Poplar Forest to play host to Hollywood A-listers

Stars will shine over Poplar Forest Thursday: Robert Duvall, Connie Britton and Scott Cooper.

They will perform and speak at an invitation-only dinner that honors donors who’ve helped rescue the Bedford County retreat, where Thomas Jefferson took refuge from the rigors of public life 200 years ago.

And how did Poplar Forest score such A-listers?

In the case of Duvall, it came through a friend-of-a-friend, said Lynn Beebe, president of the Corporation for Jefferson’s Poplar Forest, the nonprofit spearheading restoration at the National Historic Landmark. It helped that Duvall is a Virginia resident (Fauquier County).

The folks at Poplar Forest are all fans of their three silver screen guests, “for sure,” she said.

Her favorite Duvall film? “Secondhand Lions.”

The Academy Award-winning actor’s film career began in 1962, when he portrayed Boo Radley in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and went on to include such cinematic classics as “The Godfather,” “The Great Santini” and “Apocalypse Now,” in which he uttered words that would enter the American cultural lexicon: “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”

Duvall won an Oscar for his role as a country-western singer in “Tender Mercies.”

During the private dinner, Duvall will read from the letters and notes of Thomas Jefferson, while E.C. Glass High School grad Britton will read letters written to Jefferson by his granddaughter, Ellen.

Britton, who currently stars in NBC’s “Friday Night Lights” and has also appeared in “Spin City” and “The West Wing,” studied acting with the same famed coach who once taught Duvall: Sanford Meisner.

Her film work includes “Friday Night Lights” and “The Brothers McMullen,” and she is reported to have recently signed on to the remake of “A Nightmare on Elm Street.”

Britton was 7 years old when she and her family moved to the area, where her late father, Allen Womack, headed up the former BWXT, now Babcock & Wilcox.

“Her father was very much a part of the team that’s working to preserve Poplar Forest,” Beebe said of Womack, who served on the board.

Cooper, an Abingdon native and Hampden-Sydney College graduate, has appeared in television shows and movies, including the Emmy award-winning western “Broken Trail” — opposite Duvall. Cooper recently made his writing and directorial debut with “Crazy Heart,” which stars Duvall, Jeff Bridges, Colin Farrell and Maggie Gyllenhaal. The film is scheduled for a fall release.

Cooper will introduce the program, and his friend and colleague, during the dinner.

The folks at Poplar Forest were busy Tuesday getting ready for the big night. A tent was going up on the lawn, among other preparations.

The dinner is part of events that mark the 25-year-long rescue effort. In 1984, the corporation took title to Poplar Forest, which was then up for sale as development inched closer and closer. Fewer than 50 of the estate’s original 5,000 acres were left as part of the property.

In 1986, Poplar Forest opened to the public; restoration efforts have been under way ever since. One result is that, today, people see Poplar Forest as Jefferson would have the last time he arrived. It is thanks to recent work on several exterior features, such as completing a wing of offices just east of the octagonal home.

The restoration work, which dovetails with archeological work, continues. And the purchase of contiguous property continues, with some 600 acres now part of the estate.

The effort turns now, Beebe said, to “the new frontier:” restoring Poplar Forest’s landscape design.

As visitors to Monticello’s gardens and grounds can see, Jefferson designed the landscape around his homes with a level of attention that matched that paid to his architectural designs.

The work will be done in three-year phases.

“Think about Mount Vernon and how many years it has taken to get where it is now,” Beebe said.

In the meantime, Poplar Forest’s people can celebrate the progress they’ve made so far.