i had to double check myself to make sure tiobe would be here tomorrow, i nearly had a fit when i could not find it listed at any of the usual theaters i frequent, thank heavens it is at one theater: PLAZA FRONTENAC for any lurkers in the stl area, i just have to see it before my week in the sun, a little bit of cf will be just the trick to get me through a week with my hubby's entire family

(Karen), TIOBE is being released as an art house film. Do not expect it to show at the big multiplexes, unless one theater within those is designated to show art house films. It is playing in the big cities, and this weekend's expansion is to more "bigger cities" not the suburban areas. If they decide this film has wider appeal and can sustain more screens per metro area, then it will go beyond a city's main art house cinema. Enigma is showing in three big multiplex theatres by me, this was a surprise. I am hoping the TIOBE will take over those screens when it opens here tomorrow.

I think it depends on the type of theatres in your area. The multiplex nearest me, which is showing Earnest, is part of a 4-theatre chain and shows a combination of niche films, indies, foreigns and adult-oriented studio films. All their theatres are gorgeous. http://www.ritzfilmbill.com I do agree with Linda about the commercials (or lack thereof).

The only "Earnest" theater reasonably near me is a small multi, and it tends to show a combination, but mostly niche and indies. I remember that it was the only one in my area where I could find "Much Ado" when it first opened. And the ad in the NJ Star Ledger (stop laughing, Eileen) has an ad that's so tiny, they couln't put any text in the space inside the question mark! Sheesh! No respect! But then, given the knowledge base of the population...A friend of mine watched R&K on Tuesday, because that's when she thought Colin was supposed to be on. She learned that she had missed him when they mentioned him in the trivia question ("Colin Firth was a guest yesterday. His new film...") The question was who wrote TIOBE. The woman they called said that it was Shakespeare. :-(

(Lora)It's got to be because of Rupie's inch thick make-up which, according to Colin is 18 years worth and when scraped down, is from "Another Country!" (heehee, I loved that line of his from the VH1 cast party That was funny: "Oh, LOOK who'd talking!" As I recall, that was in response to Rupe's assertion that Colin spent 3 hours in makeup and emerged looking like Bette Davis in Elizabeth I. Loved that. Rupert is an instigator. I like instigators.:-) Speaking of the Rupe, he will be on Regis & Kelly on Friday (tomorrow). Likely pre-taped.

I think most of us are having the same problems with the theaters. I have 14 in my metro area, and only 1 is showing Earnest... I won't even go into how much I think that stinks..

There have been (well, I admit I only saw one, but I don't really watch the channel) commercials on the "Oxygen" station. Are they marketing TIOBE for women? And as for 'big cities' it is only showing at 2 theatres here in NY. Another and....I (not an endorsement) have been keeping eyes peeled for various and sundry 'items' on makeshift tables in Chinatown and have not spied a thing.

there were TIOBE posters under "coming soon" in hallways of 2 big theatres(Loews and UA) in NY. but don't know when that coming soon will be, tomorrow... maybe?

I just checked out : http://www.777film.com And after today TIOBE is expanding (in may area) to Brooklyn, Queens and other misc NY areas. So you all should check out your zip codes! may the force be with you.....t

It opens in Austin at one theater tomorrow.

Looks like it's going from 2 theaters to 4 in my general area. I think I read somewhere they were adding 120 screens tomorrow in 40 markets. Still limited, but I'd imagine that anyone in or near a largish city would have no trouble finding it. It is, as Karen said, a typical platform release which gets rolled out sloooooooowwly, with each expansion dependent, at least in part, upon the previous week's business.

FYI...not sure if anyone caught this letter to the Arts editor in the NY Times this weekend. `EARNEST' Missing Wilde's Point To the Editor: Re "The Importance of Being Wildean but Also Cinematic" by Sarah Lyall [Summer Movies, May 12]: After reading about the efforts of Oliver Parker to turn Wilde's irreverent classic "The Importance of Being Earnest" into a "plausible movie," I ran to find that dusty old bottle of cooking sherry. Poor Oscar is once again put on trial by the very Philistines he sent up so brilliantly. Reese Witherspoon on the flighty ingenue, Cecily: "She's a very modern woman in the sense that she thinks, `You're not going to take advantage of me; I'm going to take advantage of you.' " The point the actress-psychologist misses is that Cecily is totally clueless, in the same way that Lady Bracknell is totally heartless. To portray them any other way is to make travesties of parodies. Then there's Colin Firth: "This is the only way we could do it without being utterly stilted." Mr. Firth is unaware that being utterly stilted is exactly what Wilde had in mind for his craftily pixilated characters. All this earnest jive about making "Earnest" more relevant sounds like everyone is protesting too much. Isn't it simply a case of marketing a classic play for a dumbed-down audience that wants more comic book pablum like "Spider-Man" and "Scooby-Doo"? Once again, to paraphrase Oscar, when we see a spade, let's call it a spade. He was lambasting the very audi- ence that flocked in droves to catch his latest London hit, in much the same way Joe Orton would decades later. He was parading a character with a dual lifestyle on stage, while he was hiding in plain sight of a homophobic public. That was the most challenging farce of all.

That letter to the editor says it all, and explains why any serious critic, who knows his/her stuff, would give it a bad review. It has been dumbed down and is being marketed for the "anti-intellectual" or "anti-purist." That's the party line being spouted by everyone, including YKW. Anyway, with LA Times hot in hands, I've uploaded the article and pensive, square-jawed pic: http://www.firth.com/articles/latimes52602.html (Don't bug me now. Am in foul mood as I've discovered every street is undergoing repair and I've been driving all over creation.)

Thanks Karen for the link. I must concur with many posts here. The man is hair-challenged. That photo from an article that was up last week, (red-turtleneck) was gorgeous. The man should take a lesson from the stylist that did him up for that pic. (It's not that hard Colin. Only few minutes time out of your day!) I also agree with whoever said any photo of him is welcome! :)))

But the red turtleneck pic was taken 5 years ago before the onset of (shush) MPB.

I've uploaded the article and pensive, square-jawed pic: LOL! Thank you, Karen, for being so good to us. It has been dumbed down and is being marketed for the "anti-intellectual" or "anti-purist." That's the party line being spouted by everyone, including YKW. It is annoying to hear the excuses. On the one hand, he wants to do it because it's Wilde, Master Wordsmith, every actor's dream and on the other hand he wants to do it because it's anti-purist. (?) Jeeves, bring me my diet coke, please. ;-)

Jeeves, bring me my diet coke, please. ;-) But the words are just so hysterical on the page. Watch out for that coke making a nasal exit! ;-D

You know I was just reading old posts on another board (Topic 143, starting at #15, Feb '01) about when you picked up the news about casting/filming TIOBE...when only RE and JD were cast. I have to say I was struck by how prescient many subsequent remarks were. And as always, very amusing, too! :-)

This one had some interesting observations.;-) From the Richmond, VA daily: This 'Earnest' film is Wilde at heart BY DANIEL NEMAN TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER May 31, 2002 The makers of the new version of Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest" boast that their movie is "96 percent Wilde." That means it is 96 percent perfect. One could argue - to heck with the third person: I will argue - that "The Importance of Being Earnest" is the wittiest play ever written, at least in English. Others may be funnier, though certainly only a very few. But nothing else has the razor-sharp wit, the elegant artifice and the wicked satire of "Earnest." All it takes to turn it into a perfectly delightful film is an exquisitely chosen cast and a minimum of interference from the filmmakers. The cast is indeed the Right Sort of People, with Colin Firth, Rupert Everett, Frances O'Connor and Judi Dench as the inimitable Lady Bracknell, who gets all the best lines. Even Reese Witherspoon, who one might fear is too American for the production, works out well as the bright-eyed ingenue. There is somewhat more than a minimum of interference from the filmmakers, but not enough to do any lasting damage. Firth - who it has been noted should never be allowed to wear modern clothes - plays Jack Worthing, a man of leisure and great wealth who leaves London periodically to look in on his wayward brother, Ernest. In fact, he has no brother, but when he goes to the country he behaves disreputably and calls himself Ernest. The name is important, because he is in love with Gwendolen (played by O'Connor), and she wishes only to marry a man named Ernest. Everett plays Jack's friend and Gwendolen's uncle, Algy, a man of leisure but no money. Algy is a flirt, which is why Jack wants to keep him far away from his ward, Cecily (Witherspoon). Algy is especially eager to meet Cecily. Complications develop. But the complications are of the frothiest, airiest kind. One of the more delicious secrets of this work is that the characters live in a parallel universe, where satiric excess is taken as the norm and where every nonsensical statement is delivered and received with gravity. When told that a ne'er-do-well has died, a prim character says, "What a lesson for him. I trust he will profit from it." Another character in another situation says, "I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read on the train." And perhaps most famously is Lady Bracknell's response when Jack tells her that he lost both of his parents: "To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose both looks like carelessness." Few mots are as bon as the ones spoken by Wilde and his characters. As dropped by this talented cast, they sound as light and timeless as a feather. Oliver Parker's direction is not quite feather-light. He encourages occasional bouts of roughhousing, and engages in Ally McBealesque flights of fantasy - Cecily thinks in romantic terms, and we see her visions of knights in shining armor. Parker, who is also credited with the screenplay, is so concerned with opening up the play and making it more visual that he tends to overwhelm the dialogue at times. But it hardly matters. The dialogue of "The Importance of Being Earnest" is so sparkling that it easily shines through a few well-meaning, misguided choices. One note: This movie has been released under the Ealing Studios banner. The venerable studio known for sophisticated English comedies stopped making movies in 1959. It has just been revived, and this is its first release. It is a worthy work to carry the Ealing name.

