They put the chat in Chateau Marmont Sunday when hotelier André Balazs and publishing scion Angela Janklow hosted “Chateau Marmont Chat Chats.”
It was the first in a series of monthly literary salons at the storied hotel, we hear.
The chatting began with LA artist Ed Ruscha and Hollywood novelist Bruce Wagner in front of a crowd that included Michael Ovitz and Tamara Mellon, recent Oscar winner Cord Jefferson, Harvey Keitel, Gus Van Sant, Bangles singer Susanna Hoffs, Anjelica Huston, Monica Lewinsky, OG “SNL” star Laraine Newman, Steve Brill, Vogue’s Lisa Love, Justine Bateman, artist Mary Weatherford and Ed Begley Jr., among others.
Balazs told us: “As is always the case in literature, where the hero sooner or later turns up at a hotel, seemingly every creative talent in Hollywood eventually checks in at the Chateau Marmont.”
He added that, “I decided, working with my dear friend Angela Janklow, that the great literary salons, always led by an intelligent woman, belong at the Chateau on a regular basis.”
West coast pop art pioneer Ruscha has a current retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which launched this month and runs through Oct. 6.
The New Yorker wrote of the artist, 86, last year when the show was at MoMA, “He looked like a movie star and dated a few, including Diane Keaton, but he never clouded the viewer’s gaze with charisma.”
The hip artist even presaged the Instagram era by decades perhaps when he created the 1970 work, “Chocolate Room,” a giant edible cocoa covered installation.
Wagner, 70, is the author behind such wonderfully acerbic LA tomes as “Dead Stars” and “I’m Losing You.”
An insider told us that after all the witty repartee at the salon, “As they were wrapping up, Ed and Bruce were talking and making up nicknames for each other… Bruce dubbed Ed ‘debonair daddy.'”
Janklow introduced the artists at the event by telling the duo, “I’m excited to delve into a conversation that explores the rich tapestry of themes present in both of your work, and how they intersect with the broader cultural landscape.”