The Great Gatsby Meets Law & Order at The Plaza
Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Dianne Wiest, Sam Waterston Star
Jul 7, 2008
F. Scott Fitzgerald at The Plaza
New York’s The Plaza hotel was briefly home to novelist and sometime Hollywood screenwriter F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda. Zelda was the model for the character of Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby, a novel whose title character has a row with Daisy’s husband at The Plaza.
Truman Capote’s Black and White Ball at The Plaza
The hotel was also the setting for Truman Capote’s Black and White Ball. The ball’s guest list included Audrey Hepburn, star of the movie made from Capote’s novella, Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
Hepburn was also the star of My Fair Lady, directed by George Cukor, who was the godfather of Mia Farrow. Farrow attended Capote’s Black and White ball with her husband of the time, Frank Sinatra. She later went on to play Daisy Buchanan in the 1974 film version of The Great Gatsby.
Jack McCoy Meets Jay Gatsby at The Plaza
The role of Daisy’s cousin Nick Carraway was played in the 1974 film by Sam Waterston, best known for his role as New York assistant district attorney (now district attorney) Jack McCoy on the long-running TV show “Law and Order.”
Waterston re-teamed with Mia Farrow in 1986 for Hannah and Her Sisters, directed by Farrow’s long-term lover Woody Allen. Farrow played Hannah.
Hollywood Endings at The Plaza
Allen later used The Plaza as a setting for his 2002 film Hollywood Ending. Allen must have known his way around the hotel. He’d also chosen it in 1993 as the setting for a press conference announcing the real-life ending of his relationship – with Mia Farrow.
Allen’s Hannah and Her Sisters also starred Dianne Wiest, who played one of Hannah’s sisters, a coke-addled ne’er-do-well who ultimately marries Hannah’s ex – played by Woody Allen.
Hannah’s Sister Meets NY District Attorney
Another Wiest film, 1996’s The Associate, featured footage shot at The Plaza.
Wiest eventually joined Sam Waterston for a season or two on the set of “Law and Order,” where she played McCoy’s district attorney boss. “Law and Order” once also starred actor Paul Sorvino as a police detective.
Sorvino is the father of Mira Sorvino, who won the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her role in Woody Allen’s 1996 Mighty Aphrodite.
The Great Gatsby + Woody Allen = Instant Stardom?
Mira Sorvino later went on to play Daisy Buchanan in the 2000 made-for-television remake of The Great Gatsby.
She also once had a small role in 1994’s Quiz Show, directed by Robert Redford.
Four years later, Redford directed Dianne Wiest in The Horse Whisperer, which also featured a very young Scarlett Johansson. Johansson has since been cast in three different Woody Allen films.
Before he directed Wiest and Johansson, Robert Redford did a little acting. He played Jay Gatsby in a 1974 film that also starred Sam Waterston and Mia Farrow and featured a scene at The Plaza – The Great Gatsby.
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