Daily Front Row

2010 February 16

Ping-Pong Propagandists

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Susan Sarandon and Chris Benz
BEN GABBE/PatrickMcMullan.com View Gallery

(NEW YORK) SPiN New York is Manhattan’s premiere ping-pong club--ok, maybe it’s Manhattan’s only premiere ping-pong club--but that didn’t stop it from being an intimate location for Chris Benz to celebrate his successful fall show. (The fact that it’s owned by Susan Sarandon, mother of Benz BFF Eva Amurri, probably helped.) “I think we’re evenly matched: we both suck,” laughed Sarandon of her chances in a ping-pong showdown against the man of the hour, noting, “I'm more of a ping-pong propagandist rather than a ping-pong player, so I'm not really very good in the real world of ping-pong.” Benz admitted that he hadn’t yet had a mano-a-mano against the actress, “but I've had some pretty heated battles with her daughter,” he said. “I'm terrible. I like to watch other people win.” (The Daily does hear that Benz’s boyfriend is a force to be reckoned with.) The competition may have heated up in the back room of SPiN—though Benz never took to the tables—but the atmosphere was nothing if not familial.