Swelter

More tales of fame and fortune, American style, coming up during a conversation with Richard Osterweil, the subject of the Sara Sackner/Andrew Behar-produced documentary Painting the Town. Osterweil, who spends the movie entertainingly recounting his life as a coat-check clerk, artist, and professional party crasher, appearing this weekend at the Alliance cinema, which will be exhibiting the movie for a week or so. Lately, apparently, it's been a life crowded with incident: "It's weird being the center of attention. I was just on the Today show, and then there was Joan Rivers and Joe Franklin, where I appeared with Eric Douglas, the son of Kirk, this psychotic queen on coke. Next it's the Vicki Lawrence show in L.A. with Marla Maples. The most glamourous thing so far has been my show at the Russian Embassy, with all my paintings of George Balanchine and the Romanoff family. A thousand people turned out, everybody from Dr. Ruth to Suzanne Farrell to the Secretary-General of the United Nations."

The bubbly gush including our fair town, delivered with all the enthusiasm of the nonnative: "But I'm really looking forward to Miami. It's just the hottest place now. Whatever I see, I'm sure I'll enjoy.