful for.”

She insisted she wasn’t nervous when she first met the actor, however, and made no special preparations for the occasion. “I didn’t do anything. I probably, I don’t know, I rolled out of bed and took a shower,” she laughed. (Such élan!) While meeting her idols does not make her ill at ease, other things certainly do: “You know, snakes. Snakes not for me. People, more for me.”

As Ms. Rabe headed toward dinner, Steve Martin appeared wearing a fedora. He rushed towards his seat, and declined to be interviewed, with an unconvincing half-apology. “But I like The Observer!” he called over his shoulder, “It’s a great paper!” God bless you Mr. Martin! Don’t worry, we’ll talk next time.

Bob Balaban, however, proved perfectly chatty when asked which of the Bard’s characters he most identifies with. “Easily Caliban, because no other Shakespearean character is almost my name. It’s the only one!” he exclaimed gaily. “What could it be, Richard III? No. That doesn’t sound like Balaban.” The actor went on to describe his busy summer, which includes a book tour for his upcoming title The Creature from the Seventh Grade. “Its completely autobiographical,” he said. “But in this case the boy turns into an eight and a half foot reptile, which I didn’t do.” Describing himself as “shortest, skinniest, most-incompetent boy in his class,” Mr. Balaban professed that he has “fabulously good and fabulously horrifying memories of the seventh grade.”

At dinner on the Delacorte’s northeasterly lawn, guests toasted the Public’s half-century of free plays. White lanterns bobbled in the slight breeze as Christine Quinn saluted the organization.

As the main course was being served, Tony Kushner shared his favorite Shakespearean play. “For various reasons, Midsummer, because I think its about theater itself. So it seems like to me it’s sort of at the center of things.” Sadly, we didn’t have the opportunity to press him further, as we were overwhelmed by hundreds of passing chicken breasts.

After the meal, the crowds sought their seats for the evening’s reading of Romeo and Juliet. Attempting to avoid the clogged corridors, full of chatting and meandering guests, many attendees hoofed it across the lawn, only to find they had to mount a thigh-high fence to access the stage. Revelers young and old, spry and not so spry, heaved legs over the railing in an show of theatric acrobatics. Several sets of unmentionables were unwittingly flashed.

Before finding our seat, we ran into Cynthia Nixon, whose fire-red hair is growing back after her stint as a cancer-stricken professor in the Broadway show Wit. The actress, however, doesn’t know if she will keep her tresses short. “People keep asking me that. I’m getting a lot of positive reinforcement about the length,” she said, pulling at the still downy strands.

Inside the theater, guests rose for a standing ovation as the cast took the stage. Meryl Streep larked a lighthearted vision of Juliet, while Kevin Kline read opposite, as Romeo. Christopher Walken earned the most laughs as a sometimes Queens-inflected Mercutio, and Christine Baranski appeared as the nurse. Throughout the reading, flashing, fluorescent underbellies of passing planes reminded viewers they were sitting beneath the midsummer Manhattan sky.

After the performance, we found Ethan Hawke. Asked what he would ask Shakespeare if he had one question, Mr. Hawke thought for several moments, before offering a response. “What happens when we die?” he concluded. Genius or cheeky (or both), we have not yet decided. We’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.

After the reading, guests returned to the Delacorte’s front lawn, and enjoyed dancing, desserts and drinks. “Can I get champagne and wine? Is that bad?” one guest asked her friend guiltily.

The clock neared midnight. The softball team had long since packed its bats (after yet another loss, it seemed), and the Great Lawn was quiet once more. The party at the Delacorte continued, however. With glasses in hand guests danced into night, ill-chosen spike heels sinking into the new summer sod.

editorial@observer.com

Accidentally On Purpose (Mondays at 8:30 p.m., premieres September 21)

What CBS says: “Accidentally On Purpose is a comedy starring Golden Globe Award winner Jenna Elfman as Billie, a single woman who finds herself “accidentally” pregnant after a one-night stand with a much younger guy, and decides to keep the baby and the guy.”

What we say: It’s like Knocked Up … but with cougar jokes! Ouch. Accidentally On Purpose has one of the most enviable time slots of the fall—sandwiched right in between How I Met Your Mother and Two and a Half Men—and the added bonus of being the charming Ms. Elfman’s first television series since the long-forgotten Courting Alex in 2006, but we can’t say our hopes are high for this hackneyed sitcom to last very long.

What we’ll say six months from now: “Did you hear CBS is developing a show about a 40-year-old virgin?”

