Last night we caught up with one of our favorite New York couples, Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts, at the New York Academy of Art 2011 Tribeca Ball. We quizzed the young parents of two about their lives here in the city, and they obliged with some cute stories that remind you that it is possible to live a semi-normal family life if you are a celebrity in the city.
Don’t you guys sometimes ride bikes around town?
Watts: Yeah.
So what do you think about bike lanes? Pro or anti?
Schreiber: Pro when I’m on my bike. Very frustrating when I’m driving through midtown.
Do you use the bike lanes?
Schreiber: Yes, we absolutely use them. We do.
And you don’t have arguments with pedestrians?
Schreiber: Of course we do. That’s the whole point of riding a bicycle in New York, fighting with pedestrians and taxi drivers.
So you have any funny altercations you can tell me about?
Schreiber: How much time do you have?
I’m here all evening.
Schreiber: I noticed that at one particular bicycle store downtown that shall go unnamed they sell gloves that have heavy duty plastic knuckles on them, and when I asked the proprietors of the store what those knuckles were for, he said, ‘For smashing on the taxis when they get too close.’ And I thought, oh, that makes sense.
And you bought some?
Schreiber: No, I didn’t. They didn’t have my size.
Are your kids beginning to show any kind of artistic abilities?
Watts: Yeah. Both of them. Kai’s very into drawing right now…
Schreiber: On the kitchen table …
Watts: Yeah. And they’re definitely into performance. [Laughs]
Do they put on plays in the living room?
Schreiber: In the swimming pool a lot.
Watts: And we had some outfits the other day, a king and a knight.
Schreiber: Oh, yeah. They had a terrible fight over it. They were dressed up, someone brought over a knight costume and a king costume, and apparently the older one got very upset when he figured out what the king costume was, because he was only wearing the knight costume, and he chased the other one around threatening to kill him, saying, ‘I want to be king! I’m king! I want to be king!’ Totally Shakespearean.
You have a swimming pool?
Watts: Not in the city!
Related: 49 Minutes With Liev Schreiber [NYM]
