Names and faces

Lucky Don Rickles: The Friars Club held a night in his honor and everyone played nice. Almost everyone. Robert De Niro, who appeared with Rickles in the 1995 movie Casino, joked that he was sure the 87-year-old comedian had died and Monday’s gathering at New York’s Waldorf Astoria was actually a memorial. “Don would have been so proud,” De Niro said as Rickles laughed along. Indeed, it was a tribute to the man known as “Mr. Warmth,” who received a lifetime achievement award from the Friars, with guests attending the black-tie dinner finding bottles of Jack Daniels - a favorite beverage of Rickles’ old friend, Frank Sinatra - and boxes of Godiva chocolate at their tables. Bob Newhart, Joan Rivers and Louis C.K. were among the comics praising the master roaster, while taped greetings from Jon Stewart, Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld and others were played. Natalie Cole, John Mayer and Diana Krall sang for him, and just about everyone swore, from Bob Costas to Bob Saget. Rickles, of course, had insults prepared. “So many stars here, nobody big,” he said.

Jim Carrey is distancing himself from his own movie, saying the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre changed his perspective on the violence in his coming action comedy Kick-Ass 2. The actor filmed his part in the superhero vigilante film a month before December’s mass shooting in Connecticut that killed 20 children and six adults. But weeks before it opens in theaters, Carrey took the highly unusual step of condemning the violence of a film he stars in. “Now in all good conscience I cannot support that level of violence,” Carrey said Sunday on Twitter. He apologized to others in the film and added: “I am not ashamed of it, but recent events have caused a change in my heart.” Kick-Ass 2 is a sequel to the 2010 movie featuring the 11-year-old fighting machine Hit-Girl, played by Chloe Grace Moretz. She reprises the role in the sequel, which Universal Pictures will release Aug. 16. Carrey plays a vigilante named Colonel Stars and Stripes. Mark Millar, who wrote the Kick-Ass comic books, said he’s “baffled” by Carrey’s announcement. “Yes, the body count is very high, but a movie called ‘Kick-Ass 2’ really has to do what it says on the tin,” wrote Millar. “A sequel to the picture that gave us Hit-Girl was always going to have some blood on the floor and this should have been no shock to a guy who enjoyed the first movie so much.”