Odds & Ends - Part 9

London Calling!!! Jeremy Northan on stage! Donmar Warehouse Box Office: 0870 060 6624 (No booking fee) Genre: Play Subgenre: Drama Age suitability: General In an isolated country house a husband and wife are visited by her friend who she hasn't seen for 20 years. During the course of the evening they reminisce about their earlier lives in London, but each remembers the events differently. In this darkly erotic drama, set around a triangular power-struggle, the past becomes present. Author: Harold Pinter; Director: Roger Michell; Designer: William Dudley; Lighting Designer: Rick Fisher; Cast includes: Helen McCrory, Gina McKee, Jeremy Northam Previews from: 1 July 2004 Opening night: 7 July 2004 Closing: 4 September 2004

Thanks Moon . .oh and Gina McKee too . . wish I could get over there to see it;)

Is this topic 43 now? Maybe I need my eyes checked. ;-)

Yeah, sure...what a difference a year makes...last year I had Ari...this year, whatshisface!!LOL Stop complaining--Last year you had dead people;-) Hope you had a fantastic birthday.

Yeah, sure...what a difference a year makes...last year I had Ari...this year, whatshisface!!LOL Stop complaining--Last year you had dead people;-) LOL! Ohhhh, I forgot all about the dead people! Loved the dead people! Must be my age;-)) Things seem to be looking up and it must portend a very good year for our (*we* won't work will *our* fly?) most beloved Evelyn whose wry and dry and brief remarks are always a treat to read and give me a LOL on some of my most down days. For these and many other traits I thank you Ev!

Oh no, Evelyn, I think you missed my earlier message to you for a happy birthday. I feel terrible that you didn't receive it. I'm sure it was a one off, something to do with having "Dubya" at your party ;-) - note the formation of my hands ;). So, I'm just popping by to make sure you and your friends are having a great party and that you are having a very happy un-birthday! And I see you are having a happy day after all!

Sorry I'm so late getting back to your party? Is the bar closed? Only crumbs left? I would've been here sooner, but I was waiting for the guest I promised you to finish making your present. At the last minute, Jeremy decided to tag along, but we were late, too, as he's been at the Elton John concert with me. He was feeling insecure about the serenade he planned for you after hearing Elton, so we had to stop so he could practice a few numbers at the Rainbow Room. "Everybody loves somebody...." Happiest of birthdays to you, Evelyn!!! XOXO BTW, I have the receipt for the candles if you need to return the ones that won't fit on your nightstand because of all those books. ;-)

Dearest, lovliest Evelyn, You've been there for me personally through all of my triumphs, and tragedies (so sorry about the dodgy cinema, too). And yet I've been so busy "studying" for WTTL I completely missed your bithday; Crikey, that walk to Oklahoma from London took longer than expected. I've just only crossed the Mississippi...

Awhile ago, a certain someone who shall remain nameless asked me not to list her birthday...which I did...or didn't,whichever;-). At the time, I did mention that others would remember (Heh),which they did. And y'all notice that I didn't say a word about it yesterday... But today is Wednesday and it's no longer her birthday.... So I figure it's okay to celebrate her UN-birthday today. please notice there's no blue suit in sight;-D Have a great UN-birthday today, nameless one! thanks to Firthissimo

I give up....I can't have a Stealth Birthday!! All those Dead People ...how can I forget. And this year...poor Marlon Brando joined the club;-) Lora...I did get the previous greeting, but Dubya is always welcomed at my party (But hold Whoopi;-)! Shoshana...What? No cake? Only that wet dude who is too cheap to fly from London and has to take the shoe-string express;-) Thanks Dorine for Rafe...I'll take even the looney Spider! Ada, you wuz a good girl. Kept my b'day under wraps. Thanks for Un-Birthday greetings. But you know it's also Bastille Day...Ug.The French (French Droolies excepted) Dear Annette, you're the lady in the bunch."Evelyn Rose"...I'm honored. But glad Earnest didn't bring the urn to the party....baaaad omen. Moon...did you send me a ticket to London and the Donmar to see my Mr. Knightley? Nooooo. Only a crappy announcement. And on the wrong topic, already;-) Thank you all..Gracias, Mahalo (where's Marcia? I want my lei!) Takes time to do all that HTML stuff. Lots of laughs; I loved them. You're kind to put with my irreverence. May we share many more years together on Drool. Roll On November!!

Moon...did you send me a ticket to London and the Donmar to see my Mr. Knightley? Nooooo. Only a crappy announcement. And on the wrong topic, already;-) ROTF! That's me always in a hurry and I forgot the tickets!

I taped Bravo's broadcast of the UK Queer Eye last night and haven't watched it yet. From THR: Taffners mastering art of Transatlantic Transfer By Steve Brennan It's safe to say that the Taffners -- Don Sr. and his son Don Jr. -- know a thing or two about the international TV trade that some are now calling The Transatlantic Transfer. TTT refers to the seemingly endless number of format deals bringing successful British sitcoms and other program genres to the States. The zany "Fr. Ted," NBC's pending version of "The Office," the failed "Coupling," "The Grimleys" and "The Royale Family" number among the more visible British comedy formats to have been picked up here. DLT Entertainment, headed by the Taffners, was one of the first international companies to bring U.K. comedy formats to U.S. networks in the 1970s. "Three's Company" ("Man About the House"), "Robin's Nest" ("Three's a Crowd") and "Too Close for Comfort" ("Keep It in the Family") counted among the early format transfers overseen by DLT. Don Taffner Jr., vp worldwide sales and development and heir apparent at DLT, says that the company is now looking to move the process to a new level: to bring leading American showrunners to Britain in order to develop scripted comedies there. The ultimate aim, he says, is to make successful sitcoms in the United Kingdom that will also be suitable for international and U.S. formatting. DLT has already had one major success in this regard with the BBC hit sitcom "My Family," created by Fred Barron ("Seinfeld," "The Larry Sanders Show"). Barron, who now works at the BBC, introduced the U.S.' studio table writing system there -- a collaborative effort among a group of writers (HR 4/13). Previously, team writing had not been utilized by the pubcaster. Taffner says that DLT and Barron are discussing how best the hit BBC show format (currently on BBC America) can be served up to the U.S. networks. But additionally, using "My Family" as a model, DLT is talking with other American sitcom showrunners with a view to tempting them to develop "ideas that they are passionate about" for British TV, he says. "The money in the U.K. does not compare to the money in the U.S., so in most cases it's a matter of the writer simply having a great passion and desire for a particular project. ... Writers in Britain typically have a much stronger voice in the process," Taffner says. "Identifying (U.K.) formats that are suitable for U.S. audiences remains very much a part of our business, but equally as important now is bringing ideas to the U.K. and to do them there first and then bring them back to the U.S.," he adds. "We are talking now to a number of people about duplicating what we did with 'My Family.' " Taffner believes that "some people are just getting caught up in the success of shows in the United Kingdom and mistakenly think that it's easy to translate what works there to the United States. It's just not that easy," he insists. "A lot of comedies are just great shows in their own right and can actually lose in adaptation while others are perfect for adaptation," he observes. "People are grabbing up rights willy-nilly. I think some companies are saying, 'Better for us to have (the format) than somebody else,' regardless of whether it really might have a chance." The trick, he insists, is in being able to figure out what formats can travel. "That requires a combination of instinct and the ability to attach the most appropriate creative talent who have the experience to make it work," he says.

In my house the guys have been watching the Copa America soccer championship games and I was not able to see that QE. I did see the previews last week and those UK guys looked rather too out there, IMO. (A bit pervy too). I love our QE guys because apart from Jay and Carson, the other three don't look the part. Thanks, Karen!

You won't think Kyan looks the part? *eyebrows raised* The UK one will be repeat several times over the course of the week, until the new one airs.

Well Kyan a little but could go either way. My hair stylist is married with kids and he could go either way too. ;-) ANNOUNCEMENT: I have changed my email address here to a hotmail account. I apologize to anyone that had sent me emails in the past as I was not able to get through all that span on spring.net. My new address is now linked to my name. OK, now back to O&E. ;-)

(Evelyn)But you know it's also Bastille Day Yeah, I know cause it's also my son's birthday today;-). But glad Earnest didn't bring the urn to the party....baaaad omen. Heh...and I almost used that keep;-D

IMHO the UK Queer Eye is not really worth watching. Stick with the better version!

Hate to say that I agree. I watched it last night and found it lacking. However, the funniest thing was the subtitles Bravo added in for the American audience to either help with certain possibly unintelligible lines or to explain a British reference or slang, like chuffed or gobsmacked or Wallace & Grommitt and that Wurzil Grummidge (sp??) ref.

The Emmy noms were done this morning: Angels in America' Leads Emmy Nominations (AP) "Angels in America," the surreal HBO miniseries adapted from a Pulitzer Prize-winning play about New Yorkers affected by the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, received a leading 21 Emmy nominations Thursday. "The Sopranos" was the leading nominee among series, with 20. In a year that saw changes in Emmy rules intended to broaden the field beyond familiar nominees, newcomers included Fox's critically acclaimed sitcom "Arrested Development" and CBS' drama "Joan of Arcadia." TV Academy members gave a fond farewell to HBO's "Sex and the City" with a best comedy series nod for its final season, but didn't nominate two other departing series, "Friends" and "Frasier." Along with "The Sopranos," which has yet to win a best drama series award, and "Joan of Arcadia," other nominees in the best drama series category include "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," "24," and last year's winner, "The West Wing." Joining "Arrested Development" and "Sex and the City" in the best comedy series category: "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "Will & Grace" and last year's winner, "Everybody Loves Raymond." HBO received a dominant 124 nominations, nearly twice that of runner-up NBC with 65 bids. CBS received 44 nominations; ABC had 33, Fox 31 and PBS 27. John Ritter, the "8 Simple Rules" comedy star who died last year, received a posthumous nomination as best lead actor in a comedy series. Also nominated in the category are Larry David of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," Kelsey Grammer (news) of "Frasier," Matt LeBlanc of "Friends" and Tony Shalhoub of "Monk," who was last year's winner. Jennifer Aniston of "Friends" was nominated for best lead actress in a comedy series, along with Patricia Heaton of "Everybody Loves Raymond," Bonnie Hunt of "Life with Bonnie," Jane Kaczmarek of "Malcolm in the Middle" and Sarah Jessica Parker of "Sex and the City." In the acting category for dramas, nominated lead actresses include last year's winner Edie Falco of "The Sopranos," Jennifer Garner of "Alias," Mariska Hargitay of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," Allison Janney of "The West Wing" and Amber Tamblyn of "Joan of Arcadia." "It's far too nerve-racking at this hour of the morning," said Falco, who got up in the middle of the night as she also announced the nominees Thursday morning. James Gandolfini of "The Sopranos," who was named best lead actor in a drama series last year, was nominated again. He's joined by Anthony LaPaglia of "Without a Trace," Martin Sheen of "The West Wing," James Spader of "The Practice" and Kiefer Sutherland of "24." "The Reagans," which was bounced from CBS to cable's Showtime after some protested its portrayal of President Reagan, received seven nominations including outstanding made-for-TV movie. James Brolin and Judy Davis, who played Ronald and Nancy Reagan, received acting nods. Other nominees in the TV movie category: "And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself," "Something the Lord Made," "Ike: Countdown to D-Day" and "The Lion in Winter." "Angels in America," based on Tony Kushner's play which combines harsh reality and fantasy, was nominated as outstanding miniseries and earned acting nods for stars Emma Thompson, Al Pacino and Meryl Streep. Other nominated miniseries: "American Family: Journey of Dreams," "Horatio Hornblower," "Prime Suspect 6: The Last Witness" and "Traffic: The Miniseries." Nominees for the reality series category were Donald Trump's hit "The Apprentice," "The Amazing Race," "American Idol," "Last Comic Standing" and "Survivor." "I really didn't know" the show would get nominated, Trump told cable TV's E! in an interview from Lake Tahoe, Nev. "The show is just really good. The characters worked and 'Apprentice 2' is going to be equally amazing. It's something we all love very much � we worked hard on it and it hit a chord, it hit a note in the country." Nominees for best supporting actor in a comedy series include Jeffrey Tambor of "Arrested Development," Brad Garrett and Peter Boyle for "Everybody Loves Raymond," David Hyde Pierce for "Frasier" and Sean Hayes for "Will & Grace." The comedy series supporting actress bids went to three "Sex and the City" stars, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon, along with Doris Roberts of "Everybody Loves Raymond" and Megan Mullally of "Will & Grace." For supporting actress in a drama series, nominations went to Robin Weigert of "Deadwood," Tyne Daly of "Judging Amy," Drea de Matteo of "The Sopranos" and Janel Moloney and Stockard Channing (news) of "The West Wing." Drama series supporting actors who received nominations include Victor Garber of "Alias," Brad Dourif of "Deadwood," Michael Imperioli and Steve Buscemi of "The Sopranos" and John Spencer of "The West Wing."

A very interesting article from the Guardian. 12% *shaking head* Here's a few you missed... According to Prospect magazine, men still dominate Britain's intellectual elite. Laura Barton asks why women didn't cut it Friday July 2, 2004 As a fitting hoopla to mark its centennial issue, Prospect magazine has this month unveiled its list of Britain's Top 100 public intellectuals - a regal procession of Graylings and Hobsbawms and Stoppards; Starkeys and Steiners and Braggs. An accompanying essay by writer and television producer David Herman admits that there have been omissions, and that "we will all miss particular names, but the biggest surprises come from larger absences". He cites the new left, the new right, literary and cultural theorists, emigres, politicians, theologians, ethnic minorities and the young. The most glaring absence, however, is that of women. Indeed, of the 100 worthies, there are only 12 women: religious historian Karen Armstrong, critic, essayist and novelist AS Byatt, historian Linda Colley, pharmacologist and director of the Royal Institute Susan Greenfield, writer and academic Germaine Greer, historian Lisa Jardine, moral philosopher Mary Midgley, philosopher Onora O'Neill, author and columnist Melanie Phillips, biographer Gitta Sereny, philosopher and public ethicist Mary Warnock and novelist Jeanette Winterson. Pondering the list's absences, Herman wonders, "Is this the result of institutional ... sexism in the media and universtities? Or is it rather an acknowledgement that the big battles have been won, that sexism [is] no longer [one of the] key faultlines in our intellectual culture?" This rather supposes that we would only see a large number of women on such a list if women's rights were still contentious - if we were still entitled to a sympathy vote. And if the good fight is over, then we ought to get back to the kitchen. We asked David Goodhart, editor of Prospect,what happened to all the women. "We were just drawing up a list of the top British intellectuals," he says. "We weren't trying to produce an exact replica of the gender split in the country. But we certainly weren't deliberately leaving women out - if anything, slightly the opposite. I mean we weren't positively discriminating, but if all other factors were equal, we would choose a woman." Thank you Mr Goodhart, how very chivalrous. Men, Goodhart argues, still dominate our intellectual and cultural lives, and this is, therefore, what the list reflects. "Similarly, very few people on the list are under 45, and that's because in order to become a public intellectual you have to dominate your own field before starting a second career as a media commentator," he explains. "And that takes a long time." He assures us that we will see more women public intellectuals in the future, just as we shall also see more women in the cabinet. "Helena Kennedy almost made it," he says, consolingly. "But she's not really a public intellectual, she's a politician - she doesn't have a body of thought behind her. And Polly Toynbee. But she's a social reform journalist and we had a lot of people in that category. And she is just a journalist, unlike Will Hutton, who has a great body of work behind him, and Melanie Phillips, who wrote that big book about ... er, was it Rathbone? That early feminist?" He pauses. "She's written a lot of pamphlets on a lot of subjects," he says, bolstering the Phillips argument. "But she also represents an important strand of British culture, which embraced the 60s and then rejected it." Natasha Walter might make it in the future, he says, when she has graduated from journalism. Prospect has asked its readers to nominate by email those people they think should be on the list, but aren't. "So far," says Goodhart, "we've had 500-600 replies, and the only two women who've really cropped up have been Polly Toynbee and Marina Warner." And what of the prestigious 12? Jardine and Colley are both rather pleased to have made it, though quick to play down its significance. "We live in such a list-making culture - the Top 10 of the Year, the Top 10 Buildings - and all such lists are random and arbitrary," says Colley. For Jardine, "It's no better than The Big Read. It's a list of people in the public eye, the names they discuss at dinner tables, so it's a self-fulfilling prophecy." Colley thinks that her place on the list could be down to the fact that, in her writing, she ventures into male intellectual terrain. "I write history books about war and nationalism and empire. And on the whole, that's not what women write about." She ventures that had Prospect included more novelists, there would have been many more women on the list. Steve Fuller, professor of sociology at Warwick University and author of How to be an Intellectual, to be published later this year, thinks that male intellectuals tend to reinforce each other more than women do. The old boy network permeates the intelligentsia just as much as any other aspect of British society. "There needs," he says, "to be a critical mass of women intellectuals who will cite each other, refer to each other - that's what happens with men." One might also note that a female "public" intellectual is rarely regarded with the same deference as her male counterpart. She is subjected to far more intimate scrutiny, be it Susan Greenfield's mini skirts, or the personal life of Germaine Greer. "Women intellectuals certainly appear on enough pages," says Fuller, but often this can slightly devalue their intelligence in the public's perception. Men, by comparison, "don't get hurt by being around a lot". It seems that even in the intellectual world there are slags and there are studs. So, as a fitting riposte to Prospect's list, we have compiled our own: Britain's Top 101 Female Public Intellectuals. Omitted are the original 12 anointed and, to allay any suggestions of bias, our own illustrious Guardian columnists (Polly Toynbee, Jackie Ashley, Madeleine Bunting, Natasha Walter, Zoe Williams, we could go on). We stuck to the criteria set forth by Prospect, which called for "distinction in a field of intellectual or cultural endeavour coupled with an ability to communicate well to generalist audiences through written or spoken word", "originality of contribution" and "ability to articulate or represent an important strand of British cultural life". They "should have made their most significant impact" in Britain, but need not live here or be British citizens. Naturally, we had trouble restraining ourselves to a mere 101, but here's a start. 101 overlooked women intellectuals (in no particular order) 1 Vera Baird QC, MP 2 Rabbi Julia Neuberger, former chief executive of the King's Fund and broadcaster 3 Helena Kennedy QC, chair of the British Council and of human genetics commission 4 Zadie Smith, author and critic 5 Caryl Churchill, playwright 6 Harriet Harman MP, solicitor general 7 Elaine Showalter, literary critic 8 Gillian Slovo, author 9 Rachel Whiteread, artist 10 Jacqueline Rose, psychoanalyst 11 Antonia Fraser, biographer 12 Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty 13 Gillian Beer, academic 14 Vanessa Redgrave, actor and campaigner 15 Doris Lessing, author 16 Bridget Riley, artist 17 Susie Orbach, psychotherapist and author 18 Lisa Appignanesi, television producer, author, member of the ICA council 19 Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, first woman president of the family division of the high court 20 Margaret Drabble, author 21 Jenny Uglow, biographer 22 Juliet Mitchell, psychoanalyst and author 23 Katie Mitchell, theatre director 24 Bonnie Greer, broadcaster and author 25 Cherie Booth QC, founder of Matrix Chambers 26 Joan Bakewell, broadcaster and writer 27 Beeban Kidron, film-maker 28 Caroline Moorehead, biographer 29 Lady Amos, leader of the House of Lords 30 Lynne Segal, academic and critic 31 Nina Bawden, author 32 Vivienne Westwood, fashion designer 33 Molly Dineen, documentary-maker 34 AL Kennedy, author 35 PJ Harvey, singer 36 Eliza Manningham-Buller, director-general of MI5 37 Zaha Hadid, architect 38 Lola Young, academic 39 Hermione Lee, academic and critic 40 Jenni Murray, broadcaster 41 Andrea Levy, author 42 Lady Scotland, Home Office Minister 43 Mary Kay Wilmers, editor of the London Review of Books 44 Deborah Orr, columnist 45 Jackie Kay, author 46 Sarah Lucas, artist 47 Jude Kelly, theatre director 48 Sara Maitland, author and historian 49 Shirley Williams, Liberal Democrat peer 50 Carmen Callil, critic and founder of Virago 51 Diana Athill, author and editor 52 Noreena Hertz, economist 53 Linda Grant, author 54 Rosie Boycott, founder of Virago and journalist 55 Antonia Byatt, director of the Women's Library 56 Mich�le Roberts, author and critic 57 Elaine Storkey, theologian 58 Lynne Ramsay, filmmaker 59 Carol Ann Duffy, poet 60 Katharine Whitehorn, journalist 61 Ali Smith, author 62 Joan Smith, author 63 Rachel Lomax, deputy governor of the Bank of England 64 Anne Oakshott, academic 65 Suzanne Moore, columnist 66 Frances Cairncross, managing editor of The Economist 67 Lady Brenda Hale, first woman Law Lord 68 Mary Beard, academic 69 JK Rowling, author 70 Marilyn Butler, academic 71 Cornelia Parker, sculptor 72 Francine Stock, broadcaster and novelist 73 Sheila Lawlor, director of thinktank Politeia and author 74 Marina Warner, academic and critic 75 Dr Anne McLaren, embryologist 76 Eva Jiricna, architect 77 Ruth Lister, professor of social policy at Loughborough University 78 Fiona Shaw, actor 79 Suzi Leather, chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority 80 Kate Mosse, author and founder of the Orange prize 81 Azar Nafisi, author 82 Carol Black, president of the Royal College of Physicians 83 Ruth Deech, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University 84 Ahdaf Soueif, novelist 85 Jocelyn Bell-Burnell, president of the Royal Society of Astronomers 86 Edna O'Brien, novelist 87 Sheila Rowbotham, historian 88 Stella Tillyard, historian 89 Beryl Bainbridge, novelist 90 Janet Radcliffe Richards, academic and bioethicist 91 Sarah Hogg, economist and chairman of equite group the 3i Group 92 Ann Phoenix, professor of social and developmental psychology at the Open University 93 Claire Tomalin, biographer 94 Professor Frances Ashcroft, biochemist 95 Naomi Klein, author 96 Julia Higgins, material scientist 97 Jacqueline Wilson, children's author 98 Amanda Levete, architect 99 Shena Mackay, author 100 Alison Richard, vice chancellor of Cambridge University 101 Gillian Wearing, artist http://www.guardian.co.uk/gender/story/0,11812,1252410,00.html

Latest P&P casting news from ScreenDaily: Dench, Sutherland round out Pride cast Judi Dench, Donald Sutherland, Brenda Blethyn, Tom Hollander and Penelope Wilton have joined the cast of Working Title Films� Pride And Prejudice. ~~~~~~~ Sutherland and Blethyn are Mr and Mrs Bennet and Penelope Wilton is Mrs Gardiner. Don't you think they're all rather old for those parts, given the youth. Think about Judi Dench being Lady Catherine. Would she have a daughter eligible to marry her nephew Fitzwilliam?

Don't you think they're all rather old for those parts, given the youth. Think about Judi Dench being Lady Catherine. Would she have a daughter eligible to marry her nephew Fitzwilliam? These are all wonderful actors but I think that you are sooo right. JD was just skirting reality being Lady B;-) Mrs. Bennett was in her late 40s. But I don't think that this film is being directed at the crowd that pays attention to matters such as these;-)

If the producers are interested in having a "more age appropriate" cast as evidenced in their statements regarding the ages of Matthew MacFayden and Keira Knightley relative to that of their characters. It would seem that their concern with age is only valid in regard to the younger characters. If they wanted the actual ages of the entire cast to be closer to the ages of the characters in "Pride and Predjudice", Kiefer Sutherland would have made a more logical choice, agewise, than his father. It appears that Working Title's intent is to produce a starring vehicle for Miss Knightley, which will (hopefully) appeal to a young female demographic. Perhaps they have great hopes in making a successful "date movie". Then again, I'm probably being being too harsh and unduly judgemental in my assessement of the upcoming version of P&P. It might turn out to be quite watchable.

I've been seeing the trailer for Vanity Fair quite a bit and even though Mira Nair has inserted from Indian extravaganza, it looks rather appealing to me. ;-)

Glad to see Alan Rickman and HBO's Something the Lord Made on the Emmy list. Great piece and it's true.

New Oscar Rules Ban Trash-Talking Ads Thu Jul 15, 8:50 PM ET LOS ANGELES - The Academy Awards (news - web sites) have some new rules, including a ban on ads by studios trashing the competition. In a decree released Thursday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences formally banned studios from referencing rivals in ads aimed at voters. The new rule "prohibits specific and disparaging references to other pictures or individuals competing in a given category in ads, mailings, Web sites or other forms of campaign communication," according to the Academy. It's an apparent response to DreamWorks' trade-newspaper ad last season that promoted best supporting actress contender Shoreh Aghdashloo from "House of Sand and Fog" in a way that was perceived as a slap at fellow nominee Renee Zellweger from "Cold Mountain." The ad included clips from newspaper and TV critics saying that Aghdashloo deserved to win the Oscar, but that Zellweger was more likely to get it. The Motion Picture Academy denounced it as an "attack ad." DreamWorks apologized and later bought a special ad congratulating Zellweger on her victory. Another new rule: some Oscar voters outside of Los Angeles and New York have complained that they have trouble seeing all the movies necessary for an informed ballot � so the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has authorized studios to send free coupons to them. The issue was part of last season's debate over whether studios should discontinue sending voters "screeners," which are free tapes and DVDs of current movies.

If only we could ban trash talk about the competitor in politics ;-)

(Karen)If only we could ban trash talk about the competitor in politics ;-) You've got that right!

And that would be Meredith's comment, not mine (though I agree).

(Cheryl)It might turn out to be quite watchable. Anything is possible, but 6 hours wasn't long enough. Two hours won't be enough to tempt me;-) (Karen)Don't you think they're all rather old for those parts, given the youth. Yeah, especially since T Bevan (I think) said he was tired of costume dramas with actors in their 30's playing young lovers, or something like that. (Karen)Think about Judi Dench being Lady Catherine. Would she have a daughter eligible to marry her nephew Fitzwilliam? LOL, no. Her biological clock must have takin a lickin and kept on tickin;-)

What a nice movie De-Lovely turned out to be. I could see it again. Kudos to Armani for the wardrobe. I suspect that Kevin Kline will get nominated. And speaking of nominations, Napoleon Dynamite!!! What a brilliant little film! It will take the IFC awards, I'm sure. The lead actor too. An incredible performance. Go see them both.

What do you mean, the birthday girl wants to give me a kiss? Come out, come out wherever you are, Emma! and have a Happy Birthday!!!

FELIZ ANIVERSARIO,EMMA

Ha ha! Thanks you two. Karen, if I had only gotten so close that day at the fountains! I was enjoying my GWAPE dvd extras yesterday, actually, and the Friday confirmation that I do have tickets for Trauma on the 22nd. Yippee!

Great news, Emma! Glad you got the tickets! Please accept my belated birthday wishes. Enjoying the extra scenes were you?

Great news, Emma! Glad you got the tickets! Please accept my belated birthday wishes. Enjoying the extra scenes were you?

In you go, Hugh. Emma came to see me! ...a day late. Great news about your tickets!!!

I was eavesdropping and thought I heard it was Emma's (belated) Birthday! Emma, I'll just chase off this guy and meet you in the hot tub for a little private party!

�Crikey! I missed Emma�s Birthday!� Hope it was a happy one! ! (BTW � great score on the tickets!!)

Emma!!!! Missed your b'day, did I??? Betcha you don't know how that's been just weighing on my mind Perhaps a warm bath and a glass of wine shall make it all right?:) I hope you had a wonderful b'day!

Emma, I'm utterly Trauma-tised that I missed your birthday! Hope it was a happy one! How great about your ticket! Hurrah!

LOL, Kimberly, I didn't see your post before I did mine! Ooops. ;-)

Looks like SJ is going to be with yet another older man;-D Although, it might be a good vehicle for ODB.... Scarlett Johansson will star in Silent Star for director Kimberly Peirce and Columbia Pictures, reports Production Weekly. The film was written by Larry Gross. A former actor, [ed.note: William Desmond] Taylor became a director at Paramount, helming Mary Pickford in Johanna Enlists and the teenage beauty Mary Miles Minter in "Jenny Be Good." In 1917 he became president of the Motion Picture Directors Association; by 1922 Paramount had made him head of his own production unit. On the night of Feb. 2, 1922, Taylor was found dead in his mansion. Rumors flew about the killer's identity and motive -- most of the rumors centered on Taylor's lovers, including Minter and Mabel Normand. Neither were formal suspects but both allegedly saw Taylor shortly before his death. Eek! If I keep forgetting birthdays I'm going to get so fired;-). So very sorry Emma. Hope this makes up for it:-). Hope it was a happy day!

(Lisa)LOL, Kimberly, I didn't see your post before I did mine! Ooops. ;-) Snort . .Tress beat us both! . .Great minds think alike!

(Kimberly) Snort . .Tress beat us both! . .Great minds think alike! Jeez, I give up! ;-) Must be the Drool collective unconscious. Images have been loading slower than usual for me today, and I guess I paid the price. ;-)

Linda/Dorine: emails to both of you at AOL have come back to me (from my Yahoo account) as a failure delivery. :-(

Happy belated Birthday, Emma!! Congrats on your tickets for Aug. 22....(You lucky dog)

Thanks everyone - should have checked in again, missed the rest of the party!

Oops! i'm two days late - Hope you had a great Birthday Emma!!!! *big hug*

An interview with Gurinder Chadha, who has made the Bollywood P&P: http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,6737,1264310,00.html

Sorry, I am sooo late. Happy Birthday Emma!!!! See you on August 22nd !

Emma, happy belated birthday! Congrats on the Trauma tickets you got for August! You lucky girl! (Am LOL at how there are 3 of the same Trauma pics for your birthday - so many minds on the same wavelength for you, Emma!) [and a very belated birthday to you too, Lisa!]

Truly an odd and end . . but for any West coast people . . . BackStage West is having a free screening of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind w/ a Q&A following w/ Jim Carrey and Charlie Kaufman Tues, July 27th @ 7:30 PM Harmony Gold Screening Room 7655 Sunset Boulevard, just east of fairfax Admittance is free, but reservations are required: rsvp: 310-652-6563 I recall Backstage West had that Q&A w/ Colin , Scarlett & Peter Webber for GWAPE - thought this might be nice to share too;)

Now *that* would be interesting with Charlie Kaufman. Saw him on Charlie Rose and found him very interesting.

