More, More, Moore

Despite its black tie dress code and the pristine setting of New York’s 583 Park, Tuesday evening’s Museum of the Moving Image Salute was a laid-back and comical affair. The star-studded crowd was there to celebrate the evening’s honoree, Julianne Moore, who stunned in Chanel couture as her friends and former co-stars sang her praises. Actress Chloe Grace Moretz shared advice from her former on-screen mother, actor Billy Crudup spoke of meeting Moore in the early 1990s, and the actress’s Game Change co-star Sarah Paulson divulged their mutual love of e-commerce. “Oh, the number of times right before we would shoot discussing what was in our Net-a-Porter and La Garçonne shopping baskets,” she said, laughing. “Like what we had piled in there and what we had decided to get, what we were thinking about longer, and then they’d say action and she’d go right into Sarah Palin!”

At dinner, Moore’s many accolades (the actress has won 67 awards, including Best Actress in a Drama at the 2015 Golden Globes, and received 168 nominations throughout her career) became a favorite topic. “It’s funny, you don’t really know how many awards you haven’t won until you Google Julianne,” said Ethan Hawke. Moore’s husband of 11 years, the writer and director Bart Freundlich, reminisced about less-flattering milestones. “I’ve been with her through sunburns, four Oscars ceremonies—five to come—a colonoscopy, and her Broadway debut,” he said, activating Moore’s signature howl, audible even over the large crowd. “I believe those last two were equally uncomfortable for her.”

Ellen Barkin spoke of her longtime friend “Julie,” Mark Ruffalo appeared in a touching video, and Candice Bergen gave a bizarrely amusing toast. “I have no idea why I’m here,” she quipped. “But I got dragooned into it by the museum, so here ya go!” Last, but not least, Moore took to the stage to thank the museum and comment on the evening’s clip reel, which, among other things, showed her pretending to snort cocaine in Boogie Nights, cursing at a pharmacist in Magnolia, and discussing vaginal art as Maude in The Big Lebowski. “It’s kind of crazy because my children are here and they haven’t seen any of my films,” the star laughed. “So, it’s been kind of nutty saying like, ‘It’s just pretend, I wasn’t doing anything! The cigarettes were fake, I don’t know what that was, and I didn’t say those words!’”