(Moon), Jeeves, bring me my diet coke, please. ;-) (Karen), But the words are just so hysterical on the page. Watch out for that coke making a nasal exit! ;-D LOL! That's part of it, my dear. ;-) Firth - who it has been noted should never be allowed to wear modern clothes I've been saying that for years. :-D

Why qualify it with 'modern'? *tsk tsk* Obviously a newer fan. ;-D Looks like the Washington Post article has made its way down to Melbourne: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/05/31/1022569824335.html

TIOBE got first class treatment from The Miami Herald. It made the cover of the Weekend insert, plus there's an interview/article with OP. Unfortunately it did not make those big megaplexes that had Enigma. Lora and I will have to go to Miami Beach. So it definitely on the arthouse circuit. Here's the review: The wit flies in `Earnest' BY CONNIE OGLE In remaking Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, director/screenwriter Oliver Parker gets to indulge in the giddy, almost slapstick comedy he was only able to touch on in his previous feature film. An Ideal Husband, also based on a slightly schizophrenic play by Wilde, is more like two stories than one. Parker had on his hands a serious story about honor and honesty that flirted with farce, which made for an inconsistently paced film. With Earnest, which boasts an intriguing cast, Parker accentuates the farce, and while the pacing is sometimes inconsistent, overall a manic sensibility prevails. Those who prefer the play as a gleaming comedy of manners may object, but viewers who enjoy more physical humor are likely to revel in the film's deliciously barbed dialogue and frenetic chemistry. That the best chemistry erupts between Algy (Rupert Everett) and Jack (Colin Firth) is one of Earnest's funniest jokes. Algy, whom we first see fleeing the law in a Keystone Kops manner, is a man about town who has invented an invalid friend in the country to escape dull evenings in the city. His friend Jack has invented a younger, troublesome brother, Ernest, who helps Jack escape dull evenings in the country. A series of confusing and hilarious events conspires to flush out these secrets and further imperil the heroes' happiness. Jack wants to marry Algy's cousin Gwendolen (Frances O'Connor), who thinks Jack is Ernest, but her imperious mother (Judi Dench) refuses to allow the match. Algy, meanwhile, has his eye on Jack's young ward Cecily (Reese Witherspoon) and arrives at Jack's manor claiming to be the incorrigible Ernest in order to win her heart. The cast also includes Oscar nominee Tom Wilkinson as the stuttering Dr. Chasuble, happily miles off course from his tortured role in In the Bedroom. Parker has adjusted the ages of Algy and Jack upward to accommodate Everett and Firth, both in their early 40s. Their acting styles clash violently -- Everett is relentlessly, clownishly over the top, while Firth plays deadpan without blinking -- and yet their boyish bickering clicks, whether they're fighting over muffins, flowers in the forest or who's going to pay that hefty bill from the Savoy. Witherspoon's appearance smacks of stunt casting, and although she holds her own in this formidable group, there is something vaguely disturbing about the huge age difference between her and Everett. Better suited to her role is O'Connor, whose Gwendolen takes on the air of a berserk sexual predator. And Dench was quite obviously born to play the haughty Lady Bracknell. Hearing Wilde's pithy lines in her mouth -- ''London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained 35 for years'' -- is worth the ticket price. In the end it's Dench who reminds us of the importance of enjoying Oscar Wilde. *** THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST

Here is the link to the TIOBE article/interview: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/entertainment/3367080.htm

But the complications are of the frothiest, airiest kind. Frothiest... as in Frothy? New word of the week, perhaps? Firth - who it has been noted should never be allowed to wear modern clothes Or, at times, maybe none at...sorry, just in drool mode thinking about seeing TIOBE again, tonight. --is worth the ticket price. Absolutely, if you know it's out there, and if you can find a theater within 50 miles!

Holy Cow!!! I take back my previous words. Earnest has expanded greatly in my area. It is now playing at two downtown theaters, plus 4 in the nicer suburbs. Only one of the theater complexes (a new one I had no idea even existed and drove right past it two days ago) is a typical multiplex, showing the blockbusters and niche type films. It is still on two screens at my theater.

(Moon)TIOBE got first class treatment from The Miami Herald. It made the cover of the Weekend insert, plus there's an interview/article with OP. Unfortunately it did not make those big megaplexes that had Enigma. Lora and I will have to go to Miami Beach. I think that's the first interview with OP I've read that finally explains his reasons in full for "opening up" the piece when doing it cinamatically. I like what F O'C has to say about that too. Guess we would have gotten more of that at the "Classics to Film" discussion if it had taken place. Maybe they were afraid of purists causing a riot and that's why they cancelled it ;-). Moon, I can't believe we have to schlep to Miami Beach ;-). With all the great publicity it got today, you'd think it could have been shown in one more theatre in the southern end of town! Do you think Connie Ogle got an actual interview with OP or was it info she picked up from an associated press release? Would love to think that a Herald reporter was there behind the scenes. Btw, she's got a great last name for a review of a CF movie, though it's Rupie's picture with RW not one of CF on the cover - and a there's a smaller version of it on the bottom of the actual front page hyping the review in the weekend section. Like the way F O'C is interviewed a lot in the interview and, at last, mentioned in the review. Though in the review...see below... (Herald review) Better suited to her role is O'Connor, whose Gwendolen takes on the air of a berserk sexual predator. ...I wouldn't exactly call her a berserk sexual predator!? I'd say she's just adorably revealing her repressed desires.

(Karen)Earnest has expanded greatly in my area. That must mean that it did well when it was playing in a limited number of theatres and that there's a demand to see it! Hope that happens here. Otherwise, I'm not confident about being able to experiece multiple viewings :-(.

(Lora), Do you think Connie Ogle got an actual interview with OP or was it info she picked up from an associated press release? Would love to think that a Herald reporter was there behind the scenes. She interviewed. Remember that great Woody Allen interview the head critic got last month? Moon, I can't believe we have to schlep to Miami Beach ;-). With all the great publicity it got today, you'd think it could have been shown in one more theatre in the southern end of town! I know! :-( At least the hip-hop festival is over. Maybe we'll get lucky like in Chicago and more theatres will show it in June. I still can't believe that Enigma landed such great theatres.

(Lora) Do you think Connie Ogle got an actual interview with OP or was it info she picked up from an associated press release? None of the quotes from either OP or F'OC are in the presskit. ...I wouldn't exactly call her a berserk sexual predator!? I'd say she's just adorably revealing her repressed desires. I wouldn't call her berserk (who would, when the object of her desire is Colin). I thought her character was supposed to be more like one of the women's rights types (as we had in The Winslow Boy), a Pankhurst follower, a liberated woman of that period, smoking cigarettes, etc. I would call her a "tad forward" that's all but I liked that interpretation.

I wouldn't call her berserk (who would, when the object of her desire is Colin). ROTF! This is where all our husbands come in. ;-)

Salon's review by Stephanie Zacharek: No adaptation of an Oscar Wilde play should go wrong when it stars Rupert Everett: He simply gets Wilde in his bones, without being hamstrung by an urge to somehow freshen the material or make it feel more "modern." He was bliss to watch in the 1999 "An Ideal Husband" -- his lines always hit on just the right beat, but more important, he also knew that Wilde should be played mostly with the eyebrows. What Everett doesn't say, and how he doesn't say it, represents the purest interpretation of Wilde possible. So it's hard to understand how "The Importance of Being Earnest," which also stars Everett and was adapted and directed by Oliver Parker, the same man who made "An Ideal Husband," goes so wrong. "The Importance of Being Earnest" is a much more preposterous play, designed to feel more outlandish and unreal with each plot twist: It's the story of a resolute, carefree bachelor-scoundrel named Algernon (Everett) and his pal, the more buttoned-down Jack (Colin Firth), who have both fallen in love with women who are mad about the name Earnest. Algy's inamorata is Jack's excessively romantic and silly young ward, Cecily (Reese Witherspoon); Jack is eager to win the affections of Gwendolen (Frances O'Connor), a ridiculous society girl who can't raise her parasol without attracting the scrutiny of her overprotective, glowering mother, Lady Bracknell (Judi Dench). There's also a local clergyman (Tom Wilkinson) who's secretly in love with Cecily's spinster governess Miss Prism (Anna Massey), as well as a missing baby in a handbag, which gives you some idea of the effect Wilde was after. The problem with Parker's "Earnest" is that each successive absurdity is telegraphed more and more loudly, lest the audience somehow miss the joke. At times the movie is gentle to the point of inertia; worse, though, is the way Parker punctuates what should be the story's funniest, most over-the-top bits with jazzy horn riffs or drippy, whimsical music, instead of letting them ride the wave of their own understatement. If there's one play that doesn't need sparking up, with music or anything else, it's "The Importance of Being Earnest." What's odd about the movie is that all the actors seem to know that intuitively, and still, the overall effect falls flat. Everett does every line just right (both the spoken and unspoken ones), and looks fabulously proper for the part every minute, like a daddy-long-legs in silk dressing gowns and impeccably tailored sports clothes. Firth plays along with the right amount of nervous, jittery would-be elegance. Witherspoon and O'Connor whip the vapidness of their characters into a just-sugary-enough meringue. And yet their interactions still feel like an all-too-elaborately staged dance, when Parker really needs to make it feel like a lark. When O'Connor lets loose with one of Wilde's most famous lines -- "I never travel without my diary; one should always have something sensational to read on the train" -- it has the effect of being properly tossed off. And yet you can still feel the quotation marks hanging in the air around it. "The Importance of Being Earnest" feels as if it's been primped and fussed over almost to the point of garishness, like an overdecorated cake that sags under the weight of its own frosting. That's not what Wilde intended. He wanted the whole thing to feel careless, loose and free, and somewhere along the way we'd pick up on the ridiculousness of the rich and the excessively bored. Parker underlines everything that Wilde left unsaid, and his movie suffers for it. He's got the right baby; he just put it in the wrong handbag. http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/review/2002/05/31/importance_earnest/index.html

Lots of very good reviews out there today from all over the country: Orlando, Denver, Hartford, Providence, New Orleans, Arizona, as well as nationals like Christian Science Monitor and US magazine. Some mixed ones too, but even those are good for the cast for the most part. Thanks for the Miami Herald review and interview. I liked this part especially, quoting OP: "Wilde had the ability to satirize the audience he was entertaining. That satire was more urgent then; the upper classes were a particular bunch of hypocrites worthy of his attention. People are more aware of this now, so I tried to tilt the central theme toward the human condition . . ." Well said, Oliver! This shift in focus works for me.

