American Auto

- Our top story tonight-- Detroit's elite

is out in force at the Roydon Hotel

for an evening of glitz, glamour, and good causes.

- No, that's not the Oscars you're seeing.

It's guests arriving

to the 65th Annual Payne Foundation Fundraising Gala.

- For those lucky enough to make it

onto the star-studded invitation list,

it'll be a night of elegance, class, and high fashion

on what has become

one of Motor City's most glamorous nights.

Three, two...

- Ooh, I'm pulling. - You got to pull it harder.

- Oh, you're gonna dislocate my shoulder!

- Oh, my God! I'm so sorry. - Just use it. Use it.

- That's right. Whoo! , I'm sweating.

Oh.

Check that out.

- Excuse me, ma'am. I'm looking for my friend Sadie.

She's about your height and-- Oh, my God!

- Uh-huh. Is it too much?

No! Turn around.

Ooh! - You like it?

- I just can't believe you dress

the way you normally do when you're capable of this.

How do I normally dress?

Hey, guys, check it out.

Gangster faces! Ahh!

- Does he think people enjoy him?

Or does he know they don't and that's the point?

- I don't know. It's probably an unhealthy mix of both.

- Well, it's time to face the music.

- Oh, we can go around. We don't have to--

- Believe me. I gain no pleasure from this.

[indistinct chatter, camera shutters clicking]

Took the glasses off.

- The name is Cyrus Knight. C-Y-R...

us.

Thank you. What's up? Thank you.

- Ari Harman, two years on the board,

loves scuba diving, third wife disappeared

under suspicious circumstances in Thailand.

Third wife, Barbados.

But you were close. - Damn it.

- Don't worry-- as long as you know

all the board members' names, you're gonna be fine.

- No, if they want to replace me, fine isn't good enough.

I've got to blow them away.

Well, if it's worth anything,

I think you're doing a really good job.

- It's worth almost nothing, but thank you.

You're welcome.

- Just close your eyes and imagine a chessboard.

They're all pawns, but you're the queen.

You can move any direction you want.

You can move multiple spaces.

You're gonna gobble them up

before they even know what hit them.

- Okay. All right, I'm a queen.

- I'm a queen. - They're pawns.

- Mm-hmm. - It's helping. It's good.

- Good. I got your back, Katherine.

This is what we do. - Yeah.

- Yeah, and everybody's gonna love us.

- Yeah, I mean, we are pretty amazing party guests.

- We are. - Everyone says it.

I'm not bragging. It's what everyone says.

- Okay. - All right, who's next?

I don't think that's a board member.

- Ah, you won! This is a trick question.

This is actually a young James Earl Jones.

Can you believe he was that hot?

- Wow. - Yes.

Hey.

Hey.

Wow. You look--

- Thanks. You look, uh, too.

- You remember Michelle? - I do.

- She was my co-star in a commercial.

- I was the hot mom with the sexy husband.

- I remember. - Yeah.

- Super hot. - Thank you.

- You were really good in that. Um, made me want to buy a car.

- Thank you. - You're welcome.

- We're gonna go to the bar. - Mm-hmm.

- Yeah. Yeah. - I got to do a thing.

- You're a really beautiful woman.

- We get so little time to talk at the board meetings.

I had no idea we had this much in common, Helen.

I know. It's so funny.

- I'm like, "Third wheel alert."

Maybe you guys should get married.

Okay, I really need to go bid

on that dinner with Rachael Ray.

- Oh, please, she should be bidding on dinner with you.

Oh, man, I have had better conversations with Siri.

- Negative charisma--just an empty sandwich bag of a human.

- - Who's next?

Hey-o! Someone get the lube

'cause we got a couple of Payne Gala virgins.

- Oh, God! - So, look, I know you guys

know I don't normally think of myself

as "a celebrity."

But this is a Payne family event,

and I am a Payne family member.

So, if we don't get a lot of face time, it's not personal.

It's just everyone wants a little slice of Wes.

You feel me? - I do.

I feel you, Wes, and thank you. - Uh, yes.

Yeah, we'll--we'll struggle on as best we can without you.

- You're still my boys, though. - Hmm.

- Oh, uh, and there's hotel rooms upstairs

in case you meet a lady...

or a guy, Cyrus.

Hell, maybe, Elliot, you meet a guy,

and, Cyrus, you me a lady.

It's just one of those nights where anything can happen.

Magic!

- Hey! You look incredible!

Wow! I mean, based on the way you normally dress,

I just assumed you were religious or something.

- Um... - Oh, this is Richard. Sadie.

- Hi. How do you do? - Sadie, my husband, Richard.

- Hi. - Nice to meet you.

- This is much nicer than she usually dresses.

- I'm not sure why we're still talking about my--

Doesn't matter. How's it going with the board?

- Oh, she just dazzled Westfall and Genzlinger.

- Well, the one I really need to impress is McGarry.

You know, if you have the support of the chairman,

the rest of these idiots don't matter.

- Right. -

Has anybody seen him, by the way?

- No, but Novie and Cantley-Kashima are over there.

- Oh, great. We'll knock 'em both out at once.

Who are they talking to? - Oh, that's that astronaut.

Yeah, I think he runs an aerospace firm.

- Oh, It's Charlie Altman. Halo Aeronautics.

- Oh. - He just left Halo, actually.

- Really? - Mm-hmm.

- Where do you go from there? - Hmm.

It's an open bar,

so anything you want to drink, free.

- I know how open bar works, Wesley.

- Wesley, do you know why Charlie Altman is here?

Seems like he's getting real cozy with the board.

- Oh, you know what? I know he went to dinner

with some of them a few nights ago.

London Chop House. - London Chop House?

That's where they took me when they offered me the CEO job.

Oh.

Ruh-roh!

- Could I have a lot of shots of something?

.

- Mark. - Katherine.

- So nice to see you. - Nice to see you as well.

Hey, do you know Charlie? - Charlie Altman.

Houston, we have an astronaut.

- Katherine Hastings. It's a pleasure.

- Charlie was telling me some amazing stories

from his old space shuttle years.

- Wow. What an accomplishment that must have been.

I mean, piloting-- well, actually,

do you fly, or are they more computerized nowadays?

- Computers do most of the work.

- So you're sort of along for the ride,

kind of a passenger on a bus.

- I'm sure it's just a bit more complicated than that.

Yes, of course.

Otherwise, we would just have sent monkeys up there.

Although I guess at first, we did.

We did some monkeys up there. That worked out all right.

- And how are you finding the new job?

Big Pharma to Big Auto--

those are some pretty different skill sets.

- Yeah, you know, but selling is selling.

And when you have a great product,

it kind of sells itself, so-- - I'm glad to hear it.

Just don't go getting a bunch of old grannies

addicted to cars. -

- Didn't work out so well for you last time, did it?

- No. And I heard you just left Halo.

Hope it wasn't a MeToo situation.

No, no, no.

- I'm sure we would have heard something about that.

- Yeah, of course, we would have.

Although, with NDAs these days,

you know, you don't always hear.

- You made that point last week.

I mean, you're talking torque versus power.

Exactly.

- EVs, isn't it? You can't quite get both.

- Unless you're the Roadster 250.

Zero to 60 in under 2 seconds.

See, that's not even fair.

The McLaren takes three seconds--the McLaren.

- I know, it's crazy. - It's ridiculous.

- Is it true red cars go faster?

Oh.

- My brother told me that as a kid.