NCIS: Los Angeles (Tuesdays at 9 p.m., premieres September 22)

What CBS says: “NCIS: Los Angeles is a drama about the high stakes world of undercover surveillance at the Office of Special Projects (OSP), a division of NCIS that is charged with apprehending dangerous and elusive criminals that pose a threat to the nation's security.” Chris O’Donnell and LL Cool J co-star.

What we say: It will never cease to amaze us that NCIS, a series starring Mark Harmon of all people, is one of the most popular shows in America. Outside of our parents, who is actually watching that show? That aside, this spinoff promises to offer whatever it is that the patriarchal series offers, albeit in a sunnier venue.

What we’ll say six months from now: “NCIS: Los Angeles is a hit? Who is actually watching that show?!”

The Good Wife (Tuesdays at 10 p.m., premieres September 22)

What CBS says: “The Good Wife is a drama starring Emmy Award winner Julianna Margulies as a wife and mother who must assume full responsibility for her family and reenter the workforce after her husband's very public sex and political corruption scandal lands him in jail.”

What we say: Political scandals never change (see: Sanford, Mark), so The Good Wife feels like it's on the cusp of immediacy even though it could have been made ten years ago. Ms. Margulies, a year removed from the dud that was Canterbury’s Law (we barely remember it either) has always been a transfixing small screen presence, but we’re more excited about the supporting cast which includes Christine Baranski, Josh Charles and, as the bad husband, guest star Chris Noth.

What we’ll say six months from now: “It’s pretty surprising that Mark Sanford still hasn’t resigned.”

Three Rivers (Sundays at 9 p.m., premieres October 4)

What CBS says: “Three Rivers is a medical drama that goes inside the emotionally complex lives of organ donors, the recipients and the surgeons at the preeminent transplant hospital in the country where every moment counts. However, dealing with donor families in their darkest hour and managing the fears and concerns of apprehensive recipients takes much more than just a sharp scalpel.”

What we say: Because what America needs now is yet another doctor show! Three Rivers has already gone through some turmoil—co-star Julia Ormond was replaced after the pilot was picked up—and the premise could not feel more rote. If only Alex O’Loughlin—formerly a vampire on the canceled-but-beloved Moonlight—was be allowed to flash his fangs, Three Rivers might work. Vampires are so hot right now.

What we’ll say six months from now: “Now that Three Rivers is canceled, we’re hearing Alex O’Loughlin is in line for NCIS: Transylvania.”

Mr. Noth is in a suit and red tie. Ms. Margulies wears a pencil skirt, a blue herringbone blazer and pearls. The camera closes in on her face, which is pale and still.

“Good morning. An hour ago I resigned as state attorney of Cook County,” says Mr. Noth’s character, named Peter Florrick. “I have never abused my office. … But at the same time I need to atone for my personal failings with my wife, Alicia, and our two children. The money used for these transactions was mine and mine alone. No public funds were ever utilized. But I do admit to a failure of judgment in private dealings with these women.”

In March of last year, executive producers Robert and Michelle King (they’re married) were watching Silda Spitzer on TV as her husband, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, resigned from office.

“The Spitzers were prominent, but it was really the spring of scandals,” Mr. King told the Transom. “They all had the same interesting character in it, which was not the husband, but the wives, who were almost used as props. There was nothing more worthy of high drama than what was going through these wives’ heads.”

Mr. King didn’t understand why politicians’ wives stayed with their husbands; his wife argued for the complexity of the situation. These disagreements led to a script about a once independent and successful political wife who faces a philandering husband and returns to work as a defense attorney. By summer, they were pitching the show to ABC, which passed, and to CBS.

Ms. Margulies remembered the inescapable footage of the Spitzer resignation.

“If you went to the gym, it was there; if you went online, it was there,” she told the Transom by phone from her New York apartment. “There wasn’t one person who didn’t scream out, ‘Why are you there?’ We were all so quick to judge her.”

After Ms. Margulies met with producers Ridley Scott and David Zucker and accepted the part, she studied the humiliating press conferences of the Clintons, the Spitzers and the McGreeveys. “Every single woman that I watched standing behind her man aged 10 years in a span of two months,” she said. “Then afterward, you see them bounce back. Silda Spitzer was in Vogue recently, and she couldn’t look better. She is running a hedge fund and she seems to have the world at her feet.” (Ms. Spitzer, who works for Metropolitan Capital Advisors, declined to comment.) “In order for this to work, everyone had to be in love with him,” said Ms. Margulies. “All these guys that have fallen from grace, they’re so magnetic. Bill Clinton, I’m sorry, but when all that happened, I kind of understood it. I mean, he’s gorgeous!”  