Closing tags

Grrrr

(Kate) And the ad in the NJ Star Ledger (stop laughing, Eileen) has an ad that's so tiny, they couln't put any text in the space inside the question mark! Naw, I won't laugh at that (but I did take note that their reviewer Steve Ihateeverything Whitty didn't like TIOBE). Last Sunday's Wash Post also ran a teensy tiny ad, but I liked it because it had 'Firth and Everett are hilarious' at the top (snippet artfully quoted from otherwise lousy NYT review). Hmm, I would think ad space in the Post costs a few more pesos than in the Ledger. :-/ There was a glowing TIOBE review in my local DC suburban paper. Will try to post the link next time, though there wasn't too much new about it (looks as though reviewer read everyone else's reviews and recycled comments previously made, but I won't quibble since they were favorable). Thanks for the article, Karen. Ahh, yes, the saga of MPB. Hair today, gone tomorrow, back again the next day (hurrah! :-)).

(Karen)Holy Cow!!! I take back my previous words. Earnest has expanded greatly in my area There is hope, then, for NJ and the rest of the free world (Mari)This shift in focus works for me. Me too. Thank you, Karen for the article. Uh, and why would anyone be laughing at the NJ Star Ledger?

Good interview with Colin and Rupe. I've bolded some quotes for the purists.;-) THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING FRIENDS Two British actors find a kindred spirit in each other By Shawn Levy-The Portland Oregonian One is a cheeky gadabout, droll and killer handsome and openly gay and famed for his wicked past, his fabulous friendships with the likes of Madonna and the razor wit that he displays in parlays with the press and in published works of his own hand. The other drier, lower-keyed, more traditionally attractive has made a name playing characters who exhibit such stereotypical traits of his nationality as emotional reserve, deference, politesse and the stiff upper lip as well as making a subspecialty of fellow named Darcy. Say hello to Rupert Everett and Colin Firth, stars of the new adaptation of Oscar Wilde's 'The Importance of Being Earnest,' which opens Friday and as pleasant a pair of fortysomething actors as you could chat with on the phone from the New York hotel where they're promoting the picture. Nearly 20 years ago, the two made another film together, 'Another Country,' a drama about English college students being drawn into Marxist fervor and illicit homosexual romance. They both made a big impression in the picture but, to hear Everett tell it, "We didn't really get on." They went on to their own things. Everett gabbed attention in such smoldering fare as "Dance With a Stranger" and "The Comfort of Strangers" and then spent a few years working in Europe, returning to English-language movies reborn as a delicious light comic talent in such films as "The Madness of King George," "My Best Friend's Wedding" nd "An Ideal Husband." Firth embarked on a series of somber roles in "Apartment Zero" and "A Month in the Country," then a career as the other man in such films as "The English Patient," "Shakespeare In Love" and "Circle of Friends," and finally found himself cast as the guy who gets the girl in the BBC "Pride and Prejudice" and its mod sister "Bridget Jones's Diary," in both of which playing a putative priggish Mr Darcy. Now, however, cast as Wilde's roguish upper-class heroes, dining out on nerve and dash, running from creditors, wooing women under false pretenses, even singing old-timey courtship tunes with their own guitar and piano accompaniment, the two actors seem to have found in each other kindred spirits, one-time young hotshots who've mellowed into knowing and exquisitely crafty pros. "We got on really well and had a great rapport when we worked together now," Everett concedes. "He's a very good person to tease, Colin. He's quite earnest." Firth, too, was grateful to behold a familiar face on the set of Oliver Parker's adaptation of the Wilde chestnut. In part, he says, it was simply because acting with someone you know is so much easier than the alternative. "Knowing each other's steps, so much of what you might otherwise have to struggle for can be assumed," he explains. "You already trust them; the barriers have been broken down; there's recognition between each other. In a film you're usually having to manufacture an intimacy with somebody whom you don't know at all, and you have an enormous task of suspending disbelief in order to act properly." But in part, the familiarity Firth had with Everett-and with each other "Earnest" co-stars as Judi Dench and Tom Wilkinson-made him more at ease with the broad changes that Parker instituted in the play. While the structure is essentially that of the original and most of the precious lines of dialogue are untouched, Parker has injected the film with modern touches, flights of fancy and, yes, some rewrites, in an effort to enliven Wilde for an audience who may not have been raised, as earlier generations were, on a steady diet of the play. "It had become this iconic antique," admits Firth, "dead as a doornail. And too often the productions I've seen have been an homage to aphorisms and epigrams and great literature, and it's been really dull. It's become a ritual where already converted Wilde devotees sit there and nearly laugh before they hear the lines. This one had to be given some freshness, and because it's so rich, when you appropriate the words, it was surprising how easily it felt like your own speech." The invigoration of a Wilde classic, according to both actors, is part of a general rehabilitation of the writer, who was celebrated at the end of the 19th century for his outrageous talent but condemned-and even imprisoned-for flouting Victorian sexual conventions concerning homosexuality. With this film, Parker's 1999 admirable adaptation of "An Ideal Husband," the 1997 biopic "Wilde" with Stephen Fry in the lead role, and dozens of recent stage productions of works by and about the playwright, we're in the midst of a full-fledged Wilde renaissance. "It's about time, is all I can say," declares Firth, who ascribes the newfound interest in Wilde to the excessive doting on the author's works in generations part. "One generation may have seen dozens of productions of his work and then they got tired of them and so he was put back on the shelf," he explains. "And then you have a generation of kids whose parents aren't particularly interested in it and they get to discover it. I think it goes in cycles like that. I spoke to a girl of about 17 who said the kids at her school had heard there was a film of 'Earnest' coming out and they were dying to see it and wasn't it cool? "And when I told my dad what I was doing, he said "Oh, they're doing that again?" As it we'd been doing nothing but 'Earnest' year after year." For Everett, the revival of interest in Wilde has to do as well with the writer's ill treatment at the hands of the English establishment. "Oscar Wilde is still an unresolved question mark," he says. 'He's a kind of local figure in one sense, in that he's part of English literature, but he's an international figure in another sense, because he's kind of a punctuation point in the human rights movement. He was a martyr." But Everett is quick to add that the contemporary taste for Wilde's works has as much to do with their content as with their author's sensational life. "His central theme, which is how camouflaged we all are compared to what we're like underneath, is a good one," he reckons. "What obviously amused him was looking at upper-class people and seeing how their surfaces were completely different from what they were like underneath. And that's what he was like as well." Everett warned to his own theme. "He was presenting one thing on the surface and being something else underneath. And I don't think that's changed, really. Even though we look more relaxed, we're still constrained by morality about what we are to be and how we are to be. "And quite often what we really are inside is this corseted thing that lies in there festering because it really hasn't ever been allowed to reveal itself." Firth agrees that the Wildean theme of hidden reality is for him, one of the play's chief appeals. "I find reserve interesting," he says. "Whenever people describe uptightness, they always refer to the emotion that's underneath, the emotional story that's being told through a filter. The suggestion is always so much more powerful than having to be explicit." Such duality, he explains, can mean the difference between an exhausting experience of watching a film and an engaging one: "I've sat in a cinema and watched a person totally alienate me because they had done all the work. I was just being screamed at. Congratulations on being so free with your emotions, but nothing's happening to me; I don't get to interact; I'm just being lambasted." For the lucky audiences that catch up with "Earnest," however, there's plenty to do: Have a good laugh, enjoy some of the sharpest dialogue ever written, and watch Everett and Firth, a couple of accomplished actors with skill and talent to spare, delight in their mutual company.

(linkdak) There is hope, then, for NJ and the rest of the free world Yes, well hope springs et.....well never mind about that. Earnest is in only two theaters in northern NJ, but at least the Montclair one has Earnest on two screens. I just hope they're bigger than my TV screen. Will find out this weekend. Glad to see some good reviews surfacing. Firth agrees that the Wildean theme of hidden reality is for him, one of the play's chief appeals. "I find reserve interesting," he says. "Whenever people describe uptightness, they always refer to the emotion that's underneath, the emotional story that's being told through a filter. The suggestion is always so much more powerful than having to be explicit...I was just being screamed at. Congratulations on being so free with your emotions, but nothing's happening to me; I don't get to interact." Ah, yes, acting that requires the audience to PAY ATTENTION. What that man can do with a flicker of emotion! I read somewhere (ages ago) that Minghella cast Colin as the husband in TEP because he knew Colin would be perfect in the scene in the taxi where he figures out what his wife has been up to. No dialogue, just the changing expressions on his face.

