Anyone who’s dreamed of running through a room screaming, “Is there a doctor in the house?” had a golden opportunity last night at the after-party for the New York premiere of Lisa Cholodenko’s lesbian-moms-slash-sperm-donor comedy The Kids Are All Right. As we sat in a booth at Plein Sud, we heard a loud metallic crash and a sickening thwack. A young, tall, healthy-looking guy had fallen from a standing position and practically into our booth, hitting his head on the way down. At least seven people immediately whipped out their cell phones and called 911, and, yes, one or two lucky people got to run around frantically shouting for a doctor. Luckily, a pregnant-and-showing Rachel Dratch happened to have brought a good doctor friend as her date. The doc knelt down, and after ten scary seconds during which he couldn’t hear the man breathing (it was a noisy room), the man opened his eyes and began responding to questions.
Most of the cast and their celebrity friends were downstairs, oblivious, but David Wain walked by and did some rubbernecking, as did Dustin Lance Black, who happened to choose that very moment to visit the buffet. Party publicist Peggy Siegal moved quickly around the room, giving and getting information. To Focus Features head James Schamus: “You know the saying, ‘the kids are all right’? Well, the guests are not all right!” To us: “Was he A-list or B-list?” Neither, it seems, but he was okay. He’d had what appeared to be a seizure, and he got up and walked outside with the EMTs. By that time, the talk of the party (hosted by Eternity Calvin Klein, and sponsored in part by Quintessentially) wasn’t how a guy had passed out, but how freaking long it took the ambulance to get there. Other than that, though, the party was really fun. Josh Hutcherson cozied up with a female friend — and re-reiterated that he has not been cast as Spider-Man. Julianne Moore and John Cameron Mitchell, and Ed Norton and Mark Ruffalo paired up and talked shop. A lot of other very pretty people milled about and did not faint. As we walked out, we congratulated Peggy Siegal on having invited so many doctors to the party. She, in turn, asked if we could please write that the guy had fainted because “he was overcome with emotion from seeing the movie.” Ah, Peggy. Probably not. But it was a good movie.
Update: The name of the man who fell down is Tariq Khan, and he’s okay. He’s also, apparently, an Oscars trivia ace. [Gold Derby]