Can you imagine? 'Cholera' set to hit Village Dana Harris, STAFF Scott Steindorff's Stone Village Pictures has paid Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez more than $1 million for feature rights to his 1985 novel "Love in the Time of Cholera." With a production bonus, deal will net Garcia Marquez close to $3 million. It took Russell and Steindorff nearly two years to convince the Colombian author to license film rights to his epic love story. "I think we called ... every day for 18 months," Steindorff said. He told Daily Variety they closed the deal Wednesday morning, with the payment in an escrow account and en route to Garcia Marquez. Agencia Literaria Carmen Balcells in Barcelona represented the author in the deal. Steindorff will produce and package the project before submitting it to studios and financiers. Stone Village exec Dylan Russell brought the book to the company. He and Stone Village's Scott LaStaiti will serve as co-producers. Stone Village produced "The Human Stain" with Lakeshore and Miramax and "Empire Falls" with HBO, Paul Newman and Marc Platt. Other Stone Village projects include Warner Bros. Pictures' "The Risk Pool," with Lawrence Kasdan writing and directing and Tom Hanks (news) starring; the remake of Akira Kurosawa's "Ikiru," with Richard Price adapting and Hanks starring; and "Modoc," with Kevin Costner as director and star. Stone Village is out to directors on T.C. Boyle's "The Tortilla Curtain.

For UK Droolers . . Free tix to preview screening of Stepford Wives http://www.promotions.telegraph.co.uk/promotions/index.jhtml;sessionid=TNMSK5EEPJ0STQFIQMGSNAGAVCBQWJVC?pg=/ETHtml/content/promotions/2004/07/21/prmMoveMonthly.jhtml

"Scott Steindorff's Stone Village Pictures has paid Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez more than $1 million for feature rights to his 1985 novel "Love in the Time of Cholera." Wish they'd do 100 Years of Solitude which I liked more. Still, it's time he had some recognition in films. Thanks.He's a giant.

(Evelyn) Still, it's time he had some recognition in films. Recognition? Doesn't sound to me like Garcia Marquez wanted to sell the rights. I don't blame him.

(Evelyn) Still, it's time he had some recognition in films. (Karen)Recognition? Doesn't sound to me like Garcia Marquez wanted to sell the rights. I don't blame him. "It took Russell and Steindorff nearly two years to convince the Colombian author to license film rights to his epic love story. "I think we called ... every day for 18 months," Aw..like a good socialist, he was probably holding out for more money;-)

Pics of the new Elizabeth Bennet. Check out the cleavage: http://www.thezreview.co.uk/news3/prideandprejudice.htm They could've at least tried those chicken cutlets or Kleenex. ;-)

Oh! My! No need for a corset! Lucky her! Does anyone recognize the actor behind her? He's got quite the crease in his boots (needs to break those in)...and that Col. Fitzwilliam snugness about his costume:

(Karen)They could've at least tried those chicken cutlets or Kleenex. ;-) LOL!! Is that an Empire waist? Hard to tell. I am not impressed.

(Karen) Pics of the new Elizabeth Bennet. Check out the cleavage: LOL. She looks positively dowdy. I guess she fits the description of a light figure as JA stated it. Maybe her "dress up" scenes will have her in the latest push-up.

(Carol)Maybe her "dress up" scenes will have her in the latest push-up. You still need something to put in the "push up";-) Drab, drab, and more drab--wrinkled and a v. bland shade of green, too;-)Just sums up how I feel about the whole thing, anyway.

When Darcy says, "not handsome enough to tempt me," you're going to believe it this time. ;-)

Thanks for the link . .I agree . .what a horrible shade of green . .she is a pretty girl though . .they could put her in something a leettle more flattering in shade and cut of the dress . .hmph my costume sensibilities are a bit miffed . . .we'll see . .we'll see . .

The Sun has 3 more pictures ... and Matthew MacFadyen is described as "hunky"?!? http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2004340667,00.html

Oh dear, as I said on Darcy Drool Lizzie looks like Jane Eyre. Mac Fadyen should have stuck with MI-5. He looks too contemporary ; like Hg in Sense and Sensibility.

Ona brighter note....:-))))) London Theatre Guide reports: "Star of the super-series Sex And The City, Kim Cattrall will star in a new production of Brian Clark?s Whose Life Is It Anyway? to be directed by Sir Peter Hall at the Duke Of York?s next January. Although the actress trained at LAMDA, the production marks her British theatrical debut....." http://www.officiallondontheatre.co.uk/news/display/cm/contentId/81305 Whew ! With Sir Peter Hall and Samantha, the Duke of York theatre will be pretty steamy;-)

and Matthew MacFadyen is described as "hunky"?!? He looks pretty different with that longer hair and a little like a much younger Alan Rickman. Not bad though...maybe a little too sensitive (read, effeminate). Not hard or chiseled enough for me.

If I hadn't been told that was him, I wouldn't have recognized him in a million years. And even though I knew who it was supposed to be, I still had to look at it for a good 30 mins straight to make sure The Z Review didn't have him ID'd wrong.

Just another O&E - I'm particularly interested in the adaptation of this novel to film . . they start filming this Sept. ZHANG LANDS SPIELBERG LEAD Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon star Zhang Ziyi is set to star in Spielberg's adaptation of 'Memoirs of a Geisha'. http://www.worldmoviemag.com/index.php?request=News&key=394

Here's something to ponder and laugh about! ;-) Summer pics: A mettle detector for thesps Timothy M. Gray, STAFF GREGORY PECK ONCE SAID that actors do their best work with the worst material. That is why, ladies and gentlemen, we should applaud this summer's crop of films: They provide a master class in screen acting. Novices can study the work of terrific actors as they overcome dialogue that would make a lesser talent weep. Try saying the following lines out loud and making them convincing. Here they are: a salute to the summer movies. Keep 'em comin', Hollywood. OUR PLUCKY PROTAGONISTS "We Transylvanians always look on the brighter side of death." -- Kate Beckinsale ("Van Helsing") "I know now all the blood I've shed, all the lives I've taken, have led me to this moment." -- Clive Owen ("King Arthur") "Unpack the snowshoes! We're walking from here!" -- Dennis Quaid to colleagues after their snowmobile crashes in Philadelphia as they were heading toward Manhattan ("The Day After Tomorrow") OSCAR-WORTHY STRAIGHT LINES "Nano wires feed directly into my cerebellum!" -- Alfred Molina ("Spider-Man 2") "The Underverse will be reached only by those who have embraced the Necromonger faith!" -- Linus Roache ("The Chronicles of Riddick") "Mr. Filch, round up the ghosts and ask them to search every painting in the castle until they find the fat lady!" -- Michael Gambon ("Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban") IT'S EXCITING TO SPEAK EXCITING DIALOGUE "We should get out of here! Should we run?" -- Nicole Kidman ("The Stepford Wives") "Run!" -- Hugh Jackman ("Van Helsing") "Run!" -- Emma Watson ("Harry Potter") "Keep moving!" -- Vin Diesel ("Chronicles of Riddick") "We have to get out of here now!" -- Jake Gyllenhaal ("Day After Tomorrow") LOVE THAT TECH TALK "I think we've hit a critical desalination point!" -- Dennis Quaid ("Day After Tomorrow") "Are you sure you can stabilize the fusion reaction?" -- Tobey Maguire ("Spider-Man 2") "When does the perceptual schematic become consciousness?" -- James Cromwell ("I, Robot") DIALOGUE HELPS ESTABLISH TENSION "A vast, terrible enemy is coming this way! They will show no mercy, spare no one!" -- Clive Owen ("King Arthur") "Don't try me, Aereon! I could plow you under with the rest of Helion Prime!" -- Colm Feore ("Chronicles of Riddick") "I can't live with turning people into monsters! You've got to let me pull the plug!" -- Peter Wingfield ("Catwoman") SUMMING UP THE MOVIE'S MESSAGE "I believe there is a hero in all of us." -- Rosemary Harris ("Spider-Man 2") "Catwomen are not contained by the rules of society. ... By accepting who you are, all of who you are, you can be free. And freedom is power!" -- Frances Conroy ("Catwoman") "Alas, we are all but players in an ever-changing world!" -- Ivano Marescotti ("King Arthur") CONVEYING SO MUCH WITH A SINGLE WORD "Aaaaghhhhhhhh!" -- Emma Watson ("Harry Potter") "Hnnnnghhh!" -- Woad warrior ("King Arthur") "Aiiiieeeee!" -- Kirsten Dunst ("Spider-Man 2") "Nooooooooooo!" -- Thandie Newton, in slo-mo ("Chronicles of Riddick") BUT ACTING REQUIRES more than dialogue. An actor has to find the inner logic of the scene, to discover what his character wants. Here are questions actors might ask themselves: [Unfortunately, the rest of the article was not uploaded.]

Joan, Melissa Rivers Sidelined for Emmy Red Carpet By Steve Gorman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The stars of American television can breathe a little easier when they stroll down the red carpet at the Emmy Awards this fall. Fashion cops Joan and Melissa Rivers won't be there waiting to spring on them. Three weeks after the veteran comedian and her daughter announced they were leaving the E! Entertainment Television for a lot more money at the TV Guide Channel, it turns out E! still holds exclusive rights to red-carpet Emmy coverage under a contract with the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. As a result, TV Guide acknowledged on Wednesday that it will have to sit out the first big event that Joan and Melissa were hired to host for the cable channel as part of a three-year deal that has been valued at between $6 million and $8 million. E! does not have exclusive pre-show coverage deals for other major entertainment awards, such as the Oscars or the Grammys. TV Guide and the Academy said they were trying to reach an accommodation for the doyennes of the red carpet, but E! was not involved in those talks, officials for all sides said. "Joan and Melissa have a great fan base -- they personify the red carpet, and their fans are not going to get to see them at the Emmys," said Chris Levesque, a spokeswoman for Gemstar-TV Guide International Inc., which owns the channel. "We'd absolutely like to be covering the Emmys, and we'll continue to explore all of our options." The situation left Hollywood wondering who, if anyone, might try filling the high heels of the mother-daughter team famed for their tart-tongued critiques of celebrity designer debacles on live cable TV. Comcast Corp.-controlled E!, which had been home to the Rivers duo for the past nine years, said it plans to hire fresh faces to anchor its Emmy arrivals coverage on Sept. 19 ahead of the ABC network telecast of the awards show itself. [Ed note: Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!] A TV Guide insider, speaking on condition of anonymity, insisted that E!'s exclusive Emmy contract, which runs through 2005, was not overlooked by the channel -- a gaffe that would have been the business equivalent of a major fashion faux pas. "We're TV guys. Our whole business is about promoting television and keeping viewers aware of television. So I think we were just optimistic that we could work something out," the source told Reuters. A spokesman for Joan Rivers said the comedian was away in Europe and not immediately available for comment. TV Guide, meanwhile, denied that this year's Emmy shutout had spoiled its plans for Joan and Melissa Rivers, whose deal was seen as a centerpiece of the channel's efforts to expand its original programing. "The Emmys are only one part of our overall programing plans for Joan and Melissa," Levesque said. "They're a huge brand, and we made a long-term relationship with them to develop a number of different programing offerings."

(Evelyn), Oh dear, as I said on Darcy Drool Lizzie looks like Jane Eyre. You are so right!!! And doesn't Dame Judi look as if she's had a face lift?

Note to the Toronto gang, maybe Colin will do similar... ;-) Kiefer joins strippers Kiefer Sutherland apparently "stunned" a group of small-town women with an impromptu strip routine at a nightclub in New Zealand. According to Digitalspy the 24 actor joined a bunch of strippers called 'Men of Steel' on stage in a small bar in Raetihi, North Island after spotting them from an adjoining bar. Sutherland slipped out of his socks and whipped off his shirt, waving it above his head to the tune of the Tom Jones hit 'You Can Leave Your Hat On', according to the New Zealand Herald. "Kiefer had a hell of a night," club President Danny Mills said. "He had an enjoyable evening and so did everyone that was here." Mills added that he would like to see Sutherland back at the club for a repeat performance in the future. Sutherland is currently in New Zealand filming River Queen, about an Irish immigrant during the 18th-century wars between indigenous Maori and colonial settlers.

(Karen)Note to the Toronto gang, maybe Colin will do similar... ;-) Woo hooo . .If so . .I am so there, with Candadian and US currency ready . . am thinking dollar bills, am thinking jolly hose . . .;)

Not that I think anyone here is racing out to see these, but I saw Catwoman and Bourne Supremacy this week. Catwoman- Take a pass. I only liked the soundtrack and Benjamin Bratt. An exercise in style. Plot holes the size of a barn. During fight scenes, she'd often jump up somewhere to get away....but her movements were a cross between a cat and Spiderman. Too unrealistic for a "catwoman." The can't run along walls. Very distracting. Sharon Stone wasn't campy enough for me, but good God, she must have *the* best plastic surgeon there is! Not a flaw on her face in extreme closeups. Some filtering used at times, but still.... Halle Berry a bit too heavy handed with the mousy persona and a bit too much with the Catwoman persona, too, IMO. Have to say, boys/men will enjoy her Catwoman persona (and the outfit). She was sex on a stick. ;-) Bourne Supremacy- I enjoyed it very much...much to my surprise, actually, despite some predictability throughout. Hated the camerawork in the fight scenes. Was really annoying during one very interesting fight in another spy's apt. Very much liked the score, too.....very good at ratcheting up tension. Overall, I found it compelling enough. There was a really good car chase scene near the end, too. It was long, but didn't bore me like the one in the 2nd Matrix film.

Thanks Dorine. Not that I'm gonna see Catwoman, but the word on the street is that it is "laughable." As to the Bourne Supremacy, I didn't see the first because (a) action movies like this give me headaches, (b) I don't like Matt Damon, and (c) Matt Damon can never be Jason Bourne to me. However, the reviews were good, making it sound like an intelligent thriller.

I meant to say I'd never seen most of the original either, though I do love a good action flick. Wasn't overly necessary to see the first, though some background may help for those who don't know the story at all from the books or other Bourne TV movies, etc. I kept thinking of Richard Chamberlin as Bourne at times while watching it. I'm not a real fan of Matt Damon (nor do I particularly dislike him...just apathetic about him), but thought he did very well here. No great range was required, but he was good for what he had to do.

""Joan and Melissa have a great fan base..." Me:-)))

No one else will have the nerve to tell Kevin Costner what a small diamond he gave his fiancee;-)

Catwoman - eh . .I'm w/ Dorine . .wasn't too impressed . .thought the fight squences to rapidly edited - very MTV video like . . which led me to believe the cutting of the scene was done to hide flaws in the fight choreography or flaws in the fight performances . .and it basically gave me a headache . . .

(Kimberly) . .thought the fight squences to rapidly edited - very MTV video like . . Probably done because I heard that HB had a stunt double in all the fight scenes. A Hawaiian guy who is a martial arts expert. Guess he was the right size. They were just talking about it on the radio here. They said all they had to do was slap some lipstick and the cat suit on him....but I'm hoping thats not all they had to do! LOL! I won't go see it, but it makes me laugh thinking about all the men who will think how hot HB looks during those fight scenes when it's actually a slim man with (I hope) fake boobs! ;-D

I liked the fist Bourne movie and liked the previews to this one. I also don't care for MD but this isn't exactly a rom com. ;-) I did like the actress that was in Run Lola Run, she was in the first one. Is she also in this one? I've only seen clips wth the other actress, Julia S. I hope E gets Carson from QE to do the red carpet. He was vvg and funny too at the FC awards. We got the MTV Music Awards in Miami in Sept. I can do the red carpet here. ;-D

That should read the IFC awards. :-)

Here's the end bit to the article Karen posted above . .Found the rest of it in today's Variety . .just typed it up ************************************* Continuation of - Summer pics: A mettle detector for thesps Timothy M. Gray, STAFF BUT ACTING REQUIRES more than dialogue. An actor has to find the inner logic of the scene, to discover what his character wants. Here are questions actors might ask themselves: - Even though her coworkers evacuate the area, doctor Sela Ward in �Day After Tomorrow� remains with a sick little boy, waiting for the ambulance to arrive. But where is the ambulance gonna take him, since she and the kid are already in a hospital? - When Hugh Jackman (�Van Helsing�) grows into an oversized werewolf, the transformation rips off all of his clothes �except his trousers. So does he buy his pants at the same place as the Hulk? - In �The Terminal�, Tom Hanks becomes a folk hero to the airport employees. But if they care so much about him, why doesn�t somebody put him in touch with an immigration attorney? - �King Arthur� is narrated by Lancelot. Then Lancelot dies. And he�s reincarnated as a horse. So was he reincarnated as a talking horse?

(Evelyn)No one else will have the nerve to tell Kevin Costner what a small diamond he gave his fiancee;-) LOL, and it was tiny indeed! I'm in their fan base; I enjoy seeing them cut some of these people down to size and their post-awards Fashion Police shows are always fun. I hope they'll be sxquared away by the Oscars. Bourne Supremacy--I thought the first one was very good and Matt Damon was good in the role. A very smart, taut, spy thriller. New pic is getting rave reviews; I'll definitely see it.

(Evelyn)No one else will have the nerve to tell Kevin Costner what a small diamond he gave his fiancee;-) (Mari)LOL, and it was tiny indeed! If I remember correctly she said something like: "How sweet". Of course then she went on to tell other guests to make sure and look at KC's fiancee's sweet diamond ring.

Thanks, Kimberly, for typing up the rest. Actually, those are probably the best examples of idiocy ever. ;-) Instead of mindless mainstream, I cannot speak highly enough of Before Sunset. What a fantastic movie. Even better than the first, which you *do* have to see before this one; otherwise, it makes no sense. Yes, there are some flashbacks, but the first movie is critical. You can probably rent it somewhere. I'd give Julie Delpry an Oscar nom. This is an incredible performance, especially by her. She's a lifeforce. Plus she sings at the end, an absolutely perfect song, a waltz. I never stopped smiling throughout the film. It was perfection. I think I'm going to have to buy the two on DVD.

Thank, Karen. The Miami Herald gave it 4 stars, the max. I want to see it very much. Loved the first one. It's only playing in Miami Beach, debating for tonight.

And thank you, Kimberley for typing it up. Cute article.

(Karen) I cannot speak highly enough of Before Sunset. What a fantastic movie. I loved it too! Funny and poignant all at once, yet without taking itself too seriously. Both Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy were superb. (Karen) She's a lifeforce. Plus she sings at the end, an absolutely perfect song, a waltz. Plus she WROTE the song (as well as two others in the movie)!! (Karen) Instead of mindless mainstream But I like the mindless stuff too -- thought Spidey2 was great, and will definitely be going to see Bourne Supremacy. Guess I'm just indiscriminate... ;-)

(Dorine)If I hadn't been told that was him, I wouldn't have recognized him in a million years. I know! and I watched him faithfully in MI-5. (Moon)I hope E gets Carson from QE to do the red carpet. Agree, I think he can achieve the same level of, of whatever Joan achieved. I will miss Joan, though.

The Bourne Supremacy is good stuff....not all that mindless, IMO;-) Well constructed, edgy plot with twists and turns that races along at a frantic pace. Edge of seat throughout.Loved all the location shots in the capitals of Europe , plus Goa, India. Agree with Dorine that the score increased the tension.Good camera shots , ending!! The right and left hands worked together on this one. Bruce Cox turns in another excellent performance. And it might be Matt Damon's best.

(Evelyn) And it might be Matt Damon's best. I'm watching Dogma right now and I was thinking this was his best. I guess he really did very well in both. Very different types of characters. One of my favorite Ben Affleck roles, too, along with Chasing Amy (both Kevin Smith movies). I agree Bryan Cox did very well. Didn't recognize him for a minute. He was very interesting on C Rose a week or so ago. Great Scots accent. Glad you liked Before Sunset. I thought it better than the original, too. Can't wait for the DVD, though would like to see it before that again. Was watching the first just before I left to see the second, though I didn't pay attention to almost half of it.... so while I may have missed something, apparently it wasn't enough to inhibit my enjoyment of the second, hence my saying previously that I didn't think seeing the first was totally necessary. Just knowing they spent the night together talking, then promise to meet up again later was enough info for me. They said at the Q&A, when talking about her songs in it, that she has an album out in France, but no distribution in the US. I did find it at Amazon a while back as an import.... http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00009LI6V/qid=1090646243/sr=8-7/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i7_xgl15/104-2126842-2623965?v=glance&s=music&n=507846 Unfortunately no sound samples. Thanks, Kim and Karen for the article. Funny. I'm a Joan and Melissa watcher, too. I was bummed when they left. No more fashion roundups after award shows. I guess they will at the new channel, wherever it is on the dial.

(Moon) I did like the actress that was in Run Lola Run, she was in the first one. Is she also in this one? I've only seen clips wth the other actress, Julia S. Franke Potente was in just the first ~20 mins. I hope E gets Carson from QE to do the red carpet Yes! He'd be perfect. Can be as catty as Joan, though would recognize people better I bet.

(Moon) hope E gets Carson from QE to do the red carpet He would be perfect, but didn't the article say E! was looking for unknowns? Besides, Carson is attached to NBC-owned properties, like Bravo. He did the Red Carpet for Access Hollywood, which airs on NBC. Thanks for the link, Dorine. One of the CD reviewers has said it will be a trilogy. Wonder how long before the third is made...How the film was made intrigues me. Those huge chunks of dialogue. How on earth did they do it? It doesn't look edited together to me. Even when you look at the cafe scene at the beginning. The dialogue flows seamlessly. They had two cameras and the actors took off. Before Sunset: If you go to this Julie Delpy site: http://home.no.net/site/delpyweb/ not only can you read the raves about her and the film, but there's also a link to read the script for Before Sunrise: http://www.geocities.com/joeyhuang2001/b4sunrise01.html and a link to hear music samples: http://www.fnac.com/Shelf/article.asp?PRID=1430985&SID=053112a6-5686-ac6f-989e-3ee8e0f821c8&UID=02560510f-eab4-6956-1b48-636a5ddc5324&AID=&Origin=FnacAff&No=1&Mu=-13&Fr=3&Mn=1&Ra=-28&To=0 Definitely click to hear Waltz for a Night. Amazon has a soundtrack CD for the film, which has three tracks by her. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0002C4JIA

(Karen) How the film was made intrigues me. Those huge chunks of dialogue. How on earth did they do it? It doesn't look edited together to me. Even when you look at the cafe scene at the beginning. The dialogue flows seamlessly. They had two cameras and the actors took off. At the Q&A, they all talked about doing heavy rehearsing and sticking to the script as written because many of the scenes would be filmed without editing...some scenes up to 10 mins. As I said before, I was amazed to hear this as some parts and movements seemed so natural and improvised. Parts of it were logistical issues with some of the narrow streets and passageways. They could only use so much equipment because of lack of space. They also had a very short shooting schedule and specific lighting requirements as their day progressed, so they had no time to waste with many takes from different angles. It was like filming a play at times. Thanks for the links, Karen.

On the soundtrack... Love that Dido and Encas Overture. Don't like that version of Waltz for a Night. Prefer the version in the movie with acoustic guitar. And it says in the summary that the Nina Simone song is on it, but it's not listed on the track list. :-(

At the Q&A, they all talked about doing heavy rehearsing and sticking to the script as written because many of the scenes would be filmed without editing...some scenes up to 10 mins. ...It was like filming a play at times. That's a great analogy, a play, yet far more naturalistic with the feel of improvisation. I'm sure having Delpy and Hawke contributed to the script helped tremendously, but her riffs (save one by Hawke) are stellar material. I'm telling ya, this is an Oscar-worthy performance and I hope the new Warners Independent div pushes it, so that it won't be forgotten.

Here's a link to and snippet of a BBC News interview with Julie Delpy talking about making the film..... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3907023.stm "We sat down and talked about the concept and we decided it was going to be an hour-and-a-half in real time. "We started writing the script in 2002 and finished it just couple of weeks before we started shooting, but I didn't let myself believe it was actually going to happen until Ethan literally arrived for rehearsals." Filming in real time on location proved to be "fun but challenging" for Delpy who says she needed "two heads" to tackle the technical and creative demands. Because the whole film was set in late afternoon, matching the light meant they were only able to shoot for a few hours every day. A tight three-week filming schedule also meant scenes had to be nailed quickly and a single take could last more than 10 minutes. It helped add to the "realism" of the film and complemented the natural feel and rhythm of the dialogue. But, as Delpy explains, the seemingly spontaneous conversations and mannerisms were carefully choreographed to be as natural as possible. "Everything was written, even things like the hesitation in the dialogue. We spent time studying the way we speak because we wanted to make the dialogue very flowing."

Thanks, Dorine, for the link. Fascinating stuff. Although Delpy says there are "no plans" for a third film, she is reluctant to rule out the possibility. Gaaah! But they must. This one had a wonderful ending, but I've gotten so attached to these characters. I want more.

He won...He won!!!! Armstrong Wins Record Sixth Tour De France http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=1&u=/ap/20040725/ap_on_sp_ot/cyc_tour_de_france

getting rid of bold, hopefully.

Yes, am very excited about that! Will be watching coverage on CBS at 2pm ET.

Nice interview with Linklater: http://www.kamera.co.uk/interviews/a_quick_chat_with_richard_linklater.php Had no idea they also did a scene for Waking Life? Wonder if it was before/after I walked out. ;-) Actually, I think I did see it, as I remember the cartoon Ethan Hawke. Prefer the actors, obviously, than cartoons.

Is anyone watching this new Denis Leary show, Rescue Me? About the NY firefighters? It's on after this week's repeat of Nip/Tuck. I like it so far, in the 15 mins it's been on. Irreverent like his other show, The Job, which at that time was probably in my top 3 shows on TV a few years ago. This one's a drama that has funny bits as opposed to the other which was a comedy. Damn shame they took that off. Too short a run like Soap, and just as hysterical to me.

Missed it. I'll check for replays during the week. It's on FX, isn't it? Must be replays. On another note, I saw a trailer for a Scottish movie called "Dear Frankie" this weekend. It looks fairly cute, though it is in Martian (sorry, Janet *winkie winkie*) and stars Emily Mortimer and Gerald Butler. This is the second time I've seen her do a Scottish accent and you'd think she was. Butler was always one those names bandied about as a Bond and I've never seen him in anything. Looked interesting though: hair was close-cropped to be a tough kind of guy. He's also the Phantom (of the Opera). I want to see this one.

(Evelyn)Well constructed, edgy plot with twists and turns that races along at a frantic pace. Edge of seat throughout.Loved all the location shots in the capitals of Europe , plus Goa, India. I enjoyed it, and I liked that we see a lot of Moscow. Until now, our view has generally been limited to onion domes and Volga Boatmen.;-) I still prefer the first Bourne, but this was entertaiing, fast-paced (blink and you lose out) and Matt D. has really grown into the role. He won...He won!!!! Thrilled for him! Nobody has worked harder or overcome more.

I would've put it on Dillane's topic, but it had Jason Isaacs in it too. Garcia keeps track of indie 'Nine Lives' By Chris Gardner Helmer Rodrigo Garcia has his hands full with a big-name cast for his latest effort, the indie drama "Nine Lives." The project, produced by Julie Lynn through her Mockingbird Pictures, is shooting in Los Angeles. The story is a series of vignettes, offering glimpses into the lives of nine women, played by Kathy Baker, Amy Brenneman, Elpidia Carrillo, Glenn Close, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Holly Hunter, Amanda Seyfriend, Sissy Spacek and Robin Wright Penn. Their stories are rounded out thanks to additional cast members including Stephen Dillane, Dakota Fanning, William Fichtner, Jason Isaacs, Joe Mantegna, Ian McShane, Molly Parker, Mary Kay Place, Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Miguel Sandoval and Aidan Quinn. Garcia is directing from his own script, with Lynn handling producing chores. Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu is serving as executive producer. "We set out to do a rather unusual independent film," said Garcia, who has worked with Baker, Brenneman, Carrillo, Close, Hamilton, Hunter, Seyfriend, Sandoval and Place. "The greatest gift has been to have actors of this caliber respond to the material -- it's just a fantastic experience thus far." The film is composed of nine Steadicam shots, each 10-12 minutes, to tell the women's stories by following the actors through various locations and situations. The low-budget film could wind up having a big payday for the crew: Every permanent member of the crew owns a piece of the film, from the grips and the production assistants to the producer and director. Garcia is repped by Endeavor, which is also repping the film. Lynn is repped by agent Lisa Callamaro and attorney Craig Emanuel at Loeb & Loeb.

(Karen re: Rescue Me) Missed it. I'll check for replays during the week. It's on FX, isn't it? Must be replays. Actually, I discovered last night was the replay. It's on Weds at 10 ET. I very much enjoyed the rest of the show. A lot funnier than I expected, but irreverently so. I saw a trailer for a Scottish movie called "Dear Frankie" this weekend..... and stars Emily Mortimer and Gerald Butler. Actually, it's Gerard. I have a hard time with the name sometimes. Liked him in the few things I've seen him in. 'Nine Lives' The story is a series of vignettes, offering glimpses into the lives of nine women Jason Isaacs, Ian McShane, Aidan Quinn? I'm in! ;-) The low-budget film could wind up having a big payday for the crew: Every permanent member of the crew owns a piece of the film That's really awesome.....but, doesn't sound like big $$ to me.

