AS WE ALL know Bill Murray is somewhat of a legend. The 67 year old has made some of the best movies around and is just downright funny. I mean you have to be if you end up serenading George Clooney right?
As you might remember, George Clooney was honoured with a Life Achievement Award by the American Film Institute earlier this month.
A tribute to him from his wife Amal moved him to tears and it seems Bill was there to bring George to tears again. Only this time it would be tears of laughter.
He got off to a good start wondering aloud how a ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ could be bestowed on someone who is only 56. A fair question.
I know that all of you thought the same thing that I thought. George is dying.
That seemed to go down well with George anyway judging by his reaction.
After declaring that this wasn’t a lifetime achievement award so much as a celebration of life, Bill decided that he should move onto the musical part of the speech and oh what a treat that was.
Bill started encouraging the audience to sing along with his song called ‘Kentucky’ which of course, is where George was born.
The song was a tribute to Kentucky as a state and some ‘fine Southern cookin’ which of course is what Kentucky is known for.
Bill then went on to a more heartfelt aspect of the speech, reading a poem called ‘A Part’ by Wendell Berry.
In a dream I meet
my dead friend. He has,
I know, gone long and far,
and yet he is the same
for the dead are changeless.
They grow no older.
It is I who have changed,
grown strange to what I was.
Yet I, the changed one,
ask: “How you been?”
He grins and looks at me.
“I been eating peaches
off some mighty fine trees.”
He finished up by saying he was looking forward to seeing what George did ‘with those sweet peaches inside of you’ which had George grinning like a schoolkid.
We need Bill Murray as our best friend immediately.
