anniversary

A gala evening was held at Lenkom in honor of the 60th anniversary of People's Artist Oleg Yankovsky. After the official part, the guests gathered for a private reception organized by Bosco di Ciliegi. The highlight of the program were obscene ditties written by friends of the hero of the day.
The performance "Everything is Paid" with the hero of the day in the title role ended with the distribution of white umbrellas to the audience. And all the guests, with the exception of director Nikita Mikhalkov and his wife, proceeded to the banquet hall. Singer and State Duma deputy Joseph Kobzon, who arrived at the end of the performance, rushed there. The table of the hero of the day was exclusively family: wife Lyudmila Zorina and the actor’s older brothers, People’s Artist of the USSR Rostislav Yankovsky (lives in Minsk) and Nikolai Yankovsky (director of the Saratov Youth Theater), who came especially for this holiday. The whole party turned out to be just as family-friendly: almost all the eminent guests had long-standing friendships with the hero of the day. So, for example, at the next table sat the acting dynasty of the Lazarevs - Svetlana Nemolyaeva, Alexander Lazarev Sr. and Alexander Lazarev Jr. Actor Sergei Shakurov and his wife, expecting to add to their family, spent most of the evening talking with the wife of the head of the Bosco di Ciliegi company, Mikhail Kusnirovich, Ekaterina Moiseeva. Meanwhile, Mr. Kusnirovich’s mom, dad and aunt talked with the husband-and-wife directors Kama Ginkas and Henrietta Yanovskaya. The ladies who arrived with ITAR-TASS General Director Vitaly Ignatenko looked unusually elegant: his wife in a chinchilla cape and her friend in a gold turban and shawls with large roses. Only actors Alexander Abdulov and Viktor Sukhorukov came without companions.
The official part of the banquet was short. We quickly read congratulatory telegrams from President Vladimir Putin, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, and finally, the Governor of the Moscow Region Boris Gromov made a warm speech.
Then the skit began. Young artists of "Lenkom" awarded the hero of the day the title of "the sexiest Ilyich of all times and peoples." Actors Sergei Garmash, Leonid Yarmolnik and Sergei Stepanchenko carried out worn violins with inscrutable faces, and Alexander Abdulov dragged his cello behind him with grim determination. The string quartet sat down in front of the table of the hero of the day. Mikhail Kusnirovich waved his fork and spoon like a conductor, and the ensemble began to sing obscene ditties. After the first verse, where the musicians said that they were very worried and afraid of shitting themselves, the guests looked at each other in bewilderment. After the second ditty: “Everything is paid for today, / Except for the runway. / Nothing, Oleg, don’t be afraid, / run away and don’t piss,” there were timid laughs, and a few minutes later the whole hall was sobbing with laughter. All the next 20 verses were designed in the same style: “60 is not just a date, / It’s a round anniversary. / If someone doesn’t agree, / Let’s pile on the pi...th.”
There was nothing left to add to the ditties of the Kusnirovich Band, so when the hosts of the evening, actors Alexander Abdulov and Leonid Yarmolnik, proposed a toast to the chief director of the Sovremennik Theater Galina Volchek, she recused herself. The only daredevil who dared to speak after the wittiest number on the program was not the satirist Mikhail Zhvanetsky, but the theater critic Vitaly Vulf. In a traditional, refined manner, he spoke about his role in the life of Oleg Yankovsky.
Relatives who dissociated themselves from the hero of the day - son Philip and his wife Oksana Fandera - spent the evening in the company of actors Vladimir Mashkov, Oleg Menshikov and actress Alena Khmelnitskaya. At this table there was a heated discussion about the work on the film “State Councilor” (the film is being directed by Philip Yankovsky, and Oleg Menshikov and Vladimir Mashkov are in the lead roles). Tanned Vladimir Mashkov came with a new companion - a curly brunette in a white suit and bright pink boots.
Actress Inna Churikova, wearing an elegant ethnic dress reminiscent of a festive Uzbek robe, danced with young Lenkom students. Some guests, intoxicated by Martelle Cordon Blue cognac, tried to dance with cardboard figures of Oleg Yankovsky in the images of Baron Munchausen and Heinrich from the film “Shield and Sword.” At the end of the celebration, Alexander Abdulov grabbed the figure of the hero of the day in a parachute suit by the armpits and dragged her to the exit.
BOZENA J-RYNSKA, ALENA B-ANTONOVA

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 36/P dated 03/01/2004, page 8

Authors:

Oleg Yankovsky became the hero of ditties