Last week we saw Willie shilling for his favorite sandwich shop again, this week Willie classes it up a bit for a charity dinner at Michael Mina, which you may recall recently topped Esquire's Best New Restaurants list. Such is the duality of Willie Brown, we suppose — always hopping from pedestrian life on Market Street to the heights of San Francisco opulence. And it's not just food Da Mayor is ambivalent about: he's also got a couple of very important opinions on Brad Pitt.
Recall a couple months back when Willie knocked Mr. Pitt's performance in Terence Malick's magnum opus Tree of Life. Having since taken in a screening of Moneyball, Willie would now like to correct his assessment of Brad's acting prowess. You see, Brad Pitt can act, "but only in roles where he's an ass." Glad we cleared that up with the Academy, Willie.
While we're in movietime, Willie Brown saw a little bit of himself in George Clooney and Ryan Gosling's latest, The Ides of March. That's not to say that he sees himself as a Clooney-caliber dreamboat ER Doc — rather, he's unnerved by how the movie reveals, "what shallow, insincere, opportunistic, money-grubbing lowlifes we politicians can be."
After movie time, Willie decided he'd continue being a shallow, insincere, opportunistic, money-grubbing lowlife and plugged his favorite sandwich shop again: during last week's Oracle conference Subway must have done some good business, Willie says. "Every one of those sandwich places around Moscone Center had 10 people lined up out the door, all day long." He neglects to mention his commission, sadly.
Finally, Willie takes a moment to reflect on Steve Jobs' passing in a way only Willie could. You see, if it weren't for Willie Brown, there would be no Stockton Street Apple Store at which fans could grieve and also purchase iPhone 4S's. It was Willie who weaseled the workaround to demolish the historic building that once stood where that block of steel and glass is now. As Da Mayor once explained to the Apple CEO, "You know, Steve, no one says you have to preserve the entire building." And now we have a shiny new Apple Store, with one historic, preserved back wall. Here's to the dreamers.