The low-budget film could wind up having a big payday for the crew: Every permanent member of the crew owns a piece of the film (Dorine) That's really awesome.....but, doesn't sound like big $$ to me. LOL! Does everyone remember their basic math? 8% of 0 is 0. ;-)))

Interview with Linklater in Filmmaker magazine. I'm not copying over the intro material, as I think it gives away much too much of the film's surprises, as do most of the reviews in print. Don't read them. So much of the film's delights are the character reveals, i.e., where they are in life, whta's happening with them, what happened after their Vienna encounter, etc. Filmmaker: I think this is maybe the first U.S. independent-film sequel ever made. Richard Linklater: [Laughs.] Yeah, and [Before Sunrise is] probably the lowest-grossing film to ever spawn a sequel! There�s a lot to be proud of. Filmmaker: Why did you decide to make this film? And why now? Linklater: Well, it�s something we�ve talked about over the years. Julie, Ethan and I would get together, and I could tell there was something still stirring in all of us. An early idea was to shoot what happened six months later rather quickly and then wait a few years and shoot the other, say, hour that took place years later. But we didn�t quite get it together � everybody was busy. But there was this desire we all had, just some kind of need. It certainly wasn�t anything other than thinking there was maybe more to say. Filmmaker: How did it start this time around? Linklater: I think when they did their scene in Waking Life, that�s when we all sat down and said, Okay, now definitely we have to do this. In an earlier form, it was much more of a traditional romantic comedy. It took place in four different locations, it was much more involved � a bigger-budget thing, probably about $8 or $10 million. And we couldn�t get financing. This was around 2000. So we totally reconceptualized it, and at that point Ethan, Julie and I had an idea to do what is the movie now. So Julie, Ethan and I actually just wrote a completely new movie. Filmmaker: What was that writing process like? Linklater: Well, it was a lot like the first one. We sat in a room and worked together in about a two- or three-day period, worked out a very detailed outline of the whole film in this sort of real-time environment. And then, over the next year or so, we just started e-mailing each other and faxing. I was sort of a conduit � they would send me monologues and dialogues and scenes and ideas, and I was editing, compiling and writing. And that�s how we came up with a script. And then Castle Rock came aboard to do it for not much money � a couple million � about what we had the first time, actually. The three of us met in Paris, and in a couple of days we did a first rewrite and just worked on the scenes. And during rehearsal and preproduction we kept working on it. Filmmaker: What to me was one of the film�s strong points is the affection that you clearly have for these characters, and the affection they have for each other. It�s intimate. Linklater: It was just kind of magical, I have to say � a magical encounter between two old friends, two old lovers, that you might have. Unlike the first movie, where you�re whisked away with the possibility of a romance, or you don�t know where it�s going to go happen, this is a little different. You�re older, wiser, and you know this person; you�ve been through something, and you�ve had a relationship, albeit very absentee, that is kind of profound. So it�s one of those moments when your fantasies are right in front of you! You�re experiencing something that you�ve thought about. Filmmaker: Would you say that the change in tone that you�ve just described is reflected in the filmmaking itself, or would you say that the aesthetic of this movie is almost the same as the first one? Linklater: Oh no, to me the tone is different. The visual style is even more minimal. And in the first one there was a much greater time span, and they were actively seeking out Vienna. They had all that possibility and a lot of time to kill! That was at night too, very romantic and full of mystery and possibility. This one was just the opposite. This one is daytime, they�ve both got earthly obligations. We�re in a town she lives in. We�re in a town he�s basically working in. He�s got real-life appointments. He�s got to leave for the airport in 80 minutes or so. So the tone of it is very real-worldy. And because it�s this sort of document of real time, I wanted it to be like an �eloquent documentary.� I didn�t think handheld 16mm, I thought Steadicams. Eloquent, but with a certain realness. You have these long takes, long Steadicam shots following them unobtrusively. You know, in the first film the camera really commented on [the characters] and enhanced their feeling. I�d pull back and you�d see them in th foreground with the opera house in the background. This was the opposite. I wanted it to seem like we were just following these people in as real a way as we could get and still seem like some kind of narrative fiction. I was just taking this idea that I�ve often worked from in movies: make a documentary about characters acting out a fiction. It�s this Godardian idea from a long time ago. Filmmaker: Could you explain a little more about this? Linklater: I think if you�re going for some kind of reality, your goal is to try to represent a reality as much as you can without it actually being a reality. This is fiction, these are fictional characters, and this is all written text. We�re not improvising on camera. But that�s the feel we�re going for, a certain spontaneity. It�s a lot of work for the actors � more than they�ll ever get credit for � the fact that everything is rehearsed like a play. Every beat, every gesture, every little moment is actually preplanned. Filmmaker: Every moment in that film was highly rehearsed? Linklater: Yeah, and yet the goal is to make it not seem like that. So that was a huge challenge. There�s nothing to hide behind for them. We can�t cut out of a scene that didn�t work because of how [the film is] structured geographically and timewise. We couldn�t just cut to a long shot of them walking and change the subject. It�s one conversation. We cut out hardly anything. We couldn�t � we committed ourselves to the dialogue, the ideas, everything. So that was a long process. Ethan and Julie had to get to some level that�s rarely required of an actor. So I was just so proud of them in the way they dug into themselves so much. [They�re playing] characters who are only parallel to themselves � that�s not Ethan and that�s not Julie, but we�ve created this universe where they could be, you know, themselves. Filmmaker: To me, the story is about a fantasy that�s now suddenly staring these characters back in the face. Linklater: I think what�s at stake is their own realities. It�s the biggest issue I think you can face about yourself: the person you are versus who you want to be, who you think you are versus who you really are, what you want versus what you really have. Big issues. It�s not slight, even though it�s often treated in kind of a slight way, but that�s the way life is. We treat it slightly, but it�s really important. People obsess about things that don�t seem important and blow off things that in fact are a big deal, like who you are, what you�re really doing, where you�re committing your passion and your energy. So I don�t know � to me that�s about as deep as you can get in a personal way. So I wasn�t worried about the story ever not seeming that it�s a big deal. Filmmaker: What was the shoot like? Linklater: It was tough. We had a 15-day schedule, and the biggest challenge was the real-time aspect of the movie. We couldn�t shoot it midday with the sun up. We could maybe [shoot] an interior [then], but we had very few interiors. So we had the challenge of matching light the best we could on a really limited schedule. So you make compromises but put the challenge on the actors. For a 10-page scene, we�d only have two hours to do it. We can do 10 takes and then we�ll use the best one, but that�s it. Once the light was right we had to be going. And we were with a French crew for the most part. Filmmaker: Did you provide yourself with options for cutting, or did you really just shoot the same scene the same way take after take? Linklater: It depended on the scene, but we usually shot the same takes. I don�t think I was doing it where it was, Let�s do one scene where you�re this way or one scene where you�re that way. We had already committed. But I would shoot different angles. When they�re walking on the garden path after they came out of the caf�, I ended up using kind of a walking two-shot for all of that, but I had two cameras [shooting] kind of crossed singles on each of them. I thought I could cut to those, but I ended up not using [those shots]. I was able to get a Steadicam operator, Jim McConkey, who I�d worked with on School of Rock, to come over and work with us. He gets the MVP award for Steadicam work. I think people who know Steadicam know just how tough some of the stuff he�s doing is. Filmmaker: Have the things that motivated you to make films at the beginning of your career � Before Sunrise was your third film � changed a lot in the past nine years? Linklater: No, not at all. This was the film I think I imagined before I ever made a film at all. It�s something I�ve strived for, and it took this long to figure out how to do it, to have the confidence or whatever skills to try to pull it off. I don�t think this would be a good first film for anybody to try to attempt, even though it looks so simple. But I don�t know, I really do feel like I�m coming from the same place, you know. Filmmaker: Almost like Truffaut�s Antoine Doinel series. Linklater: Yeah, that�s inspiring. But who knows? I don�t think it�ll be too methodical. Even Truffaut�s Doinel series didn�t seem to have a total rhyme or reason to it. A film just popped out every now and then. I think whenever Truffaut probably had a good idea or felt Antoine come into his system and wanted to check in with him again, that�s probably when [a film] happened. Who knows where that would have gone had Truffaut lived longer? After Before Sunset, I think all three of us decided, Yeah, this is a story we would have to visit again. It won�t be an encounter; it will be digging into the belly of the domestic beast. Like, how two people live together� something like that. But who knows? I�m sure it�ll take flight or it won�t over time. Filmmaker: Do you have any idea what happens after the end of this film? Linklater: [Laughs.] Well, I think I just gave it away. Filmmaker: I think you did too. So in 2013 we�ll see the next one? Linklater: Nine more years. No, Julie says that if we�re gonna do any sex scenes we�d better do them soon, although I don�t believe that for a second. Julie looks better now than she did back then, and she�ll be a radiant older woman, I�m sure.

Wow! Amazing stuff. Thanks Karen - I really enjoyed reading that interview. It isn't very often that films have to face that "real-time" issue. And to rehearse it so well, so that it looks spontaneous - sounds like what Jodi Foster said about her role in Taxi Driver, that De Niro rehearsed with her so much that she got really bored because she knows the dialogue inside out. Then he'd throw her an off-line or use a different inflection/intonation, something that is not in the script, and because she knows her lines so well, she didn't have to worry about what to say next, and is able to respond/improvise on the spot. I'd read recently in a report of the 2004 Berinale a wonderful snippet about Before Sunset - where the writer mentioned Linklater and Chantal Akerman in the same breath! And what the writer (Kevin Lee) said "I give Linklater a lot of credit for believing that a magical connection between two human beings as he depicts is possible, especially because in Before Sunset he shows why it must be possible" Having read the interview, this really makes sense, since Delpy and Hawke did contribute to the script and you can read this as a kind of a continuation of their investment to the characters, and also, a continuation of their on-screen chemistry (if you like) from Before Sunrise. They did have a gap of 9 years IRL to "line their faces" and chalk up their own histories. I haven't seen the film as yet, - not shown at the film festival here, nor the one I attended earlier in Hong Kong. But, I can't wait to see it - especially after reading all your postings and this last bit from the Berlinale wrap-up "And then there's the ending. Beautiful, startling, unbelievably perfect, so natural it's unreal. So fitting for a movie that plays it moment by moment because it understands that life, for better or worse, is about being in the moment one is in right now and making the most of it, now. It's all one really can do." Here's the link if you want to read more.

oops! here's the link :-) http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/festivals/04/31/berlinale_2004.html

Thanks for the link, Janice (firehorse). Wonderfully insightful and doesn't give away all the secrets of their lives. I rarely get so impressed by a film, but this one is so exceptional, from every standpoint.

About the real man whose story "inspired" The Terminal...sort of: http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,12589,1269788,00.html

I viewed Sunrise last night (too old for a rental, bought it used) *Shrugging shoulders* It's OK. Casablanca doesn't have to worry;-) Will see Sunset this weekend when it opens here.

(Evelyn)I viewed Sunrise last night (too old for a rental, bought it used) After hearing all the raves on Sunset, I've been trying to get a hold of Sunrise before I go to the theater. All copies are out from my two video rental sources - my local Blockbuster holds 3 copies. Sunset must be generating a lot of buzz even though I've heard nothing of it outside drool. (I should qualify my statement - chauffering children all day doesn't actually count as travelling in an intellectual circle)

(Evelyn) *Shrugging shoulders* It's OK. I agree, esp if you watch the two one after the other. I did like the first one mostly because I saw quite a bit of myself in it from experiences I had backpacking around Europe years ago. But, I didn't find it completely compelling in and of itself. Matter of fact, when I watched it just before I went out to see the second, I was very easily distracted and doing other things. With Before Sunset, I was completely swept up in them and their conversation, the implications, their movements, everything. Maybe because I'm older (though can't say wiser necessarily ;-)), I can completely identify with the life dilemmas of them both, especially her. In many things she said, she could've been me. I found it thought provoking in relation to my own life, much as I did with Lost in Translation. I was really bummed it ended there, though I thought that was brilliant as it left me wanting more. And to know that every move was completely rehearsed makes it even more compelling and enjoyable to me. Very well done!

As I recall, the raves were for Before Sunset. Watching Before Sunrise was for background and to see how much more depth of experience is shown in the current phase of the story.

mmm, I have seen Before Sunrise quite a few times, but each time, the experience took me further away from my initial love of the film. And maybe I was younger then... :-( I think some of the scenes that I liked then seems a bit trite now. And for me, Ethan Hawke's character is definitely not as dreamy as his role in Reality Bites. Delpy is however, very talented and shows such diversity in the roles that she plays.

This article in Sight and Sound says very highly, and beautifully, of Before Sunset. After reading it, I really can't wait to see this film. Enjoy! http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/2004_08/debriefencounter.php

Watch out!!! Sight & Sound is notorious for big spoilers and this one is full of them.

None of this guy's movies get released, yet he's still making more? The mystery of the century... Romijn-Stamos on the 'Town' Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, in front of the cameras on the Summit Entertainment/Endgame Entertainment production "Alibi," is in negotiations to be the woman to Ben Affleck's "Man About Town." The project is being eyed for a late-October start, with Mike Binder directing from his script. Individual producing credits also are still being worked out, with Media 8 producing and 3 Arts Entertainment likely to receive producing credit as well, according to sources. "Man About Town" is the story of a top Hollywood talent agent (Affleck) who seems to have it all -- success, money and a beautiful wife (Romijn-Stamos). But it all starts to unravel when he finds out that she is cheating on him and his journal has been stolen by a journalist who could expose him. ~~~~~~~~~~~ Am surprised Binder isn't playing the lead himself. Romijn-Stamos is just his type. ;-)

Mike Nichols Takes a Skinny Dip Source: Variety Wednesday, July 28, 2004 Mike Nichols (Closer) has bought screen rights to Skinny Dip, the new novel by Carl Hiaasen, and intends to direct and produce the adaptation. In the book, Hiaasen, a columnist for The Miami Herald, again finds comedy and mystery in South Florida, the setting of his past books, including "Strip Tease." His new story is about a crooked bureaucrat/biologist in danger of losing his lucrative business when his wife finds out about his pollution scam. So he tosses her off the back of a cruise liner, far out in the Atlantic. Unfortunately for him, his curvy wife is surprisingly buoyant, and floats on a bale of marijuana until she is rescued by an ex-cop.

(Karen) Sight & Sound is notorious for big spoilers and this one is full of them. Very true. A friend who teaches film theory explained to me why this is: "Sight and Sound" publishes film criticism, not movie reviews. (His words not mine.) A piece of film criticism should contain a synopsis of the overall plot and explore the pertinent action which occurs within a film. So - it would seem not containing "spoilers" a virtual impossiblity in a film critique. He suggested that I might want to read the "Sight and Sound" critiques only after I see the movies in question. Although, some people really don't mind knowing what's going to happen in a movie before seeng said movie. My big gripe with "spoilers" isn't so much reviews or critiques, but rather, trailers. There are so many trailers which leave me with the feeling that I've already seen the movies they're meant to be previewing. Sometimes the trailers are like a more entertaining "Readers' Digest" condensed version of the movies they advertise. Just the entertaining bits - a form of extreme editing in effect.

(Cheryl) So - it would seem not containing "spoilers" a virtual impossiblity in a film critique. I can recall several of the critiques in S&S being prefaced by warnings about spoilers in the past. This one didn't, so maybe they no longer do so.

Risa, of definite interest to you.... From AICN.... Sorting Out Those James Bond Rumors... Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab... Evidently, the new ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY features Pierce Brosnan saying that he�s done with the Bond franchise. Since their site is for subscribers only, I can�t confirm that, but I�m sure it�ll be in this week�s issue if they did run it. Makes sense. People in and around MGM have known that Pierce wanted out for a while now. He hasn�t been happy with the direction the films have taken, and he has been trying to steer the franchise in a riskier direction, back towards the original Fleming source material. As a longtime fan of the books who is ambivalent at best towards the movies (outright hostile, in some cases), I always liked the notion of Quentin Tarantino doing a straight adaptation of CASINO ROYALE. It�ll never happen, though, and I�ve accepted that. We�re not that lucky. The rumor that is being printed and reprinted this week, though, is that Orlando Bloom will be playing a young James Bond at school. For some reason, people are saying this is a Miramax project. There�s a whole lot of stupid in that rumor. MGM/Eon owns Bond and isn�t about to give someone else a license to kill their franchise by doing some ridiculous �Young Bond� series. And Miramax can�t just decide to make the films without that permission. Forget this rumor right away. It�s just pointless noise and mumbles. You want some a real Bond tidbit to chew on? How about the name of the guy who MGM has already tapped to replace Brosnan? I first heard this name floated a month or so ago, but now I�ve heard it from three fairly solid sources. No paperwork is signed yet, but it looks like they�ve made their choice, and it�s not the long-rumored Clive Owen, and it�s not Hugh Jackman, and it�s not Hugh Grant, and it�s not any of the names I�ve heard a dozen times before. Nope. Looks like the next guy to suit up and slip on the 007 moniker will be an actor who can really sink his CHOPPERs into the role. A guy who brings a certain HULKing charm to the role. A comedian-turned-action lead who... ummm... oh, how the fuck do I make a lame TROY joke here? Forget it. Bana. Eric Bana. You heard it here first. __________________________________________________ While I really like Eric Bana. I don't see it, unless he does a serious version. I'd still prefer Clive or HJ if they were going with the current set up.

(Karen)None of this guy's movies get released, yet he's still making more? As long as daddy keeps bankrolling him. Talk about throwing good money after bad. Poor Ben Affleck; this is *not* the way to get your faltering career back on track. I can't see Bana as Bond either. For one thing, I thought for sure they'd pick an Englishman for a change. The one good thing about this rumor is that Colin's name is in every paper in America today.;-)

(Mari)As long as daddy keeps bankrolling him. Forgive me, but who's his daddy?

No one famous, Leslie, just a guy with big $$$ who we understand bankrolls his son's films. In other words, he doesn't have to worry that investors won't like his work.;-)

For those who are interested in the "James Bond" topic, here's the public confirmation that PB will no longer be doing anymore Bond flicks: http://www.yourmovies.com.au/main.cfm?page=news&i=40759 This movies site is pretty well-researched and tends to be quite accurate, so I'd say it's official... Personally, I'd hate to see CF take over as Bond, because I'm not a Bond fan. Doesn't sound like he's even in the running anyway. I don't see Bana as Bond at all... doesn't have the "class" of some others... I doubt that rumour is true...

Nothing's official until it comes from Eon, which makes the Bond movies.

I thought Eric Bana was terrific in TROY.

I thought Eric Bana was terrific in TROY. Agree. Very impressive, and sexy. Though I couldn't relate him in TROY with the man in HULK.

Not meaning to change the topic, but... I just came back from seeing Napoleon Dynamite. Really odd, somewhat dumb, but very funny. A refreshing change of pace IMO. Does anyone else have an opinion on the film? I gather it premiered at Sundance this year.

I wanted to see it. Read lots of good things about it. Kinda quirky. Saw The Village tonight....a definite *must see*! IMO, by far the best thing M. Night has done since Sixth Sense. Risa thought it actually might be better. Bryce Dallas Howard (Ron Howard's daughter) as Ivy....*what* a find she is! The whole cast was v. good overall. Esp Adrian Brody, too. Interesting character. Actually, some people could say interesting character, others may say stock type of character. The story was an interesting comment on the methods used in maintaining a society. It was a compelling story, with twists, that people may or may not see coming. I had sort of guessed or suspected one thing, but totally missed another that Risa got. I did notice some other subtle things, but didn't consciously apply them to figuring out any twists. My favorite scene involved Joaquin Phoenix and BDH...wonderful lighting, staging, with emotional resonance. Neat little cameo for M. Night. Was really nice to see William Hurt in something again. He's been hard to find in recent years. I was reading M. Night reshot the ending. Am curious what changed. Will have to search the Internet for it. Supposedly there was a leaked script a while back. Sorry about being vague on so much, but am trying not to give much away to those, like me, haven't read much or anything about it. Also, v.v. funny discussion on that new Denis Leary show Rescue Me about defining and explaining metrosexuals. 2 of the newer guys try to explain it to the older ones. Hysterical!

I haven't seen Napoleon Dynamite yet, but it's on my list. ~~~~~~~~~~~ From Ananova: New Keira film set to stop traffic A new film version of Pride and Prejudice could prove a headache for motorists in a Lincolnshire town. Local tourism chiefs are delighted Pemberley Productions is using picturesque Stamford to shoot its version of the Jane Austen classic. It's a "boost" for the area, they said. However, Lincolnshire police today warned the production - starring Bend It Like Beckham actress Keira Knightley - will mean weeks of delays for drivers. The film company wants to recreate the 1790s in the town by erecting a covered walkway. It means traffic flow around the junction of St Mary's Street and St George's Square will be restricted to one lane until the road is closed completely at the beginning of September for final preparations and filming. "Some effect on traffic is unavoidable," a force spokesman said. Due to the likely delays, he added, motorists are best advised to avoid the area altogether if possible - to reduce congestion. Lincolnshire was also used for filming of the acclaimed BBC version of Pride and Prejudice, which was shot on location at Belton House, near Grantham.

Olympics shouldn't hurt August's youth appeal films By Martin A. Grove Olympics overview: The dog days of summer aren't prime playing time like June and July, but with schools still out and people still taking vacations August can generate good grosses. This summer, however, with the Olympics to contend with from Aug. 13-29, Hollywood is being careful to open films targeted to younger moviegoers who are the least likely to be glued to their TV sets watching the games. Indeed, after DreamWorks launches its adult thriller "Collateral" starring Tom Cruise Aug. 6 the pipeline for the rest of the month is filled with younger appeal product directed at teen or subteen girls and teen or young adult males. This wasn't the case year when Buena Vista/Touchstone was able to take advantage of the less-crowded late summer to open its adult male appeal western "Open Range" Aug. 15. This summer there aren't any films targeted specifically to adults coming into the marketplace after "Collateral." "The worst Olympics (impact is when) they're in Canada or the United States because then they're live," explains one marketing pro. "That can impact (the boxoffice) as much as about 20%. When it's delayed (from Europe) it should diminish boxoffice in the vicinity of maybe 10 or 12%. You lose men, particularly older men and you lose some of the boys. Even though there are female events, you lose more men than women because it's sports. Mostly it's men over 25 (who are lost), but depending on the individual events you can also lose some of the younger audience." The impact at the boxoffice could be even worse if are any terrorist incidents at the Olympics because, he noted, "it certainly would keep people glued to their television sets. Then it's people watching newscasts." Facing the reality of having to compete against the televised games, Hollywood has basically opted to counterprogram with less costly pictures targeted to younger moviegoers who are less likely to be devoting time to the Olympics. "Once you reach Aug. 6, the $100 million pictures are over," he explained. "They're already in the marketplace. From then on, you don't have any (really) big product until later in the year. " What there will be on tap for most of August, this marketing executive points out, are films that are "younger family kind of stuff. It's younger product, lower-budgeted product. The tentpole pictures are out of the way by then. The biggest budgeted picture (opening in mid-August) is 'Alien vs. Predator' (from 20th Century Fox and Davis Entertainment) and I don't think it's a $100 million (budget). It's definitely a younger (male) audience. Most of the product from Aug. 13 on is younger product because they're more inclined to go to the movies and not sit home and watch the Olympics." Indeed, that appears to be Hollywood's strategy when you consider what's in the pipeline for August. The suspense thriller "Collateral," directed by Michael Mann and written by Stuart Beattie, opens Aug. 6, giving it one week of playing time before the Olympics hits. The R rated film revolves around a grey haired Tom Cruise playing a hit man, making it more adult appeal than the superstar's earlier PG-13 rated action films like "Mission: Impossible" and its sequel. Some reports put its budget at around $60 million, a relatively modest cost these days. Opening head-to-head with "Collateral" Aug. 6, but targeted to an entirely different audience, is Revolution Studios and Columbia's PG-13 rated romantic comedy "Little Black Book." Directed by Nick Hurran, it stars Brittany Murphy, Holly Hunter, Ron Livingston and Kathy Bates. Its storyline about a talk show producer going through her fiance's Palm address listings to investigate his ex-girlfriends and then winding up becoming friends with one of them should play best to young women who could care less about the then Olympics. Buena Vista/Disney's G rated sequel "The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement," directed by Garry Marshall and again starring Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews, arrives Wed., Aug. 11. Its primary appeal will be to teen and subteen girls and their mothers and grandmothers, again an audience that's not likely to be glued to the Olympics. Fox's horror thriller "Alien Vs. Predator," opening Aug. 13, is directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and stars Lance Henriksen. With its roots in a hit videogame, it's clearly something that should play best to under-25 males. Here, too, these are moviegoers who should be available despite the hoopla over the televised Olympic Games. [Ed note: Why is this language not at negative as that describing women?] Even younger in its appeal is Warner Bros. PG animated family film "Yu-Gi-Oh," also opening Aug. 13. It's based on a popular kids cartoon about Yugi and his pals, all of whom are into playing the game Duel Monsters. Its audience will be young kids whose moms are willing to sit through the picture. This, too, isn't a crowd you'd find obsessing over the Olympics results. Paramount's "Without a Paddle" opens Wed., Aug. 18 and is a PG-13 comedy about young guys on a canoe trip looking for treasure and having to deal with a dangerous river and some nutty mountain men. Directed by Steven Brill, it stars Seth Green and Matthew Lillard. "Paddle's" audience is not likely to be home watching pole vaulting or high jumping. Warner Bros. and Morgan Creek's prequel "Exorcist: The Beginning" hits theaters Aug. 20. Directed by Renny Harlin, it stars Stellan Skarsgard and Izabella Scorupco. Like any good horror thriller, its primary appeal should be male and especially under-25. Given its classic roots, however, the film could also pick up some adult males after the Olympics fold their tents a week or so later. By Aug. 27 there's not much of the Olympics left to be concerned about and, consequently, some slightly more adult appeal product will start emerging. There is, for instance, Paramount's R rated suspense thriller "Suspect Zero," directed by E. Elias Merhige and starring Aaron Eckhart, Ben Kingsley and Carrie-Anne Moss. Its story involves an FBI agent investigating a strange murder and running into psychological twists when he's on the trail of a key suspect. The 18-25 male audience will be available from Day One and over-25 males can catch up with it soon thereafter if they're dedicated Olympics watchers. Sony's Screen Gems label will probably be looking for younger males with its PG-13 rated action horror sequel "Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid," also arriving Aug. 27. Directed by Dwight H. Little, it stars Johnny Messner and Morris Chestnut. Once again, there are giant anaconda snakes to worry about. Over-25 males who enjoyed the 1997 original "Anaconda" but want to see the concluding Olympics events will be able to come on board within a few days of the sequel's launch. As for the PG rated family comedy "Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2" from Sony's Triumph Releasing, which also opens Aug. 27, there will be kids and moms to play to and they'll all be available. Directed by Bob Clark, it stars Jon Voight and Scott Baio. While it could be a profitable August for Hollywood since most of the films arriving during the month aren't high profile big budget productions, it doesn't look like there will be any real late summer boxoffice fireworks. There will, however, be a transition to the fall season, which will bring us adult appeal product with Golden Globe and Oscar nominations potential. "Nobody's going to make the mistake they made last year," my marketing source points out. "A lot of the Academy pictures are going to be slotted earlier. I don't think anything of any consequence is going to open later than maybe the first week in December. They're not going to go out at Christmas (as distributors did in the past with awards contenders). The Academy's basically in New York and Los Angeles so if you platform (a picture) you can really accomplish what you want to accomplish."

Lido fest loves Hollywood, Japan By Peter Kiefer and Stuart Kemp ROME -- Hollywood will have its fingerprints all over this year's Venice International Film Festival with three movies in competition and an additional seven others receiving special screenings, as organizers announced this year's line-up Thursday. In his first outing as the artistic director of the event, Marco Mueller made good on his pledge to add more studio fare to this year's lineup, more so than in any other recent year. Three U.S. films -- Jonathan Glazer's "Birth," Mira Nair's "Vanity Fair," and Todd Solondz's "Palindromes" -- will vie for this year's Golden Lion. A total of 21 films are in competition, up one from last year's 20 films. An additional 16 films are set to receive a special screening. In addition to the three U.S. films in competition, six others will screen outside competition. The list includes a veritable who's who of Hollywood directors. Those scheduled to unspool on the Lido include: Steven Spielberg's "The Terminal," Michael Mann's "Collateral," jury-member Spike Lee's "She Hate Me," Steven Soderbergh's "Eros" (co-directed with Michelangelo Antonioni and Wong Kar-wai), Jonathan Demme's "The Manchurian Candidate," and Marc Forster's "Finding Neverland" which stars Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet and Dustin Hoffman. DreamWorks' "Shark Tale" is set for a special event screening. The announcement of the lineup for the 61st annual Venice Film Festival was made at a packed Rome's Excelsior Hotel Thursday morning. Umbrella organization Venice Biennale president Davide Croff, along with Mueller, made the presentation to a standing room only ballroom. Both Croff and Mueller repeatedly stressed the "renewal" of the Festival's spirit and character under Mueller's stewardship. "I wanted to take the festival forward while also taking it in a completely different, 180-degree direction," said Mueller. Croff, along with Mueller, said he was hoping to pull off the best Venice Film Festival in ten years. "We have all been working with great energy and enthusiasm," he said. This year's lineup also boasts a heavy Asian influence -- more specifically, Japanese. A total of three Japanese films are in competition, Hou Hsiao-hsien's "Cafe Lumiere," Hayao Miyazaki's "Howl's Moving Castle," and Jia Zhangke's "Shijie," which is a joint Japanese/Chinese production. As expected by regular festival goers, there is also a strong dose of European fare, including German director Wim Wender's "Land of Plenty," British director Mike Leigh's "Vera Drake," Italian director Guido Chiesa's "Lavorare con Lentezza" (To Work With Slowness) and Spanish director Alejandro Amenabar's "Mar Adentro" which stars Javier Bardem. Also set for a special out of competition screening is Michael Radford's "The Merchant of Venice" which stars Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons and Joseph Fiennes. Other categories at the Venice Film Festival, which will run from Sep. 1 to 11, include The Venice Horizontal, Venice Midnight, the Venice Digital Cinema and Critics Week. Full listing here: http://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/61miac/index.html

"Nobody's going to make the mistake they made last year," my marketing source points out. "A lot of the Academy pictures are going to be slotted earlier. I don't think anything of any consequence is going to open later than maybe the first week in December. They're not going to go out at Christmas (as distributors did in the past with awards contenders). The Academy's basically in New York and Los Angeles so if you platform (a picture) you can really accomplish what you want to accomplish." Thank God that they are moving things back some, because it's been exhausting and time consuming to go to literally 4 screenings a week between Thanksgiving and Xmas, because they have felt the need to cram the award contenders into such a late and short time period. Though I'm figuring, and have a fear, that the same will happen, just earlier. It's already busier for BAFTA sooner this year than it was last year, and judging by the release schedules for the rest of the year I was perusing at Comingsoon.net, it's going to really get hopping in Sept/Oct. And it's interesting that they feel platforming will now be considered the effective plan, when for so long, their view was that releasing so late, just before Academy voters got their ballots, was the way to go as the films would be fresh in their minds.