Thank you, Mari for the uplifting article. IMO, the good seems to be slightly outweighing the bad-at least for the cast. I won't uncork the vintage just yet, but I'm getting close. I love Colin's take on the pure.

This is the first review in Spanish, ladies, I just had to post it. Unfortunately, he distroys the film and everyone in it. :-( 'The Importance of Being Earnest': Engendro enfurecedor RENE JORDAN Cr�tico de cine/El Nuevo Herald Rupert Everett y Judi Dench en 'The Importance of Being Earnest'. ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' es una comedia exquisitamente construida, una de las m�s brillantes filigranas del teatro ingl�s o de cualquier parte. Pero en esta abominable demolici�n cinematogr�fica, el gui�n del director Oliver Parker admite estar solamente ''basado'' en la obra de Oscar Wilde. Y muy de lejos, porque, con los mismos personajes, Parker ha perpetrado un vodevil de la m�s crasa vulgaridad. Por ejemplo, quien conozca el texto se asombrar� ante un espurio flashback en que la augusta Lady Bracknell aparece, antes de casarse con el Lord, como corista de cabaret... y de contra, embarazada. Del mismo modo, la primorosa damisela Gwendolen se va a un antro chino a tatuarse el nombre de su amado Ernest en la nalga izquierda. Y, al final, �l le corresponde grab�ndose el nombre de ella en el trasero. Dirigidos con p�simo gusto por el imperdonable Parker, los actores est�n uniformemente mal. (1) Colin Firth y Rupert Everett se deshacen en morisquetas y aspavientos. Frances O'Connor es una Gwendolen estupefacta y Reese Whiterspoon es la nada brit�nica Cicely, enfurru�ando la nariz igualita que en Legally Blonde. Tom Wilkerson se denigra como un equ�voco Reverendo Chasuble y la Miss Prism de Anna Massey es una calamidad ambulante. En l952, Anthony Asquith dirigi� el definitivo Earnest, con reparto de insignes muertos: Michael Redgrave, Edith Evans, Dorothy Tutin, Joan Greenwood, Margaret Rutherford, Miles Malleson. Est� en casete y se impone alquilarla para comparar aquellas actuaciones mod�licas con estas infames caricaturas. Ni siquiera se salva Judi Dench, tan preocupada por no repetir las gloriosas exageraciones de Dame Edith Evans que reduce a Lady Bracknell de drag�n a lagartija. La opulenta producci�n tiene todo lo que el dinero puede comprar menos inteligencia y la partitura es un foxtrot que suena a musicanga de caballitos. Pululan por ah� muchas malas pel�culas, pero �sta es un engendro enfurecedor que se arrastra a cuatro pies entre el sacrilegio teatral y la blasfemia art�stica. Si es verdad que los muertos salen, Oscar Wilde se vengar� de Oliver Parker hal�ndole, en el silencio de la noche, el dedo gordo del pie.(2) (1) Directed with very bad taste by the unpardonable OP, the actors are uniformly bad. (2)If it's true that the dead come out at night, OW will take revenge on OP, by pulling on his big toe.

Even though we look more relaxed, we're still constrained by morality about what we are to be and how we are to be. Really? I've seen those pictures of you in chains, Rupi. ;-)

I find CF's comment: "I find reserve interesting," he says. "Whenever people describe uptightness, they always refer to the emotion that's underneath, the emotional story that's being told through a filter. The suggestion is always so much more powerful than having to be explicit" pretty much how he seems to be--although I have to emphasize seems. Thanks for the article. BTW, what is MPB?

MPB is Male Pattern Baldness. I have to say, he is SO gorgeous, who cares if he is thinning a little on top? - And I don't think it's as severe as some others believe. Anyway, I like him just as he is!!

(R. Jordan) If it's true that the dead come out at night, OW will take revenge on OP, by pulling on his big toe. LOL! What an interesting idiom. Far better than saying OW is turning over in his grave. ;-D (Janet) And I don't think it's as severe as some others believe. Some of us have seen it with our own eyes, in person. But then again, hasn't everyone seen that patch in the back in P&P, in DQ, and many others.

Interview of the week: Firth and Everett By Karen Butler From the Life & Mind Desk Published 5/30/2002 6:56 PM NEW YORK, May 30 (UPI) -- After meeting actors Colin Firth ("Bridget Jones's Diary") and Rupert Everett ("My Best Friend's Wedding") recently, journalists in New York understood why the dashing Brits were cast as friends who behave more like bickering brothers in the new comedy based on Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest." Polite and funny, in a quiet, guarded way, Firth seemed comfortable discussing the appalling literacy rate in England, the decline of high culture and the performance of Prime Minister Tony Blair, while his more flamboyant co-star kept reporters in stitches, chatting about drag queens, Victorian rave parties and the performance of Madonna. (Don't even get him started on why there won't be a gay James Bond in his lifetime!) Everett insisted that he and Firth are great friends now, but recalled a time when the differences in their personalities created tension on previous film projects. "He was very serious in the old days," Everett told United Press International of his "Shakespeare in Love" co-star. "He was always strumming on a guitar and he was very left wing and he was going to give the first money he had to charity." Everett also acted opposite Firth in the 1984 film, "Another Country," which marked both actors' film debut. Serious in the old days, huh? "Oh, was he serious today?" Everett feigned surprise. "Well, see, no, you have to wind him up, the point being, he's a really good person to wind up. As soon as you've wound him up, he's really funny." Everett went on to say that he and Firth hadn't interacted much over the years, mainly because "we didn't really get along very well during 'Another Country.'" "Well, it was my gig, I must say. I had done the play originally," he argued. Reminded that Firth had also appeared in the stage version, Everett sniffed: "Yeah. But, I discovered it." "I had flogged it around the provinces and then brought it into the West End and my best friend was the guy who brought it into the West End and it was also my best friend who produced the movie and we were looking for a new guy to play the other part and so he was... he wasn't number two, but it was my gig and we didn't really get along," the actor explained. He then added, "We had such a laugh doing this film, I must say... I love him now." Firth's serious demeanor has served him well over the years. He became an unlikely sex symbol as Mr. Darcy in the smash BBC version of "Pride and Prejudice," then starred as haughty, unscrupulous men in "Circle of Friends" and "Shakespeare in Love" before landing the role of an austere, yet appealing barrister in "Bridget Jones's Diary." Everett followed up his scene-stealing turn in the Julia Roberts blockbuster, "My Best Friend's Wedding," with a critically acclaimed performance in another Wilde play-turned-movie, "An Ideal Husband." In "The Importance of Being Earnest," Firth plays Jack, a responsible bachelor who adopts a roguish alter-ego (Ernest) in an effort to chase away the doldrums of country life. Everett plays his trouble-making friend, Algy. Despite their differences, both Firth and Everett professed a deep appreciation for Wilde's timeless wit and wisdom. "I think its frothiness is extremely deceptive," warned Firth. "I think that its triviality is very defiant... This was his last play. It's generally considered his greatest and there is a paradox about him being his deepest when he is at his most trivial and I think that's the case with this. I think that it is so witty it can only come from a mind with a great deal of aggression... It's perverse and it's self-contradictory and I think that Oscar Wilde's point of view on things would still be considered extremely upsetting to people now. "If you let this guy loose on your kids, he'd be teaching them stuff... You think school prayer causes problems. He'd be kicked out of schools right across this country and in England, too. He'd be telling kids that having a color sense is better than having a sense of right and wrong... He preached against family, marriage and private property. He was full of self-contradictions and stuff that would certainly upset the conservatives in any country, so he loved stuff that pulled the rug from under [people,]" he concluded. "I think it does have contemporary resonance," Everett agreed. "I think the whole Wildean thing has contemporary resonance, the Wildean thing being his obsession with, you know, what's on the surface and what's underneath the surface. You know, this was before (Sigmund]) Freud and (Carl) Jung really had even made us aware that there was something beneath the surface because when he was writing -- and this is one of the extraordinary things about him -- there was no such thing as sub-conscious, really... "He was obsessed by the front of these English upper-class people and how rotten to the core really they were inside and the funny way of explaining it. And he came into England when England was at the center of this empire, at the high point of this empire and the English thought they were the fairest, most lenient ... They're very proud of their law, the way they behaved, they thought they were the most fantastic people, but actually they were hideous monsters! They ruled the world with a will of iron. They didn't let anyone do anything. "They had this front, you know? Very high moral codes, ethical codes, but underneath that... and provided you kept that front, you could do anything you wanted underneath it. You just have to look at the ledgers of Queen Victoria's pharmacists' bills... She used to have laudanum and cocaine and heroine, major doses of them. So, underneath this Victorian austerity were kind of chill-out rave parties, so it was a world of real double standards and probably because Wilde was one thing and pretending to be another, it was the thing he immediately clocked into with the English upper classes. "So, you have 'The Importance of Being Earnest,' which is the kind of comedic resolution of it and then you have 'The Picture of Dorian Gray,' which is the subtly more macabre version that society is represented as this beautiful young man who has got everything ahead of him, but actually inside he is rotten to the core and I think these two ideas are still really resonant now because, actually, in the Calvin Klein structure that we have today, anything is possible, provided you have the right outward signs of being behind the country, behind doing the right thing, having the right ideas, but inside, society is in the same position, just as shady, so I think there still interesting ideas," he explained. Everett can next be seen in the P.J. Hogan's ("Muriel's Wedding") bizarre comedy, "Unconditional Love" (also known as "Who Shot Victor Fox,") co-starring Kathy Bates, Julie Andrews, ("Oh, I'm getting Alzheimer's!" Everett exclaimed,) Jonathan Pryce, Peter Saarskard, ("Who is the singer who sang 'Mandy'?") Barry Manilow and Sally Jesse Raphael. Asked to describe the plot, Everett takes a breath and stated dramatically: "There is no other film like this film. It's a thriller. It's a musical. It's a comedy. It's a love story. It's got all these different things in it." Okay, but what's it about? "Kathy Bates, who is this agrophobic house-wife... is married to Dan Aykroyd. The morning the film starts, this famous, famous singer, played by Jonathan Pryce, who is a kind of crooner, who has a huge, huge fan base of over-weightish, middle-aged women, who just love him. He always sings with a glass of champagne in one hand and he always dances with one woman from the audience and Kathy, he is her life. And the morning that he's coming to Chicago to play a concert, the radio offers six free tickets if you ring in, she's about to ring in and as she's ringing in, her husband comes in and he's decided to leave her and as he says that, as she's holding on for the concert... He leaves her and she gets tickets to the concert. Anyway, the point is, what happens is that the singer, who is loved by all these women is killed by this serial killer who is loose in Chicago and she goes to the concert and she finds out he's been killed, her husband left her and she has nothing left. She, also, her son is married to a d arf," he said. ... played by Sally Jesse Raphael? "No, she plays herself... Anyway, she decides, this agrophobic woman, decides to go to her favorite singer's funeral, which is in Wales, in England, because she's got nothing left... She goes to his funeral, she's never been anywhere, the whole family and the dwarf are running after her, saying, 'You're crazy.' Even the husband comes back because he's so worried. She's never, ever left the house in 30 years. She's been ironing and doing cooking. And she goes to Wales and she goes to the house where the singer lived and she keeps hearing about this singer's valet and she discovers that not only was this singer not a heartthrob to women, but he was a drag queen," he said. So, what does Everett play? "I'm his boyfriend of 20 years, who is being shut out of the house because no one ever knew this guy was gay... The family wanted to [keep it secret] because they wanted to make more money. They didn't want anyone to ever know the singer was gay. They want me out of the house, so they can open it and make it a tribute museum," Everett went on. Firth, on the other hand, is busy fielding questions from fans about the possibility of another Bridget Jones movie. Helen Fielding, the author of the book that the immensely successful film was based on has written a follow-up, which, interestingly (not Sally Jesse Raphael and a dwarf interesting, but interesting enough,) features Colin Firth, the actor, as a character. Asked the status of the next Bridget Jones movie, Firth cautiously hedged: "I can't really answer that question informatively. I don't know. As far as I'm concerned it's all rumor... They have [spoken to me about it,] but then it's sort of gone quiet again. I just think it's probably a very difficult thing to mount--three actors [Firth, Hugh Grant and Renee Zellweger] who have to be available at the same time and a script that would have to be good enough." Firth said that if he did agree to appear in a film sequel, he would reprise his role as Mark Darcy, not play himself. "(Colin Firth) won't be a character,)" he deadpanned. "He'll become George Clooney or something." "The Importance of Being Earnest" is in theaters now. Copyright � 2002 United Press International

