“Brats”: Andrew McCarthy and Rob Lowe remember the night 'the Brat Pack met the Rat Pack'
The "St. Elmo's Fire" costars partied at the home of Sammy Davis Jr. one evening at the invitation of Liza Minnelli.
Oh, to be part of Hollywood's Brat Pack. Not only were they the coolest people at the Hard Rock Cafe or anywhere in the '80s, they also once partied with a member of the famed Rat Pack: Sammy Davis Jr. himself.
In his new Hulu documentary, Brats, available June 13 on Hulu, Pretty in Pink actor Andrew McCarthy, who wrote and directed the project, recounts a surreal night that began with him accepting his St. Elmo's Fire costar Rob Lowe's invitation to dine at celebrity hotspot Spago. McCarthy turned out to be part of a large group that also included Lowe's girlfriend at the time, Melissa Gilbert, and none other than Liza Minnelli.
"You asked me to come out, and I was like, 'Really?'" McCarthy says to Lowe. "We were shooting St. Elmo's Fire, and I remember following you over the hill going, 'Where's Spago?' [You're] like, 'Follow me.' I just remember sitting down next to a person: 'This is Liza.' and I went, 'I'll have a double vodka.'"
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Andrew McCarthy and Rob Lowe partied with Sammy Davis Jr. one night in the '80sRelated: Jon Cryer says Andrew McCarthy was a 'd---' when they starred in Pretty in Pink together
McCarthy hadn't at all known the Oscar winner and the daughter of iconic actress Judy Garland was going to be there.
Lowe recalls, "There's that moment where it's clear the evening's over. I think we were literally getting up out of our seats, you went, 'Let's go to Sammy's!' So we follow Liza Minnelli to Sammy Davis Jr.'s house. I mean, who's not going to do that?"
Davis, who died in 1990, was already an icon, having been part of a group of entertainers that included Frank Sinatra, Joey Bishop, Peter Lawford, and Dean Martin, who were known for appearing in movies and shows together, but also for partying the nights away in one another's company. Even 20 years after the height of their success, the Rat Pack's reputation was impressive to up-and-coming actors.
"You were pretty cool and savvy and had been through some things," McCarthy tells Lowe, "and even you were just like, 'Holy s---.' He was so gracious. He was long sober, but he was playing bartender, and I was getting drunker and drunker, and me and Sammy are splitting cigarettes, and he's like, 'I've got my eye on you cats, I love what you're doing. Keep it up.' The only time in my experience that the Brat Pack met the Rat Pack."
For Lowe, the night was typical madness of the time, that period after a New York Magazine writer had, in 1985, given the nickname to the young generation of actors, who didn't appreciate being typecast or called brats.
"When I think of the Brat Pack, I think of nights like that," Lowe said. "Because that stuff routinely happened. As it does when you're in that moment and you see that moment recycles every generation with different people with different names and different places. But it's the same story. Someone is having that moment. It can f--- you up, or it can be fun, or it can be all of the above. But there are very few people that are ever in a place to go through that moment, and yet there always will be people who go through that moment in every generation. And it always pains me when I see some of the other folks who don't realize how much love is infused into the Brat Pack. It makes me sad for them."
Related: Robert Downey Jr. says he was 'jealous' of Rob Lowe in high school: 'I was a hot mess'
Actress Demi Moore, another star of St. Elmo's Fire, gave McCarthy's documentary her seal of approval — "so good" — last month when speaking to Entertainment Weekly. Moore, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, Emilio Estevez, and Judd Nelson are often considered members of the unofficial group.
"I had such a great time sitting down and talking with [McCarthy.] I'm sad there wasn't an opportunity where we were all sitting in a room together, talking," she said in reference to the many others who were often considered to be members of the group. "That's my only wish. It's something very unique to all of us that we experienced."
Following its world premiere at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival, Brats premieres on Hulu on June 13.
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