George Lucas was nervous that nobody would show up to his museum’s opening ceremony Saturday night.
“George kept saying, ‘Would this person come?’ ‘Do you think this person would come?’” event co-chair and Lucas’ wife Mellody Hobson said. “They would all come, George.”
Lucas’ fears were unfounded. They came out in droves.
More than two decades in the making, with a cost of $1.5 billion entirely bankrolled by Lucas and Hobson, the opening of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art was part movie premiere, part political summit and part museum gala all at once. The event will go down in the record books as one of Los Angeles’ biggest openings of all time.
“I have never, ever seen a gathering of more power players, A-list celebs, politicos and industry VIPs in a single building,” TheWrap chief Sharon Waxman posted on X. “That was just NUTS.”
“I’ve been to two Vanity Fair Oscar parties and this is definitely bigger,” Comic Book creator Rob Liefeld told TheWrap.
Located in Exposition Park, the breathtaking Lucas Museum of Narrative Art was designed by Ma Yansong of MAD Architects and spans five stories and 300,000 square feet, with 100,000 square feet split across 30-plus galleries. It sits on a 13-acre campus and houses 1,200 pieces pulled from Lucas’s 30,000-item private art collection. Some of the pieces include works from Jim Steranko, Banksy, Gil Kane, Diego Rivera, Frida Khalo, Frank Frazetta, Jim Lee, Jim Aparo, Norman Rockwell, Vincent Van Gogh and Frank Miller to name a few.
The super A-list affair included a who’s-who of Hollywood and beyond. Steven Spielberg, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Leonardo DiCaprio, Harrison Ford, Samuel L. Jackson, Oprah Winfrey, Mark Hamill and Vin Diesel were amongst the stars in attendance, alongside Jack Black, Nicolas Cage, Hayden Christensen, Laura Dern, Woody Harrelson, Helen Hunt, Meg Ryan, Jack Quaid, Kerry Washington, Emma Watson, Sofía Vergara, Camila Cabello, Cheech Marin, David Oyelowo, Cynthia Erivo, Michael B. Jordan, Eva Longoria, Jerry Bruckheimer, Katy Perry, Justin Trudeau, Topher Grace, Tyler Perry, Keke Palmer, Owen Wilson, Orlando Bloom and Tracee Ellis Ross.
Major marquee filmmakers turned out in full force, including Francis Ford Coppola, Guillermo del Toro, Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas, Denis Villeneuve, Greta Gerwig, Robert Zemeckis, Dave Filoni, Robert Rodriguez with his son Racer Rodriguez, Ron Howard and Bryce Dallas Howard, Spike Lee, Peter Jackson, Jon Favreau, Jon M. Chu, Chris Columbus, Lee Daniels, Robert Rodriguez, Frank Marshall, Kathleen Kennedy and George R.R. Martin.
Repping the political world were Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Nancy Pelosi.
Rounding out the crowd from the music biz and the C-suite included Pharrell Williams, SZA, Doja Cat, Alicia Keys, Jon Batiste, Babyface, Flea, Janelle Monáe, Diane Warren, Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro and his predecessor Bob Iger and Willow Bay, Dana Walden, Alan Bergman, Netflix chief Ted Sarandos and Nicole Avant, YouTube Chief Neal Mohan, former Paramount Pictures CEO Jim Gianopulos, Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz, Jeffrey and Marilyn Katzenberg, Irving Azoff, Magic Johnson and Cookie Johnson, Sir Lewis Hamilton and Kim Kardashian, Russell Westbrook and Lindsey Vonn.
The champagne flowed as the evening kicked off with speeches from Lucas, Hobson and Queen Latifah in the elevator lobby surrounded by event co-chairs Julie Bell, Guillermo del Toro, Greta Gerwig, Sir Lewis Hamilton, Jensen Huang, JR, Steven Spielberg and Pharrell Williams.
“Paris has the Louvre, New York has the Met and now L.A. has an artistic equal: the Lucas,” Latifah said.
It is pretty surreal to make it to the fifth floor where the ten new Banksys that were commissioned for the museum are located. While gazing upon “After George Floyd,” to my left were Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau admiring the Darren Cullen “Gold Cart One,” all while Gayle King was checking out the other Banksy.
The food was also a smash hit with the crowd as the attendees noshed on chicken fingers with a caviar tip, grilled cheese with tomato relish, along with pigs in a blanket.
The Spicy Tuna and Yellowtail Nigiri sushi were also standouts.
Around 9 p.m., Oprah Winfrey and Samuel L. Jackson narrated a drone show featuring art pieces from the museum which recreated Jack Kirby’s Captain America rendition, Banksy’s Girl With Balloon, Frida Khalo, R2-D2 and the Millennium Falcon to name a few.
After the drone show, the party got poppin’ as the Black Eyed Peas closed out the night with a great performance as attendees — including George Lucas and Mellody Hobson — danced the rest of the night away.
