{"id":630671,"date":"2026-09-20T17:42:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T17:42:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/630671\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T17:42:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T17:42:18","slug":"inside-the-star-studded-opening-night-of-the-lucas-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/630671\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Star-Studded Opening Night of the Lucas Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tBefore the new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art<\/a> opens to the public on Tuesday, George Lucas<\/a> and his wife, Mellody Hobson<\/a>, threw an opening night celebration that will go down in the Hollywood history books.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe pair \u2014 with support from their event co-chairs Julie Bell, Tom Cruise, Guillermo del Toro, Greta Gerwig, Lewis Hamilton, Jensen Huang, JR, Steven Spielberg and Pharrell Williams \u2014 hosted a star-studded kick-off event on Saturday, giving A-listers a first look at the museum\u2019s over 10,000 square feet of gallery space. It was a night 17 years in the making<\/a>, with Lucas and Hobson having poured $1 billion into the museum<\/a> as they showcase everything from Star Wars props and comic book illustrations to works from Norman Rockwell and Frida Kahlo. <\/p>\n

\n\tQueen Latifah, a close friend of the couple, opened the evening as she told the crowd of stars, \u201cNobody gets to go to a night like this. No one was in the room when the doors opened at the MoMA, or at the Louvre in 1793, or the Met\u2026 so we\u2019ve got to feel the gravity of this moment because this is enormous. When you look around, your inclination may be to catch up with friends tonight; we\u2019re all artists in awe of each other, but I implore you to soak this in. Allow these artists to speak to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShe continued that she\u2019d been emotional all day to celebrate the opening, as \u201cfor years I\u2019ve watched [Lucas and Hobson] fight for this place. Thousands of meetings, thousands of roadblocks; I\u2019ve seen the heart, the sweat and the time that these two have poured into every curve of this building, and I promise you there\u2019s not one wall in here that they didn\u2019t argue about.\u201d Latifah closed with asking the crowd a few favors: \u201cFirst, congratulate the hell out of my visionary friends. Two, be here, be right here,\u201d and lastly, to tell everyone that \u201con Sept. 22, a new institution is being born, and it\u2019s here to change the way we look at art. Paris has the Louvre, New York has the Met, and now L.A. has an artistic equal, the Lucas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tNnamdi Asomugha, Eboni Nichols, Kerry Washington and Queen Latifah.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPresley Ann\/Getty Images for Lucas Museum of Narrative Art<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSteven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Guillermo del Toro and Peter Jackson.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKevin Mazur\/Kevin Mazur\/Getty Images for Lucas Museum of Narrative Art<\/p>\n

\n\tArchitect Ma Yansong spoke briefly before Hobson took the stage, as she teased, \u201cIf your husband or spouse comes home and says they want to build a museum, I suggest your response is a hard no.\u201d She explained, \u201cI used to joke with George that at home, one of my jobs as his wife was to serve as a pair of gravity boots; I\u2019d say, \u2018George, stay with us,\u2019 as I tried to hold him down. But this time, he pulled me up with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHobson mused how among the many challenges they hit along the way were \u201cwe did not realize how hard it would be to give a city a museum\u201d \u2014 they settled in L.A. after previous failed efforts in San Francisco and Chicago \u2014 and emphasized that Lucas \u201cwas driven to create a space that would showcase the brilliant illustrators that he thought were too often overlooked and ignored. And if critics say a museum on narrative art is too much like a popcorn movie and not enough like an art film, well, we like popcorn movies in our family,\u201d as she dubbed the space \u201ca director\u2019s cut.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLucas also made remarks before the guests were set loose to check out the galleries, declaring, \u201cYou can\u2019t say this is art and this is not art. Art is in the eye of the beholder. Is it emotional to you? Then it\u2019s art. And of course I\u2019ve been criticized up and down and sideways for that, but I believe it wholeheartedly. You get to decide what art is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tMellody Hobson, George Lucas, Michael B. Jordan and Keke Palmer.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMichael Kovac\/Getty Images for Lucas Museum of Narrative Art<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGayle King, Kate Capshaw, Laura Dern, Greta Gerwig and Oprah Winfrey.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKevin Mazur\/Getty Images for Lucas Museum of Narrative Art<\/p>\n