"The suggestion is always so much more powerful than having to be explicit." Hear, hear. No dialogue, just the changing expressions on his face. My .25 here, indexed for inflation, YMMV. I have to admit that, although I love his looks and adore the timbre of his voice, this attribute is one of his greatest attractions. I need another viewing of TIOBE just to appreciate it properly. :)

(Elizabeth) I need another viewing of TIOBE just to appreciate it properly. I just came back from my second viewing. Tried to take in everything I missed the first time. Will appreciate it properly tomorrow. The good news- I expected the theater to be empty 5:00pm on a Friday in Princeton with the whole town gone quiet. People were waiting to buy tickets when I arrived. The theater was about half full. Everyone laughing and having a good time. v.favorable comments from the audience as they left. I felt like some secret reporter. Counting heads etc. I thought tomorrow I'd take a fake microphone and kind of interview people on the way out.Yessss,I'm going back tomorrow. Just lied to the neighbors on why I have to leave surprise birthday party early.

From the Knoxville News-Sentinel, many of the same quotes we've been reading over and over again, but a few new items: (I too have added some emphasis for purists) ;-D Firth may play lover, but never earnestly By Betsy Pickle, News-Sentinel film critic May 26, 2002 "Bridget Jones's Diary" fans, stay calm. Colin Firth exposes himself in "The Importance of Being Earnest" -- in a manner of speaking. "You're exposed here because everyone knows these lines, and everyone knows they can be funny," British actor Firth says of the new big-screen adaptation of the Oscar Wilde comedy. "It's up to you to be funny as well. You can't blame the script." "The Importance of Being Earnest," which opens Friday, May 31, at Downtown West, marks the first time Firth has gone Wilde, but he says it's his favorite of the Victorian rebel's plays. "I think it's head and shoulders away from the rest," Firth says by phone from New York, where he's in the middle of doing press for the film. "I think it's that Wilde paradox about how he was at his most profound when he was at his most trivial ... "This has no pomp about it and no pretensions to carry a message. It deftly avoids all earnestness, ironically. ... It's a masterpiece of flippancy." Firth much prefers flippancy to earnestness himself. "I think that earnestness can easily be self-inflated and pompous," he says. "Ironically as well, the word earnest was gay slang of the period for 'gay.' That was his little joke on Victorian society, to have that written up in lights on the West End of Victorian London." In "Earnest," Firth and Rupert Everett take on false identities -- as young men named Ernest -- in order to win the hearts of Frances O'Connor and Reese Witherspoon, respectively. It's the second feature-film role in a row to cast Firth in a romantic light, following his Mark Darcy in last year's "Bridget Jones's Diary," but the actor who made Britain -- and eventually America -- swoon with his portrayal of Jane Austen's Mr. Darcy in the 1995 miniseries "Pride and Prejudice" doesn't mean to perpetuate the trend. "I would die of boredom if I spent my life playing romantic leads," chuckles Firth, 41. "I can hardly bring myself to do more than one every few years really. It's not very interesting work usually. "Actually, the Darcy thing isn't conventionally romantic, in my eyes anyway. The guy is emotionally challenged." That's why he wasn't averse to playing Mark Darcy in "Bridget." "The guy might as well have come from the 1800s," Firth says of the character, whom novelist Helen Fielding was inspired to create after seeing Firth's Darcy in "Pride & Prejudice." "He's not a particularly typical Englishman of today.... Most English guys of that age probably owe more to John Lennon than to the Duke of Edinburgh." The son of teachers and grandson of missionaries, Firth trained on the stage and wasn't interested in becoming a sex symbol, but that's what happened when he sparred with Jennifer Ehle's Elizabeth Bennet in "Pride and Prejudice." "You just give it its quarter and get on with your life," says Firth, who had an off-screen romance with Ehle before marrying Italian film producer Livia Giuggioli in 1997. "I can't spend my life playing into it." Firth has been as likely to play a loser at love. He was famously betrayed by wife Kristin Scott Thomas in "The English Patient" and fianc�e Gwyneth Paltrow in "Shakespeare in Love." "The directions I take are somewhat eccentric and oblique, but I can only do it as I see it," says Firth, who spent the first four years of his life in Nigeria. "I daresay there are a lot more cuckolds and losers and stuffed shirts on the way." Well, maybe after his next role. In "Hope Springs," due this fall, Firth plays an artist who flees England for the United States to mend his broken heart and winds up with both Minnie Driver and Heather Graham vying for him. Firth, who has a 14-month-old son with his wife and an 11-year-old son with Meg Tilly, his "Valmont" co-star, approaches work the way a husband and father would. "You can't quite indulge the artistic choices that you might have when you were younger," he says. "You hope you can get a well-paid job in something that's also good. That's not always an option. "Peter O'Toole (his co-star in 1990's 'Wings of Fame') used to say to me, 'One for show, one for dough.' I said to him, 'Which one are we doing now?' He said, 'Dough.' " Firth is "unemployed" at the moment and enjoying life at home in England with his wife and son. "As a young person, like most young people, I would have utterly shunned the idea of anything comfortable and bourgeois, but as time has gone on, I've started to feel a need for it really," he says. He doesn't do anything really outrageous, like dusting or gardening. "I kind of want to have it there already and have somebody else do it all," he admits. "I think it's Raul Julia in 'The Addams Family,' when his child is born, who says, 'The exquisite joy of having children and then paying somebody else to raise them.' " Firth says he's perfectly willing to relax when he's not working and not look for creative outlets other than acting. "My ability at anything else is so limited that it's embarrassing to even talk about it," he says. "I have my little hobbies just like everyone else. I like to play the guitar badly. I play the piano even worse. I read, slowly and laboriously. I try to write. It's not how I spend my days, trying to do other creative things." Ironically, director Oliver Parker made him play guitar and sing in "The Importance of Being Earnest." "I actually desperately hoped it might lead me on another career direction," he says dryly. "I would get discovered and the world would fall in love with my singing voice. The offers for the 'Oklahoma!' revival would come rushing in. It hasn't worked out. "I studied very, very hard and very intensely on the guitar ... to try to distract from the limitations of my vocal abilities. It didn't work really. The whole abiding impression is of one big limitation. But I studied very hard, and Rupert caught me at it and mocked me mercilessly." Firth had worked with Everett before, way back in his 1984 film debut, "Another Country." "Rupert's got a memory of me playing the guitar endlessly when we worked together the first time," says Firth. "I don't remember this at all. I do not believe I ever brought a guitar onto the set of 'Another Country.' "His memory of me is as a kind of earnest socialist hippie, endlessly strumming the guitar and determined to give the first $500 that I ever earned in my life away to charity. Nothing could be more ghastly."

