During her introductory remarks at the opening of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art on Saturday night, Mellody Hobson said her husband, famed “Star Wars” director George Lucas, was nervous about the evening’s turnout. George kept saying, ‘Will this person come? Do you think that person will come?’ I said, ‘They will all come, George.’” The powerhouse crowd was a melting pot of Hollywood, politics and business.
The bold-faced names included Oprah Winfrey, Leonardo DiCaprio, Harrison Ford, Michael B. Jackson, Spike Lee, Kim Kardashian, Cynthia Erivo, Christoper Nolan. Guillermo Del Toro, Peter Jackson, Denis Villeneuve, Edgar Wright, George R.
Martin, Nicolas Cage, Doja Cat, Al Pacino, Francis Ford Coppola, Jon M. Chu, Vin Diesel, Gayle King, Katy Perry, Justin Trudeau, Keke Palmer, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, Michael Bloomberg, Bob Iger, Dana Walden, Janelle Monae, Lee Daniels, Ariana Huffington, Tracee Ellis Ross, Zac Posen, Jon Batiste, Diane Warren, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, among many others.
Lucas said he wanted to create a cultural institution that honors illustrators. He continued, “I’ve worked with hundreds of illustrators, and I will tell you that they are as talented as any artist I have ever met. This is a way of giving back to them something they’ve all wanted…The illustrators inevitably say the same thing, from R.
Crumb to [Norman] Rockwell, they all say the same, ‘I wish I could be in a museum.’” While Winfrey, Erivo, Kardashian and Rodriguez strolled through the galleries most of the heavy hitters made their way to the fifth floor Skywalker Grill restaurant. DiCaprio enjoyed sushi in a banquette with Al Pacino, Andrew Watt and David Furnish. Nolan bent over to say hello to a seated Coppola.
Ron Howard and his daughter Bryce Dallas Howard took photos with Kardashian and her boyfriend, car racing champion Lewis Hamilton. Building the $1.5 billion museum, which was entirely funded by Lucas and Hobson, came with plenty of headaches. In the 20 years since Lucas first proposed the idea, the museum was close to being located in San Francisco and then Chicago.
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