“Don’t rush the royals”, Tinseltown’s elite warned
The brightest stars in Hollywood took a back seat Saturday night as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge wowed Tinseltown at a Bafta event.
Bafta President Wills and wife Kate were at the Belasco Theatre downtown with 42 rising British stars who got to hobnob with Hollywood’s power elite, including the increasingly reclusive Barbra Streisand and her producer husband James Brolin.
And the stars in attendance had to warned by the academy’s vice president Duncan Kenworthy to “be cool” and not to RUSH the Duke and Duchess as they came in.
The event came just hours after William, 29, shot and scored four times in a charity polo event in Santa Barbara.
Ahead of the match, William complimented the club for the immaculate polo facilities and quipped that Prince Charles, and brother Harry were “green as that grass when I told them I’d be here today”.
Later that evening the pair were perfectly turned out for the hottest ticket in town – a BAFTA dinner designed to give a boost British creative talent.
The royal couple met and chatted with celebrities including Stephen Fry, Tom Hanks, Jack Black, Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Lopez and Gordon Ramsay.
Kidman spoke warmly of the pair as she stopped briefly on the red carpet, telling a local news channel: “I think they are lovely. I just got off the phone to my mum and she said, ‘I’m so glad you’re going, you’re Australian’ – they just make you smile.”
Fry was also effusive in his praise for the couple, gushing: “They are an extraordinary selling point that no other nation has.
“Picture for a second the grandson of the president of Italy arriving in LA – it would take half a line in a newspaper, it just wouldn’t interest anybody.
“We have this extraordinary hangover from our past that means something to Americans and allows us to set up a shop window for talent, that’s what this evening is all about.”
The newlyweds arrived to deafening screams from crowds held behind crash barriers at the bash.
William gave a speech and joked: “Before I start I should just like to thank Colin Firth for my perfect opening line – ‘I have a voice’.”
He went on: “As president of Bafta, I am immensely proud of the success Brits have had in the fiercely competitive world of film, television and video games.
“Their creative and hi-tech achievements have contributed greatly to our national wealth, not to mention our personal pleasure.
“Tonight I celebrate them. But I particularly celebrate the fact that, hard on their heels, comes another wave of enormously talented Brits, whom you have the chance to meet this evening. They deserve equal success and, with your help, will surely achieve it.”
“Please give them the opportunities you have always extended to some of the brightest and best that Britain has to offer. When American and British creative talent gets together, magic happens.”
