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Monday, March 24, 2003

By Barbara Vancheri, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

LOS ANGELES -- The phone rings at 10:40 a.m. on the private poolside patio of Bob and Anne Marshall. And so it begins.

	Pittsburgh native Rob Marshall directed the Best Picture winner, "Chicago." (Kim D. Johnson, Associated Press)

It's the hairdresser, who has arrived to fuss over the mother of the nominee, plus his two sisters. At 3 p.m., the car will appear to take the family to the 75th Academy Awards, where their son Rob Marshall's "Chicago" is up for 13 nominations and where he has a seat on the aisle of the Kodak Theatre, just in case he is summoned to the stage.

The Marshall clan -- former Pittsburghers Bob and Anne who now live in Bridgehampton, N.Y., plus daughters Kathleen and Maura and son-in-law Dennis Powell -- have come together for what is part family reunion (the best part, they say over morning coffee) and part behind-the-curtain peek at Hollywood.

Sally Field stopped by their table at Spago the night before to say hello. So did chef Wolfgang Puck. Autograph seekers and photographers follow the 42-year-old theater veteran turned movie director to the car, trying to shoot through the tinted glass windows.

Although Bob and Anne initially thought they wouldn't be able to swing tickets for the ceremony or, if they did, they might be "hanging from the rafters," they ended up with eighth row center. It's no wonder that Anne, sitting outside in her red New York City Ballet T-shirt and sweat pants, had joked that they felt like Cinderellas and Cinderfellas at the Governors Ball -- which they would be attending, along with a list of other parties that are on their typed agenda.

A Saturday afternoon party at Barry Diller's house -- "a gorgeous place" with waterfalls and long sloping lawns dotted with oriental carpets, pillows and standing umbrellas for guests -- was crazy with A-list stars. Wandering amid the yellow splashes of decoration in the form of sunflowers and bowls of lemons were: Warren Beatty, whom Anne was delighted to see in person, along with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Hanks and wife Rita Wilson and Oscar nominee Adrien Brody from "The Pianist." Diller, former head of Vivendi Universal Entertainment, and Diane Von Furstenberg were throwing the bash in honor of Vanity Fair's Graydon Carter.

That was the opening act for an evening Miramax party, where the usual skits spoofing the studio's pictures were scrapped because of the war that has sobered the country and the Oscar organizers and brought protesters into the streets of Los Angeles and elsewhere. Michael Feinstein did perform a version of "Chicago" with lyrics such as "Rob Marshall, my kind of director" and the young daughters of mogul Harvey Weinstein passed out chocolate Oscars.

Rob and his life partner, John DeLuca, went to the Miramax party and then ducked out for Oscar rehearsal in Hollywood.

Although the spotlight has been on Rob, DeLuca was featured in a double-page color feature in yesterday's Los Angeles Times celebrating "five who worked to nail down the details behind the best picture nominees." In addition to being Rob's partner, he was choreographic supervisor and second unit director on "Chicago."

So the Marshalls had much at stake in the ceremony, which was threatened with postponement due to the war. Seeing the family of one of the first Marine casualties reminded Anne of how she is in the warm embrace of her husband, children and their significant others, and of how fleeting happiness can be.

Anne is not disappointed to miss the phalanx of screaming photographers on the red carpet. "What you don't want is it to be all so frivolous and focusing on the screaming fans and 'What are you wearing?' kind of thing. . ... I think it should focus on the achievements. But that's me. I didn't pay thousands of dollars" for a gown.

She bought a three-piece black tuxedo suit with jacket, camisole and floor-length skirt. Kathleen opted for a black Ralph Lauren, and Maura will be in a couture outfit in a burgundy wine color. Bob was wearing the tuxedo he bought back in Pittsburgh at Waterworks Mall when Anne said the words he never thought he'd hear: "Maybe you ought to buy a tux."

Like Anne, Bob has been ambivalent about Hollywood's brightest night falling during such a dark time. "I certainly want it to go on, because of so much anticipation of it, even though I felt, as everyone does, terribly ambivalent about everything. Just very selfishly, I couldn't even imagine how everybody in our family would manage changes" in travel and work schedules.

As tickled as the Marshalls are about Rob being on a first-name basis with Harvey and Catherine and Renee and Richard, they happily relay something that had happened the day before. A theater usher from New York who knew Rob way back when came to L.A. just to be in the same city where he's being toasted. When she stopped by the hotel to leave her card, she ran into Rob who greeted her like the old friend she is.

Asked if they'd be nervous for Rob, Anne recalled sitting next to writer Bill Condon at the Directors Guild of America awards, grabbing his hand when the winner (it was Rob) was about to be announced. "I was hanging on for dear life" so tightly, she said, that she wondered if he'd ever grasp a pen again.

And to think it all started a year ago. "It's a year ago this month that they wrapped in Toronto and if you had said then, anything remotely resembling what's happening now, you wouldn't have believed it," Bob says. "They just wanted to make a movie that was good."

Did they ever.