Am very curious about... Michael Mann's "Collateral, Steven Soderbergh's "Eros" (co-directed with Michelangelo Antonioni and Wong Kar-wai), and Marc Forster's "Finding Neverland" which stars Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet and Dustin Hoffman. Spanish director Alejandro Amenabar's "Mar Adentro" which stars Javier Bardem. Also set for a special out of competition screening is Michael Radford's "The Merchant of Venice" which stars Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons and Joseph Fiennes. I didn't realize Dustin Hoffman was in Neverland. I thought I read somewhere that SJ was to be on the jury there.

(Dorine) I thought I read somewhere that SJ was to be on the jury there. Yep, and I would imagine the laps of several of the panel members, especially John Boorman, v. distinguished looking older man. Mushimoko y'all! ;-)

ROTFL!! *Me-ow!*

...should play best to young women who could care less about the then Olympics. ...Its primary appeal will be to teen and subteen girls and their mothers and grandmothers, again an audience that's not likely to be glued to the Olympics Sheesh! My daughter, my mother, and I are always glued to the Olympics. It's the DH who falls asleep;-) What? Did Mr. Grove write this article for 2004 or 1944 Olympics? (Karen)Yep, and I would imagine the laps of several of the panel members,...distinguished looking older man. Didn't she gave up on those "older" men of last year's red carpets?;-) Thanks for both articles, Karen

What? Did Mr. Grove write this article for 2004 or 1944 Olympics? *snort* No, but that is fairly representative of the kind of comments made about the female audience component in all the trade publications.

When, and if, someone goes to see The Village, I want to know what you think. Am very surprised at the many negative reviews. Oddly enough, virtually all of the ones I've read so far, say the acting is good, it's suspenseful, then says the twist isn't good enough, or it's not scary enough like M. Night's others. I find that annoying that they can't seem to take it on it's own, though in fairness, I'll go see other people's movies on the expectations of previous work as well. And this did have a few issues for me, but still enjoyable. Still, this paragraph is quite telling from USA Today.... "Shyamalan has painted himself into a corner. Audiences approach The Village wanting something more frightening than Signs and a plot with a more powerful twist than his masterful 1999 success The Sixth Sense. Though it's not as contrived as 2000's Unbreakable, The Village disappoints. " I guess I was better off not expecting anything. Kinda reminds me of the possible reasoning behind some of the negative reviews of Trauma....because it wasn't a slasher-type horror movie that My Little Eye turned out to be. Also saw Manchurian Candidate last night. I liked it for the most part overall, though the first 30-40 minutes seemed a bit muddled for my taste. Good performances. Had a just-on-the-brink-of-too-campy scene with Liev Schrieber and Meryl Streep as his a-tad-too-devoted mom who was maybe a bit too helpful after a shower (or bath). ;-)

(Dorine) Meryl Streep as his a-tad-too-devoted mom who was maybe a bit too helpful after a shower (or bath). ;-) In the original, Mom actually kisses sonny boy.

Never saw the original. She almost did, but they had her get as close as possible, pause, then cut to next scene.

Though it's not as contrived as 2000's Unbreakable, The Village disappoints While I liked Unbreakable, I agree with the author; the Village did disappoint. I was hot to see it so I dragged my sis to a matinee. We both found it way too slow. And agreed that the plot twist was a let down. Even M. Night's cameo was a let down. You only get to see his full face in a reflection.

I was disappointed with Unbreakable. I agree The Village did get slow somewhere in the first third to me (reminded me of Trauma in that respect), but the rest picked it up enough for me. I thought that was a cool way to do his cameo. Different than just having him stand there and say something, though actually he was saying something when he wasn't really in the shot. Overall, I was just anxious for her to get back in time to save Lucius. The costume of that creature bothered me though....just a bit over the top...a cross between a huge porcupine and a wolf thing standing on 2 feet. I wonder if on the DVD, they'll include the original ending that he reshot.

POSSIBLE SPOILER: Did anyone notice, in The Village, when she got to the "Game preserve" that the name of the company was Walker-also her last name? I wish they had explained that to us. My sis and I assumed that it was a front, created by her father, to keep them more secluded. It just seemed like they rushed through the editing of the ending and kind of let us down on that point. I agree with you, Doreen, about the costumes of the creatures. I chalked it up to the fact that they were primarily designed to strike fear into the hearts of children-not the adults. I didn't know there was an alternate ending out there. I'll just have to read about it though. Don't think I'll be investing in this one on DVD. I'm taping My Life So far right now. Thanks to whom ever posted the link for upcoming CF films on US TV!!

I join Karen and Doreen in recommending Before Sunset! But it is critical to see Before Sunrise beforehand. Otherwise , you won't "get it"; even with the flashbacks from the first film. Like my local reviewer who gave it one star and said it was "dull, with too much talking". " And then there's the ending. Beautiful, startling, unbelievably perfect, so natural it's unreal. So fitting for a movie that plays it moment by moment because it understands that life, for better or worse, is about being in the moment one is in right now and making the most of it, now. It's all one really can do." How true. A Droolie once told us the old hippie saying: "When you get old, it's not the things you *did* that you'll regret, it 's the things you *didn't do*". *Waving to Susan* And De-Lovely should be on everyone's "must see" list. Not just exquisitely done, but a joy as well.

(Yvette) Did anyone notice, in The Village, when she got to the "Game preserve" that the name of the company was Walker-also her last name? I wish they had explained that to us. My sis and I assumed that it was a front, created by her father, to keep them more secluded. It just seemed like they rushed through the editing of the ending and kind of let us down on that point. Ivy's grandfather (William Hurt's character's father) was a billionaire. The news clippings her father pulled out at the end stated that in the headline about his father's murder. When his father was killed, I presume he inherited a good chunk of money. Either he or his father had created this nature preserve....then her father created this town and with all his money had the clout to keep it a secret. And gee, like that never happens IRL. ;-) As M. Night's character said at the end, they had the government reroute flight plans so no planes would fly over. Of course, if planes did fly over, the charade couldn't possibly be maintained. I chalked it up to the fact that they were primarily designed to strike fear into the hearts of children-not the adults. Yes, since the only adults there were the ones who started the village and created this creature in the first place.

I was just on the IMDB site and came across a few links that are new to me. My appologies to Karen if they are old hat. If so, please feel free to delete this post. I especially like the pic of him on the cover of the AC program. http://home.att.net/~luvvie/cf/caretaker.htm http://home.att.net/~luvvie/cf/ http://home.att.net/~luvvie/cf/3DoR.htm Sorry, I'm not very adept at this cutting/pasting/linking stuff. :o{

Old hat? Well, this is Odds & Ends, but since it has to do with Colin, it would belong on Firthology. Besides, there's more on 3DOR on firth.com than Luvvie's site.

(Karen)..there's more on 3DOR on firth.com than Luvvie's site. Yeah....'sides you even own a CARETAKER program;-)

Just got back from The Village. My three companions and I liked it very much. No, it's not as scary as his prior films but it's very clever and well done. Warning - SPOILER Ahead The accents and 19th century dialogue seemed forced, it just didn't flow as smoothly as heard in other period films. There were even some phrases and vocabulary here and here that were more on the contemporary side. My friends thought it was poor acting. I thought that it might be purposeful on the director's part - a clue to the fact that the situation wasn't real.

Variety's summing up of the situation: New Bloom for Bond buzz Sun Aug 1, 5:19 AM ET Marc Graser, STAFF HOLLYWOOD -- Development hell is giving James Bond nightmares -- and the torment is largely self-inflicted. With six months to go before the 21st installment of the franchise should start lensing, MGM and Eon Prods. still don't have an actor to play the suave British superspy, a director or even a shooting script. And the lack of all three is fueling the rumor mill. For several months, Pierce Brosnan has been distancing himself from the project and pundits have taken that to mean he's retired as Bond. And complicating things, Orlando Bloom is being courted to play a teenaged 007, based on a series of books that Miramax will start publishing in the fall, and to replace Brosnan in the next adventure. But Brosnan, who is not under contract to play Bond for a fifth time, has not yet been made an offer to come back -- nor has any other thesp been offered the role. And Miramax's book deal does not include rights to make films based on the younger Bond's adventures. After 20 films, the franchise's producers are under pressure to take a risk and try something new, such as rely less on explosions and effects and go back to the earlier pics, which were heavier on character and plot. Brosnan has publicly said that the producers are in "a state of paralysis" as to which direction the next film should go. And with Brosnan's involvement a question mark and the thesp only getting older, producers are eyeing younger candidates, with names like Bloom, Hugh Jackman, Eric Bana, Clive Owen, Ioan Gruffudd, Colin Firth, Gerard Butler, Jude Law and Ewan McGregor said to be in the running. Going younger is especially enticing now that Matt Damon is generating B.O. coin playing spy Jason Bourne in U's emerging series. Bond's not the only franchise having development issues. Less than two months before it starts production, "Mission: Impossible 3" is still looking for a director, Warner Bros. has hired yet another team of writers, director and producers for its new "Superman" saga, and Indiana Jones is still waiting for a greenlight at Paramount. What is certain is that a new Bond film is in the works -- and that MGM is as dependent on the franchise now as in the past. Grosses from the last and most successful entry, "Die Another Day," accounted for 42% of the Lion's domestic B.O take in 2002, when that pic was released. Next pic is being prepped to start shooting before March in order to bow Nov. 18, 2005. Pic's producers have agreed on a plot; scribes Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, who penned the last two Bond adventures, turned in the first draft of their script last week. ~~~~~~~~~ More about that last paragraph, from the Commander Bond Net via Dark Horizons: CommanderBond reports that they are now hearing from multiple independent sources close to the production that the current draft of "Bond 21" by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade is based on Ian Fleming�s first James Bond novel, "Casino Royale". Whether or not the film will be called Casino Royale is still not known. Purvis and Wade last used the Ian Fleming novel "Moonraker" as the basis for "Die Another Day". 'Royale' was first published in 1953 and was most famously adapted as a 1967 satirical comedy starring David Niven and Peter Sellers - an adaptation that had no relation to the main 20 films produced under the Cubby Broccoli/Harry Saltzman Eon Productions banner. The rights to the novel reverted back to MGM in the late 90's. Set entirely in Royale-les-Eaux, a resort village in N.E. France, Casino Royale is a rather small scale Bond novel [Ed note: They all were.] which no doubt will be expanded by Purvis and Wade. Whilst those Prague location rumours may prove to be false, a Bond Girl named Vesper Lynd and a villain named Le Chiffre are apparently distinct possibilities. ~~~~~~~~ I would love to see the films go back to the novels, especially this one.

v.g. article about how Focus Features is the new Miramax: Niche biz comes into Focus Sun Aug 1, 5:19 AM ET David Rooney, STAFF As uncertainty continues to cloud the future of Miramax in its ongoing battle with its Mouse House parent, 2-year-old Focus Features has emerged as one of the brightest stars of the specialty distribution arena. So will the company inherit the Weinstein brothers' mantle? Since being assembled out of Good Machine and USA Films in 2002, Focus has strung together an impressive roster of upscale hits like "Far From Heaven," "The Pianist" and "Lost in Translation." The company has developed a reputation for taking artistic risks: pairing Jim Carrey (news) with the idiosyncratic team of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and director Michel Gondry in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"; casting Reese Witherspoon in a period literary adaptation in Mira Nair's upcoming "Vanity Fair"; or enlisting heartthrobs Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger to play cowboy lovers in Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain." It's also had a few misfires such as "The Guys," "Ned Kelly" and "Sylvia." While co-prexys David Linde and James Schamus bristle at any suggestion that Focus is the new Miramax, they do concede that the expansion of Harvey and Bob Weinstein's company from arthouse onto studio terrain has created an opening. "I don't really want to take on any mantle," Schamus says. "But the rise of Miramax as a studio did clear a space for a truly specialized but still aggressive independent studio, and that's where we like to be." While Focus does not have the same autonomy from its studio parent, Universal as, say, Sony Pictures Classics, the unit operates freely within an established (but undisclosed) budget, making movies for under $30 million that go through the same greenlighting process as those at U. Linde and Schamus say that not once has U stepped in to block a project. Like other studio specialty divisions, though, Focus had to walk away from the boffo opportunity of "Fahrenheit 9/11," principally because Universal insisted on including DVD rights in the distrib deal. But the missteps are outweighed by a success rate that points to a young company with a clearly defined agenda. Like Miramax, Focus is one of the few production-based specialty companies that understand how to mine international to limit financial exposure on its features. "One of the things we've done is to treat the specialized market as a business, not an excuse on one hand to throw parties and win awards and on the other, to try to get into the studio business," Schamus offers. "We are extremely aggressive when we have to be, but we are never going to be aggressive to the point of taking ourselves out of this business." "We have created a multifaceted business," Linde adds, noting it's a production-distribution company that distributes a variety of pictures "all financed with a careful financial plan" and it's an entity that manages a 300-plus library of specialty and genre movies via all media worldwide. Focus has pushed the boundaries of standard thinking in scheduling many of its 10-12 releases per year. The U division plunged into last year's July 4 weekend with French pickup "Swimming Pool," grossing north of $10 million, and last month scored a promising start for Jeff Bridges starrer "The Door in the Floor" with some of the best reviews of the season. Focus also opted for a March release of "Eternal Sunshine," despite long-established plans for a major end-of-year awards-season push, and will bow "Vanity Fair" on Labor Day weekend. "The model is: There is no model," says Linde. Later this year, Focus bows the first titles from its genre division Rogue Pictures -- British zombie comedy "Shaun of the Dead" and deadly doll franchise update "Seed of Chucky" in the fall, and in early 2005, an updated remake of "Assault on Precinct 13" plus Jet Li starrer "Unleashed." The establishment of the Rogue label stands to consolidate the distrib's position as the closest thing on the specialty scene to the Miramax/Dimension double-act. And, speaking of double acts: Focus has its own yin-yang pairing in Linde and Schamus, who bring together a complementary skill set of dealmaking and creative savvy. The professorial Schamus, who leans toward bow ties and cardigans, appreciates good horror films as much as classic literature. The deadpan Linde brings a pragmatic business savvy to Schamus' intellectualism. Linde's tenure at Miramax and later Good Machine helped hone his talent for assembling financing and spreading risk through foreign sales. Schamus came up as a producer of edgy indie fare before co-founding Good Machine, and in addition, is a respected screenwriter who teaches a Columbia U. graduate course in film studies. Says Linde: "The two things that really served us to great advantage are those six years we had running a profitable business and the very specific talent relationships we learned to develop, primarily with writers and directors." In terms of understanding the kind of market that existed for modestly budgeted specialty releases, both co-prexys absorbed lessons 10 years ago from observing Miramax -- Linde from within the company and Schamus as a producer of indie hits like "The Wedding Banquet" and "The Brothers McMullen." Focus has established a solid network of distribution partners worldwide, generating significant revenues both with domestic titles like "21 Grams," "Lost in Translation" and "Eternal Sunshine," and with features sold by the international division but handled by other companies in North America. These include Pedro Almodovar's "Talk to Her" and "Bad Education," Zhang Yimou's "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers" and last year's remake of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." Unlike other specialty players such as Sony Pictures Classics, Newmarket and Lions Gate, which lean heavily on acquisitions to fill their slates, Focus has been production-driven, picking up only a small number of titles each year. Given that very few of Focus' pickups have been foreign-language films, the distrib turned heads at Sundance earlier this year by ponying up a large sum -- reportedly north of $3 million -- for Walter Salles' "The Motorcycle Diaries." Heralding the start in the next year of what Schamus and Linde say will be an increased push from the company into foreign-lingo fare, Focus will release the road movie about the young Che Guevara in the fall, one of its prime contenders for awards-season honors. After riding the crest of the Asian wave with "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" at Good Machine, Focus now appears to be looking to Latin America as the next territory ripe for commercial explosion. In addition to Brazilian director Salles' film, Focus tapped Mexican helmer Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu to segue from "Amores perros" to his English-language debut "21 Grams," and now has Oscar-nommed Brazilian "City of God" director Fernando Meirelles at work on "The Constant Gardener," a John le Carre adaptation starring Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz. Schamus and Linde say the connection is as much about fostering talent as it is about reaching Latin audiences in the U.S. "Part of the drive to this is that when you get involved with these people, you're actually learning more about your own market as well," Linde says. "There is a substantial Latin audience in this country for these movies and the opportunity here is immense." Focus also is nurturing an ongoing connection with Alfonso Cuaron and producing partner Jorge Vergara that began at Good Machine on "Y tu mama tambien." Focus Intl. is handling foreign sales on the pair's latest production, "Cronicas," a thriller from Ecuadorian director Sebastian Cordero. With the installation in July 2003 of John Lyons as president of production, Focus has consolidated its agenda as a home for literate adult features and is now branching into more aggressively commercial avenues with Rogue Pictures. "Beyond the classic Focus film, we are absolutely expanding production to make many different kinds of movies at different budget levels," says Lyons. "We'll be doing genre material, horror material, urban material." In addition to "Brokeback Mountain" and "The Constant Gardener," next year's release slate includes Harold Ramis' comic thriller "The Ice Harvest," with John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton; newcomer Adam Rapp's father-daughter story "Winter Passing," starring Ed Harris, Zooey Deschanel and Will Ferrell; and "Pride and Prejudice" with Keira Knightly, Brenda Blethyn and Donald Sutherland. [Ed note: where's Mr Darcy? ;-)] Focus also will extend its relationship with "Lost in Translation" star Bill Murray in Jim Jarmusch's untitled next feature, set to shoot in the fall. Other projects in development include David Gordon Green's adaptation of "The Secret Life of Bees" and "Truth, Justice and the American Way" from regular "Sopranos" helmer Allen Coulter. "There were key things we had to accomplish in the first two years," Linde says. "We had to get a production entity up and running, and we've done that -- we've greenlit six films in the last six months. We wanted to create two production labels, which we've now done. We had to solidify the position of the international company both as the distributor of Focus product and other producers' product, which we have done." "That's where we are and we're having fun with it," Schamus adds. "But if we crash and burn with a string of disasters, we're still going to be the guys to take another chance."

"and will bow "Vanity Fair" on Labor Day weekend." . The trailer looks good. But VF in two hours????? Hmmmm

Thanks for the Focus article, Karen. They also have Jack Foley, head of distribution, who did a stint at Miramax, as well.

From the NYT: August 2, 2004 A Coup de Hollywood at the United Nations By WARREN HOGE UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 1 � When it comes to the movies, the United Nations has long played hard to get. Filmmakers hoping to wrap their lenses around the cathedral-like spaces of this icon of midcentury aesthetic were always turned down, and that included Alfred Hitchcock, whose request to shoot "North by Northwest" on location in 1959 was rejected. Officials were not even swayed by the presence of Cary Grant, a leading man who could fill a pair of striped trousers more smartly than most. When the director Sydney Pollack came calling last year with his new $80 million film, "The Interpreter," starring Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn, he too got the traditional veto. So he began work in Toronto on a soundstage lookalike of the grand meeting halls and the stylishly appointed lobbies, lounges and corridors, but it was a half-hearted � and ultimately unnecessary � effort. "I got really upset at the whole thing because I would have had to use a partial set and do the rest with computer graphics," he said. "And it sure wouldn't have looked like this." Eyes alight, he extended his arm in a possessive sweep across the modernist splendor of the General Assembly chamber with its green marble speaker's podium and giant golden screen bearing the United Nations seal, its horseshoe-shaped rows of desks in blond wood and canted walls with gilt fluting, and above, a powder-blue dome � all gleaming in the blaze of a dozen 20-kilowatt lamps. "You know, they do a beautiful job with computer graphics � go see the tidal waves in `The Day After Tomorrow' � they do it very well, but in the end people aren't fooled," he said. "They know when you're really there." To get there himself, Mr. Pollack had to go to the top. "I was finally able to get an appointment with Kofi Annan right after the first of the year," he said, referring to the secretary general, "and I was careful to be honest with him and say that this is not a commercial for the United Nations, it is a thriller, it is a Hollywood movie, but also there is nothing in this picture that will be embarrassing to the U.N., and in fact the story is an argument in favor of diplomacy over violence, of words over gunfire." Ms. Kidman plays a United Nations interpreter who overhears a death threat against an African head of state about to address the General Assembly, and Mr. Penn plays a federal agent assigned to protect her while harboring suspicions about her ideals and motives. "She believes very much in the power and sanctity of words and thinks if they are used properly, they can be as powerful as bullets or weapons," Mr. Pollack said. "Sean's character has the mentality of a cop, and he has a contempt for words, and that argument is at the center of their relationship." Mr. Annan was persuaded, but there remained the need to obtain unanimous agreement from a famously quarrelsome and self-regarding group � the ambassadors of the 15 member states of the Security Council. They turned into pushovers, however, when they learned that they might be able to play themselves. "Inocencio Arias of Spain even sent me his reel," Mr. Pollack said. In the end, work rules came between the envoys and their cameos, but Mr. Pollack got his wish to make the first feature movie shot at the United Nations. The only restriction was that filming at the building be done on weekends. To get around any impression that the United Nations was for hire, the producers contracted to pay all expenses incurred in keeping the building functioning and staffed during what are normally down hours. In addition, Mr. Pollack said, they would be making a "good will gesture" donation to the organization. One recent Sunday Mr. Pollack, in jeans, a white T-shirt and sneakers, hurried up and down the terraced aisles of the General Assembly chamber, firing off directions to the 600 extras in dark business suits and colorful robes and headdresses in keeping with the wardrobe department's request for "native dress." "Where's China? Oh, there you are. Please, all of you, go wait in Ireland. What are those people doing in Kiribati? Get me the U.N. protocol woman. I don't believe people in Kiribati are black, are they?" It was the sound of Hollywood merrily cascading into Turtle Bay. Mr. Pollack encouraged kibitzing because he wanted to make sure he got things right. "People came running up to me saying, `You have a woman in that delegation, and that country doesn't have any women in its delegation,' " he said. "Then we had the scene of an emergency evacuation, and we were told that the only way the delegates would leave was if the General Assembly president told them to, so we had to write a quick speech for him." When it was pointed out that the actor playing the Spanish ambassador actually spoke with a Latin American accent, the script was adjusted to make him the Chilean ambassador. The sign identifying the delegation from Matobo, the fictional African country in the movie, was placed between those of the Marshall Islands and Mauritius in keeping with the assembly's strict adherence to alphabetical order. In one unintended touch of authenticity, some of the extras playing diplomats fell asleep at their seats. Except for final scenes filmed this past weekend in Mozambique without principals, the entire 16-week shoot was in New York. "The Interpreter" is scheduled to open in February, and judging by the comments on the set, the United Nations has earned star billing. "The juxtaposition of this architecture against New York City, the orderliness of this place and the thought that went into it that you see and then the sort of random roughness of the streets of New York � it's part of the feel of the picture, if not part of the story," Mr. Pollack said. "I don't think you can be in this room without it affecting you, and I can tell you that Nic went crazy the first time she saw it full. She was on the earphones from up in the interpreter's booth saying, `My God, it looks so real.' " Taking a break from a session with her dialogue coach in a side conference room, Ms. Kidman confirmed the account. "Yes, Sydney's right, I went `Wow' because seeing the room with all the people in their seats, it had all the drama it did when I was doing my research when the General Assembly was in session, and I thought it was uncanny how real it looked." She said that she had never been in the United Nations before making the film, but that now she found herself hawking the public tour to her friends. She said she was also reminded that it was a welcome address for foreigners. "As a backdrop for a thriller, it's fantastic, but also since I'm Australian and I've always worked internationally and this is an international place in New York, I really like the kind of communication it represents," she said. "I know I sound very much like my character now, but I do believe in this place." Even the extras, many of them United Nations employees, came in for praise. "Usually, when you put extras through a very long and boring day, at least 50 percent don't show up the next day, but all of these people came back," said Tim Bevan, one of the film's producers. "Of course," he added, "I don't know what that says about what normally goes on in the General Assembly." Another producer, Kevin Misher, pronounced them "the best behaved set of extras we have ever seen." He added, "They're dressed to the nines, and they seem to respect the space they're in." One of them, Michele Antaki of Syria, a real-life interpreter, agreed, though, in true United Nations fashion, with qualifications. "We were excited to be in the room, but it would be an exaggeration if I told you we were in awe of stepping into a kind of sanctuary," she said. "What we did feel was a responsibility to let outsiders really see what happens here." Excitement of another kind lured Carmen Holmstrom of Douglaston, Queens. "I've been doing this for 15 years and it's never boring," she said. "You do suffer, but you get hooked. It's very hard to say no. The payoff is seeing yourself on the screen." She said that she was still hoping for a role with the five lines of dialogue that would entitle her to a union card, but that did not keep her from treasuring the high point in her movie career so far. "In `Prizzi's Honor,' " she said, "John Huston put me in the balcony scene with Kathleen Turner." The General Assembly hall, which has so delighted Mr. Pollack and the others making "The Interpreter," was not an instant hit with the architectural community when it opened in 1952, and it is interesting in light of this latest chapter in its history to see how its detractors chose to put it down. "As a home for a great institution," the critic Lewis Mumford wrote, "it is a painful simulacrum, the kind of thing Hollywood might have faked."

I would love to see Jude Law as James Bond. He looks great in a 3 buttom suit. "Everything was written, even things like the hesitation in the dialogue. We spent time studying the way we speak because we wanted to make the dialogue very flowing." And it worked so very well! Loved BS. Thanks for all the BS articles! I would like to know what you think will happen between them. spoiler look away My DH said it's all her fault because she was not romantic enough to skip her grandmother's funeral and run off to meet him in Vienna as planned. I think I would have skipped the funeral too. In any case, had she gotten there the day after she would have seen his notes at the station.

Don't Look...BS Spoiler (Moon)I would like to know what you think will happen between them. Good to have you back , Moon. Been dying to talk about BS I think they keep meeting 2 or 3 X a year for the rest of their lives. Perhaps at Track 6 in Vienna.*sigh* He's too devoted a father to leave his family, and besides I don't think they would do well in a structured relationship. Agree with DH, I would have skipped the funeral. That part was not in keeping with the premise of the film: "Do it"!

if anyone's interested, there's new pics of P&P at comingsoon.net... http://www.thezreview.co.uk/news3/prideandprejudice2.htm

Spoiler...you've been warned! LOL! you ladies! Anyway, interesting take your husband had re: Celine's decision. That never even occurred to me. But was that not the point made at the very beginning, when the people are asking Jesse that question at the bookstore? Everything depends on whether you're a romantic or a skeptic. Jesse was the romantic; Celine was the skeptic. Therefore, her decision was IMO consistent with her character. ~~~~~~~~~~~ Thanks, Ada, for keeping your eyes open for new pics. I don't know what it is but Matthew's walk is reminding me of Groucho Marx. ;-)))

Thanks, Ada! If I didn't know who that was, I still would have a hard time recognizing him. That coat looks so thick. Hope there's not a heatwave there. Love the guy in the background with the cigarette.

(Karen)Jesse was the romantic; Celine was the skeptic. Therefore, her decision was IMO consistent with her character. But in Sunrise she didn't need much convincing to get off the train. Of course , it was his suggestion.

(Evelyn) But in Sunrise she didn't need much convincing to get off the train. Of course , it was his suggestion. But she was the one who was sticking to the only for one day, no exchange of phone numbers/addresses. A one-day lark. That's all it could be in her mind. It was killing her though. ;-)

Don't know how reliable all this is...but it is all over the web right now: Troy's Eric Bana to play Bond August 02, 2004 14:56 IST After he starred in the flop The Hulk last year Eric Bana's career was being given the thumbs down. Then came Troy and the critics said his performance as Hector was the only thing good about the film. Now comes news that the Australian actor -- who began his career as a comic on Aussie television -- may be the next 007. Pierce Brosnan, the Irish heart-throb who made the role all his own this last decade, gave up his license to kill last week. The folks behind the Bond franchise now want someone suitably modern for the 21st film in the series. British tabloids say the Bond producers want to 'modernise Bond and turn him into a youthful, suave and modern hero to compete with the likes of Spider-Man and Keanu [Reeves] in The Matrix.' Bana -- who has played an American soldier (Blackhawk Down), a superhero (The Hulk) and a hero (Troy) in his last three films -- is said to be well ahead of his closest rivals, Britons Jude Law, Ewan McGregor and Orlando Bloom (his co-star in Blackhawk Down and Troy) and fellow Aussie Heath Ledger in the race to play James Bond. But Aussies and 007 have not had good karma. The last Aussie to play Bond -- the brawny George Lazenby -- made just one 007 flick, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, after Sean Connery gave up the part. The franchise soon reverted to another Briton, Roger Moore. http://us.rediff.com/movies/2004/aug/02bana.htm Another article: http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/story_pages/showbiz/showbiz4.shtml

Nevermind....comingsoon.com had this to say: Eric Bana is Not the Next 007 Source: Coming Soon! Monday, August 2, 2004 ComingSoon.net has confirmed that The Hulk and Troy star Eric Bana has not been cast as James Bond in MGM's and Eon Productions' 21st film in the popular franchise, despite the rumors. UK tabloid News of the World said the actor was negotiating with the series producers and that he would take over the role from Pierce Brosnan and begin filming later this year. "Eric is the guy they want but he has a reputation for being demanding," an "insider" said. News of the World went on to say that "they want to modernise Bond and turn him into a youthful, suave and modern hero to compete with the likes of Spider-Man and Keanu (Reeves) in the Matrix." This story was picked up by numerous news outlets, including worldwide news agency AFP. But we have learned that Bana has not even been approached for the role of 007. Brosnan told Entertainment Weekly last week that he was done with the franchise after four films. "I've said all I've got to say on the world of James Bond. Bond is another lifetime, behind me." Speculation has it, however, that Brosnan has simply started the negotiation process in the media, and may still be in the picture after all. In related news, Variety reported yesterday that "James Bond 21" is being set up to start shooting before March in order to be released on November 18, 2005. The film's producers have agreed on a plot and writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, who wrote the last two Bond pics, turned in the first draft of their script last week. http://comingsoon.net/news/topnews.php?id=5812

Nothing that is attributed to News of the World should be taken for anything, especially since News of the World got it from Ain't It Cool News. ;-)

LOL....okay! But AFP was reporting it too...I can just say I'm a dork, what's their excuse? They should definitely know better!

