Rashida Jones. First name’s Saudi Arabian with a sprinkle from Swahili. It means “rightly guided.” It fits. Her dad’s Quincy Jones. Her Grammy’s on a shelf with family pics. Her movie, “On the Rocks,” a Sofia Coppola comedy/drama co-stars Bill Murray and premiered at the New York Film Festival.
Plus, Thursday she joins Awkwafina and Rachel Brosnahan in getting the 41st annual New York Women in Film and Television Award. She says: “I live in California, but this is a New York honor. I love New York. I worship New York. It’s the best city in the world.
“We’re doing this award 1 p.m. Virtually. Me against a blank wall in turtleneck and blazer because I don’t think black tie works in my own house. And Zoom lighting is so lousy it’s hard to look good. I’ll have to do the whole hair and makeup thing and just roll with it. You never look as good as you would on any red carpet.
“And I feel badly I won’t see my father for Christmas. I love him so much, but because of COVID, I can’t even hug him. Too risky. He’s 87, doing great, but he’s diabetic. It’s why I loved making that slice of life movie because it’s about a father and daughter.
“It’s also why I love New York. There was a day shooting when one of our guys who’s into stunts suddenly peeled away from the production to go cruising up 10th Avenue on his motorcycle. The guy got pulled over by a cop and sent back to our set.”
So, meanwhile, is she locked in alone during our lockdown?
“I have a partner. But I’m hunkered down. Writing. I don’t know what I’m now writing is maybe turning out to be. I work on a computer, and I stick notes and ideas up on a corkboard. And in between, since we can’t go out, I make things like vegetable soup and stir fry.”
Rashida. Rightly guided.
Seasonal acting
Showbiz: Rosemary Clooney, Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye made 1954’s “White Christmas” in the fictional town of Pine Tree, so ever since, Vermont’s the ho-ho go-to for snow. Irish singer Maxine Linehan ice-skated to the Green Mountain State to record her Yuletide album, “This Time of Year.” . . . And director George Clooney’s “The Midnight Sky,” all about space, orbits just before Christmas. He’s also directing “The Tender Bar” starring Ben Affleck — who’s also directing “The Big Goodbye,” about the making of the film classic “Chinatown.” Soon, the only acting actor left in Hollywood could be Jeff Bridges.
Please pay attention . . .
Doings: “Femme Touch” is an exhibit in Pittsburgh’s Andy Warhol Museum. Photog Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and doll collector Beauregard Houston-Montgomery included 65 boxes of items from transgender icons and underground archives. The sponsor is Bank of America . . . The Nice List includes philanthropist Adrienne Arsht’s $5 mil gift to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to fund college internships, plus a Toys for Tots in her DC driveway. Her former house she sold to Trump’s Commerce guy, Wilbur Ross . . . Gooding & Co. are hustling a 1926 Bugatti Type 37 Grand Prix. It sold in the ’50s to now-gone New Yorker Peter Larkin. The sale’s online Jan. 18. The low estimate is $650,000. Driving it beats Viagra.
What the #*%!
TV: “History of Swear Words” — hosted for some reason by Nicolas Cage, who maybe needs the effing paycheck — is exploring the cultural impact of curse words. Cultural impact?! How’s that for BS? Netflix’s six-episode education in expletives — we are not talking “Ozzie & Harriet” here — wallows into the origins of everything you’d smack your kid for saying . . . Thanks to Enzo’s, of The Bronx’s famously delicious Arthur Avenue, for their care package to this nine-month columnist shut-in. Thanks, guys.
A thought. Just a thought. Going into politics beats not having to worry about shutdowns, loans, sales or how to make a living. Also: Pelousey, who knew of that fang-you Fang Fang? She called it “a setup.” Like the Hunter Biden thing? Like the hairdresser without the mask she also called “a setup”?
Just sayin’ — Only in DC, kids, only in DC.