In another phone interview with Rupe, she writes" However, if they really did have a fight, there's no question who would win. "I would, easily," says Everett. "I'd win, pants down, or whatever they say. He's weedy." ~~~~~~ What does weedy mean?

weedy = limp, somthing you would pull out from amongst the lettuce. and IMO RE wishes in his dreams Is the focus here only on CF or other particpants in the film? I get the impression that CF is carrying the can for this movie espacially from the above post, and generally e.g. "you are the hottie of the moment" (Soledad on Today). And the movie is not doing well according to critics from postings here How has the focus been in the states over all the actors and director? Does the film suck? Hired Heather Graham's "Committed" last night and daughter said "she can't act" and I thought OMG "New Cardiff" will it be appreciated? CF is a fine actor, appreciated after viewing TEP twice But he is beautiful, esp those long legs spilling across the studio floor, without KC's feet And the BBC Movie interviewer should be shot for banality, imo

I know one should not read too much into what gets printed from interviews but: Most English guys of that age probably owe more to John Lennon than to the Duke of Edinburgh." When CF says this which he does often I think he rather exposes himself to having a rather limited view of life; such a ridiculously stark choice of role models. But then he redeamed himself "I kind of want to have it there already and have somebody else do it all and 'The exquisite joy of having children and then paying somebody else to raise them.' " I rather liked the stark honesty of that. He has come a long way from his guitar strumming hippie days after all ;-)

(CF)"I kind of want to have it there already and have somebody else do it all," he admits Well that's fine for the outrageous things like dusting and gardening, but not good for finding roles, DB. Maybe that's why...Firth is "unemployed" at the moment Thank you, Karen. More of the same, but some new things thrown in as well.

Hey Karen - I sent you an email the other day - have you had the chance to read it? I have apparently been having a few email problems, as I couldn't read the email of one of the people who wrote to me about meeting up for the Sydney premiere of TIOBE - so if you wrote me before, and you haven't heard back, it was probably you. And if you haven't written, but you'd like to meet up for the Sydney premiere, then please write to the email address you get when you click on my name. :-) Not too much to report on from here in Minkee-land. Still no publicity for TIOBE except what few crumbs we get through cable on American tv. It's all very sad, really....

Thanks Karen for the interview stuff. It makes me wonder if he and RE had to spend their days in NY staying at the hotel, answering interview phone calls... I would rather be gardening (not dusting though). Let's hope they didn't have muffins for room service :) About the unemployed: isn't filming for TAG supposed to start soon? Do we have clues on location? (I still can't believe parts of Insomnia were filmed on location in Alaska... had I known)

(Colin, News-Sentinal article) "I daresay there are a lot more cuckolds and losers and stuffed shirts on the way." In rom-coms? Didn't he say he was being offered rom-coms these days? (What happened to the days of wanting to play masturbatory village idiots?) FINALLY got to see TIOBE. Went to a matinee. Nice weather today, so not well attended. Expected the nursing home crowd, but there was a nice mix of people. and they laughed. Almost everything Judi Dench said got a laugh (Lady B does have lots of good lines). A while back, someone posted that the audience seemed to laugh in anticipation of the better known lines. I heard a little of that today. And, sorry all, but I DID see that thin spot fleetingly in an overhead shot. Just one glimpse, but it's there.

Saw TIOBE again, last night. Theater was full-to the point that late people could not find seats together. Lots of laughs, v.favorable comments as people were leaving. The show started at 9:40-I asked the manager-who seems to know me by now-how the earlier shows had done. She said they were full all day!! Now, imagine what could happen if Miramax would spend a few bucks on advertisement. Right now, I think it is operating on word of mouth, and for those who happened to catch the morning shows over the last few weeks. Yes, that little b. patch pops out in a few places, but somehow seems v.sexy. It has been there for many years-maybe will not get any larger?

Sorry, I think the above post should have been on 126.

(AnnaS) and IMO RE wishes in his dreams No kidding. Has anyone noticed Rupe's lack of shoulders? In the film, when he's shown without a jacket, they are completely sloping downward, while IMO some of Colin's best (droolable) looks are when he's simply in the vest. Fills it out rather nicely. Is the focus here only on CF or other particpants in the film? Reese did a week of publicity a couple of weeks before the film opened and is in numerous magazines (cover of Vanity Fair). She was on our late night talk shows and was the focus of most of the entertainment news segments. However, Colin is really getting the chance to push the film, which is good for him. The more recognition he has, the more he might be thought of for future roles. And the movie is not doing well according to critics from postings here If you go to the Rotten Tomatoes website, the film currently has an overall favorable rating (62/65%), even though many of the favorable reviews are critical of OP's direction. The message is that it is an enjoyable summer alternative to the special effects and brainless movies out there. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/TheImportanceofBeingEarnest-1114078/ Does the film suck? That is discussed on Topic 126 (spoilers) (Allison) ridiculously stark choice of role models. I noticed he's changed it from Prince Charles to the Duke of Edinburgh. However, I thought his use of well-known models was for Americans' benefit, but most would not know who the Duke of Edinburgh is. ;-D 'The exquisite joy of having children and then paying somebody else to raise them.' Then, one would think, going on location would not be viewed as such an obstacle, wouldn't one? ;-D (Odile) About the unemployed: isn't filming for TAG supposed to start soon? Do we have clues on location? June was all we heard. I expect quite a bit of it to be filmed at a studio soundstage in LA, with perhaps a need for a bit of location work. (Kate) In rom-coms? Didn't he say he was being offered rom-coms these days? Sure, he could be loser, stuffed shirt or cuckold in a rom-com. He would be the guy who gets tossed over. And, Linda, you are doing excellent work supporting the movie! Your comments are fine here as you are not talking about the film itself. Audience info is fine here.

I'm glad that the theaters are full elsewhere. I was hoping for the same here (Malverne, New York - AKA Long Island) but at the 7:35 show on Friday evening there were only about 20 people in the audience. Although, to be honest, there were a few sprinkles on the way in and on the way out we were in the midst of a full-fledged thunderstorm, spectacular lightning and all. Maybe people listen to weather reports before deciding on their plans of an evening. Hope so anyway.

Anyone see RE on R&K Friday? Rupie repeated the usual "I hated Colin" lines but then said he liked him after seeing that CF likes complaining as much as RE does. "Whining" he said, which Kelly thought meant they liked to drink. I have a soundbite from AZ hooked up to the computer so Colin is frequently saying, "Can you keep a secret?". Yesterday a friend heard it and thought it was Rupert talking! I now choose to believe that CF based his character on RE :-)

(Bryonny) I now choose to believe that CF based his character on RE :-) LOL! Too funny! "Whining" he said, which Kelly thought meant they liked to drink. You are joking? weedy = limp, somthing you would pull out from amongst the lettuce. This poor guy. LOL! We have accused him of being a wimp for not going after better roles. "I kind of want to have it there already and have somebody else do it all and 'The exquisite joy of having children and then paying somebody else to raise them.' " This surprised me because he actually gave the interviewer quotations that are new for us here. ;-) "I daresay there are a lot more cuckolds and losers and stuffed shirts on the way." What about the evil guy such as for the next Spider-man or James Bond? Have they stopped offering him the evil guy because he the "Hottie of the moment"? (Allison) ridiculously stark choice of role models. (Karen), I noticed he's changed it from Prince Charles to the Duke of Edinburgh. However, I thought his use of well-known models was for Americans' benefit, but most would not know who the Duke of Edinburgh is. I was happy to see he had changed it to the Duke of Edinburgh as he has great style in dressing. ;-D (Anna), Does the film suck? Not at all, just the ending. ;-)

