other talk shows. Cavett was present when actor Marlon Brando broke the jaw of paparazzo photographer Ron Galella on June 12, 1973. Galella had followed Cavett and Brando to a restaurant after the taping of The Dick Cavett Show in New York City. In 2008, Cavett entered an Iraq war dispute with a The New York Times blog entry criticizing General David Petraeus, stating "I can't look at Petraeus—his uniform ornamented like a Christmas tree with honors, medals, and ribbons—without thinking of the great Mort Sahl at the peak of his brilliance." Cavett went on to recall Sahl's expressed contempt of General Westmoreland's display of medals, and criticized Petraeus for not speaking in plain language. 2010s In 2011, Cavett appeared as a talking head in the Robert Weide two-part documentary series Woody Allen: A Documentary for American Masters which aired on PBS. In December 2012, for their annual birthday celebration to "The Master", The Noel Coward Society invited Cavett as the guest celebrity to lay flowers in front of Coward's statue at New York's Gershwin Theatre, commemorating the 113th birthday of Sir Noel. Coward had made an appearance on Cavett's ABC late-night television show in 1970 after having been knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in December 1969. Cavett starred in Hellman v. McCarthy (Literary Legends Declare War!) in New York City's Abingdon Theatre. Cavett re-enacted his show of January 25, 1980, when literary critic Mary McCarthy appeared as a guest, and declared every word playwright Lillian Hellman wrote was "a lie, including 'and' and 'the'." Hellman later sued McCarthy for libel. The suit spanned more than four years. Cavett's off-Broadway play opened March 14, 2014, and closed April 13, 2014, in its limited run. He subsequently came to Los Angeles to appear in a production at Theatre 40, and delighted audiences by remaining onstage after the performance and doing a 10-minute monologue. In 2017, Cavett celebrated his 80th birthday at a private event in New York City, where guests included Woody Allen, Bob Balaban, Blythe Danner, Joy Behar, Carl Bernstein, Alec Baldwin, Katie Couric, and Steve Buscemi. 2020s In January 2020, Cavett appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert promoting the new HBO special, Ali and Cavett: The Tales of the Tapes. There he talked about his career as a comedian and talk show host, as well as his relationship with Muhammad Ali. Influence and impact In January 2020,