(Tress)LOL....okay! But AFP was reporting it too...I can just say I'm a dork, what's their excuse? I saw it scroll across the bottom of E! over the weekend that EB was in final negotiations. LOL, this just gets better and better. (Dorine)Thanks, Ada! If I didn't know who that was, I still would have a hard time recognizing him I know, each time I see him as Mr. Darcy I can't believe it's the same guy. I didn't know drab came in so many shades! Thanks, Ada, and Karen for all the news.

(Dorine) Thanks, Ada! If I didn't know who that was, I still would have a hard time recognizing him (Linda) I know, each time I see him as Mr. Darcy I can't believe it's the same guy. Yes! Thank you Ada! It must be humid out...everyone's locks are limp. I must say I fancy Mr. Darcy with ringlets. The straight, longish hair, parted like that, is too Shaun Cassidy for me...

(Linda) I didn't know drab came in so many shades! (Tress)I must say I fancy Mr. Darcy with ringlets. The straight, longish hair, parted like that, is too Shaun Cassidy for me... LOL! I must say I have to agree, the hair is definitely wrong! That seems to be no spark in this version of P&P. Dullsville! And to think that I just had the pleasure of gazing at the one and only *Mr Darcy*, on Sunday night on the ABC. *Sigh!* Even MDH sat and watched with me and commented "Mmm, I don't think they can find a better person to play Mr. Darcy!" Imagine that! I nearly rolled off the lounge. To top it all off, he continued in the same breath "I haven't seen him in any film roles for ages, what has he been in lately?!" And I had to stop myself from rolling the list off my tongue and/or showing him the shelf in my study that is full of his DVDs (including P&P - which i'd convinced him to watch that evening!)... Really, it is a hard act to follow, I pity the new Mr Darcy, for comparisons would perhaps not be so favourable upon him.

Sorry I'm posting again, but because of the time difference, between Australia and the OTHER PARTS of the world... I seem to always be *talking to myself* after rushing to catch up on all the postings, when I'm on the computer during the day... Anyway, have kept my eye out for Bond stuff, but alas, no news on the new Bond http://www.bondmovies.com/news/072004.shtml is an interesting article on Tarantino called The Tarnatino Effect and http://www.bondmovies.com/ seems to be site that is updated regularly, whilst http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/thereview.cfm?id=879672004 this article appeared on Scotland on Sunday, saying that Clive Owens is top of the bill. In other words, anyone's guess...

From Dark Horizons: DavisDVD reports that Warner Home Video will release a brand-new special edition of the MGM classic Gone With the Wind on November 9th. The four-disc set will feature over five hours of old and new documentaries, interviews and other bonus features. Digitally restored with Warner's "Ultra-Resolution" hi-def technology, the film's original three-strip Technicolor negatives were digitally separated, aligned frame-by-frame in a computer and scanned at high-resolution. And according to the studio, the results are nothing short of miraculous. The four hour film will be presented across two dual-layer discs in fullscreen and with Dolby Digital 5.1 and original mono audio tracks. A plethora of bonus materials include a new full-length audio commentary with film historian Rudy Behlmer, hour-long documentaries on actors Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, "Melanie Remembers: Olivia de Havilland Recalls Gone With the Wind" 45min featurette (with a recent interview with 88-year-old star), behind-the-scenes footage, advertising materials and more. Incidentally, actor Christopher Plummer will narrate and introduce many of the bonus features. Also included with the set is a full-color reproduction of the original 22-page souvenir booklet that was sold during premiere road-show engagements from 1939 through 1941. Retail for the four-disc set is $39.92.

From Variety: Oscar braces for Cuban missile Could Fidel Castro affect this year's Oscar race? "Fahrenheit 9/11" was apparently shown last week on Cuban state-run TV. According to Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences rules, a feature is disqualified for a documentary Oscar if it airs on TV or the Internet anywhere in the world within nine months of its bigscreen run. While most documakers would be dismayed at the prospect of an Oscar nix, the backers of the Michael Moore-helmed pic might welcome it: The move could give the pic a stronger push in the best film race. Reps at French org Wild Bunch, sales agent for the pic overseas, aver that they made no television deal in Cuba. Piracy doesn't count If the screening was from a pirated copy or unauthorized, the film would not be disqualified. (Piracy last year made "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," and virtually every other major Oscar contender, available on the Internet soon after their bigscreen debuts.) Even if the TV showing was unauthorized, the film has several other hurdles to cross before the Feb. 27 Oscarcast. Under the Acad's new rule for docus, "Fahrenheit" could not air on any TV until late March. U.S. distributors Lions Gate, Fellowship Adventure Group (spearheaded by Bob and Harvey Weinstein) and IFC have mulled a DVD release or a pay-per-view airing just prior to the Nov. 2 election. The PPV event would disqualify the film from a docu prize (though a DVD push wouldn't affect it). While a docu could be considered in both best pic and documentary categories, no film so far has made that double play. (A handful of pics, most recently "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," have been nominated in the best pic and foreign-lingo categories). Unlevel playing field Though the docu branch has the nine-month holding pattern, that doesn't apply to any other Oscar categories. So, for example, "Spider-Man 2" or "Shrek 2" could air on TV within a week of their bigscreen bows and would still be eligible for Oscar consideration. So "Fahrenheit," even if disqualified for docu consideration, could compete in other races -- picture, director, editing -- no matter what happens in PPV, or what happened in Cuba. The Cuban report originated in a Reuters story that ran late last week. The story also stated, "Cubans have stood in long lines to buy tickets to see rough DVD copies projected at 120 cinema theaters across the island to unfailing applause." With a reference to "rough DVD copies," it's unclear if even the bigscreen showings were authorized. The Reuters story had a Havana dateline but no byline.

BS Spoiler , again: So you think that Celine (the Cynic!)went on to her grandmother's funeral because she didn't think Jesse would show-up . Had there been no funeral , she wouldn't have gone anyway ? Nah.

Some interesting news: Nip/Tuck star Julian McMahon will play villain Dr. Doom in 20th Century Fox's adaptation of the Marvel Comics franchise, Fantastic Four, which starts production in Vancouver this month for a July 1 release. Doom, a crazed scientific genius who hides his scarred face behind a metal mask, goes up against the title quartet of Michael Chiklis (Ben Richards/The Thing), Jessica Alba (Sue Richards/the Invisible Woman), Ioan Gruffudd (Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic) and Chris Evans (Johnny Storm/the Human Torch).

Spoiler (Evevlyn) So you think that Celine (the Cynic!)went on to her grandmother's funeral because she didn't think Jesse would show-up. Had there been no funeral, she wouldn't have gone anyway? Nah The word used was skeptic, not cynic, as there is a difference. ;-) But as a skeptic, she probably wouldn't have gone because she wouldn't think he would show and/or that the relationship had any real future.

(Evelyn) So you think that Celine (the Cynic!)went on to her grandmother's funeral because she didn't think Jesse would show-up. Had there been no funeral, she wouldn't have gone anyway? Nah (Karen) The word used was skeptic, not cynic, as there is a difference. ;-) I didn't get the impression that Celine was a skeptic or a cynic, in general. Much of what she talked about with Jesse was how idealistic she had been, with her career and love life, then reality set in. That's one of the reasons she was so upset in the van. If I missed something, I might have to go see it again. Darn! ;-) (Ada) Nip/Tuck star Julian McMahon will play villain Dr. Doom in 20th Century Fox's adaptation of the Marvel Comics franchise, Fantastic Four Interesting choice. Wonder if the talkback geeks at AICN are up in arms. It'd be the equivalent of people here getting up in arms over the new P&P. ;-)

(Karen) The word used was skeptic, not cynic, as there is a difference. ;-) Sorry, about the misquote;-) . I don't want to nit-pick but my Thesaurus says: skeptic: rel:questioner, pessimist,disbeliever, cynic, agnostic. Anyway, I liked him more;-D

(Evelyn) I don't want to nit-pick but my Thesaurus says Yes, you do. But I usually go to a dictionary for definitions. According to mine - and the way I always understood the difference - is: Cynic: a person who believes that only selfishness motivates human actions and who disbelieves in or minimizes selfless acts or disinterested points of view. Cynical: 1. like or characteristic of a cynic; distrusting or disparaging the motives of others. 2. showing contempt for accepted standards of honesty or morality by one's actions, especially by actions that exploit. [Synonyms given: distrustful, disbelieving, sneering, contemptuous, derisive.] Skeptic: 1. a person who questions the validity or authenticity of something purporting to be factual. 2. a person who maintains a doubting attitude, as toward values, plans, statements or the character of others. [Synonyms for skeptical: doubtful] The important difference between the two I was always taught from a personality standpoint is that it is better to be considered a skeptic because a skeptic can be convinced. There's nothing wrong with being a skeptic; you can work with them. But avoid cynics on your team.

(Evelyn) I don't want to nit-pick but my Thesaurus says (Da Boss)Yes, you do LOL. evelyn*who is a cynic about skeptics*;-)

Spolier (Karen), Anyway, I liked him more;-D Me too! Loved the end when she says, "You're going to miss your plane", and he says, "I know". I just loved that moment. I also loved the emotional scene in the car. He just wouldn't let her out of the car. Also, I think that she told him then truth and was planning to meet him in Vienna before her grandmother died. I can't imagine Jesse going back to NY to his wife as if nothing had happened after this encounter. He still loves Celine. I'm sure with that bed in front of them they would make love, maybe even go to the outdoor party and eat. But would Celine be willing to leave Paris for him? Jesse said he wants to be with his son, at least in NY he'd see him often. Celine really turned everything upside down. Still, I can't see their future relationship like that Alan Alda Jane Burstin movie, where they meet every year in a hotel. I'd like to see the third part, perhaps call it: "Before Happy Hour". ;-)

A little more about the American version of Fever Pitch. I didn't realize it was being done by the Farrelly brothers and based on a Boston Red Sox fan. Hmmm....Boston and the Sox? I think that's close to as maniacal as you can get in the States for sports fans. But will the Farrelly brothers turn it into 'gross out' farce with no redeeming value? http://breakingnews.iol.ie/entertainment/story.asp?j=112944468&p=yyz945y74 03/08/2004 - 16:30:20 Film-making siblings Peter and Bobby Farrelly are devastated they can't film their upcoming baseball movie Fever Pitch in Boston after being ordered to film it in Toronto, Canada. A huge amount of Hollywood movies have been filmed in the Ontario city and the west coast's Vancouver over the past few years, due to the millions of dollars studios save in production costs, thanks to the generous tax breaks from the Canadian government. The directors begin filming next month the American version of British author Nick Hornby's best-selling novel Fever Pitch, about a man torn between his obsession with Arsenal and his girlfriend Sarah. The book was first adapted into a British film in 1997, starring Bridget Jones heart-throb Colin Firth, however the US version's lead character will be crazy about baseball team Boston Red Sox. Jimmy Fallon will play sports-nut Ben opposite Drew Barrymore's Lindsay. Peter moans: "I want to shoot the whole movie in Boston. But as of right now, I'm only going to do seven days at Fenway Park (Red Sox's Stadium). "It's criminal. This is the ultimate Red Sox movie, and we have to make it in Canada." Despite Barrymore and the Farrelly brothers offering to take a cut in pay, the producers still can't afford to film the whole romantic comedy in the US. Peter says: "They have to pass some laws (in the US) to help people out or these jobs will keep going to Canada."

(Karen), Anyway, I liked him more;-D (Moon)Me too! Psst. It wuz me who said that

(Moon) like that Alan Alda Jane Burstin movie, where they meet every year in a hotel. *Sigh* I love that movie. Same Time next Year I am dying to see it on stage. Has anyone here ever seen it performed live?

Another letter? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/3527532.stm Stars thank Blair for world aid The letter was signed by celebrities and charities Celebrities including Bono, Jude Law and Minnie Driver have signed an open letter to UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, thanking him for boosting overseas aid. [...] "We're counting on you to lead rich countries to cancel Third World debts, deliver more and better aid that meets the UN target, and end unfair rules." The group had previously written a letter to the government urging them to commit more money to foreign aid. The open letter was also signed by Coldplay's Chris Martin and actors Colin Firth, Joseph Fiennes and Dame Helen Mirren. It was also backed by a number of charities. [...] Survival for 250,000 infants whose premature death can now be prevented Film director and co-founder of Comic Relief Richard Curtis said: "Over the years, the British public has given hundreds of millions of pounds to charity to fight poverty and suffering abroad. "At last, a government has matched the generosity and passion that people feel in the face of a world where 30,000 people still die unnecessarily of extreme poverty every single day. "Now we all hope the UK will lead a massive crusade next year that could halve those deaths within a decade. It can be done. Bravo and onwards and upwards in 2005." The letter was backed by six of Britain's leading aid charities: Data, Oxfam, Plan UK, Tearfund, Unicef UK and WaterAid.

[i]Yvette: I love that movie. Same Time next Year I am dying to see it on stage. Has anyone here ever seen it performed live? [/i] I saw a production with Kathryn Crosby (Bing's widow) playing the lead. It was well done, but I enjoy the movie version more. It's one of my fav's too!

(Yvette) Has anyone here ever seen it performed live? Yes, many moons ago on Broadway and Ellen Burstyn played opposite Charles Grodin in that production. I liked her in the role but found Grodin lacking. It was touching, though.

Aww, thanks Bonnie and Deb for the STNY info. I will have to keep my eyes and ears open for future productions!!

'Last Comic' Host Jay Mohr Talks 'SNL' By LYNN ELBER, AP Television Writer LOS ANGELES - Looking ahead and looking back, Jay Mohr is satisfied with both perspectives. "Last Comic Standing," the NBC talent contest he hosts and executive produces, gives comedians an "American Idol"-style shot at stardom � or at least steady nightclub work. "Gasping for Airtime," Mohr's book about his two years as a writer and performer on "Saturday Night Live," candidly details what it's like to be a blip on a pop-culture phenomenon, panic attacks and all. His new show has been instant gratification, a chance to help struggling comedians. The pungent "Saturday Night Live" experience had to age for nearly a decade before he could appreciate it. "It was fascinating and I wasn't enjoying it, even when it was going well," Mohr said. "I watched Nirvana perform, I talked to Kurt Cobain, I talked to (Eric) Clapton, I got to work with (Chris) Farley every day. "But I was so self-obsessed with survival � survival on the show and then mental health survival and back to survival on the show � I certainly didn't take time to smell the roses," he told The Associated Press. The stellar guest musicians and colleagues including Farley, Mike Myers and Michael McKean were the roses; the thorns were his inability to make his talents fit a demanding monolith and insecurities that fed a panic disorder. (A few guests inflicted minor scratches: Mohr recalls a skit he'd written for Marisa Tomei being dumped after the actress realized he was merely a featured performer and not a cast member, while Roseanne Barr disrupted a cast meeting by deliberately and loudly belching.) Mohr, a 23-year-old standup hired as sketch writer and player, found sparkling ideas elusive. He was also confounded by a production style that, as he describes it in "Gasping for Air" (Hyperion), was haphazard and arbitrary. "Saturday Night Live," a perpetual motion machine that turned out stars like John Belushi and Adam Sandler and serves as a cultural touchstone even when it's subpar, was impervious to a confused comic. "That's what made it so frustrating, is realizing that whether you bang your head on the wall and scream like hell (to protect a skit) or whether you don't even show up, the show just sort of rolls effortlessly," Mohr said. "Then you really get into this existential conversation with yourself, questioning your own worth and existence." Therapy and medication ultimately controlled Mohr's panic attacks, but consistent success on the show still eluded him. Conceivably, Mohr could have targeted Lorne Michaels, creator and acknowledged emperor of "SNL," for the environment. The book, however, treats Michaels only with respect. "I was the person not fulfilling my potential and having panic and stealing," Mohr told the AP, referring to an admission that he lifted a sketch from a fellow comic. "Lorne hired me ... I got a great spot in my heart for somebody who hired me on the show that's probably the only show that's a piece of an American timeline." [About Last Comic Standing] "I got a best-selling book out of it," Mohr says of "Saturday Night Live." "Hooray for me. So now I REALLY like Lorne." http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=529&ncid=529&e=15&u=/ap/20040804/ap_en_tv/tv_jay_mohr

Re: The Bourne Supremacy, which I've now seen: The real challenge, though, was telling a multilayered action-mystery centered around a hero, played by Matt Damon, experiencing an internalized battle. "One of the inherent difficulties with this piece given the nature of the plot structure was that Bourne didn't have people to talk to for a great part of the film," Rouse says. "Franka (Potente, who plays Bourne's partner, Marie) wasn't there for conventional dialogue scenes. We had to figure out how to tell a story where the protagonist's actions are somewhat cryptic in nature, and he's got waves of information from his past coming at him." ~~~~~~~ Internalized struggle? My ass! There were probably only 20 pages of dialogue in the whole movie, and Damon maybe had three of them. Pathetic. Worst parts of the movie: the car chase (my eyes glazed over) and the fight in the apartment, where he strangles the former Treadstone guy. About time he learned he was David Webb. That happened at the end of the Bourne Identity...but silly me, they're not following the book, especially as Marie shouldn't have been killed off. The miniseries was better. Yes, he was being pursued, but the characters had dialogue and weren't wooden action figures (seems oxymoronic though).

Link to full article about the filming/editing: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=598&e=2&u=/nm/20040804/film_nm/film_bourne_dc

Ack..completely forgot to do August birthdays. 8/15 - Maria 8/28 - Murph BTW, Boss, may I ask what is this year's theme for September? I must have many weeks to figure something out;-)

(Karen) the car chase (my eyes glazed over) and the fight in the apartment, where he strangles the former Treadstone guy. I loved the car chase!....sure as hell better than the one in the second Matrix. I was surprised I didn't get bored as I did with the latter since it was pretty long. I thought the fight itself was great......absolutely couldn't stand the way they filmed it though. Like someone was right there dodging them. Annoying. Fortunately I suppose, I haven't read the books. Only seen the miniseries and don't remember any of that. Probably the best fight scene I've seen all year was in Kill Bill, Vol 2 between Daryl Hannah and Uma Thurman.

(Ada) what is this year's theme for September? I must have many weeks to figure something out;-) Nothing yet. If you want to toss out any ideas http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/drool/110/new would be the place. (Dorine) Fortunately I suppose, I haven't read the books. Only seen the miniseries and don't remember any of that. Precisely. It all depends on what you want to see, a movie with a storyline about a person that is fully developed and interesting or a series of action sequences. Action sequences bore me to tears, like special effects. Am not into that stuff, which was probably why I found King Arthur lacking as well.

(Dorine) I loved the car chase!....sure as hell better than the one in the second Matrix. I saw a "making of" thing on cable. Those cars were only going 35 mph (in Russia, in Berlin they were going as much as 100 mph). They had all sorts of permits, but were not allowed to exceed that speed. MD said it was a lot of fancy camera work and good stunt drivers making it look like they were racing around. I thought the film was just okay. I missed Franka Potente...wished she could have hung out a bit longer.

(Karen) the car chase (my eyes glazed over) Right there with ya on that one Karen. I hated it. I liked the car chase scene in The Italian Job much better. My all time fav(comedic) car chase was in What's up Doc. OMG - I still laugh my arse off every time I see that one. Saw Young Adam today. Has anyone here seen it? Is there a discussion about it floating around somewhere? Ewan sure does have a lot of sex in it!!!

I thought it was a good, yet odd and very dark film. I think there's a Ewan McGregor topic with a slight discussion of it, maybe.

No discussion there to read through, just a link to an interview w/ the director. Went to rent a copy of Before Sunrise to watch before seeing Sunset. Found a used copy for sale...Yippeeee :o)

Oh, then the little bit may have been on the O&E topic. I think there was a small discussion of it when I went to see it with a Q&A with EM, but I could be wrong.

(Dorine)I loved the car chase!.... Me too. I liked the whole movie. Didn't read the book...don't want to. 'sides..a film stands on its own;-)

(Evelyn) Didn't read the book...don't want to. 'sides..a film stands on its own;-) Did I say I liked the book better? ;-) My criticism had to do with there being little, if any real story and no dialogue and little acting that I could discern. Car chases and fight scenes do not a movie make for me. I liked the miniseries better. ;-) It all depends on what you want to see, a movie with a storyline about a person that is fully developed and interesting or a series of action sequences. Action sequences bore me to tears, like special effects. Am not into that stuff, which was probably why I found King Arthur lacking as well.

(Karen) About time he learned he was David Webb. That happened at the end of the Bourne Identity...but silly me, they're not following the book, especially as Marie shouldn't have been killed off. (Evelyn) Didn't read the book...don't want to. 'sides..a film stands on its own;-) (Karen) Did I say I liked the book better? ;-) But would you not consider this a negative implication that because it didn't follow the book, and you didn't like the movie, that you liked the book better? ;-) And presuming you'll protest that ;-).....it does kind of give that impression, IMO. My criticism had to do with there being little, if any real story and no dialogue and little acting that I could discern. I don't recall GWAPE being all so talky and some have said there wasn't much going on in it (though the acting was v. good). As I recall, you weren't so down on that. ;-) Or maybe you weren't so enamored and I forgot.

(Karen), Marie shouldn't have been killed off. I agree. The first movie was better because he had Marie there to share the insanity. I did like it, but the car chase was a bit long.

Anybody watching Leno tonight? Kim Basinger on. She looks incredible...as she did in The Door in the Floor (though a tad too much blush, IMO). Jamie Cullum is supposed to be on, too....the guy who is doing a song for TEOR that we discussed recently. Saw Little Black Book tonight. My tagline for it....when a bad movie happens to good actors. Well, that goes for probably everyone in it except Brittany Murphy. How does she keep toplining movies? Can't be for her comedic/acting abilities. Q&A after with the 2 women producers...they run Julia Roberts production company for her. Anyone that asked a question about it was rather effusive with praise (except me). Just asked my question. Had to be one for the dough for most of the actors in it. As I was leaving, someone pulled me over to whisper that Brittany Murphy was there (saying she looked very anorexic....I myself couldn't see her enough to tell). Apparently she was off to the side, just behind me. Not sure if she was there the whole time, or came with the producers later. When I looked over, some guy was sitting leaning over to her rather protectively, like she was upset (if she was there the whole time and noticed the marked absence of laughter, I could see why). But someone said they were just trying to keep her shielded so no one would know. Not like the bodyguard and PR looking person standing right there were obvious or anything. ;-)

(Dorine) I don't recall GWAPE being all so talky and some have said there wasn't much going on in it (though the acting was v. good). As I recall, you weren't so down on that. ;-) Or maybe you weren't so enamored and I forgot. Big difference there is that CF wasn't in Bourne. If he was, I think we would all be enamoured of it. Watched Before Sunrise last night. LOVED IT!! Can't wait to go to Sunset this weekend.

(Dorine) But would you not consider this a negative implication that because it didn't follow the book, and you didn't like the movie, that you liked the book better? ;-) And presuming you'll protest that ;-).....it does kind of give that impression, IMO. I don't recall GWAPE being all so talky and some have said there wasn't much going on in it (though the acting was v. good). As I recall, you weren't so down on that. ;-) Or maybe you weren't so enamored and I forgot. Bwaaaaaaaaaaa!! Mom, Dorine's picking on me. ;-) Nevermind, I need to go rewatch the chase scenes in GWAPE to compare. ;-) (Yvette) If he was, I think we would all be enamoured of it.

(Yvette) If he was, I think we would all be enamoured of it. You better hide before the "we" patrol comes for you. ;-) If *we* were all enamoured of everything he was in, all of us would have liked HS and L'dum, too, I'd presume. And for me at least, he couldn't save those, more dialogue or not. ;-) Also, Bourne is kinda Bond-like. I wouldn't necessarily want to see him in something quite like that. Glad you liked Sunrise. Will be curious to hear your thoughts on Sunset. I thought it was better.

Oops! The "we" patrol beat me to it. ;-)

(Karen) I need to go rewatch the chase scenes in GWAPE to compare. ;-) Would the scenes where Vermeer is tearing throught the house looking for the comb and Pieter runs after Griet for a short bit in the field constitute chase scenes? ;-D

No, I was thinking about the barge chases through the canals. Did you forget about those? ;-)

Weren't those barge chases with the deleted scenes? Dorine would have missed them if she doesn't have the European DVD. ;-)

LOL!! You guys are such cards! *slapping knee* I do have the European version, but apparently have gotten stuck on the "I'll paint you as I first saw you" deleted scene. Haven't made it to those barge chases yet. ;-)

And who can forget the scene where Vermeer (in Oddjob fashion) threw his palette and sliced off that Maria Thinn' head. Oooh, the spurting blood!

Oooh, no....He threw his palette at Catherina when she came at him with the paint trowel! Maria Thins' is really sitting mummified in the attic and Vermeer is delusional that she keeps harping on him to finish those paintings so he can get paid.

Sorry, I was mixing up GWAPE and GWAPE2. You know how it is with those sequels.

Oh, I can't wait to see the pictures... ;-))) ROME -- Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Irons will chair the AmFar Cinema Against AIDS event during the 61st Venice Intl. Film Festival. The annual dinner and live auction will be held Sept. 3 at the Giorgio Cini Foundation on the isle of San Giorgio.

Well, when he was here for a time for a production last year, I did hear from someone who worked with him that he was a cad. And he's right up her alley, too! ;-)

"ROME -- Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Irons will chair the AmFar Cinema", Aw, she'll piss 'n moan again about being paired with an old guy.

(Evelyn)Aw, she'll piss 'n moan again about being paired with an old guy. Nah, she'll just have sex with him in a gondola;-)

(Linda) Nah, she'll just have sex with him in a gondola;-) *choking* Got to get that Windex out to clean off my monitor. ;-))

(Linda) Nah, she'll just have sex with him in a gondola;-) But wouldn't that be as unsanitary as an elevator? ;-)

(Linda) Nah, she'll just have sex with him in a gondola;-) (Dorine)But wouldn't that be as unsanitary as an elevator? ;-) Maybe, but the waves in the canals will have that same up and down motion. ;-)

Scarlett Johansson is one of the judges at this year's Venice Film Festival. The VFF will be quite different this year, they had a big controversy with last year's head who was Austrian. They had never had a foreigner head the festival and it did not go well. The new head is Italian.

Lots of "patrolling" going on today :O) (Katheryn) Amscray, it's the trivia police!-- (Dorine) You better hide before the "we" patrol comes for you. ;-) Consider me properly chastised for the use of the W. word. *Hanging my head in shame* :o)

A blurb from the NY Post... East End sightings: * A svelte Renee Zellweger showing up at Citta Nuova with brunette hair and a healthy glow, causing Diary spies to remark that while her figure looks fantastic, her dark hair washes out her face.