\n\tWith that, the stars were off to explore, with an endless number of spottings possible around each corner. Vin Diesel was in deep conversation with Christopher Nolan while Katy Perry introduced Doja Cat to her boyfriend Justin Trudeau and Mark Hamill posed for photos in front of a Luke Skywalker exhibition (and later conversated with Peter Jackson). Jack Black and Keke Palmer caught up with Brian Grazer, Owen Wilson chatted with Bob Iger, Michael B. Jordan and Ludwig G\u00f6ransson sipped on drinks and Woody Harrelson\u2019s wife took a photo of him with an Indiana Jones statue. Emma Watson posed for pics with Janelle Mon\u00e1e, Meg Ryan and Jack Quaid had a mother-son night out and Lucas\u2019 Disney family came out strong, with Josh D\u2019Amaro, Dana Walden, Alan Bergman, Kathleen Kennedy and Dave Filoni making the rounds. Gavin Newsom fielded a constant string of handshakes, and Nancy Pelosi and L.A. mayor Karen Bass completed the political contingent.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tVin Diesel and Christopher Nolan.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCharley Gallay\/Getty Images for Lucas Museum of Narrative Art<\/p>\n

\n\tNot enough? Upstairs on the roof level, where guests were told to meet at 9 p.m. for a special surprise, Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King relaxed at a table, Tyler Perry laughed with Tracy Ellis Ross, Kim Kardashian kept close to boyfriend Lewis Hamilton, Spike Lee bantered with the bartender and Rick Caruso cheersed with Jerry Bruckheimer. In the museum\u2019s Skywalker Grill restaurant, Leonardo DiCaprio held court at a center table with Al Pacino, with Francis Ford Coppola and Jeffrey Katzenberg sitting nearby.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tLeonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKevin Mazur\/Getty Images for Lucas Museum of Narrative Art<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tRon Howard, Bryce Dallas Howard, Lewis Hamilton and Kim Kardashian.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStefanie Keenan\/Getty Images for Lucas Museum of Narrative Art<\/p>\n

\n\tAt 9 o\u2019clock, everyone gathered outside on the roof deck, as Oprah and Samuel L. Jackson introduced an immersive drone show that lit up the sky with Star Wars images and images of art on display in the museum. When the crowd made its way back inside, Harrison Ford was seen embracing Lucas \u2014 just as the party got a fresh surge of energy with the Black Eyed Peas hopping on stage for a performance that had many in the crowd, including Cynthia Erivo and Orlando Bloom, grooving.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlso rounding out the guest list: Robert De Niro, Nicolas Cage, Denis Villeneuve, Laura Dern, Kerry Washington, Hayden Christensen, Alicia Keys, Nathan Fielder, Eva Longoria, Sof\u00eda Vergara, SZA, Camila Cabello, Jon Favreau, George R.R. Martin, Jon M. Chu, Magic Johnson and Ted Sarandos. <\/p>\n

\n\tBorys Kit contributed to this report. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tMark Hamill <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTommaso Boddi\/Getty Images for Lucas Museum of Narrative Art<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tRobert De Niro, Tyler Perry, Matthew Robbins, Caleb Deschanel, Frank Miller, Nathan Fielder, Steven Spielberg, D. B. Weiss, Bryce Dallas Howard, Ron Howard, Jon Favreau, Spike Lee, George Lucas, Christopher Nolan, David Benioff, Francis Ford Coppola, Lee Daniels, Peter Jackson, Guillermo del Toro, Edgar Wright, JR, Frank Marshall, Denis Villeneuve, John Landis and Jon M. Chu.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKevin Mazur\/Getty Images for Lucas Museum of Narrative Art<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before the new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opens to the public on Tuesday, George Lucas and his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,5499,44980,61,60,79309,267724],"class_list":["post-630671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-events","tag-george-lucas","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-lucas-museum-of-narrative-art","tag-mellody-hobson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}