DON’T MISS!: THREE CHEERS!
As a 20-year-old, Ed Koch found himself in France, and then Germany, fighting the Nazis. “I saw people killed,” he says. “I was scared.” On the plus side, he says, was “the camaraderie of the men in your platoon.”
Now 87, the former mayor is serving as the grand marshal for Sunday’s Veterans Day Parade along Fifth Avenue.
Koch urges fellow New Yorkers to attend the parade “so the vets will know the love and affection we have for the people who made such sacrifices.” He is also calling for the federal government to make sure it supplies whatever veterans home from Iraq and Afghanistan need.
As for his own status as head of the parade, Koch, a man of many words, simply says, “It’s an honor.”
Veterans will march on Fifth Avenue from 26th to 56th streets, starting at 11:25 a.m. Details at vetsday.org.
— Billy Heller
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CHECK IT OUT!: THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MARILYN
After 40 years, luxury skin-care brand Erno Laszlo is re-opening The Institute, feting the dermatology den’s return with an exhibit of Marilyn Monroe’s belongings. Monroe was both a close friend and client of the late skin-care specialist, frequenting his institute, as Grace Kelly and Ava Gardner did, when it was on 40th Street and Fifth Avenue in the 1940s. “The pieces look like they’ve literally been taken out of her closet,” says Erno Laszlo CEO Charles Denton of the exhibit, adding that the starlet’s sweat marks are even visible on some garments. Among items on view at the new SoHo outpost are a pink Pucci blouse and Monroe’s personal address book, marked with Laszlo’s name and number. Other highlights include never-before-seen items such as a black
cocktail dress and opera gloves, on loan from German collector Ted Stampfer. 382 West Broadway; 212-373-4700, ernolaszlo.com.
— Leah Faye Cooper
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WATCH IT!: BOMBS AWAY
FOR those of who prefer Steven Spielberg’s early, less serious approach to American history, his World War II farce “1941’’ — centering on fears of a Japanese invasion of Southern California — is getting a rare big-screen showing tonight, tomorrow and Sunday at midnight as part of the IFC
Center’s “America, F*** Yeah!” series. John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Christopher Lee and Robert Stack (in a role turned down by John Wayne!) are among the huge cast in Spielberg’s biggest (and most spectacularly entertaining) box-office flop — which drew maybe a dozen people when I saw it on opening night in 1979 at the old 2,300-seat Fox Theatre in Hackensack, NJ. IFC Center, 323 Sixth Ave., at Third Street. Info: ifccenter.com.
— Lou Lumenick
Universal/Photofest
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MAKE A DIFFERENCE!: TAKING CARE OF BID-NESS
THE Film Biz Recycling & Prop Shop estimates it’s kept more than 350 tons of materials out of landfills in the four years since it opened in Gowanus. “We’re preventing pollution by recycling leftovers from the film industry,” says Eva Radke, founder of the nonprofit. Radke’s group also donates goods to local women’s shelters and children’s charities — and last week sent blankets, pillows, flashlights, etc. to Sandy victims.
Tonight, at the fund-raising Lights! Camera! Auction!, people can bid on items such as a prop baby from “Our Idiot Brother” signed by Paul Rudd, and a basketball signed by Red Hook son Carmelo Anthony. Part of the proceeds will go to the Red Hook Initiative.
As an added treat, the Allen Oldies Band, will play at 10 p.m. With a playlist of ’50s and ’60s hits, garage obscurities and super soul, the Houston group is “off the hook, unhinged and high-energy nonstop fun,’’ says Radke.
It’s all at the Bell House, 149 Seventh St., Gowanus; filmbizrecycling.org. $40 admission; doors open for the auction at 7 p.m.
— B.H.
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TAKE A BITE!: CHOCOHOLICS UNANIMOUS
A new study put chocolate in the news recently, likening the treat to opium, with a similar brain chemical inducing an addictive desire for more. And today through Sunday, chocoholics can meet up with fellow cocoa-heads at the 15th annual New York Chocolate Show at the Metropolitan Pavilion.
“We will see thousands of pounds of chocolate come through our doors this weekend,” says event founder Sylvie Douce. Plus, cookbooks, demos, pastry-themed jewelry and samples of chocolates from around the world. Éclat is debuting the Good & Evil chocolate bar, created with chefs Eric Ripert and Anthony Bourdain, and made from extremely rare Pure Nacional cocoa from Peru. Or get your fortune told by Madam Cacao at the Chocolate for the Spirit table.
Opens 10 a.m. at 125 W. 18th St.; $35 and up; details at chocolateshow.com.
— Sara Pepitone
Getty Images