MTV Viewers Pick 'Rings' Top Movie Sun Jun 2, 2:00 AM ET By Bob Tourtellotte LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The kiss mattered most at MTV's movie awards Saturday -- "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings" was named 2001's top film by MTV viewers, but a same-sex kiss in "American Pie 2" took the night's juiciest prize, Best Kiss. Sean William Scott, who smacked lips with Jason Biggs in "Pie 2," stood on his chair and raised his arms in triumph to a wildly cheering audience after being named winner, and onstage he thanked his old girlfriends for helping him practice. "Jason and I were just hoping we wouldn't end our careers with that," he told reporters after winning MTV's trophy, a bucket of golden popcorn. When asked how many times it took to get the scene right, Scott grinned and said: "Way too many." But there was one movie star who would have loved to have been in Scott's shoes. "Moulin Rouge" beauty Nicole Kidman lamented that she and co-star Ewan McGregor didn't win the kissing award. Instead, the pair walked off with the trophy for best musical sequence. "I'm really bummed we didn't win best kiss," said Kidman onstage with McGregor. "We needed to rehearse more." GOLDEN BUCKET OF POPCORN Elsewhere, Will Smith was given the golden bucket of popcorn for best male performance playing championship boxer Muhammad Ali in "Ali," and Nicole Kidman took home the golden popcorn for best female acting in musical "Moulin Rouge." Smith and Kidman, too, had been nominated for the film industry's top honor, the Oscar, for the same roles. But Smith lost to Denzel Washington in "Training Day" and Kidman saw Halle Berry take home the Oscar for "Monster's Ball." Unlike the Oscars, MTV's awards are chosen by the mostly younger viewers of the cable TV channel, and they reflect popular culture more than the Oscars, which are chosen by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The MTV awards, too, are often irreverent with trophies for best fight and best action sequence compared with Oscar's serious topics like cinematographer or art direction. "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" had gone into Saturday night's show as the most nominated movie with entries in six categories, but it walked away with only two: the top prize for best film and a second for Orlando Bloom as breakthrough male actor of the year. "Mandy Moore" in romance "A Walk to Remember" was named breakthrough female performer. Denzel Washington was beaten by Will Smith in MTV's category for top male actor, but his performance as a corrupt cop in "Training Day" was "bad" enough for Washington to claim a bucket of golden popcorn as MTV viewers' favorite villain. Best Fight winners were comedian Chris Tucker and action hero Jackie Chan in "Rush Hour 2" and top action sequence went to last summer's "Pearl Harbor." Reese Witherspoon took home the popcorn for best comedic performance in sleeper hit, "Legally Blonde," and best on-screen team went to Paul Walker and Vin Diesel in "The Fast and the Furious." As usual, the MTV show featured brief clips from some of this summer's most talked about movies like "Austin Powers in Goldmember" and this holiday season's "The Gangs of New York." Musical spotlights included numbers by rapper Eminem (news - web sites), rockers The White Stripes and Kelly Osbourne -- Ozzy Osbourne's daughter and star of hit TV show "The Osbournes" -- who performed her version of Madonna (news - web sites)'s "Papa Don't Preach." UPSIDE-DOWN KISS Show hosts Jack Black and Sarah Michelle Gellar of the new "Scooby Doo" movie spoofed several summer blockbusters like "Spider-Man" in which Black and Gellar recreated the much talked-about upside-down kiss of "Spider-Man" stars Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst. Except this kiss had a "Star Wars" twist to it when Yoda got involved, and again, it was the kiss that had the Force at the MTV Awards. The 2002 MTV Movie Award winners were picked by a nationwide survey of MTV viewers. The telecast will air on June 6 on the MTV cable television channel and be seen in 165 countries in 18 different languages. Last year's premiere telecast was seen by 15 million viewers.

I'm getting ancious now. I hear all the impressions from everyone here and feel frustrated. I called the theatres here where I live and they don't know anything about TIOBE. Haven't heard of it at all. Am I in the Twightlight Zone or what?

Thanks for the update on the MTV Awards, Mari. Can't find any pics of Colin attending the ceremony online, so... I ran across another synopsis of American Girl (no The): A 19-year-old woman, raised in New York by her feminist mother, decides to find her long-lost father in London. Her American ways disrupt her father's lifestyle but she manages to find her dream job, a dream man, reunite her parents and join the competition for Debutante of the Year. (Joanne) Am I in the Twightlight Zone or what? Why, did the people who answered the phone all sound like Rod Serling? ;-D Naw, you just must not be in or close enough to one of the cities classified in the Top 40 markets, that's all. What's the biggest city near you?

Karen, The biggest city near me in southern Illinois is Marion. Might as well be outer Mongolia. I guess I'll have to be patient and wait til the we catch up with the rest of the world. :(

Hey, we cracked the top 12! The last figure in each line is the number of theaters the films are playing in . . .when you compare 147 to some of the other totals, this is pretty good, IMO.:-) Weekend Box Office Estimates (U.S.) May 31 - Jun 2 weekend This Wk/ LastWk/ Title/ Dist./ Weekend Gross/ Cumulative Gross/ Rlse Wks/ # of Theaters 1 - The Sum of All Fears PARA $31,200,000 $31,200,000 1 3183 2 1 Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones FOX $20,680,000 $232,000,000 3 3161 3 2 Spider-Man SONY $14,500,000 $354,000,000 5 3646 4 - Undercover Brother UNIV $12,100,000 $12,100,000 1 2168 5 4 Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron D'WORKS $10,700,000 $38,200,000 2 3362 6 3 Insomnia WB $9,760,000 $41,427,000 2 2610 7 5 Enough SONY $6,800,000 $27,100,000 2 2623 8 6 About a Boy UNIV $4,100,000 $27,800,000 3 1755 9 7 Unfaithful FOX $2,950,000 $45,681,000 4 1696 10 8 The New Guy SONY $1,500,000 $26,900,000 4 1676 11 11 My Big Fat Greek Wedding IFC FILMS $958,048 $8,911,010 7 238 12 18 The Importance of Being Earnest MIRA $815,000 $1,469,273 2 147

The next biggest city that might have it is St.Louis, two and a half hours from me. I don't see my DH taking me there for that. All you lucky ladies getting to see it, think of us poor deprived people waiting with baited breath and save some drool for us. I'm sure theres plenty to go around out there. Thye say patience is a virtue, but I'm not feeling very virtuous am I.

American Girl (no The) Well, how are we supposed to make a decent acronym out of that? As long as it's not argh. . . ;-) Her American ways disrupt her father's lifestyle LMAO! What does she do, go around singing Lee Greenwood songs?;-) Debutante of the Year. The filmmakers' challenge will be to see how many clash-of-culture cliches they can shoehorn into 100 minutes.:-(

...she manages to find her dream job, a dream man,... I'm not feeling very well now. The words 'Justin Timberlake' just popped into my head.

Debutante of the Year. How passe is that?

How passe is that? Profoundly passe. Well, maybe we'll get some tasty black-tie screentime out of it...

(Bryonny)"Whining" he said, which Kelly thought meant they liked to drink. Well, doesn't that just say it all?????? Yes, Kel, they like to go whining and dhining. So, the new movie will be "AG"??? Isn't American Girl a line of dolls and books, a different girl for each era? And with "Debutante of the Year" as part of the plot, I can only guess that this movie is set in some bygone era? I can remember watching the debutante ball in NYC when I was a kid a million years ago. One of the local NY stations used to show it. I remember trying to do the southern belle curtsey and falling on my face.

(Joanne) the biggest city near me in southern Illinois is Marion. Perhaps the guests at the federal facility there might like to see a movie? ;-D Box office results look very promising, Mari. Now, if we adjust for Linda's tickets, what will that leave? ;-D (Mari) Well, how are we supposed to make a decent acronym out of that? Where I went to school, there was a College of Ag, so is no biggie for me. (Kate) Yes, Kel, they like to go whining and dhining. LOL! You've gotten inside Kelly's head. A lot of room there? ;-D You know, I really thought they would've chucked that aspect of the Reluctant Debutante movie and so was very surprised to see it in the synopsis. Looks like we got here: Parent Trap III meets The Princess Diaries.

A 19-year-old woman, raised in New York by her feminist mother, decides to find her long-lost father in London. any guesses on who should play the mother?

I'm thinking that DianeS is very near you, Joanne, and she's working on the people at the theaters to get TIOBE.

There are clips of Colin and the others being interviewed outside the NYC premiere; maybe some of you will see yourselves in the background;-) http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hv&id=1807879613&cf=trailer How passe is that? It's a plot to move our perception from John Lennon to the Duke of Edinburgh.;-) Looks like we got here: Parent Trap III meets The Princess Diaries. I believe that my was initial reaction precisely, and I keep waiting for something to change my mind. I have a bone to pick, Karen: the next time you post info on AG, kindly label it with SPOILERS. Never in a million years would I have figured out that the AG manages to reunite her parents.;-);-)

Thanks Mari. Not to be petty or anything, but on the RW clip, for once Reese mentioned Colin first as one of those great Brit actors she got to work with on TIOBE... :) LOL about the spoilers!

This is a fun site for those brushing up on your British slang: http://www.effingpot.com/slang.html "AG" doesn't not sound promising is this one for the 'dough'? Maybe the wife will be played by, oh, I don't know, Reba McEntyre (sp?). :P

(Karen)Box office results look very promising, Mari. Now, if we adjust for Linda's tickets, what will that leave? V.funny, boss, v.funny. Quite a dip in numbers-since I dragged along the 81year-old mother, and 75-year old aunt on Friday. DH and Daughter on Saturday. I'm just doing what ODB requested-word of mouth. All of the above, we had no-choice, relatives loved it BTW. Going back on Thursday in honor of all friends here who don't have a theater close by. Gotta keep those numbers up!

Thanks Karen! I hope DianeS has some luck in her endeavors. You give me hope.

(Mari) There are clips of Colin and the others being interviewed outside the NYC premiere; maybe some of you will see yourselves in the background;-) Thaks Mari for the link...I think the clips demonstrate how nasty the weather was at that point. Reese's hair was all over and that tent was really moving. Must be something about the Paris Theater, TIOBE, and horrid weather. Amy and I went to the 7:15 show on Friday which had v. good attendance I thought (2/3 full or so), but there was a torrential downpour, thunder, and lightning when the film let out. Everyone crammed in the lobby. BTW, (Karen) That letter to the editor says it all, and explains why any serious critic, who knows his/her stuff, would give it a bad review. It has been dumbed down and is being marketed for the "anti-intellectual" or "anti-purist." That's the party line being spouted by everyone, including YKW. Neglected to ask before...what is YKW? (Rene Jordan from El Nuevo Herald) (1) Directed with very bad taste by the unpardonable OP, the actors are uniformly bad. (2)If it's true that the dead come out at night, OW will take revenge on OP, by pulling on his big toe. Ouch! Is THIS the tone to be expected from the UK critics?

Just checked out The Daily Show website to see if tonight will be bliss... and it looks like it will be! Colin is listed as tonight's guest. Based on this Monday and last Monday (the 2 guest shots), I am beginning to like Mondays!

YKW = You know who :) Thanks for checking the Daily Show's site. This should be interesting. I wonder what kind of attitude Colin will assume. It's doubtful they will touch upon those same old questions we've been hearing. Hoorah!

