Philip Seymour Hoffman’s son Cooper debuting in Paul Thomas Anderson’s newest

More On: Movies

The new kid on the block is really a new kid. Age 17, the late Philip Seymour Hoffman’s son is making his acting debut. Eight-time Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper is also in this movie, but the kid is considered its star. He’s Cooper Hoffman. His first big shot. Interesting names are in the family — …

The new kid on the block is really a new kid. Age 17, the late Philip Seymour Hoffman’s son is making his acting debut. Eight-time Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper is also in this movie, but the kid is considered its star.

He’s Cooper Hoffman. His first big shot. Interesting names are in the family — sister is Tallulah, uncle’s Gordy — but this coming-of-age story is so far unnamed. The thing is set in the ’70s, in the San Fernando Valley, has multiple storylines. He plays a child actor, and the film was put together by Paul Thomas Anderson, who collaborated with Cooper’s dad on many projects.

Still a smooth operator

Remember Sade? Big in the ’80s? Remember the ’80s? Born in Ibadan, Oyo, in Nigeria. If you can’t remember Ibadan, Oyo, can you remember Nigeria? Real name Helen Folasade Adu and sort of unheard of now but she has a $180 box set, a six-record collection remastered at London’s Abbey Road Studios and called “This Far,” coming out. If, like everyone, you have nothing else to do, go buy it.

Remember Jed Clampett’s digs on “The Beverly Hillbillies?” (Not the set for the filming of the series, it’s famously in the credits.) The Hollywood agent who discovered Elton John and repped Elizabeth Taylor left the place in 2017 to LA museum caretakers. Christie’s slugs it “one of America’s most beautiful houses.” Its in-house tchotchkes like Ming vases, Louis the Whenever furniture, letters from Churchill, Muhammad Ali’s boxing gloves, are in an online auction till the 17th.

Royal drive-in

Peasants, groveling serfs such as ourselves who are considered lowlife and don’t know from high-class living, we speak now of the Sandringham Estate. It’s at least 20,000 acres, houses a pile of bricks dating to 1862, and is in Norfolk, 100 miles from London as the crow and a chauffeured Rolls flies. It’s for generations the country retreat of Queen Elizabeth — like she doesn’t already have enough bungalows nearby. It’s used for royal shooting parties and where a load of classy royalty has been before her and where her dad the king and his dad the also king passed away.

It is now — ready? — hosting drive-in movies! Costs 32 pounds and 50 pence. Another 7 pounds 50, you get a bigger parking area, deck chairs, and a table. At the rate our theaters are opening, soon Andrew Saffir will relocate his outdoor Hamptons screenings there and its head gardener will throw in popcorn.

Lessons from our history

Spanish flu pandemic of 1918. Masked people quarantined, schools closed. President Wilson in denial. To speak of it undermined the war effort.

Come colder, drier weather, life reopened. September 1918 the Dow Jones soared. Sept. 28 a parade to sell Liberty Bonds drew 200,000 marchers. John Philip Sousa led the band. December, stores and factories staggered reopenings.

Then it reappeared. Cities again closed down. Subsequent waves lasted for years.

Even minor NYPD gripes go to the Civilian Complaint Review Board. If without merit, the officer’s reputation is protected. Record’s sealed. Just now allowed is reopening those records so 323,911 misconduct complaints now get reviewed by those who seek to undermine the NYPD.

Criticisms of lawyers and judges are reported daily to the Bar Association. The public never knows those. The same should be with police officers. A wrongly accused complaint should not be a public subject. If good enough for lawyers and judges, it’s good enough for “New York’s finest.”

Only in New York, kids, only in New York.