Elliott Gould has been tapped to receive the Starz Denver Film Festival’s John Cassavetes Award for dedication to independent filmmaking.
He’ll be in town to take a bow Nov. 5 — along with a 40th anniversary screening of “M*A*S*H*.” He’s in good, if eclectic, company. Past recipients of the Cassavetes Award include Sean Penn, William Macy, Kevin Bacon, Tim Robbins and — most memorably, Nick Nolte.
Nolte was skedded to receive the award in 2002 — the year he was busted for a DUI, followed by the best mug shot ever. He was still in rehab come festival time, so the award was mailed to him.
I remember Gould in his earliest movies, “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice” and “M*A*S*H*.” And he keeps showing up in cool flix like “The Long Goodbye” and “Oceans Eleven,” as well as its two sequels.
“We’ve admired his career for a long time,” says director of festivals Britta Erickson.
Strippers and air.
National Public Radio picked up two Husted items recently, the first from a Bar & Grilled feature on Shotgun Willie’s owner Debbie Matthews. Here’s the transcript from the quasi-quiz show “Wait, Wait. . . . Don’t Tell Me” with Peter Sagal, Amy Dickinson and Roy Blount Jr.:
SAGAL: “The owner of a Denver strip club revealed she sends her employees to be, quote, ‘trained by blank.’ ”
DICKINSON: “Wait, the owner of a Denver strip club sends her employees to be trained by seals.”
SAGAL: “No. To be trained by Mickey Mouse.”
DICKINSON: “Oh, I was so close.”
SAGAL: “In a revealing interview, Debbie Matthews of Shotgun Willie’s Strip Club in Denver says customer service at her place is so good because her managers are trained at Disney.”
DICKINSON: “Wait a minute. Whoa, whoa, the name of the place is Shotgun Willie’s?”
SAGAL: “Shotgun Willie’s Strip Club.”
DICKINSON: “Would you go into a place called Shotgun Willie’s?”
BLOUNT: “It’s a Willie Nelson song.”
DICKINSON: “It just sounds dangerous.”
SAGAL: “If there were naked ladies inside, men would go into a club called Moldy Anthrax . . . Men would go into a club called Your Armed Ex-Wife.”
The other nod came from “Morning Edition” on Wednesday — with Renee Montagne and Steve Ins keep laughing it up over the $49.99 canisters of Aspen Air reported here on Tuesday.
Bottoms up.
Craig Caldwell, who owns Brooklyn’s in Denver and Wicky’s in Playa Del Carmen, called to say his son, Andrew, has opened a new joint near the University of Denver — the Crimson and Gold, or C&G (the school colors). It’s a sports bar at 2017 S. University.
City spirit.
Come to a reception to celebrate the life and art of Denver artist Patti Cramer, 4-7 p.m. Tuesday at Dazzle, 930 Lincoln St. . . . Today is International Kite Fly for Peace Day, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. at Stapleton’s Central Park — and it includes a Pet Parade for Peace . . . Sez who: “My problem was I let myself become known before I knew myself.” Elliott Gould
Bill Husted’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Friday. You can reach him at 303-954-1486 or at bhusted@denverpost.com. Take a peek at Husted’s next column at husted.