Jonathan Rhys Myers - long! The Sunday (UK) Times - Magazine - August 08, 2004 The sweet hell of success Dark. Decadent. Difficult. And that was before Jonathan Rhys Meyers became famous. Now as the lead roles and plaudits pile up, can the boy from Cork take the pressure? By Ann McFerran Jonathan Rhys Meyers has, he tells me, more than one personality. There's Johnny, the 27-year-old Irish actor with a string of glittering credits, who's highly temperamental but touted by directors as a stellar talent in the making, the next Johnny Depp. This one lives a slightly unreal life out of a suitcase and on film sets, creating a series of magnetic roles, most recently as George Osborne in Mira Nair's Vanity Fair, and Cassander in Oliver Stone's Alexander. Then, in contrast, there's the self-described "stupid little imp" who's most at home on a farm in County Cork. This personality goes for long walks in the countryside, talking silage and sick calves with his adoptive family who "don't give a shit about Hollywood". In the week we first met he was offered no fewer than six big roles. Then, when we last met, he was with Woody Allen in London, playing the lead in a typically top-secret Woody film with no title, opposite Scarlett Johannson. The first time we meet he is crouched in a corner of Soho House's upstairs bar, a wraith-like figure on his mobile to Christopher Crofts, the Cork farmer who has been a father figure to Rhys Meyers since he was 15. He has spent the afternoon being photographed and looks less like a film star than a fashionably wasted art student. When you take in the fine detail of this male beauty in all its androgynous splendour � the full red lips, the wide grey-green eyes, the chiselled features, an insouciant gaze � and Johnny Rhys Meyers starts talking in his husky Cork brogue, you start to understand what all the fuss is about. His legs entwined around each other, drinking alternately out of a glass of beer and an even larger glass of milk, he pushes two fish cakes around his plate before settling into a pack of Marlboros. At times he seems like a combination of the brilliant, tormented actor Daniel Day-Lewis (who also "becomes" every character he plays) and the super-shallow Graham Norton, camping it up outrageously, shrilly mimicking his fellow actors and directors and being very funny. Actually, Rhys Meyers doesn't do comedy. "I've always played what I know: dark, intense, extreme characters. Besides, I'm not sure if people would get it if I played ..." He unwinds his legs and goes into a verbal frenzy: "... a shit, bugger, bugger, shit, f***, f***, terribly twee Hugh Grant sort of guy". Listening to this colt-like creature embark on a fairly bonkers stream of consciousness, which appears to be fuelled by something other than a desire to emulate Joyce, can make you, if you're the maternal type, yearn to put your arms around him and say: "Johnny, just relax, you don't have to try so hard." It can be a dazzling but confusing performance. His cheeky charm and self-possession also hint at the crippling insecurities "everyone" tells you about. Julian Fellowes, who wrote Vanity Fair's screenplay, says: "Jonathan so evidently enjoys his own beauty, and boy, do I envy him! If only we could have all walked into parties at the age of twenty-something and know we're doing the room a favour!" Saying goodbye after our first meeting, Rhys Meyers kisses me elaborately, all the while watching me, watching him, watching me � a mother of children his age � smile. I also faintly want to slap him as he drifts off, heels barely touching the ground like a centaur, to grace another room. His guardian, Crofts, tells me: "Jonathan is entirely comfortable with his sexuality; he can camp it up openly and even kiss a man in a way which doesn't bother him at all." Later that week, in Ireland, Rhys Meyers told me: "Sometimes I speak to girls at a bar or party and the question comes up, 'Are you straight or are you gay?' They can't really tell, so I tend not to protest my heterosexuality or my bisexuality. I give a bit of a wry smile and a little wink. It's more fun for them and for me that way." Has he ever been gay? "No," he says. "Never." You seem hetero but... I begin. "That's showbiz!" he smirks. Pretending to be someone else is what he loves to do more than anything else. "Of course he's a brilliant actor," says Crofts, "because he's acted all his life; it's the only way he could cope." Born Jonathan O'Keefe on July 27, 1977 (he changed his name to Rhys Meyers in 1992 � Meyers was his mother's surname), he grew up in a tiny council flat in a rough area of Cork. When he was three, his father left home with his two younger brothers. Crofts, an Anglo-Irish farmer, now 64, with a family of his own, knew the family. "His mother drank a lot and didn't seem able to cope with looking after him properly," he recalls. On this subject, Rhys Meyers tells me: "I had a lot of rejection in my childhood. And when you're rejected you can't accept love and certainly can't give it. Of course I looked for an industry which has that much rejection, where I'd be rejected." On playing the lead role of Steerpike in Gormenghast, he says: "The evil in that character comes from his loneliness and rejection. All he wants is love and respect. He thinks, 'If I'm king of the castle, someone will love me.' It's about wanting to be cuddled more than anything else." But young Johnny got few cuddles at home and has said that his mother's unhappiness rubbed off on him. At school he felt isolated. "I didn't get on with the teachers. I felt different to the other kids." At 10 he was cast as Buttons in the school pantomime, Cinderella. He remembers shaking in the wings until the teacher pushed him on stage. "I slid on my arse from one side to the other. When I hit the ground I thought, 'I've two options: I can run away and cry, or I can get up and carry on.' Everyone was laughing and my mother was saying, 'He's not mine; he's not mine.' I stood up and said, 'Terribly icy weather, Cinderella.' Everyone thought it was part of the play, so I got away with it. After, I thought, 'Jaysus, that's not bad. I can do this � me and my porky pies.'" Creatively improvising his porky pies to protect himself is still a strong temptation for him. "We human beings are fantastic creatures, because we're so very adaptable," he says. "Acting is so near the edge and precarious, competitive and vulnerable. But vulnerable to me is very dangerous, because vulnerable is someone who feels an awful lot. You have to be a very powerful person to realise your vulnerability." At 14 he was expelled from his Christian Brothers school and began hanging around Cork's pool halls. While playing the arcade game Quasar, he met Crofts, a devotee of the game. "Quasar involves a lot of hanging around chatting, waiting to play," Crofts tells me. "Johnny and I were often on the same team. I bought him a cup of tea. I was very struck by him. I'll never forget the reaction of a deaf-and-dumb man to him. He wasn't fancying him but he couldn't take his eyes off him." Rhys Meyers asked Crofts if he could stay on his farm for a few days. "It wasn't particularly kind of me to agree," says Crofts. "Remember, a farm has plenty of space and there's always food on the table. I'm not a psychiatrist but I could see he had terrible insecurities. Everyone needs to live on a farm because it brings you down to earth." Was he struck by the boy's plight? "No," replies Crofts, "I always felt that he chose me. I, personally, am gay, but I've never fancied him. We've always had a father-son relationship. I could see he needed stability and structure in his life � and a phone." Rhys Meyers is slightly younger than Crofts's eldest son, Alex, who has recently taken over the running of the farm. (Crofts also has an older son and younger daughter.) "Johnny is exactly the same age as the son I lost, when he was five months old. That son is buried on my land and Johnny often visits his grave." Crofts can legally sign documents when Rhys Meyers is away, but he isn't his legal guardian. "Our relationship has grown into a friendship. Nothing more, nothing less. After the insanity of filming, coming home to a farm is very important to him." Eyebrows were raised in certain film circles about their relationship, but I believe it is as they describe: a good friendship and a much-needed secure home base. "They really know me well on th farm," Rhys Meyers says. "They've seen me with the worst bed-hair ever, lounging around the house, smoking cigarettes." Shortly after Rhys Meyers moved into Crofts's farm, David Puttnam's casting agents came to Cork looking for extras for War of the Buttons. They saw Rhys Meyers and gave him a screen test. "The camera loves you," Puttnam told him. "And I love the camera," came his reply. Briefly, he was considered for the leading role in the film, but was later dismissed for being "too knowing" for the part of a 13-year-old. He was terribly disappointed. "I thought I never wanted to put myself through the process of being rejected again. Then I thought, 'If I got that far, I might as well chance my arm again.' I spent months travelling to Dublin for auditions." Soon after, Neil Jordan took a chance on him in his film Michael Collins, casting him as the assassin who killed Collins. Just before filming started, Rhys Meyers went with friends on holiday to Thailand. The trip turned into a series of mishaps and misadventures, climaxing with our would-be star passing out at Bangkok's departure gates after smoking too many cigarettes and eating too many chocolates. But somehow he made it to his first day's filming, alongside Alan Rickman. "Michael Collins was a doddle," he says now. Roles began to pour in. "When I started making films I grew up very quickly," he says, "but in certain ways I didn't grow up at all. Film-making is Peter Pan time. As actors we're slightly immature, and very looked after, so lots of big stars end up not being able to take care of themselves. I can't stand the thought of being like Dirk Bogarde, who couldn't even write a cheque." For the boy who once stole to survive, the world of film location was the family life he'd never had. Even as we talk at Soho House, the tab for the fish cakes and Marlboros is invisibly paid for. He tells me that he'll make his own way to his hotel, but as he's staying at the Groucho Club, 100 yards up the street, it's hardly the ultimate challenge. The daily life of an in-demand actor can be a series of surreal impossibilities, he tells me. "One night, when I was making I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, I was drinking with [the director] Mike Hodges and Malcolm McDowell. The next morning I was in Brixton having a cup of tea, then I'm dragged off by two men in tuxedos and Malcolm is raping me over a tyre iron. How can you share that with family and friends? How can you tell them, 'I was raped at 8.30am, then I had chips and peas for lunch, then I killed someone'?" With no formal acting training, he "becomes" every part he plays. This, he says, means "I take and give away parts of my own character that I've never shaken off." To Brian Slade, the ruthless 1970s bisexual rock star he played in 1998's Velvet Goldmine, he says he gave vulnerability. He was 19 when he took this role � the youngest on the film's set by six years. He also had an affair with the leading lady, Toni "Muriel's Wedding" Collette, which lasted a year. "She's a good woman but I wasn't mature enough," he says. For the Cannes premiere of Velvet Goldmine, he flew in from the Missouri set of Ang Lee's Ride with the Devil,where he was playing the "cold, unforgiving killer" Pitt Mackeson. "I was being paid shite, so when I had to go to Cannes I thought, 'Bollocks!' I turned up in a civil-war suit, weighing eight stone [normally he weighs 101/2] and talking with a Missouri accent. I was so unrecognisable they wouldn't let me into the premiere. At the after-party I sat in front of a poster of myself, talking to two girls who didn't even know I was in the film." Velvet Goldmine � primed to be a huge hit � bombed. Ride with the Devil, and Titus, followed suit. In 2001, Rhys Meyers auditioned for The Loss of Sexual Innocence. Its director, Mike Figgis, recalls: "He marched in and talked nonstop about his hair. After three minutes I offered him the part. He's extraordinarily talented, but his terrible insecurity means you've got to consider the effect on the other actors. He's like Robert Downey Jr with his ability to extract sympathy and protectiveness from everyone around him." After Figgis's film, he appeared in Gormenghast. "He's one of those fabulous creatures," says its director, Andy Wilson. "He acts like a rock star, because if he's not satisfied with what he's done, he goes and beats up the dressing room." Directors may speak fondly of Rhys Meyers, but his fellow actors often find him difficult. "Mad and maddening," say some, "but don't quote me." "Very talented," they all add. In Bend It Like Beckham, he played the hunky football coach, Joe, opposite Keira Knightley and Parminder Nagra. Rhys Meyers says: "Joe is the most normal and challenging character I've played. I wanted to make him a regular guy who goes to the cinema once a week, then has a bag of chips." Knightley remains very fond of her co-star. "He's a completely beautiful, vulnerable human being," she enthuses. "And his vulnerability makes him absolutely mesmerising to watch on screen." Last year, when Knightley was in LA doing publicity for Pirates of the Caribbean with her mother, Sharman MacDonald, whom she travels with (Knightley has no PA or PR), she had tea with Rhys Meyers at LA's Four Seasons hotel. When MacDonald joined the couple, Rhys Meyers suggested they go for a cigarette. "We sat shivering and smoking and talked for ages," recalls MacDonald. "I thought he was a sweetheart, but I worry about him in this business." Crofts shares her concern. "He has his agents and PR people, but he needs someone to keep an eye on things for him. Jonathan has a huge hunger to succeed but he also has these huge insecurities. I went to see him in Rome when he was making Titus, with Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange. We went to dinner with Anthony Hopkins. Halfway through, Anthony broke down crying, saying he'd never work again. Most actors are screwed up, and there's no use telling them how wonderful they are because they don't believe it, but they need to hear it every minute." Might a steady relationship help? "Johnny loves beautiful girls," says Crofts, "and beautiful girls throw themselves at him all the time. But he breaks their hearts, because how can he have a relationship when he's not happy with himself?" Rhys Meyers says he's been in therapy, and then adds: "Bt life is therapy." He says he's fallen in love only once, with a Dublin girl called Chacha. He describes in mock Shakespeare how they met: "In St Stephen's Green, where we set our scene. She was beautiful, with eyes like a kitten and a gap between her teeth. Gorgeous. I was so besottedly in love with her that I couldn't speak to her." Eventually, Chacha took the initiative and turned up at Crofts's farm. Rhys Meyers sums up his first love story in Mills and Boon mode: "Together we were dynamite, but I was away a lot. We needed different things in our lives, but she'll always be my first true love." He sounds much more himself describing his portrayal of George Osborne in Vanity Fair, due for a September release. "I looked like something out of Quality Street," he cackles. "George is the ultimate bastard. It was daunting how naturally it came!" Far more demanding was his most recent role in Oliver Stone's Alexander, in which he plays Cassander, the rival to Colin Farrell's Alexander. Crofts says: "The set of that film was a heavy scene � pretty decadent. Johnny's part had a lot to do with jealousy, which wasn't great for him because he does go into his part � so he was angry, jealous and upset for most of the six-month shoot." Stone was determined to instil his actors with mistrust and competitiveness. "So I focused on that," says Rhys Meyers. "'Why aren't I Colin Farrell? Why aren't I king?' As bad as Cassander feels in the film, Johnny has to feel just as bad. I upset myself quite a bit and gave my ego a battering, which made me sad; Oliver knew that." To help his actors become brutal warriors, Stone had them attend, in character, a boot camp in the Moroccan desert with 200 Moroccan and American soldiers.Rhys Meyers tells me: "On the first day of battle, Stone said, 'I'm sick of seeing people being heroes in this war. I need a coward.' So everyone else is being a he-man, going, 'Hey, look at me, wanna shag?' And I have to ride into battle, cut my own arm, and let myself down." As he rode away, Rhys Meyers fell off his horse, which reared and kicked him in the face. "There was blood all over my face. Colin rode over and said, 'Jaysus! Your lip's a bit swollen, but don't worry, you'll be grand.' People thought I'd be off home, and it caused me a loss of confidence, but it was part of who Cassander was." What do you have in common with Cassander? "Cassander had to fight every inch to get what he wanted, sometimes using methods that weren't kosher. Like Cassander, my success is totally down to me." Later in Ireland, Crofts reveals that Rhys Meyers � after my first interview with him � went to a party hosted by Val Kilmer, who also starred in Alexander, at London's Dorchester hotel. "I wouldn't have been happy at him going, because those parties can be wild. But he knows he must keep himself together, because it's leaving scars." Recently, Rhys Meyers bought his mother a house in "a nice bit of Cork. Her great delight is decorating it. She's got her life and she's happy. I've got mine and I'm struggling to be content". Rhys Meyers was on Crofts's Cork farm the last time we spoke. That morning, he claimed he'd got up with the milking and cooked lunch. "It's such a relief to be back," he said. With his voice an octave lower, he sounded much calmer. And in the immediate future? He groans. "I'm going to tidy my bloody room. I might do bit of hoovering! Very sexy! I might even hoover wearing a pair of gold-lam� Calvin Kleins!"

From the Guardian: Author green lights Cholera film After denying Hollywood for years, Gabriel Garc�a M�rquez agrees to sell the rights to his 1985 novel Jo Tuckman in Mexico City Monday August 9, 2004 Unswerving defender of Fidel Castro and Latin American literary patriarch he may be, but Gabriel Garc�a M�rquez appears to have finally succumbed to Hollywood's call, signing over the film rights to Love in the Time of Cholera. The Los Angeles production company Stone Village Pictures is reportedly paying the Colombian Nobel laureate between one and three million dollars to make a movie of what producer Scot Steindorff recently termed "the best love story ever told, next to Romeo and Juliet". Despite selling millions of books around the globe, the 76-year-old novelist, who is battling with cancer, is said to be worried about the financial future of his lifetime partner Mercedes and their two sons Gonzalo and Rodrigo. Garc�a M�rquez, who has lived in Mexico most of the time since 1961, reportedly sank substantial sums into a news magazine called Cambio that he started in Colombia before launching a Mexican version with mixed results. Born in Colombia in 1928, Garc�a M�rquez spent years as a struggling journalist before making his name crafting fantastic tales told with breathtaking naturalness, often inspired by the lives of his own family and the turbulent history of his native country and continent. He shot to international literary fame with his 1967 novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, loosely based on the experiences of his own grandparents. In his recent autobiography Bill Clinton described the book as "the greatest novel in any language since William Faulkner died". Love in the Time of Cholera, published in 1985, follows the struggles of Florentina Ariza to win the heart of Fermina Daza. It takes the hero 51 years, nine months and four days, but he wins her in the end. The Colombian newspaper El Espectador quoted a triumphant Steindorff as saying it took him two years of constant badgering to persuade the novelist to agree to sell the rights. "Like the main character in the book I persevered and never lost hope until I achieved my goal. We are going to work very hard to make the most beautiful film Hollywood has ever made." The project is an apparent about-turn for Garc�a M�rquez, a veteran defender of Latin American independence under pressure from successive US regimes intent on imposing their political priorities and cultural trends on the whole hemisphere. The novelist has remained fiercely loyal to Fidel Castro, even after many others on the left distanced themselves from the Cuban leader because of his apparently indiscriminate crackdown on dissidents and political use of the death penalty. Last year this issue drew Garc�a M�rquez into a bitter polemic with Susan Sontag, who publicly lambasted the author for not criticizing his old friend. Up to now Garc�a M�rquez has always resisted the temptation to allow high-budget English language films of his work. The most commercial adaptation of his books to hit the screen so far was the 1987 Italian version of Chronicle of a Death Foretold, directed by Francesco Rosi and starring Rupert Everett. Details of who may direct or star in the movie have yet to be released, although the names of Nicole Kidman and Jude Law are already circulating. Steindorff himself has reportedly hinted that Garc�a M�rquez could be persuaded to write the screenplay.

From Variety, think I have found the perfect co-star for Colin: As a former Miss World, Bollywood superstar Aishwarya Rai has the looks, and judging from her performance in Gurinder Chadha's upcoming "Bride and Prejudice," she has the talent to make the major Hollywood breakthrough she's seeking. But there's just one snag. Like Julia Roberts in "Pretty Woman," Rai doesn't kiss. As a good Indian girl, she has never smooched onscreen, and she doesn't intend to start now. In Chadha's movie, the two "kissing" scenes involve Rai coyly pressing her forehead against co-star Martin Henderson's chin. Chadha did ask Henderson to plant an unauthorized smacker on Rai's lips when the pair were sitting atop an elephant in the climactic marriage scene, but when the cameras started to roll, Henderson chickened out. He later confessed to his director that he thought Rai would slap him.

The latest speculation from THR: Disney in talks to let Harvey Weinstein leave NEW YORK -- Walt Disney Co. and its Miramax Films unit, which is run by Harvey and Bob Weinstein, are expected to meet this week to discuss letting Harvey Weinstein start a production company, and his brother remain at Disney to make movies, the New York Times said on Tuesday. Citing unidentified people involved in the talks, the newspaper said an agreement is not expected this week, and the sides are far apart on several big issues, but the progress shows that both sides recognize the importance of maintaining a successful relationship, the newspaper said. The two sides would like to reach an agreement before Disney's fiscal year starts on Oct. 1, it said, citing several people involved in the talks. Disney, based in Burbank, California, bought New York-based Miramax in 1993 from the Weinsteins, the studio's co-founders. Miramax's recent movies include "Chicago," "Cold Mountain" and "Kill Bill." Under an agreement being negotiated, Disney might give Bob Weinstein a four-year contract, a small staff and a $300 million to $350 million annual budget to make four to six movies under his Dimension Films banner, the newspaper said, citing two people involved in the negotiations. Dimension, a unit of Miramax, produces highly profitable film franchises such as the "Scream," "Scary Movie" and "Spy Kids" series. Harvey Weinstein would become an independent producer, and secure financing for movies to be distributed by Bob Weinstein, the newspaper said. Disney might license the Miramax name back to Harvey Weinstein, but only for movie projects, it said, citing the two people. Miramax's film library would not be for sale. There remains a 60% chance the Weinsteins might leave Disney, the newspaper said, citing a senior person involved in the talks. Miramax plans to lay off at least 120 people as soon as this week, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday. The cuts reflect that the studio has too many people for a reduced number of projects, and are not being implemented at the behest of Disney, the person said.

Re: the Miramax article....here's a longer, more detailed article of the possible deal and their options. Not sure if it can be accessed without registration.... http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/10/business/media/10miramax.html

Yes, it does require registration. So here it is: August 10, 2004 Disney in Talks on Independence for a Weinstein By LAURA M. HOLSON LOS ANGELES, Aug. 9 - Representatives for the Walt Disney Company and its subsidiary, Miramax Films, are expected to meet this week to discuss an agreement that would allow Miramax's co-founder, Harvey Weinstein, to start a production company, while his brother Bob remains at Disney to make movies, according to people involved in the talks. A deal is not expected to be reached this week, and Disney and the Weinsteins remain far apart on several important issues. Still, the progress so far indicates that despite past clashes, both sides recognize the importance of maintaining a successful relationship that has produced many award-winning films over the last decade. For Disney, an agreement with Miramax would be a bright spot in a year when another successful partnership, with Pixar Animation Studios, unraveled after 13 years. Harvey Weinstein, in turn, would have the freedom to pursue other entertainment-related ventures without Disney's approval and market movies using the Miramax name. Under a deal currently being negotiated, Disney would give Bob Weinstein a budget of about $300 million to $350 million a year and a small development and marketing staff to make four to six movies under Dimension Films, said two people involved in the negotiations. Bob Weinstein, who started Miramax with his brother and sold it to Disney in 1993 for $80 million, already runs Dimension, a division of Miramax, which has produced film franchises like "Spy Kids" and "Scary Movie." Harvey Weinstein would become an independent producer, securing financing for movies to be distributed by his brother. Disney could agree to license the Miramax name back to Harvey Weinstein, but only for movie projects, the two people said. The two sides have yet to agree on a price. Harvey Weinstein is expected to discuss with Disney this week how many Miramax staff members he can take with him if he goes, as well as the fate of any movies now under development. Bob Weinstein's contract is likely to be for four years, but the two sides have yet to agree on several issues, the two people said, including how much he will make and what Dimension would be paid for distributing his brother's movies. One deal point not being negotiated is who would get Miramax's film library; Disney insists it is not for sale. But according to one person close to the Weinsteins, Harvey Weinstein would like to explore ways to exploit it, perhaps by re-releasing DVD's. An agreement is far from certain: a senior person involved in the negotiations said there was still a 60 percent chance that the Weinsteins would leave Disney altogether. Over the last several months, there have been bitter negotiations over whether to extend a four-year option on the Weinsteins' employment agreement, which ends in October 2005. Michael D. Eisner, Disney's chief executive, has complained that Miramax has strayed from its original mission of buying and marketing highly profitable art-house movies, venturing instead into money-draining enterprises like Talk magazine and expensive disappointments like "Gangs of New York" and "Cold Mountain." The Weinsteins, for their part, contend that they have turned Miramax into an Oscar juggernaut worth many times what Disney paid for it. While there is no deadline, several people involved in the negotiations said that the two sides would like to broker a deal before Disney's fiscal year begins on Oct. 1. The Weinsteins suggested the new arrangement to Disney about a month ago through an intermediary who approached Disney on their behalf, according to a senior person involved in the negotiations. That person, according to two people involved, was Skip Brittenham, an influential Hollywood lawyer and power broker. Mr. Brittenham did not return a call for comment. Disney executives have declined to speak publicly about the negotiations, as have Harvey and Bob Weinstein. But it appears the two sides have, at least for the time being, called a truce. Matthew Hiltzik, a Miramax spokesman, said on behalf of the Weinsteins, "The tone of our conversations has been extremely amicable." That has not always been the case. The relationship between Disney and the Weinsteins was at a low before the release of "Fahrenheit 9/11" in the spring, when Michael Moore accused Mr. Eisner of trying to block Miramax's distribution of the film. Two years ago, the two camps sparred when Disney sought an internal audit of Miramax's finances as part of a review of their bonuses. The Weinsteins, for their part, sought an audit of Disney's books last year. Recently, Disney threatened to audit the Weinstein's travel and entertainment expenses, said the senior person involved in the talks. Both sides agreed that they wanted to avoid the public embarrassment that would result if they were forced to arbitrate their dispute in court, the senior person said. But now even Mr. Eisner, who told friends in the spring he was ready to split with the Weinsteins, seems to be warming. At a recent conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, he publicly praised Bob Weinstein as a talented executive, although not without pointing out where his brother had strayed. Both Disney and the Weinsteins would benefit if they remained partners. Dimension has been a financial boon to Disney. Besides, said the senior person involved in the talks, "Bob likes what he is doing. He's got franchises built up there." Miramax, for its part, has brought Oscar prowess to Disney, and a distribution deal would allow Harvey Weinstein to market movies under the Miramax name, something he cannot do without Disney's permission. This summer, Miramax has been in a state of near-suspended animation, as it has already spent most of the $700 million that Disney gives the subsidiary each year to make and market movies. Disney, however, has apparently made an exception for Miramax in at least one case. According to one Miramax executive, Miramax was being pressed by officials in China to give an American release to "Hero," a movie about a fearless Chinese warrior. "Hero," directed by Zhang Yimou, was released in China two years ago, but Miramax lacked the money to market the film in the United States. Disney, which has close ties to China and is building a theme park in Hong Kong, agreed to give Miramax the money, a representative for Disney said. Still, production on future projects has largely halted, and Miramax is soon expected to lay off at least 100 employees, or as much as 25 percent of its work force, said a person involved in the negotiations. "My take is no one knows what will happen, including Harvey and Bob," a Miramax executive said. Sharon Waxman contributed reporting for this article.

Short's 'Glick' to Close Toronto Film Fest Tue Aug 10, 2:13 PM ET TORONTO - Martin Short is taking Hollywood to task with "Jiminy Glick in Lalawood," a comic tale of celebrity culture that will close next month's Toronto International Film Festival. Short plays the title character, an unknown entertainment critic for a Butte, Mont., TV station who comes to the Toronto festival and scores an unlikely coup: A rare interview with a reclusive movie megastar. Jiminy ends up in the middle of a tawdry sex scandal when a starlet turns up dead in his bed. Directed by Vadim Jean, the film was co-written by Short, who is also a producer on the flick. The movie is based on the character Short originated on his TV shows "The Martin Short Show" and "Primetime Glick." Other high-profile films announced Tuesday by the Toronto festival include: _ David O. Russell's ensemble comedy "I Heart Huckabees," featuring Dustin Hoffman, Naomi Watts, Jude Law, Lily Tomlin and Mark Wahlberg (news). _ "Kinsey," starring Liam Neeson and Laura Linney in Bill Condon's film biography of Alfred Kinsey, the pioneer of human-sexuality research. _ "Imaginary Heroes," a coming-of-age tale featuring Emile Hirsch, Sigourney Weaver, Jeff Daniels (news) and Michelle Williams. _ "Head in the Clouds," a romantic drama starring Charlize Theron as a woman trying to maintain her hedonistic life against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War and World War II. _ "Sideways," Alexander Payne's road-trip story about aging pals (Paul Giamatti (news) and Thomas Haden Church) on a last joy ride before one of them gets married. _ "Crash," a film about eight characters drawn together by a car wreck and a murder investigation. The cast includes Sandra Bullock (news), Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon (news) and Thandie Newton. _ Sean Penn and Naomi Watts in "The Assassination of Richard Nixon," about a failed salesman who sets out to kill President Nixon in 1974. The Toronto festival, a key launchpad for Hollywood's big fall releases and Academy Awards (news - web sites) contenders, runs Sept. 9-18.

(Karen), From Variety, think I have found the perfect co-star for Colin: ROTF! I'm a huge Bollywood fan as you know, but this actress does kiss, Lisa Ray is one of the best ones there. Thanks for the articles. I've always been a fan of Miramax because they were doing the kinds of films I liked, but that was in the beginning.

(Karen), From Variety, think I have found the perfect co-star for Colin: ROTF! Too funny!

(Dorine) Glad you liked Sunrise. Will be curious to hear your thoughts on Sunset. I thought it was better. Saw Sunset yesterday. I liked it. I didn't love it the way I did the first time I saw Sunrise. I will have to see Sunset a few more times to find out if I can get over the disappointing sting of the ending. I just wanted to thank all of you ladies. If it weren't for this site, I never would have seen either of these films.