(Karen)LOL! You've gotten inside Kelly's head. A lot of room there? ;-D Well, there was a hell of an echo... I'm very curious about the Daily Show. Not Colin's usual sort of turf. It will be interesting if Stewart "winds him up" a bit, as Rupe says. And I can't imagine Stewart introducing Colin as "the British heartthrob."

The preview is v. funny. John Stewart tells Colin that TIOBE is his favorite in the "Earnest" series. (Do you think ODB has seen Earnest goes to camp?!!) :)

Too funny, Amy. I'm sure Colin is quick enough to "get" Jon's humor.

(Lucie)I like both interviews. Laughed at the remark about having to wait in line if he wants to play with Luca when they're in Italy. (Caribou)"I'm in America--must remember to smile" thing. Re: "I'm in America now": Anyone notice how different he plays the US interviews vs. UK's? "Waiting in line"??? No "queue-up?" (Kate)And the ad in the NJ Star Ledger (stop laughing, Eileen) has an ad that's so tiny,they couln't put any text in the space inside the question mark! Last Friday's NY Times had a 3/4 full page (vertical) advert with Colin front and center.Now playing in 14theatres in the NY area plus Paris and Angelika. I saw it at the Paris theatre last Thursday ; matinee, 20 people .Lots of laughs though. (Eileen)Ahh, yes, the saga of MPB. Hair today, gone tomorrow, back again the next day (hurrah! :-)). LOL. The hair does seem to come and go ..doesn't it;-)Actually in some scenes in the film I think the hair dresser must have called in sick that day ;-) (Jory) The next biggest city that might have it is St.Louis, two and a half hours from me. Hey, I feel lucky when I don't have to fly down to Dallas to see one of his films.

Welcome back, Evelyn! Missed ya . . . Anyone notice how different he plays the US interviews vs. UK's? Have there been UK interviews? Looks like AG is starting filming: SAG SAYS GLOBAL RULE ONE IS WORKING The Screen Actors Guild issued a news release Friday intended to show that global enforcement of the union's Rule One is working. SAG listed six new movie and TV projects that have begun or will soon begin production in foreign countries, employing union actors "under full SAG terms and provisions." The list includes "The Last Man" and "The Last Samurai" -- Warner Bros. pictures shooting in Australia and New Zealand, respectively. It also includes "American Girl," also a Warner Bros. production, shooting in London. An MGM project, "Agent Cody Banks," and a Paramount movie, "The Perfect Score," are shooting in Canada with SAG contracts, and the USA Network series "Monk" is also shooting in Canada with actors covered by a union contract. The Guild said it is in discussion on upcoming productions from Disney, Miramax, 20th Century Fox, Universal and other producers to work out agreements covering members working overseas. The guild began enforcing Global Rule One on May 1, over the protest of producers who argued that the guild did not have jurisdiction over projects made outside the United States. The union argued that it has the legal right to enforce its rules anywhere in the world. SAG officials have estimated that enforcement of the rule will add an average of 3 percent to producers costs on foreign shoots, but the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers has warned that the cost will be substantially greater -- and could lead to fewer jobs for actors.

Thank you, Mari. Great news, I guess, about AG. At least ODB is not still unemployed.

Hope this does not qualify as a spoiler...I could not wait any longer for Miramax to release TIOBE to small-town theaters, so Sunday best friend and I drove to St. Louis MO (2+ hours). In my excitement, forgot to tell MDH I was going out of town for the entire day. We saw Earnest in an upscale mall theater filled with people older than we are, and a few possible Droolettes (women w/o men, appearing a bit sheepish, but excited and, well, flushed). The crowd seemed to like the movie. My friend and I both gasped in lust when CF leaned against a pillar, crossed his legs, and played that guitar with such mastery. But where were the lingering close-ups? His face was never spotlighted sufficiently to satisfy us. We want to study every freckle! Especially since we were treated to FOC's fanny with the finely detailed goosebumps (not naughty Australian usage of this slang term, BTW). ODB was certainly Frothy. Rupie (he is shoulderless) may want to personally bring Earnest to the men at Marion Fed Prison. (Fl et's in. Musn't disappoint.) I have contacted neighbor Droolette Joanne - thanks for the intro, Karen. I can start driving her nuts now...

(Karen) Colin is really getting the chance to push the film, which is good for him. Amen. Remember how we used to despair the 'invisible man'? Remember the nanosecond of Firth-less publicity for MLSF? This is grrreAT! *said in manner of Tony the Tiger* (Evelyn) Actually in some scenes in the film I think the hair dresser must have called in sick that day ;-) Maybe those scenes were filmed early. You know, before.....;-) (lindak) Yes, that little b. patch pops out in a few places, but somehow seems v.sexy. It has been there for many years-maybe will not get any larger? Sounds like research is in order! Have a look-see at some of the pics at Karen's Bucket site. Compare and contrast recent pics with those from last year's appearance on Rosie. Or better yet, with the bus driving still from DQ. ;-) Her American ways disrupt her father's lifestyle but she manages to find her dream job, a dream man, reunite her parents and join the competition for Debutante of the Year. *barf* He-ey, maybe Haley Mills can do a cameo as sort of an in-joke. ;-)

there will be no lull in the Colin sightings! i can't believe that we can all look forward to more of ODB in the fall when Hope Springs is out in the movies! I can't wait to see The Daily show! Also , Lisa L, where are you? I really need that next chapter!

Welcome back, Evelyn. Glad you're home safe. :-) maybe Haley Mills can do a cameo as sort of an in-joke. ;-) I used to love those movies! I know we want better for him, but this will be massive teenage exposure. Wait, wasn't this supposed to happen after BJD? T'is a mystery. projects that have begun or will soon begin production in foreign countries, "American Girl," also a Warner Bros. production, shooting in London. So if he's working on AG in London, why is he planning to spend the summer in LA? Maybe Will is attending summer school and can't make it to Umbria and he decided to stay with him, maybe take him to the Rockies. ;-) (Mari), Have there been UK interviews? I believe Evelyn is referring to past interviews. Thanks for all the links, ladies. :-)

Ooh! Here he comes. They're starting with the clip of Lady B. interviewing Jack. he's wearing jeans, black jacket, navy shirt, black (boots?) I don't think Colin has seen the Earnest films, but he's covering it well. (Made a cute remark about "Mr. Earnest goes to Washington.") More Enlgand culture bashing, but said jokingly. Says that English people don't know where Europe is (answer to why they didn't go with the Euro). Colin says that English people still think they're the most powerful nation on the planet and how the British press make it look like the war in Afghanistan is mostly British, with US helping them. Said that England is more perverted than other english-speaking countris. Blames it one the school system. More conservative polititicans found dead from autoeroticism. He was adorable! If nobody else tapes and transcribes, I'll transcribe it tomorrow.

Colin done good! What a hoot. I thought Jon would fall off the chair laughing when CF started in on the autoeroticsm. Jon helpfully pointed out that wouldn't happen to American politicians because ours just go with hookers. LOL!

black (boots?) Yes, indeed, the horror! I enjoyed it! Says that English people don't know where Europe is (answer to why they didn't go with the Euro). Was very political. Made me laugh. I agree, Kate, he didn't seem to know the "Ernest" movies. *News* my son saw Colin interviewed on IFC "At the Angelika." He could have called me, but he takes after his father where ODB is concerned. :-( I hope this will be repeated.

I was sure that CF's segment was taped ahead, but . . . Jon's monologue was very topical, very up to the minute (not to mention funny--bet the FBI's ears are ringing;-) And I noticed he had the same tie on when interviewing Colin. Is he back in NYC for a few days, do you think? News* my son saw Colin interviewed on IFC "At the Angelika." What was he doing there? Was it from the Tribeca Fest? TIOBE didn't screen at the Angelika for the Fest, though it is playing there now.

"At the Angelika." What was he doing there? That's an interview program. The actors sit in the theatre's lobby and talk. It's more fluff. He was asked about TIOBE. But I don't know if it was taped when he was doing the TFF. And I noticed he had the same tie on when interviewing Colin. Is he back in NYC for a few days, do you think? But was it the same suit? I thought he was dressed differently. He could have asked him about the World Cup, such as Italy winning today (Yeah!), and England only pulling off a tie.

Thanks, Mari, for the location news on AG. ATTENTION MARK!!! You have your assignment. I'm not sure there will be a part at the Debutante Ball for a man in his Burberry suit, so you might want to get a little more dressed up. ;-D (DianeS) Especially since we were treated to FOC's fanny with the finely detailed goosebumps Probably a body double, as those things usually are. Good going, Diane, on your weekend excursion. The lengths a true Firthette will go to see a Colin film; it's amazing. Re: The Daily Show I agree, Colin didn't know about the Ernest movies but he covered it up pretty well. He was good and didn't say OW or NC even once. Hoorah! I think he must've gotten pointers from JN about the level of discussion on this program. Remember JN's references to self-gratification and how Jon was howling about it. Wouldn't you have liked to hear what was said afterward. Colin was so animated, arms flying (since they had been tied down previously), conspiring with Jon. Oh, to know what was being said. Kate: please transcribe if you have time. I still have one more to go (The Early Show) and my fingers might need amputation and my remote control a transplant. ;-D

I wondered if they taped CF's part ahead and JS put on the same tie when he did the rest of the show. His monologue definitely contains some things we hadn't heard about two weeks ago. Nope, he didn't get the Earnest joke at all, ITA. I laughed very hard indeed, enjoyed this one enormously. Well done!