I need a few days off. The mainstream-media drumbeat these days (about Obama and Palin, about “Mad Men” and “Jersey Shore,” about the possibility of Natalie Portman winning an Oscar) is giving me an even bigger headache than usual. I’m going to read a few books, catch up on a few old movies, and keep baseball and tennis playing on low volume in the background. I’m hoping to crawl back out from under the rock after Labor Day.
Five Swedish artists have produced original prints for Ikea – and the results are just like the store’s furniture, says the Independent: stylish and affordable.
“Black Swan,” the Darren Aronofsky movie about a New York ballet rivalry, opened the Venice Film Festival last night. The Variety review is a rave; the Hollywood Reporter echoes my own feelings (yes, I saw a secret screening of the flick): the film has many praiseworthy elements, but “the horror-movie nonsense” — the ending is very “Single White Female” — “drags everything down the rabbit hole of preposterousness.” A final note: there’s a lesbian-chic moment between the stars, Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis (pictured).
I once met Peggy Guggenheim, in Venice. She took one withering look at me and announced, “If you were ten years older, we could have something.” (I was 20; she was 78.) A biopic about her is in the works. I’m wondering just how explicit it could be: The extraordinary life of this bohemian doyenne of the 20th-century art world should be full of sex and painting. Will Hollywood balk? The project sounds like a much better fit for cable TV: is Joan Allen, who recently played Georgia O’Keefe, available?
I’m not sure which book I’d rather read less: George W. Bush’s memoir, coming after the November election (though certain to be leaked beforehand); or the memoir, available online today, of British Prime Minister Tony Blair (pictured). I much prefer Blair’s representative on Earth, the actor Michael Sheen, especially in “The Queen,” to the real thing. In this interview about his memoir, Blair says “I didn’t see the Iraq nightmare coming.” Unfortunately, millions of the rest of us did.
LW’s Oscars expert, Rex Okpodu, read my posts (here and here) about the Emmys and filed this response: As a big fan of American tv, I broke my rule about not caring about any award ceremony except the Oscars and saw a recording of the Emmys yesterday. Read more »
Some actors can be sniffy about those of their brethren taking jobs aboard cruise ships, but consider this: Theatres on the newer liners are actually of a far higher standard than many of the Broadway’s crumbling playhouses – more comfy seats, better sightlines, excellent acoustics and high-end equipment. Each vessel on the Celebrity line, for example, has a 1,150-seat theatre, employs a cast of 18, plus nearly 40 musicians. You think Broadway shows have 40 musicians anymore? Not since “South Pacific” closed!
