Filmmaker John Waters celebrated his 80th birthday a few days early with Deborah Harry, Ricki Lake and nearly three dozen others at a private party in New York City.
Photos of the event now making the rounds on social media show Waters seated at a table next to Harry, who played Velma Von Tussle in the 1988 version of “Hairspray.” His cake had six candles and an image of a red-and-yellow bottle of Rush-brand poppers on the top. The company once promised him a lifetime supply after he created a larger-than-life sculpture of a Rush bottle with the contents spilling on the floor.
According to guests, the dinner took place at Prune in New York City, where Waters had a spoken-word performance on April 19. His actual birthday was April 22, and he had a show in Miami that night.
An East Village bistro that opened in 1999, Prune is one of Waters’ favorites. He has asked a staff member, Jake Hetnarski, to prepare meals for the series of events he planned in recent years as fundraisers for the Provincetown Film Society, including ‘Soiree at the Sewer,’ ‘Dinner at the Dump’ and ‘A Night in Jail with John Waters.’
Prune closed in 2020 due to the pandemic but has reopened as a venue for private events only rather than a traditional walk-in restaurant. Hetnarski is now the sous chef at Ci Siamo in New York, according to his LinkedIn bio.
Besides the poppers-themed cake for dessert, guests got a nod to Waters’ hometown of Baltimore – a lemon stick like the ones sold every spring at the Flower Mart in Mount Vernon.
Waters wrapped up his seven-city tour, “Going to Extremes: A John Waters 80th Birthday Celebration,” at The Birchmere concert hall in Alexandria, Va. on Thursday night. He said his 80th birthday has received so much attention that he’s been getting birthday greetings on the New York subway. Taking questions from the audience, he teased that he has a number of shows and events coming up, some of which he can’t talk about.
Waters said “Kevin,” the adult animated comedy series he stars in with Aubrey Plaza, Whoopi Goldberg and others, which launched on Monday on Prime Video, ranked as the platform’s sixth most-watched series of the week, raising hopes that there could be a second season. He confirmed in response to a question that he’ll be in Season 13 of “American Horror Story,” but said, “if I talk about it, I’m fired.”
Waters said the weirdest question he got on his recent coast-to-coast speaking tour came from an audience member who asked if he was ever on Epstein Island. (For the record, no one has suggested that he has been.)
Absolutely not, he told the audience on Thursday. “That would be my worst nightmare, pussy island. What would I do there?”