(Yvette) the disappointing sting of the ending. Disappointing? I loved the ending. Thought it was adorable and just right. (trying my best not to be spoilerish)

A relation to the char-monkey, a Dancing Bear speaks out: Feud Casts Shadow Over California's Steinbeck Country By Adam Tanner SALINAS, Calif. (Reuters) - Controversy stirs in John Steinbeck country, an area of northern California where the great 20th century author has long ignited passionate opinions. The author of "Of Mice and Men" and "The Grapes of Wrath," Steinbeck died in 1968, yet he and his work still spark debate. Last month, the author's only surviving son added dissonance by suing the heirs of his stepmother in a copyright battle. Since filing the lawsuit, Thomas Steinbeck, 60, has turned down interview requests. But he made an exception to discuss in a Reuters interview his father and his legacy, as well as the burden of being Steinbeck's heir in the land of Steinbeck. "Being a Steinbeck here isn't all that fun, let me tell you, because you have no privacy," he said, sitting on a terrace off Cannery Row in the seaside town of Monterey, an area that loudly trumpets its link to the novel "Cannery Row." "People feel they have a right to access you any time they want, for anything -- to back something, to be against something." With a rich lode of amusing anecdotes and strong echoes of his father in appearance, the son -- who prefers to be known as Thom -- is a crowd pleaser at the annual Steinbeck Festival, the 24th of which was held last weekend in his father's birthplace of Salinas. "I'm sort of the dancing bear. I'm more of an exhibit than anything else," he said with a laugh. "They sort of bring me in to poke me with a stick, you know, like a bear on a chain and I turn around in circles and people clap." During Steinbeck's lifetime, many in Salinas, 100 miles south of San Francisco, criticized him for his sometimes unflattering portrait of hardscrabble life in the region. Today the city of 138,000, which produces 80 percent of America's lettuce, has embraced the writer; his boyhood house and a separate $17 million museum celebrate his work. "He came from the ranching class. People thought he betrayed his class," said Thom, a writer who lives in Santa Barbara, California. "The sentiment is gone because the world fell in love with the work." Monterey, 17 miles from Salinas, has long capitalized on its Steinbeck connections in everything from a wax museum named after him to hotel suites and conference rooms in honor of the man who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962. "If my father was alive he would insist that they burn it all down. He would have been terribly embarrassed by all of this," his son said. "He would have thought that this is just terribly inappropriate. The work stands by itself. It doesn't need a restaurant named after it." TV SHOW BOOSTS POPULARITY Steinbeck's lasting literary as well as market pull was highlighted last summer when talk show host Oprah Winfrey recommended "East of Eden." That recommendation sparked huge book sales and put the title back on bestseller lists. "Do you know how much money that made?" Steinbeck said. "When she chose East of Eden, millions and millions of copies were sold, in 137 different languages." Such success proceeded the copyright lawsuit pitting the son against the estate of Steinbeck's third and last wife, Elaine, who died last year, as well as his longtime literary agency McIntosh & Otis. The suit alleges a "30-year hidden conspiracy to deprive John Steinbeck's blood heirs." "The decision to file a suit was not a happy one for my clients," said Steinbeck's attorney Mark Lee. "They felt they had to file a suit to obtain the copyright interests to which they believe they were entitled." He said Thom Steinbeck had been deprived of at least $10 million in copyright interests and Steinbeck's granddaughter about $8 million. An official at McIntosh & Otis, which became the author's literary agent in 1931, declined comment. The dispute is complex even by the standards of copyright law and no court date has been set. Thom Steinbeck does receive income from some Steinbeck novels such as "East of Eden" but not others, Lee said. "There are a lot of heirs and everyone gets a taste but I mean you couldn't live on it," Steinbeck said. He shied away from discussing the details of the lawsuit. "It has nothing to do with money, let's put it that way," he said. "It's more complex than you can imagine." Asked if he was a wealthy man because of his father, Steinbeck said: "Hell no, man, I work for a living. You don't think I write because I think it's fun. I write because I'm very good at it and that's how I put a roof over my head." Following his 2002 collection of short stories "Down to a Soundless Sea" set in Steinbeck country in the 1930s, Thom Steinbeck is writing a new novel. Over the years he has also worked as a cameraman during the Vietnam War and a script doctor for Hollywood films. Steinbeck says his name does not magically open the portals of the literary world and notes he has received plenty of rejection slips. "You either can write or can't write," he said. "Like the Bach family, there was more than one guy who wrote music there."

v. long From THR's head flack: 'Vanity' first of fall awards contenders By Martin A. Grove "Vanity" viewpoint: With summer's big popcorn movies now fading into the sunset, fall will be here soon with its annual gift of likely Golden Globe and Academy Awards contenders. The first of these, opening Sept. 1 via Focus Features, is Mira Nair's "Vanity Fair," starring Reese Witherspoon. Its screenplay by Matthew Faulk & Mark Skeet and Julian Fellowes, an Oscar and WGA winner for "Gosford Park," is based on William Makepeace Thackeray's classic novel set in England from about 1802-33. The Tempesta Films/Granada Film production also stars Eileen Atkins, Jim Broadbent, Gabriel Byrne, Romola Garai, Bob Hoskins, Rhys Ifans, Geraldine McEwan, James Purefoy and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Produced by Janette Day, Donna Gigliotti and Lydia Dean Pilcher, it was executive produced by Jonathan Lynn, Howard Cohen and Pippa Cross. Faulk and Skeet, the first screenwriters who worked on "Vanity," are also associate producers of the film. Thackeray's novel revolves around Becky Sharp, a lower class girl who despite the conventions of her day is determined to achieve a more glamorous life than her modest birthright would allow for. Wit, guile and sexuality are some of her key tools in trying to conquer English society of the time. Having greatly enjoyed talking to Fellowes when Robert Altman's "Gosford Park" opened to critical acclaim in 2001, I was happy to be able to catch up with him again Wednesday when he called from London to focus on what went into adapting "Vanity" to the screen. "Gosford," of course, was an original screenplay while "Vanity" is based on a book of about 900 pages. We began by talking about the challenges of boiling a book of that size down into a screenplay. "With any adaptation, a big element of it is selection," he explained. "You can't make a 15-hour film so you have to leave out a lot. And with a book that is as well-known as 'Vanity Fair' the challenge really is not to leave out the iconic bits. In any novel, I suppose, whether you're doing 'Great Expectations' or whatever, there are certain sort of key moments that pretty well everyone knows. I always remember when I was doing 'Little Lord Fauntleroy' (the 1994 BBC miniseries based on Frances Hodgson Burnett's classic novel) they wanted him to be a more modern child and so on. And I said, 'Yes, but just once we have to put him in a velvet suit with a lace collar because that's all that anyone knows about 'Little Lord Fauntleroy.' And so I got my way. In one party scene he was there in his dark blue velvet (suit) with his lace collar. "What happened with 'Vanity Fair' is that I came onto the project when Mira Nair came on. She decided that we would sort of start again and go right back to the beginning. It was Labor Day weekend in 2002 and I came over to New York and we just sort of sat and discussed this book and had the most delicious Indian food and just talked about the elements of the book that we were both interested in and that we thought everyone else was interested in and tried to sort of decide what our 'Vanity Fair' was. I think there are -- well, I hope there are -- kind of new elements in it." Reflecting on the book, he said, "What a lot of people don't understand is that Thackeray in the novel uses India as a way of expressing his opinions about the Empire. He was writing in the 1850's about the Regency, which was 35 years before (when the Prince of Wales was named Regent to act for the mad King George III, succeeding him as King George IV after his death in 1820). So he was able to make certain points about the dawning Empire from what was effectively the peak of it. He uses India for that. This (kind of) world is normally abandoned in adaptations, but of course it was very interesting to Mira -- and, indeed, very interesting to me because I'm very fascinated by India as well as the whole imperial experiment -- and so we have an element of that in the film, which I found very colorful and kind of interesting. Mira's got this extraordinary visual imagination, which I loved." Some major challenges, however, were posed by the basic storyline of Thackeray's novel. "When I sat down and read the book again," Fellowes said, "I thought, 'Well, it's no good now pretending that our generation can dislike Becky Sharp because she wants to make her own life and because she wants to reinvent herself and she wants to have a better life than the one she's been for. We don't dislike those qualities. We like them. And it would be, I felt, completely false to the generation at the beginning of the 21st Century to try and imply that Becky's ambition and her desire to get on are in some way abhorrent. I mean, Thackeray plays a very complicated game because he certainly believed Becky was the true heroine of the novel. Of course, when he calls it a novel without a hero it's because he wasn't able to name who the hero was because according to Victorian morality they very much admired the kind of modest take-it-on-the-chin little woman who sat at home and just kind of generally administered to things The ambitious woman who made her own luck and who goes out into the world and shakes the tree of life until its fruit fall into her lap is not something that the Victorians officially approved of. "And so Thackeray writes this novel extolling this woman, but sort of pretending all the way through that the real heroine is Amelia (Becky's well born and, therefore, less ambitious best friend) and Becky Sharp is not the heroine. But any reader can tell that that isn't the case. And, in fact, in one point in the novel -- because, you know, in those days they were published episodically once a month in journals -- his publisher actually asked him to make Becky do something unsympathetic because he felt it was scandalous that this character who was not moral was really the heroine. And so Thackeray made her hit her child or something rather obvious. But later he regretted it. He felt that he had been false to his own creation and that, in fact, he'd only done that under pressure (from his publisher)." In writing the role of Becky for the screen, Fellowes added, "I didn't feel that we had an obligation to make her a villainess. I felt that she was a very modern character and the fact that she is this Regency woman who basically makes things happen and doesn't just give in and gets a better husband than she probably could and gets a better job and so on, I felt we liked her for that. In the end, she is over ambitious and she overreaches herself and she makes celebrity and importance and richness too important to her and (gives) her social status too much importance. And in a way that seems to me to be a modern parable as well in this weird age of celebrity that we live in now when every magazine is full of these famous people who are supposedly leading lives that are more interesting and more worthwhile than anyone else's, which of course is not at all the case. "As a generation, we have this kind of weird respect for fame in almost any form. That again seems to me to be very similar and very kind of connecting with Becky's central flaw -- that, in the end, she loses her sense of proportion. Having manipulated the world and having in a sense made it do what she wanted it to do, in the end she is beguiled by the world and she is emasculated and weakened by the values of the world. We could name so many careers of people who have let that happen to them. They start out as these strong pioneers, but they get sucked into the values that initially they rather despise. And that, of course, is what happens to Becky. But, again, I feel that that's very modern." Indeed, Fellowes pointed out that he "found the whole book, actually, when I read it tremendously modern. Apart from anything else, Thackeray is very egalitarian. He doesn't patronize women at all. You know, Dickens' women are always kind of vicious and horrible or they're these little timorous wasp-waisted girls who never say boo to a goose! But Thackeray doesn't have that. He writes almost like a woman. Again, I found that fantastically accessible actually. One thing I always hope when I do an adaptation is that it will encourage people to read the book because however much you enjoy the film it will still be well worth your while to reread the book." Of course, we know from recent research that adult Americans are reading fewer novels than ever before. (That study by the National Endowment for the Arts was, indeed, the jumping off point for my column here Wednesday.) So it may not really be a matter of people re-reading classic books so much as, perhaps, prompting them to read them in the first place. "I think at times one is almost led to believe that the modern methods of communication are, basically, television, film and the Internet and that reading a book is somehow out of date and it's becoming (dated) like the opera or something," Fellowes said. "This is just not so. When people cut themselves off from books -- I mean, for me, anyway -- they're cutting themselves off from a tremendous source of pleasure -- never mind information or wisdom or anything else like that. Just straight pleasure. So anything that encourages anyone to read a book has got my vote." As for the hard work of adapting a book to the screen, I asked Fellowes to share some details about the mechanics of writing an adaptation. "First of all, I try to make a kind of list of the moments in the book, the scenes in the book, that we all feel we want in the film," he told me. "The really precise moments because sometimes in a book you can tell the same story, but in a different way. There are certain kinds of moments. For instance, in 'Vanity Fair,' it's not about the Battle of Waterloo at all, but Waterloo influences an enormous amount of the action within and the lives of the characters and so on. And because of that, in the book Thackeray visits the battlefield only when the battle is over. I felt and so did Mira that it was crucial that we did the same in the film. Of course, it was quite a big argument because it was a very large expenditure for what was, in essence, a moment rather than a sequence of narrative or anything. Because you're going (there) only when the whole thing's finished. An way, we did win on that and it is a fantastically powerful moment in the film. But we both felt that you can't have a story that basically turns on this battle and never see anything of the battle. "So I first of all do that. Then I make, I suppose, a kind of decision as to what the story is that we are going to tell. I think that any adaptation of 'Vanity Fair' -- on television, in the theater, whatever -- has to be (about) the rise of Becky Sharp because that is the kind of core story. However much in the novel he goes back and forth to Amelia, and so do we, and that has all sorts of other interesting points to make, nevertheless the spinal story of 'Vanity Fair' is Becky Sharp. So then you trace out what are the sort of key moments of that progression. She starts at the school. She then has her first taste of London. She then goes to (work as a governess to the daughters of eccentric Sir Pitt Crawley, played by Bob Hoskins) and learns how to use the family for her own advantage. She then comes back to London and makes her marriage and so on. And so you have a kind of map of the incidents of this story." After getting to that point, he said, "you start thinking in terms of a scene structure that will actually give you those incidents. The difficulty is always that one is having to compress and leave out (scenes) because it's such a rich novel. I'm sure that's why so often bad books or short stories make good films. You don't have to leave a lot out of a short story and with a bad book you don't care what you leave out. But with a classic you are sort of aware of the fact that you are serving something that is already great. And so you have a different kind of emotional relationship to it." But given the sad state of our world today people don't read classic novels the way they used to. They're actually more familiar with contemporary best-sellers so when you adapt a classic novel to the screen they may not actually know what's being left out. "Well, maybe they don't," Fellowes replied, "but I suppose I have a very basic philosophy that it is better to over-estimate the public than under-estimate them. It's sort of like if you treat children as grown-ups they will behave as grown-ups most of the time. If you treat the public as intelligent they will be intelligent most of the time. I think films or television, for that matter, that chase the public taste downhill don't do anyone any favors. It sounds very idealistic and I hope not pompous -- I don't mean it to be that -- but it's like that thing when (studio) executives want you to simplify everything and everything's got to be spelled out. And, finally, you have those scenes where people say, you know, 'I am in love with you' and this and tha the other (and) 'You are my sister. We had a happy childhood in Dakota.' And when you're watching them you think, 'Well, surely they know this.' "I just feel it isn't a bad thing for the audience to have to do a little bit of work and get involved in the thing a bit. So I suppose I like to credit them with a certain amount (of intelligence). But every film has to be a complete film. One can never pre-suppose knowledge of a book in order to (not put something into) the narrative. The film, whether it's 'Lord of the Rings' or whatever, must be cogent within itself. I don't think it works if people have to have read 'Lord of the Rings' before they see the film. And I think that was, indeed, where Peter Jackson was very successful (in that) he made films that you could follow and they had their own cogency whether or not you'd ever read the books. I hope, too, that that's what we've done and that the film will be very enjoyable for people who've never heard of 'Vanity Fair.' But, nevertheless, as the adapter I think you do feel a sense of responsibility to Thackeray. You don't want to mess it up. You want to make it as enjoyable as you can and, hopefull , stimulate them just conceivably to read it." After selecting the elements from the book that are to be incorporated into the film's screenplay, Fellowes explained, "then you start breaking it up -- at least this is what I do, I mean, everyone has different methods -- into scenes. In this scene we will learn this. In a film, a scene often has to perform several different functions so that you will learn this about this character, but that about that character. And you will know that he loves her, but she hates her. And you will use one dinner scene or whatever it is to achieve that because you haven't got the time to have a separate scene for every separate piece of information. So you start, in a sense, devising the scenes that will give you all the different bits of information that you need. And then, really, to be quite honest, I get writing -- because there is a point with all these things where you can sort of talk about it too much. I know there's always a moment with me with a director when I say, "Look, why don't I just write this and then we' l have something that neither of us like that we have a fight about?' Because there comes a point where just sitting in a room with a notepad isn't going to take you any further. And that really is when it sort of begins for me. "For the first draft I like to be kind of (left alone) -- not left alone in that kind of important way, but I like to make a draft script so that we all then have got something to work from. It becomes much clearer when there is a first draft that we don't need this, it's not necessary to show this because that's already apparent if we show that. The duplication of information becomes much more obvious once you've actually got a draft in your hand. Really, from then on, I work very, very closely with the director and they will tell you, 'I need a scene showing this,' 'I think we could cut this,' 'If think if I shoot this in the dog kennel we'll understand whatever.' From then on it becomes quite collaborative because they have their own very strong mental image, which you as a screenwriter are, after all, attempting to serve. I think one of the great disciplines of screenwriting is that you always have to remember they're not making your film. You are attempting to write their film. They are the ones who ar making this film and you are attempting to serve their vision. And that can be, of course, quite a discipline in that you might think, 'Oh, they would be better doing such and such,' but if they're absolutely sure, if they know what they want, then they probably have a good reason for it if they're good directors. And if they're not good directors you shouldn't be writing a screenplay for them. That's the logic of it for me." Asked how he actually does his writing, Fellowes said, "I write straight off a laptop. I always use Final Draft (software). It's fantastically time saving. It's absolutely brilliant. When I was first given it (while writing 'Gosford Park'), I was so frightened of it that I couldn't use it for about a month. I kept writing normally and then Robert Altman's secretary would turn it into Final Draft. Finally, she just sort of felt sorry for me and took me aside for about an hour and explained the whole thing. Of course, then I couldn't understand why I'd been so nervous of it. I thought it was brilliant. Now I wouldn't think of writing on anything else." In terms of his writing habits, he added, "What I normally do is I get started around half past nine or something and I stop for lunch. One of the things that I know, but that it seems to take an incredible time to get into my thick head, is that what I write that's worthwhile will almost invariably be written in the morning and that I should use the afternoon for re-reading, revisions or doing the daily business of being alive. My weakness is that I sit at my desk and I have an almost inescapable desire to sort out my e-mails and the letters and the bills and whatever. And, of course, if you do that it's 11 o'clock before you start working and I have wasted an hour and a half of my most creative part of the day. And that is the discipline I find hardest -- just to leave all that stuff until the afternoon. But it is something I'm gradually forcing myself to adhere to." When a writer is writing, Fellowes pointed out, "A fly walking up a looking glass is the most fascinating thing in the world. Anything is a worthwhile distraction. So a real message from a real human being has all the temptation of kind of Salome. And somehow you just have to block it out. I can't say I think I'm slightly good at it, but anyway, the morning is my time. I think people have their different times. I talked to a friend of mine the other day who's a very successful novelist and he gets up extremely early and basically by about 11 o'clock his day's work is done. And then he has a lovely time. I can't do that. "The other thing I find is that in the early morning when I'm awake but I haven't got up yet is when I go through various problems that I may have in a script. You know, how do I get through so-and-so, what can she say that will make it clear that she's whatever it is? And as I'm lying their on the pillows and very unflustered quite a lot of the answers come to me when they don't come when I'm sort of staring harassed at the screen of my laptop. In a way, I would be reluctant to kind of get rid of that time when you're awake and you've rested and had your sleep, but you're not yet in the kind of frenzy of the day. I find that is quite a useful time. You suddenly think, 'Why was I making such a fuss about that issue? If she just says this one sentence, everything's fine.' And this quite obvious solution comes to you when the day before you couldn't see it and you tried everything. And so, in a way, that's my other working time. It's not when I'm actually at a desk." All told, how long did it take for him to write "Vanity?" "It's always rather difficult to say how long," Fellowes replied. "I suppose the initial draft was about 10 weeks or something. But, of course, you have this period of talk and chat and then it starts to cook and then you write it. But then you never really stop writing because you're always doing this or writing a change of a scene. Suddenly they're going to have a death scene for Bob Hoskins. Suddenly they're going to have this (whatever it is). So you're writing all the way through the shooting of the picture. And then in this one after the first cut there was kind of a gap. I'd done lines for the ADR (post-production work) and everything else and you do start to think, 'Well, I guess that's probably it.' And then suddenly Focus were very thrilled by the movie and they decided to invest in another week of shooting in India to put a new ending onto the film and various other things. So suddenly there I was back at the old laptop doing a new end sce e and writing one or two other scenes that were actually not set in India but they could shoot them in India that had been cut and we all felt that they shouldn't have been cut. So suddenly I was in a flurry of activity after what I thought was the end." Frankly, he said, "the only time you've really finished writing a picture is when they have finished the final mix because that's when they've locked the picture and they've done the ADR and the sound. You're never completely free of a little message saying, 'Quick, what would the footman say? I've just got him turning away from the door and I want something to set it up before he gets into the what's-it.' The funny thing is you're probably only writing one first draft at any one time in your life, but you've probably got two or three other babies that are still going along in production and you have to sort of shake your head and go back into that one or back into this one. But I enjoy that, actually. "Also, (sometimes) they cut a scene for whatever reason and it's your job to see the information that's gone with that scene and to find another place where it can go in in a scene that hasn't already been shot because the obvious place where it could have gone in maybe has been filmed four months before. There's a kind of Chinese puzzle element to that, but that I find rather stimulating. It's a test of your IQ to kind of solve it. Again, I find that rather enjoyable. This was an enjoyable film to write. I really, really liked working with Mira, who was tremendously creative and interesting and always had really sort of unusual visual images and unusual ways of looking at it. I thought she was delightful. I'd write another film for her tomorrow."

Thanks, Karen for the extensive VF article. Seeing that tomorrow night, plus Q&A with Mira Nair and Julian Fellowes. Only time to skim now, will read whole article tomorrow when I have more time. (Yvette) I will have to see Sunset a few more times to find out if I can get over the disappointing sting of the ending. Was that because you really wanted them to get together and it ended rather suddenly and ambiguously?

(Dorine) Was that because you really wanted them to get together and it ended rather suddenly and ambiguously? Ambiguously? If you mean "way after" he misses his plane, then true. ;-) I'm hoping there will be another and that will fill in the blanks, as this one did.

Fascinating article , Karen.Thank you. Lots of good stuff there. Hope it transfers to the screen. Trailer looks good. Thought Sunset ending was brilliant.V. unpredictable. I liked that. (John Steinbecks' son) "I'm sort of the dancing bear. I'm more of an exhibit than anything else," he said with a laugh. "They sort of bring me in to poke me with a stick, you know, like a bear on a chain and I turn around in circles and people clap." LOL. Goes for any celebrity. Only he's an honest one to admit it.

(Karen) Thought it was adorable and just right. I thought THEY were adorable at the end. I just wanted more...I guess.

(Karen), I'm hoping there will be another and that will fill in the blanks, as this one did. You are not the only one. JD did say that it would probably happen. I too loved the end, absolutely loved it! Thanks, Karen for the extensive VF article. (Dorine), Seeing that tomorrow night, plus Q&A with Mira Nair and Julian Fellowes. Please ask Mira if at any moment she had visions of the actors breaking into song and dance. VF does have what it takes for a great Bollywood version. Better than P&P, IMO. Enjoy, VF. I can't wait to see it. I do wonder at their casting Reese as Becky, she is not my ideal choice. Bet TIOBE helped her.

(Yvette) If you mean "way after" he misses his plane, then true. ;-) I'm hoping there will be another and that will fill in the blanks, as this one did I don't think he'd technically missed it yet. He would've had to really rush to get there, but when they got to her apt, he still had a minimal amount of time as he told the driver to wait. Not sure he had planned to stay. And remember, this movie is supposed to have progressed in real time....80 mins. It's not that they were walking around for hours and hours. I think that's one of the reasons they talked so much and so fast....they had limited time. I, too, hope for another, though look how long it took them to get this part done...9 yrs! I don't want to wait that long, though if it comes out as good, it'd be worth it. I just wanted more...I guess. Me, too. But that's what I thought was so brilliant about it...you get so emotionally involved and interested in these two, then poof! it's over. Nothing like leave 'em wanting more. ;-)

Ummm, I said that, not Yvette. (Dorine) I don't think he'd technically missed it yet. He would've had to really rush to get there, but when they got to her apt, he still had a minimal amount of time as he told the driver to wait. Not sure he had planned to stay. Did you miss the last couple of lines? I plan to go back and see it again. But Celine says something to the effect of "you're going to miss your plane." And Jesse just smiles and kind of mumbles, "uh huh." He's not going anywhere, especially not rushing off to make that plane. ;-)

After reading the VF article, I was curious about ADR and found this: ADR Discussion -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- James Crocket to CAS forum: Approximately what percentage of the dialog in a movie is ADR? Is it reserved mostly for outdoor scenes or do unpaddable, large, live rooms demand ADR dialog as well? Is there a standard or well known system of processing the voices to fit the environment seamlessly? Is ADR an absolute last resort that should be avoided at all costs, or just an everyday reality of the job? If your sync audio is unusable, it is good to record the dialog wild, true? Is this almost always more successful than looping it in post? (Provided of course that the actor can duplicate his/her lines from the take) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Carl Warner: ADR is a film technique that is much in heated debate. True film purists will argue that ADR no matter how technically correct can not give a scene the same punch, mood and realism that original production dialogue can. Those of us who have been around this business for a while generally agree with this philosophy. There are however, some situations where ADR is unnecessary evil that directors and sound editors have used effectively. Perhaps the best excuse for ADR is when an actors crews up a name, date or other important piece of dialogue. This screw-up can be corrected, of course by ADR. Sometimes a director likes the staging and visual part of a scene, but does not like the way the actor delivered his lines. Again ADR is a useful tool to get a better reading of the dialogue. Then, there is the situation when there is just too much background noise because of location logistics. A really good production sound mixers should generally be able to get al least 90% of the production sound on a feature film clean enough when no ADR is required. This is what separates the really great mixers from the ones with little experience and no talent. Some directors are very sensitive to the sound portion of a film and demand to use as much location production as possible. They really would like to have every word original production sound. Other directors, (especially new to the profession and those getting by with little or no real talent) are not as sensitive to the sound. They have not yet been able to understand the difference between original dialogue and ADR. Is hard to give you an exact figure on percentages, but in general most feature films today will have about 90% original production sound, the rest ADR. I have worked on features that were 100% production sound (including wild track dialogue recorded on location. Many of the spaghetti westerns were 100% ADR. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Randy Thom: I guess everybody knew I'd chime-in on this one. I agree with most of what Carl has said. But I'd tend to give a different estimate of the ratio of production dialog to ADR. Many of the films I work on are "action-adventure" movies which have notoriously noisy sets. So they tend to have a much higher percentage of ADR. The movie "Contact," for example, was about 60% production and 40% ADR. "Apocalypse Now" was about 80 to 90% ADR. [ed note: a revelation!] Carl was right to point out that a significant amount of ADR is done in order to change the actor's performance. Sometimes lines are re-written, or the actor may have had a cold and sounded stuffed-up on the day they shot the scene, etc. The most difficult thing about integrating ADR into most films is that it is unusual for entire scenes to be ADRd. The poor dialog re-recording mixer is often asked by the Director to stick one or two words of ADR into the middle of a line of dialog which is otherwise "production." This is probably the single most technically difficult process in all of sound mixing. There are lots of techniques used to make ADR sound more like well-recorded production dialog. The best way is to record the ADR in an acoustic situation as close as possible to the one on the set, except without the noise of the set. Using the same mic as the production mic helps. The re-recording mixer uses eq, reverb, digital pitch-changing devices, and lots of other boxes to try to make the ADR sound like production. The dialog and ADR editors have typically also used systems (like VocAlign, for ProTools) which compare an ADR line to a production line and alter the duration of each ADR word in order to bring it closer to perfect lip-sync. In addition, they've used many traditional techniques, including the one of extending the "room tone" or "outdoor air" under ADR lines so that the production ambience doesn't disappear whenever an ADR line is used.

(Karen), But Celine says something to the effect of "you're going to miss your plane." And Jesse just smiles and kind of mumbles, "uh huh." He's not going anywhere, especially not rushing off to make that plane. ;-) Exactly! And the way he says it!!! I just loved it! He stays.

(Karen) Did you miss the last couple of lines? Are you talkin' to me? ;-) Yes, I knew what was said, hence my basis for that post.

(Dorine) Not sure he had planned to stay. You mean he really just wanted to go up to her flat to hear her songs? C'mon;-) Of course she does her share of seducing too. She made up that last song and then doing the little dance and Ella Fitz imitation. They were super together. Talk about chemistry! Whew! They had it in spades. Best film I've seen this summer.

(Dorine) Are you talkin' to me? ;-) Yeah, I'm talkin' to you! ;-) I don't think he'd technically missed it yet. He would've had to really rush to get there, but when they got to her apt, he still had a minimal amount of time as he told the driver to wait. Not sure he had planned to stay. Once he'd fineagled his way into the apartment, I don't think a crowbar was going to get him out. Maybe he really just wanted the tea. ;-)

Managed to get my hands on a copy of "Before Sunrise" to view last night. Then today I rushed to the theatre to see "Before Sunset" before it closed tomorrow,to discover it was bumped by "The Princess Diaries 2" . Hurried home to research alternative theatres and was rewarded with a showing just twenty miles south....... Heavy rain ensued but I was triumphant. I liked "Before Sunrise" and loved "Before Sunset" . I did become very involved with Jesse and Celine. I found the ending totally appropriate and extremely hopeful. I'll be happy to see a third installmet!

(Evelyn) She made up that last song and then doing the little dance and Ella Fitz imitation. Do you really think she made up the song on the spur of the moment? I kind of thought that, like Jess writing his book, she wrote it a long time ago as a way to free her conscious mind of thoughts of that evening. Ella Fitz...Nina Simmone comme ci comme ca, non? Congrats, Bonnie! I'm glad you persevered and got to see them both!!

(Yvette) Do you really think she made up the song on the spur of the moment? I kind of thought that, like Jess writing his book, she wrote it a long time ago Same here, though Jess had only just written the book. She probably wrote the song earlier. But the timeline isn't that important nor something we'd know precisely.

Yeah, he said it took him...3 or 4 years(?) to complete the book.

hi friends! I rarely find time to get over here on the boards... I miss you all! It's taken FOREVER to pass through all the old messages and finally get to the end of this thread... Anyway, I wanted to let you know I *finally* got married! The wedding was this past July, and was held in Quebec, Canada. You can see the wedding pictures at: http://photos.yahoo.com/jenniferesperanza Drool on! -winter

Congratulations, Winter! Thanks for sharing your pictures. Your new DH and you make a very nice looking couple. What a beautiful place to be married in, too. Nice to see you again!

Winter!!! How great to see you here to let us know and to share the pics. They're be-yew-tiful and you made a be-yew-tiful bride. Great dress and v. handsome husband BTW. ;-) Congrats to you both. Miss you lots, but be happy!

Lovely photos Winter! I remember you from past posts and wish you the best of luck! Speaking of luck, I'm soooo glad our dear Googlemeister Maria is now on the left coast out of Ft Myers and missing Charles. I hope that our dear Drooleurs in Fla and East coast will be safe!!

Thanks, Beedee! Congratulations, Winter! Nice to have you back.

Congratulations, Winter. You and your new DH make a lovely couple. Beautiful wedding picutes. Don't stay away so long.

The Pics are great Winter -looks like a beautiful wedding! :-) Come back and visit Drool again, we miss you!

(Beedee) Speaking of luck, I'm soooo glad our dear Googlemeister Maria is now on the left coast out of Ft Myers and missing Charles. I hope that our dear Drooleurs in Fla and East coast will be safe!! Thought the same thing, when I saw how Ft Myers got hit. 150 mph winds! Whoa baby! How are the Sunshine State Droolers? Safe and sound?

Congratulations, Winter, and thanks for sharing those lovely pics! Wishing you and your new husband much happiness.:-)

A girl can dream someone else would do this ;-)...... From today's Page Six in the NY Post BRUCE Springsteen knows the best way to bond with his fans is over tequila shots. The Boss was shopping at Barneys yesterday when he ran into a group of very excited New Jersey housewives. "Bruce took them all to lunch at Fred's," says our spy. "They were just sitting there in the middle of the restaurant, having a great time and downing tequila shots." Jersey native Springsteen chatted with his starstuck admirers before paying the fat tab and leaving.

Thanks for the wedding wishes, everyone. Can you believe I got most of the wedding party attire (my dress included) on EBay!? Amazing! I'd advise Ebay to anyone planning a wedding. Hubby and I are in North Carolina now (where he works), and are bracing ourselves for Hurricane Charley! Being new to these types of storms, I've been told that if a tornado were to come this way, "head for the bathtub!"

(Dorine) A girl can dream someone else would do this ;-)...... Dreaming is good; I just wouldn't hold my breath. ;-) eBay? Incredible! Batten down those hatches BTW.

(winter) "head for the bathtub!" Yes, and pull the mattress off the bed on your way....then pull it on top of the tub-will protectyour head and bod from possible flying objects!!!!! Jupiter, where I am, hardly had a drop-with only occasional wind gusts up to 40 mph..although we are still getting small bands of rain. I've been busy cleaning up my yard,and have not listened to the weather this a.m. just yet.I know most of Tampa and St. Petersburg were either mandatorial or voluntarally(sp?)evacuated. At least my namesake didn't cause too much damage in the Big Bend of Florida the other day.

Re: Bruce Springsteen. Yep, and the other day, internet fans had decided to work on a Habitat for Humanity housing project on E Street (namesake of his band); they had sent a note about it and the cell phone number of one of the volunteers/fans to the Springsteen camp. Well, he called up himself and joined them for pizza, chatted for an hour or so, and left a $50 tip... Congratulations winter, and best of luck to those in hurricane country!

I am very thankful that Charley did not come around to Miami. I was here for Andrew and my thoughts are with the rest of FL. Brucie baby is a doll!

Glad to hear South Florida Droolers seem OK. I'm originally from near Jupiter...W. Palm Beach. The parents of a friend who lives in Wachula (middle of FL) still live in Jupiter. Nice to hear things alright there. Glad I no longer have property there while living here. I remember the fear of Andrew coming, but we just got wind up our way. I see Charley is right at ya, Winter. Stay safe! And what a guy, that Bruce! A decent all around guy and gives probably the most amazing concerts of anyone. Had people literally shaking the upper deck of Shea Stadium when he was here last year.