The show will follow Alicia Florrick (Ms. Margulies) in the aftermath of the very public sex scandal. In one scene, her teenage daughter calls and says, “A girl at school said that Dad slept with a hooker my age.” In another, she watches the TV at her office as news is reported that the “celebrity call girl,” who is blond and does not look at all like Ashley Dupre, is writing a memoir.

“The premise of the pilot is that now you can go anywhere with it,” said Ms. Margulies. “And now we can just start peeling her like an onion because eventually she’ll just snap.”

Mr. King spoke highly of Mr. Noth as the wayward politician. “There is something charming about him—he pursued it with a little bit of Clinton,” he said.

And the cast and producers were thrilled when South Carolina’s governor, Mark Sanford, admitted to having an affair with an Argentine woman just a few weeks ago.

“You should have seen some of the memos going around from agent to manager to producer, like, ‘Could we ask for better publicity?’” Ms. Margulies said. “But I really applaud Jenny Sanford’s reaction to the media; she was so unbelievably classy, as were Silda and Hillary. These women are smart. They’re not wallflowers.

“The great question is, as women become more present in political arenas, are we suddenly going to find out about their affairs?” Ms. Margulies mused. She thought about it for a moment and started laughing. “Actually, I doubt it. We’re just too busy.” 

How were the attendees—all of whom were employed in theater, television, and film—anticipating the downturn affecting the entertainment industry?

"Obama has other matters to attend to," said board member and Desperate Housewives cast member Dana Delany, wearing her trademark black-rimmed glasses and a cranberry party dress. "That's why we have to fund the arts in the private sector."

"It's hard to tell," said Ms. Margulies, who was wearing black silk pants and a matching shell. "You think that everyone will run out for entertainment [during hard times]. TV will do well—because you can watch in your living room. Film might suffer—it's expensive to take a whole family out to the movies, and once you buy popcorn..." (Especially that large-large combo—free refills! Not that we'd know anything about that.)

How did Ms. Margulies spend the historic election night? "I went to a gigantic party. All my friends are politicos. There were two sad Republicans in the room. It was the only time I've ever gloated."

What about theater, which already struggles to put on shows—are we in for fewer new plays and more revivals? "I hope to God it doesn't stop new plays from being developed," said actress Laila Robins. Her ballerina-pink dress offset her icy blonde hair; she stood next to boyfriend Robert Cuccioli, who is currently in a New Jersey production of Conor McPherson's The Seafarer.

"A lot of new musicals are coming in, which is great—we need a lot of singing and dancing and laughing right now," said stage actress and Kissing Jessica Stein co-writer and star Jennifer Westfeldt, wearing a ruffled royal-blue frock with black tights. Meanwhile, Westfeldt's partner, Mad Men's Jon Hamm, hadn't yet arrived—the Daily Transom heard he was still busy filming an episode of 30 Rock.

"There are so many revivals," said Kyra Sedgwick, whose acting training was in theater. Her hair was ironed pin-straight for the occasion. "Can we write something new? I would like to see the great new American musical."

Sedgwick's husband, Kevin Bacon, also got his start in theater. "I was 17 when I moved to New York, and I found my home in Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway. [They're] places where things will thrive—I think the recession will help—it'll provoke an interesting response artistically."

Mr. Bacon and Ms. Sedgwick, along with real estater and board member Douglas Harmon, were the evening's honorees, for their longtime commitment to theater.

"I got into acting to become as famous as possible and have sex with hot chicks," Mr. Bacon deadpanned upon receiving the honor.

Former mayor David Dinkins took the stage to present honors to Mr. Harmon, but ended up sharing his hopes and dreams instead: "I have wanted for a very long time to play a judge on Law and Order. Ed Koch was on Law and Order, Bloomberg was on Law and Order, Giuliani was on Law and Order." Dick Wolf, are you listening?

Finally, they’ve given Julianna Margulies her own show, Canterbury’s Law (Fox, 8 p.m.), in which she plays a bitchy (natch) attorney for the falsely accused. Ms. Margulies has certainly paid her dues, appearing during her 18-year career on E.R., Law and Order, Scrubs, The Sopranos, and a whole host of made-for-TV movies, not to mention Snakes on a Plane. Her career strategy has obviously paid off: make the rounds playing a doctor or a lawyer and eventually, they’ll make a TV show for you. (Except if you’re Fyvush Finkel. Sorry!) It’s not a new idea. Jewish mothers have been on that tip for years.

