lemonwade

I’m trying valiantly to rid LW of anything Oscar-related, but, like flood water under the front door, stuff keeps seeping through. Academy Award winners Lupita Nyong’o and Jared Leto have playfully fueled romance rumors by posing for selfies together in Paris. Both were spotted at shows at Paris fashion week, where they met up and she posted the pictures. Previously, Lupita addressed the rumors she was dating Jared on Ellen DeGeneres’s show: “I thought Miley Cyrus broke us up. That was the last thing I heard.”

The American artist Glenn Ligon, three of whose works are pictured, sat in the audience at a Harlem fundraiser for Barack Obama‘s second election campaign and watched the President sing part of an Al Green song. It turned out that Obama had a pretty good voice. Then Ligon felt a tap on his shoulder, and turned to see who was there. A member of the National Democratic Committee leaned into his ear and asked if he had a moment to meet the President. Taken aback, Ligon replied: “Sure.” Backstage, he stepped forward to be introduced by an aide who said: “Mr President, this is the artist Glenn Ligon. His painting Black Like Me #2 is in your personal quarters in the White House.” Read here what Obama told him.

Everyone in the world has tried to make a movie version (my favorite candidate to star was Divine, pictured), but John Kennedy Toole’s novel “A Confederacy of Dunces” has taken its first steps toward the stage as producers announced a legit incarnation is in the works from playwright Jeffrey Hatcher and helmer David Esbjornson. The holders of the property’s international stage rights, Bob Guza and John Hardy of Shelton Street Theatrical, aim to develop the work in a series of Gotham readings prior to tryout productions that will, it’s hoped, bring the play to Broadway. I’ll believe it when I see it. As John Waters, who was to direct the Divine version, said, “How can a movie ever live up to that book?” Same for the stage?

The Hollywood Reporter cheers: ‘Mike Judge has created a series that perfectly spoofs the tech industry, nerds, visionaries, geek-status and what it means to make a lot of money (or not).’ The show is HBO’s ‘best and funniest full-on comedy in years.’ It premieres April 6, after “Game of Thrones.”

Before “Twilight,” “The Vampire Diaries” and “True Blood,” there was Anne Rice. The author, whose “Vampire Chronicles” series has sold over 80 million copies, announced Sunday that fans can look forward to a new installment due out Oct. 28. On the podcast ”The Dinner Party with Christopher Rice and Eric Shaw Quinn,” co-hosted by Rice’s son, she said “I am at last able to announce my up-and-coming new novel. The title is ‘Prince Lestat,’ and it is a big Vampire Chronicle.” (Tom Cruise, pictured, played Lestat onscreen in 1994.) Read more »

Peter Brooks writes: ‘In “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” Patricia Highsmith created high drama from imposture: the almost unbearable tension of suspense that comes with living a double life. That novel seems to have inspired Evelyn Barish’s notion of how to write the biography of Paul de Man (pictured, left, with Renee and Theodore Weiss). “With every passing year,” she tells us of de Man in the 1950s, “he felt a little more safe, but the stakes were high and the anxiety never left him.” That’s a good novelistic premise. A biographer has to earn it.’

Jay-Z and Kanye West, aka the Throne, are set to perform a “special, one night only” performance at SXSW. It happens this Wednesday at Austin Music Hall as part of a Samsung-sponsored event. As they did with last year’s Prince show, wristbands will be handed out to owners of Samsung Galaxy devices. Jay and Kanye last performed together during their epic 2011-2012 Watch the Throne tour. SXSW has now firmly established itself as the celebs-flock-to big event on the calendar, between the Oscars and March Madness.