Grrrr! Am surprised that NBC didn't censor the lighting of the phallic, sorry, I mean the Olymppic torch since cameras were held above the waist for these guys: There may be 4 channels or more covering the Olympics, but I still feel totally short-changed. :-(

I think "short" may be the operative word.;-) Looks like they're wearing tight shorts and then long tights, with something sprayed over them--yet things are still hanging out. No wonder Katie Couric got so quiet on the broadcast.;-) Pop Pop is produing this; guess who won't be in it;-) Col, Calley page 'Austen Book Club' Michael Fleming, STAFF Sony Pictures Entertainment has optioned screen rights to Karen Joy Fowler's bestselling novel "The Jane Austen Book Club." Former Sony topper John Calley will produce. Book centers around five women and a man who live in California and meet periodically to discuss Austen novels. Using Austen as the springboard, the book delves into the life of each club member. Published by the Putnam imprint Madian Wood, "The Jane Austen Book Club" has been on the bestseller lists for 13 weeks and has been selling briskly in foreign territories. Calley, always a fan of book adaptations when he was a film executive, is shepherding several as a producer. They include Dan Brown bestseller "The Da Vinci Code." He's producing that project with Imagine's Brian Grazer; Akiva Goldsman is scripting and Ron Howard is planning to direct at Sony.

(Mari) No wonder Katie Couric got so quiet on the broadcast.;-) LOL! That's true. ~~~ Empire had a pretty funny take on this, complete with a pic of asparagus: Pride And Pre-Production Jane Austen movie greenlit 13 August 2004 It is a truth universally acknowledged, that movies based on the works of Jane Austen, are big business. Her romantic tales have enough potential for smart laughs, female empowerment and snogging in the rain to make any Hollywood studio exec lunge for his Cliffs Notes. There have been a lot of takes on the canon of the nineteenth century novelist. Some are good, like Emma update Clueless. Some are useless, like Jim Abraham�s misguided effort Jane Austen�s Mafia! The latest attempt to cash in comes in the form of a forthcoming Sony adaptation of Karen Jay Fowler�s hit novel The Jane Austen Book Club. The book is set in the present and features a group of Californians who meet periodically to discuss Austen�s stories. It�s been on best-sellers lists in the US for over a year. And that�s all we know about it. Frankly, it�s a marginally less interesting story than that one about Meg Ryan. In fact, the film sounds as dull as asparagus. Unless, of course, it turns out to be a naked book club or one that gets invaded by classic-literature-hating alien assassins. So, um... seen anything good recently? http://www.empireonline.co.uk/site/news/newsstory.asp?news_id=16089

Unless, of course, it turns out to be a naked book club or one that gets invaded by classic-literature-hating alien assassins. Trust me, it isn't. I think I would have liked the aliens better;-(

Karen Jay Fowler�s hit novel The Jane Austen Book Club. I've started the book (Lora lent it to me), but I am bored and skipping right along to the parts they actually do the book discussions. I'm a fan of Calley's past choices, but this one? Love those pictures! Thanks, Karen! I missed it.

Am way behind on summer movie viewing, but did catch Collateral today. Anyone else see it? I thought it was terrific. Wickedly witty script, some great cinematography and lighting. Michael Mann is such a clever director. This turns the conventional "buddy film" genre on its head. Very good performances from Cruise and Foxx; great interplay between the two of them. Really enjoyed Tom as a baddie.

Our websites were down for a while and I just rebooted the server. If you notice the site is down please call me (512-699-4000) and I'll attend to it as quickly as possible. I got the "heads up" this morning from karenr.

Wot? It's Maria's Birthday?? I nearly missed it!!! I know she's always up for a little celebration so I'll just slip into my party hat and see if she'd like to do her favorite dance....You put your right foot in, you put your right foot out....c'mon Maria...if you can get an entire subway car to hokey pokey, surely you'll do it with me?! Or maybe you'ld prefer something more intimate? After everyone leaves?? Would you like to Google me? With the lights off???I'll save you a spot, right here, next to me...Happy Birthday Maria!!!

Dearest, loveliest Maria! I asked this guy to join the party and sing for you Hope you had the best birthday ever Tress - hilarious: Google me :-))))))

I'll dance with you anyday Colin, and we can try variations on the hokey pokey. And Googling you in the dark is my favorite thing, Throw in Excite with a big Yahoo at the end and I'd be set for life ! ;) Thanks Terry! And thanks for the song and the flowers Annette, being home is the best present I could have ever wished for. My prayers go out to all my friends and coworkers left behind in Ft Myers, I can't believe how fortunate I am...

Oh nooooooooooooo!!! Hope your birthday was very happy, Maria!

Bloody hell! I had a bit of an accident. Otherwise I would've been here to wish Maria a very Happy Birthday! Hope it was great!

A little something for Maria on her birthday:

So, I'm gone for the weekend, and the rest of you can't remember yesterday was Maria's b'day? Sheech! What a bunch of deadbeats;-)) Happy Birthday, ole buddie Mimosas all around....

Dame Winter...what a nice surprise. Cute DH...congrats. So, are you selling all your old JN and Colin tapes;-)) Stick around...we miss you. For all newbies...Dame Winter was the Drool rep at the SIL premiere in LA. Way early, when no one knew Colin and he was so thrilled to find any fans there who recognized him. Winter had nice encounter with Livia too....in the loo;-) "Former Sony topper John Calley will produce. " Huh? I thought ole Pop-Pop was gone ...dead;-) Who's he working for to get such high-profile projects.

Colin I hope the accident didn't hurt your boot and you only suffered a flesh wound! Why don't you get in the bath and I'll help wash you up? And thanks for the t-shirt Karen, I hope to need it again come November! :) (Evelyn)So, I'm gone for the weekend, and the rest of you can't remember yesterday was Maria's b'day? No worries Evelyn, poxy internet provider had me without service for the last 5 days so..grrr! The delicious mimosa is sure helping me forget that aggravation though, thanks!

Thought I'd move this in case this topic continues re: sequels... IMO, OT better variation of stories than NT (except Revelations was quite exciting ;-)), Liked neither Huck Finn nor Tom Sawyer Like both Godfather 1 and 2. Better sequel...The Empire Strikes back over Star Wars. ;-)

Happy Birthday, Maria! I feel less guilty because Maria was on my mind yesterday: But I hope you are ready to rock today Because we still need to get together and do some of these, remember? Hope you had a great one!

Closing tags sorry

(Me) Better sequel...The Empire Strikes back over Star Wars. ;-) (Tress)He forgot one...surely he knows that Empire Strikes Back is far better than Star Wars. By missing that obvious one you know he isn't an expert! ;-) LOL, great minds!.....we were typing the same thing on 2 different topics. ;-)

(Dorine) Better sequel...The Empire Strikes back over Star Wars. ;-) LOL...I wasn't quite as bright as you and put that response on the BJD topic.....eerie how we do that sometimes.

Crikey, Scarlett. How can you stand there with that silly grin on your face? We've missed Maria's birthday. Hope you had a great day, Maria.

(Tress)By missing that obvious one you know he isn't an expert! ;-) But, but, he was just giving his opinion.

(Evelyn) But, but, he was just giving his opinion. Funny, I missed the words "I think" or "In my opinion" or similar. I *know* a declarative sentence when I see one. ;-) Give me good warning when you start citing Ben Affleck. ;-))

After watching and listening to him at the Dem Convention, would much rather listen to what BA has to say than MD.

This way lies Madness... but a very fine madness! Here's looking at you kid! I hope you had a wonderful Birthday! And now one from Bee!

Oops! I was to smitten by that picture I forgot to uncenter;-))

Help Karen!;-(

Never mind...

Winter! . .Pleased to meet you! . .Congrats on your wedding . .lovely lovely pics! Glad to hear the FL Droolers are doing OK!

Maria! . .Seems like I missed your b'day! I hope you had the happiest b�day I know of someone that�s got to practice his singing chops for his next role. So I talked him into singing a little diddy for you! From West Side Story . . Maria . . . The most beautiful sound I ever heard: Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria . . . All the beautiful sounds of the world in a single word . . Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria . . . Maria! I've just met a girl named Maria, And suddenly that name Will never be the same To me. Maria! I've just kissed a girl named Maria, And suddenly I've found How wonderful a sound Can be! Maria! Say it loud and there's music playing, Say it soft and it's almost like praying. Maria, I'll never stop saying Maria! The most beautiful sound I ever heard. Maria. Music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

(Moon Dreams)I feel less guilty because Maria was on my mind yesterday That was always my "assumption"...:) And as to the martinis - the mind is weak but the body is willing Moon, I know our time will come! Thanks a Mishimoto! And Colin don't be too harsh with Scarlett, I think she just got a head start on the party, or maybe the effect of your arm around her shoulders really is that intoxicating! Thanks Linda! Bee, no party would be complete with your famous cake! Thanks so much! And I would love to lead Colin down the path of madness, it's really quite lovely once you get used to it! Kimberly thank you for talking Colin in to practicing his singing for me...I was so named because of that song and yet to hear him sing it makes it sweeter still. ( I like it here in America when sweet boys sing to me! :)) I plan on feeding him a piece of the beautiful cake when he takes a break from his serenade...

From Sunday's Observer: You call it a blockbuster. I call it utter tripe. Jason Solomons I know it's the blockbuster season, a traditional wasteland, but has there ever been a less creative, less inspiring, less varied set of films available than those currently on display at British cinemas? After a summer of shiny green ogres, plastic-looking superheroes, bleating camels, dancing crabs and limping tigers, I'm on the verge of a Peter Finch-style Network breakdown. I can't take it any more. It started last month with the ridiculous hype surrounding Shrek 2. It had been in competition in Cannes and it did miraculous things rendering fur in CGI. But does it really stand for serious, adult thought? No. And it isn't all that funny, either - not when you look closely. There are so many gags that the good ones are choked by the bad and the vocal performances of the British cast in particular are maddeningly flat. For anyone over the age of 35, the film is shrill, short on logic and full of unfathomable references. Spider-Man 2 was also hailed as great. Yes, some jokes work nicely, the fight scenes have a certain zip and the villain is played to the hilt in the best panto tradition. But as for the film having 'heart and brains'? No. True, the film is faithful to the source material, so precious memories of Saturday mornings with your comics are preserved, but if anyone sheds a tear during Spider-Man 2 or better understands the human condition having seen it, then I'm a spider's aunt. Somehow, even I was caught in its web, admitting on national radio that there was something of the Hamlet about Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker. I was wrong but something is rotten in the state of cinema. A week later, sensible grown-up critics were lamenting the trampling of their collective cherished memories by the live-action Thunderbirds. For anyone who had to endure the film, it was obvious after five minutes that this was, as Tim Robbins says in The Hudsucker Proxy, 'you know, for kids'. But was the original template really that good? Surely not. The new film was supposed to be just as rubbish as those old shows. And, my word, it was. Similar confusion arose from the remake of Around the World in 80 Days. I hadn't seen David Niven's version for years, but I remembered it being thoroughly enjoyable when I saw it as a child. The new version, starring Steve Coogan and Jackie Chan, is tripe and I can't believe it would prompt anyone to do anything other than leave the cinema. In a dreadful summer, this should have been the low point. But along came Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, the richest twins in America, with their cinematic debut, New York Minute, a hopeless farce that reminded me of a night of torture I once spent being the only straight man at the Legally Blonde 2 premiere. We were expected to weep over the story of a pair of Mongolian camels (The Story of the Weeping Camel), reunited by some screeching musicians that even the organisers at Womad would have politely declined. Then we watched two tigers turn tables on dastardly hunters in IndoChina. Mind you, if I felt bad watching Jean-Jacques Annaud's Two Brothers, imagine how its star, poor Guy Pearce, must have felt when he saw his name take third billing behind the tiger cubs. This after the world cooed at the sight of Antonio Banderas's cute kitten face in Shrek 2. Then there were fish, crabs and penguins falling over in Deep Blue, a film about Garfield the Cat, a compendium of claymation shorts (though these were, admittedly, rather funny) and Julia Stiles, whom I thought had actually grown up by now, in The Prince and Me, in which she falls in love with the Prince of Denmark. Only the hype around Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 masked the mess, but even that piece of event cinema could hardly be termed a great film. This month hardly gets off to a better start - King Arthur and The Stepford Wives simply retrace cinematic steps and make no improvements. Even Woody Allen's Anything Else is a pale shadow of former glories. Even more depressingly, there was not one British film available as alternative viewing. The dark, low-budget comedy One for the Road received a small release in July but you'll have found that hard to track down after one week. Why was there no British distributor prepared to step in and rescue us? What happened to counter-programming? Finally, Richard Jobson's 16 Years of Alcohol arrived last week and did rather well, critically and commercially, so desperate are adults (like alcoholics) for a drop of the cinematic hard stuff. From America, there's only Before Sunset, philosophical, adult and witty, that shines out like a beacon of sophistication in a sea of dross. Catwoman arrived. Another comic strip, another mess, albeit one in leather and Halle Berry curves. Will Smith could have cheered us up in I, Robot, but not even he is that funny. British cinema culture won't change. There are no television shows promoting or pointing to better films; few intelligent seasons (such as the current Fellini retrospective at the NFT), interesting matinees or neglected foreign gems, while radio does little to encourage better cinema. Sadly, my radio show on the BBC's London station has made way for more football. Fulham 2 Fellini 0. Like I said, we get the culture we deserve. I hope the worst summer in the history of cinema isn't merely the start of a long winter of discontent.

Wow, what a rant!! At least he recognized BS as a shining beacon :o) I saw "The Door in the Floor" this weekend. It was very Irvingesque; with quirky characters getting caught in some hillarious comprimising positions!! I liked it, though it's getting harder to watch Jeff Bridges play......Jeff Bridges over and over.

I love Jeff Bridges. I don't think he repeats himself. Think Door in the Floor vs. Seabiscuit vs. Big Lebowski, just to name a few relatively recent ones. MARIA! Sorry to have missed the festivities. Hope you'll be there to greet me at those left-coast premieres, darling. Happy Birthday!

I snipped out the zzzzzzzzzzz-inducing charts, but some interesting stuff here on WT and Uni. Check out the price tag for TEOR; *somebody* should be able to afford a better looking pair of swim trunks.;-) Probing a Box-Office Crash Universal's Working Title Films went into unfamiliar territory with the big-budget 'Thunderbirds' By Claudia Eller, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer What were they thinking? Many in Hollywood wondered just that when the producers of such low-cost, grown-up hits as "Fargo," "Bridget Jones's Diary" and "Four Weddings and a Funeral" decided to make a big-budget, special-effects-driven adventure movie for kids. Now that "Thunderbirds," their $65-million version of a quirky British 1960s television series has crash-landed at the box office � grossing $6 million in the U.S. since its July 30 opening � longtime partners Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner of London-based Working Title Films are wondering the same thing. "Of course, we'll go through the painstaking process of figuring out what went wrong," said Bevan, who for years had championed the movie as a pet project and had high hopes for it. For now, he said, "you're left slightly scratching your head." Some say it shouldn't be too hard for Bevan and Fellner to sort out what happened with "Thunderbirds," which was released and largely financed by Working Title's parent, Universal Pictures: The producers fell prey to an all-too-familiar Hollywood trap: veering from what they know best. "They couldn't resist the siren call of a big-budget summer action flick," said Larry Gerbrandt, who heads the media and entertainment unit for Century City-based financial advisory group AlixPartners. Gerbrandt said that although he understood the urge to "step up a career" by taking a big gamble, when filmmakers do that, "not only does the price of success go up, so does the cost of failure." Bevan acknowledged that he and Fellner were largely on unfamiliar turf when they tried to attract young audiences with "Thunderbirds." Their only other similar attempt, with the $30-million family film "The Borrowers," flopped five years ago. But the two producers are trying to keep "Thunderbirds" in perspective. "When you make as many movies as we do, there's going to be a train wreck," Bevan said. "It's unfortunate it was on one that cost a lot of money." Added Fellner, "You haven't been in the film business until you have something like this happen." The producers and Universal executives said they believed unfortunate timing might have played a role in the movie's poor showing. Directed by Jonathan Frakes and starring Ben Kingsley and Bill Paxton, "Thunderbirds" follows the perilous exploits of five brothers who make up the International Rescue brigade and embark on lifesaving missions aboard their fleet of souped-up spacecraft known as Thunderbirds. Working Title bought the rights to "Thunderbirds" in the early 1990s � long before the creation of Robert Rodriguez's hugely successful family movie franchise, "Spy Kids," about a brother and a sister who use an array of futuristic contraptions to save the day. By the time "Thunderbirds" made it to the big screen, the similarity between the two movies wasn't lost on film critics who largely panned it as a wannabe. Young audiences also thought it looked like a poor man's "Spy Kids" and stayed away in droves. "Ours was not sufficiently original and fresh enough to get parents and kids in to see it," Bevan conceded. For Universal, the film's poor showing compounds what has been a rough summer. The General Electric Co.-owned studio's other misses have included "The Chronicles of Riddick" (which cost $110 million to make and has taken in $57 million at the U.S. box office) and "Van Helsing" (which cost $160 million and grossed $120 million domestically). Universal Chairwoman Stacey Snider, who gave "Thunderbirds" the green light, acknowledged that audiences perceived the film as derivative. "It looked very much like movies that have come before," Snider said. The studio chief added that everyone involved made the wrong assumption that the film would not only draw 10-year-old boys but also appeal to the coveted teen audience. "It didn't get the cool young teenager group," Snider said. Bevan also believes that a "fatal error" was made in releasing the film during a summer that featured two mega-budgeted, effects-driven family films: " Spider-Man 2" and "Shrek 2." Both were instant blockbusters here and overseas. What's more, some industry insiders said, Universal was aware that it had a dud on its hands � so it decided not to put much marketing muscle behind it. Consequently, there was little audience awareness or anticipation created before the movie opened. "The studio knew it had a dog," Gerbrandt said. "The ad campaign was a short burst." Universal spokesman Paul Pflug disputed that the studio abandoned "Thunderbirds," though he declined to disclose how much it laid out for advertising to support the film's opening on more than 2,000 screens. "The marketing spent was absolutely appropriate for the number of screens we opened this picture on," Pflug said. Snider said that although Bevan and Fellner were clearly "operating outside their wheelhouse" on "Thunderbirds," she didn't hesitate signing off on the project because of the producers' strong track record. Universal acquired their company in 1999. "These guys have made a lot of money and brought us a ton of prestige, and they've done it by taking chances," Snider said. "So, you roll the dice on something they believe in and something that has potential international appeal." Before "Thunderbirds," the most expensive movie Bevan and Fellner had made was the $45-million "Captain Corelli's Mandolin," a box-office miss that starred Nicolas Cage and Penelope Cruz. The duo have fared far better with less-costly fare. "Fargo," for instance, cost $7 million to make and took in $24 million at the U.S. box office and $36 million internationally. "Four Weddings and a Funeral" cost just $4 million. It grossed $53 million domestically and $191 million overseas. Among their other hits: "Billy Elliot," "Dead Man Walking," "Notting Hill" and "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" Since Fellner and Bevan first teamed up in 1994 on "Four Weddings," their films have collectively grossed more than $2.5 billion worldwide � placing them among the top-earning producers in Hollywood. What also makes their movies stand out is that they tend to perform much better overseas than in the U.S. Working Title's most recent romantic comedy, "Love Actually," grossed $182 million internationally, compared with $59.4 million domestically. "Bridget Jones's Diary" had domestic ticket sales of $71.5 million but racked up $209.8 million abroad. And last year, the spoof spy thriller "Johnny English" took in $130 million overseas but generated only $28 million in ticket sales domestically. "We thought the same would happen with 'Thunderbirds,' " Snider said. "We thought it might underperform here and over-perform internationally," particularly in Britain, where the idiosyncratic '60s TV show featuring marionettes was a smash. In fact, "Thunderbirds" has had a disastrous showing in the United Kingdom, grossing less than $8 million. Overall, it has taken in $11 million internationally. Bevan and Fellner suggested that in light of the failure of "Thunderbirds," Working Title would be more cautious when looking for other projects. But only to a point. "We can't just stay in the box of making only one sort of film," Fellner said. "We have to try new challenges." To that end, Working Title's upcoming releases include � of all things � another kids' movie: "Nanny McPhee." Upcoming releases Title: 'Wimbledon,' a romantic comedy directed by Richard Loncraine, starring Kirsten Dunst and Paul Bettany Estimated cost: $31 million Opening date: 9/17/04 Title: 'Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason,' sequel to the 2001 hit starring Renee Zellweger, Hugh Grant and Colin Firth Estimated cost: $70 million Opening date: 11/19/04 Title: 'The Interpreter,' a suspense thriller directedby Sidney Pollack and starring Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn Estimated cost: $80 million Opening date: 2/18/2005 Title: 'Pride and Prejudice,' with Keira Knightley, Matthew Macfadyen and an ensemble cast Estimated cost: $28 million Opening date: 2005 Title: 'Nanny McPhee,' a children's tale written by Emma Thompson and starring Thompson, Colin Firth and Angela Lansbury Estimated cost: $34 million Opening date: 2005 Source: Universal Pictures / Working Title, Times research

"We can't just stay in the box of making only one sort of film," Fellner said. "We have to try new challenges." To that end, Working Title's upcoming releases include � of all things � another kids' movie: "Nanny McPhee." *snort* What was that word Snider used to sum up Thunderbirds? Ah yes, derivative. Take a spoonful of sugar to make the medicine go down... ;-)

I thought The Door in the Floor was well done, but a downer overall and thought the comic interlude of the lady chasing JB strangely out of tone with the rest of the movie. A very slapstick scene in an overall serious movie with some comic undertones. What a dysfunctional mess they all were, except the kid. He was just trying to cope. But JB has *the* best hair in Hollywood. Would *love* to get my hands in that. ;-) Saw Vanity Fair a week ago. I liked it for the most part. I thought RW was an excellent choice and did a very good job, but it was funny to watch her change physically back and forth in it due to her pregnancy. Sometimes her face and chest were fuller than at other times. Not necessarily coinciding with her pregnancy in the movie or in order. The cinematography annoyed me for the most part. I suppose one could say it looked lush, but I didn't like it. Felt it was apropos for some of the darker scenes though. I wasn't particularly fond of the casting of Rhys Ifans (who I really like otherwise and saw in a very cute movie 2 wks ago-Danny Deckchair) and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Bob Hoskins and Eileen Atkins were quite amusing. I'm curious if RW did her own singing in this...haven't bothered to look and it didn't sound much like her. But the song she sang near the end, I loved. Q&A with Julian Fellowes and Mira Nair was good after the technical difficulties at the beginning. Said a great deal of what was in that looooonnnng article was posted. Budget was $23 million. Added the very last scene in India after they had gotten the movie together and she thought the original ending was flat. Moon, there was a Bollywood number in it with RW. Last night saw Stephen Fry's directorial debut, Bright Young Things. He adapted from Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies. Didn't love it, didn't hate it. Great short scene with Peter O'Toole. Definitely some parallels to present day upper class social scene. It was set in the Jazz Age. Excellent Q&A with Stephen Fry! But good golly, he seemed a nervous wreck. Literally never stopped moving the entire time...hands in and out of pockets, adjusting his glasses, running hands in hair, other assorted touches of face. Poor thing was sweating a storm, too. Wonder if he's always like this at public presentations. He must be a wreck hosting the BAFTA Awards. He was extremely entertaining! Told a couple of great anecdotes about Peter O'Toole...in other social situations they've been in. Gave very loooonnnngg and comprehensive answers to every question. And boy, can he talk fast. Very interesting man.

Title: 'Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason,' sequel to the 2001 hit starring Renee Zellweger, Hugh Grant and Colin Firth Estimated cost: $70 million That's an absurd budget for a rom-com.

Title: 'Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason,' sequel to the 2001 hit starring Renee Zellweger, Hugh Grant and Colin Firth Estimated cost: $70 million (Do)That's an absurd budget for a rom-com. Have you bought a *lift ticket* lately? ;-)

I just had to click on a news item with this title: ;-) http://www.darkhorizons.com/news04/040817c.php

Evelyn So, are you selling all your old JN and Colin tapes;-)) LOL! No, but they have been collecting dust for quite a while now! :-) BTW, my best friend from University is currently working for Working Title, and Nanny McPhee. I'm bummed that I'm no longer in LA to take full advantage of this one degree of separation! Marianne and Jana-- Get to work! ;-)

Re: Dark Horizons peice: He's got a *point* there;-)

About Stephen Fry: Just finished reading three of his novels. The man is astonishingly literate, He must be exhausting to be around. I enjouyed all three of the books. They are very different from one another. I would like to know how he works on them. This is probably off topic, but someone mentioned Fry and just thought I'd put in my two cents worth.AM going to watch his "Wilde" this evening. It is waiting for me at the library.

(Carolyn) This is probably off topic... Then this would be the correct place to post it, i.e., the Odds & Ends topic. :)

(Mari),I love Jeff Bridges. I don't think he repeats himself. Think Door in the Floor vs. Seabiscuit vs. Big Lebowski, just to name a few relatively recent ones. So true! And he still looks quite handsome. TEOR Estimated cost: $70 million (Dorine)That's an absurd budget for a rom-com. (Beedee), Have you bought a *lift ticket* lately? ;-) LOL! Those huige salaries.

Dorine, thanks for sharing all the info on VF and BYT. I, for one, love reading about all the screenings and Q&As that you are able to attend. Keep it up!! :o) (Dorine) JB has *the* best hair in Hollywood. Would *love* to get my hands in that. ;-) HHMMMM never noticed that about him. Will have to take a closer look... I am in the middle of watching The Tenant of Wildfell Hall RGs hair is very nice in this one! Also, there are several kissing scenes in this one that could be used as "how to" examples in CF's kissing tutorial,IMO...of course ;o)

Is this an Odds and Ends question? Does William Joseph Firth have to belong to the union in order to appear and be listed as a nocredited performer. This is his second such appearance, Are we being introduced to the nexr generation of an acting dynasty or is it a summer vacation "gotta do something while dad works" kind of activity?

Well, I have done it once more. Shall return to Coventry and watch from afar

He's essentially been an extra. An under-five for Spiderman, so no, I don't believe the union is a factor.

Technically, he was 11 and he does say one word or is it two? ;-) Some actors would fight for a SAG card with that alone.

Yeah, but can they get it. I've forgotten what the criteria is. Kim would know, I bet. And what difference does his age make? Saying one word or two, makes him an under-fiver.

From the She's Not Nearly As Smart As I Thought She Was Dept.... Page Six.... RENEE Zellweger in Toronto, sitting on the patio at a place called Amber and feeding hummus and pita to the joint's barfly raccoon. When Amber owner Toufik Sarwa pleaded, "Renee, please don't do that, you'll just encourage it," the squinty-eyed screen queen replied, "But it's soooo cute!"

Oh, this will be brilliant: Joan Rivers Starring on 'Nip/Tuck' NEW YORK - Joan Rivers, the fashion critic who has openly joked about her own cosmetic surgery, will guest star as herself on the season finale of the FX drama series "Nip/Tuck." In the episode to air Oct. 5, Rivers will play herself and meet with the show's plastic surgeons, played by Dylan Walsh and Julian McMahon, for an unusual cosmetic consultation. It is so unusual that in the show, Rivers flies to the surgeon's Miami practice to avoid the glare of the paparazzi. Though FX is tight-lipped about the nature of the discussed procedure, Scott Seomin, a publicist for the cable station says, "It's definitely not something she's had done before." Rivers is best known for her celebrity red-carpet coverage on cable's E! Entertainment network. In June, she and daughter Melissa joined the TV Guide Channel to cover the entertainment world.

ROTFL!! That's hysterical! I can't wait for that one. Thank, Karen.

Loving care for 'Tender' Wed Aug 18,11:14 PM ET Michael Fleming, STAFF Twentieth Century Fox is closing a deal with F. Scott Fitzgerald's estate to remake "Tender Is the Night," a book it first adapted in 1962. Underlying U.S. rights to the novel had reverted back to the Fitzgerald estate, which is run by the author's granddaughter, Eleanor Lanahan. Fox has hired screenwriter Jesse Wigutow to adapt the novel. The studio's Robbie Brenner is steering the project. The estate will be paid a seven-figure sum if Fox makes it to production on the jazz-age story about apsychiatrist whose marriage to a wealthy patient ultimately destroys him. Deal is the first made since veteran film exec Don Laventhall took the reins of the film rights department at Harold Ober Associates. The Gotham-based lit agency represents many classic books, the rights to many of which have reverted back to the authors. The agency also reps the estates of James M. Cain, Nathanael West, Dylan Thomas, Agatha Christie and Langston Hughes, as well as writers Ira Levin, J.D. Salinger and Lois Lowry.

Good article on Nip/Tuck, but major warning - it has big spoilers not only on this week's episode, which I haven't seen yet, but next week's: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=529&ncid=529&e=15&u=/ap/20040819/ap_en_tv/ap_on_tv_nip_tuck

Thanks. So you've gotten into watching it now? It was definitely an emotional storm and turning point for them this week. Hope this picks up something at the Emmy's. I mentioned before about that show Rescue Me that shows back to back with Nip/Tuck on some repeat nights. Best new show on TV, IMO. Great writing and acting. Hope it does well next year. Denis Leary should definitely get a nod for at least acting, as well as being one of the writers. Every bit as good as his last show The Job was.

Nip/Tuck and Rescue Me are standards on the TIVO in my house. Agree w/Dorine - great new dramas. BTW - am I the only one growing a bit weary of the 'over the top' sex, psychosis, and family dysfunction in the Fisher family on Six Feet Under?

I have to say, as much as I love 6 FT Under the first couple of years. My interest waned last season and I think I've only caught part of one episode this season.

(Dorine)My interest waned last season and I think I've only caught part of one episode this season. IMO, they continue to have some great ideas and storylines but in their quest to continually up the ante they're beginning to border on the absurd. And the new plot line w/Mena Suvari playing a domineeing lesbian strikes me as merely gratuitous. I can't help but think she took on the role to simply try and harden her image a bit.

That was one of the bits in the one I saw, along with David's new difficulties with men. I didn't find her domineering, just bordering on pushy or just plain irritating.

(Dorine)I didn't find her domineering, just bordering on pushy or just plain irritating. Yeah, those are probably better adjectives but you might want to throw in manipulative as well after last week's episode.

I only watched a total of 10 mins, so that may well be.