It’ll be interesting to see how New Amsterdam (Fox, 9 p.m.), now in its “permanent” time slot and without the benefit of an American Idol lead-in, will do. And by interesting, I mean quite the opportunity for schadenfreude. Last week, behind Idol, 13.7-million viewers stuck around for the first half hour, beating out NBC’s The Biggest Loser. Loser, however, would go on to win the second half-hour. Hmmm …

Tonight’s competition is no less formidable. ABC unloads The Bachelor: Where Are They Now? (8 p.m.) and the two-hour season finale of October Road (9 p.m.), while NBC counters with its high-power trio of My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad (8 p.m.), Deal or No Deal (9 p.m.), and Medium (10 p.m.). It’s all so … craptastic!

Bonus: Fashion Rocks, a concert/charity event hosted by Uma Thurman and Samuel L. Jackson to benefit the Prince’s Trust, featuring performances by Alicia Keys and Iggy Pop, is on Bravo (10 p.m.). It’s only five months old … And WE premieres High School Confidential (10 p.m.), a reality TV series that follows 12 teen girls. Wow, just what teenage girls need: to be followed around by a camera crew that indulges their narcissism, than to be shown what they’re really like simultaneously with a national audience thereby destroying what little confidence that narcissism had created.

TUESDAY

Miss Gene Simmons? Impossible! The Kiss frontman kept busy since the end of the second season of Gene Simmons Family Jewels (A&E, 10 p.m.) with a stint on The Celebrity Apprentice. It’s been almost two months, however, since he was fired for suggesting that they market a Kodak printer by surreptitiously leaking a sex tape of it onto the Internet. Oh, wait … no, that’s how Mr. Simmons apparently markets himself (and ruins everyone’s lunch). Gee, thanks! Third season of Jewels premieres tonight.

Hillary’s practically conceded the Mississippi Primary to Barack Obama already, so there’s little suspense going into tonight’s coverage. But there is six weeks until the Pennsylvania Primary, which is basically just enough time for Obama backlash to come and go and for his comeback storyline to emerge. Isn’t this fun!

WEDNESDAY

It’s a beautiful thing Bravo has done. When one great reality TV series ends, they have another like Top Chef (10 p.m.) waiting to take its place. Yes, Padma and Tom are back (and Hung isn’t!). They’re in Chicago for their fourth season, which means one challenge will inevitably involve Kielbasa. Yum.

The Daily Show (Comedy Central, 11 p.m.) cottage industry continues to expand with the premiere tonight of Lewis Black’s the Root of All Evil (Comedy Central, 10:30 p.m.). It’s a fake courtroom show where comedians represent people or things in the news and argue which is worse. Let’s hope Mr. Black isn’t called to testify on his own behalf.

Before we leave Wednesday, a word about the Project Runway finale, please. So, Christian won. No big surprise there. But didn’t he seem a little … different? It’s as if the real-life Christian, after being served a liberal dose of TV Christian, had become, well … not so fierce. After the hiatus, he went from being brash and cocksure to meek and paranoid. Even his hair looked a bit tamped down, like a Killer Whale’s dorsal fin when it’s in captivity. It may be the first example (at least that I can think of) of a Reality TV series destroying its winner before it’s even anointed them. Only time will tell, but it worked from a suspense standpoint—it actually looked like he might lose for a second there. In the end, though, think of poor Victoria Beckham … who’s going too make her a puffy shirt if Christian is ruined?

THURSDAY

Network TV on Thursday has settled into a bit of a groove with Lost consistently beating everyone else—and rightfully so. It’s the one night where everything feels right with the world.

As for cable, Lil’ Bush returns for its second—and last?—season. Kevin Federline provides the voice of Karl Rove. With any luck, they’ll both be old news real soon.

FRIDAY

The first mother-son team on Your Mama Don’t Dance (Lifetime, 9 p.m.) is eliminated. Thanks, Lifetime. It’s a tough task, but you finally figured out a way for every lonely adolescent boy home on a Friday to feel better about himself.

SUNDAY

Barack Obama may be a little sad that his favorite TV show, The Wire, is now over, but HBO has something a little more, say, Presidential for the Senator: John Adams (8 p.m.), a mini-series starring Paul Giamatti. Mr. Obama may find that Adams has a little advice for the junior senator: “People and nations are forged in the fires of adversity.” He also said, “No man who ever held the office of president would congratulate a friend on obtaining it.”