Posted on January 27, 2014 at 3:14 pm
I got to get an early glimpse of a couple of scenes from this reboot of the classic cartoon, and it looks like a lot of fun. Recognize the voices? The brilliant scientist and adoptive father who happens to be a canine is voiced by “Modern Family’s” Ty Burrell and his TV daughter Ariel Winter as Penny.
And here’s a reminder of the original from the Jay Ward “Rocky and Bullwinkle” series.
Posted on January 27, 2014 at 9:01 am
If you saw Paul Williams on the Grammys last night and want to know more, take a look at the superb documentary Paul Williams Still Alive
He won Grammys and an Academy Award; wrote many #1 songs; starred in a Brian DePalma movie; put out his own hit records and albums; was a guest on The Tonight Show fifty times; and is the president of ASCAP… and you might not have heard of him. In the 1970’s, Paul Williams was the singer / actor / songwriter that emotional, alienated teenage boys all over the world wanted to be, a sex symbol before MTV, when sex symbols could be 5″2 and sing songs about loneliness with the Muppets.
And then…
Good to have him back.
Posted on January 27, 2014 at 8:00 am
“Philomena,” star Dame Judi Dench, screenwriters Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope, and composer Alexandre Desplat are all nominated for Oscars this year. It is the real-life story of Philomena Lee, who joined Coogan at the Golden Globes as a presenter earlier this month and spoke with great dignity about the women, like her, who were mistreated by the Magdalene sisters and forced to give up their babies for adoption.
In the movie, Coogan plays Martin Sixsmith, a journalist who helped Philomena find out what happened to her son, who was adopted by Americans. The Daily Mail has an interview and some photos of Philomena and Michael.
Philomena’s story is complex and harrowing, and yet the first thing that strikes you about Philomena herself is that she bears no rancour. She’s seen the film twice, she tells me, ‘and the first time was stressful, but the second time I enjoyed it, and I was so glad that they didn’t harp on about the Catholic church because I wouldn’t have wanted that’.
In Politico, writer Todd Purdum provides some additional information about the boy Philomena called Anthony Lee, and who was renamed Michael Anthony Hess when he was adopted at age 3. As shown in the movie, an American couple intended to adopt a little girl named Mary, to whom Anthony was devoted. Impulsively, they decided to take him, too.
Half a century later, Sixsmith brought Philomena to Washington, D.C., to find out what happened to him. He had become a lawyer, served as chief legal counsel to the Republican National Committee, and died of AIDS in 1995. His close friends knew he was gay, but he was not out in his professional life. Before he died, he made two trips to Ireland to try to find his mother, and his last request was to be buried at the convent where he was born.
Steve Dahllof, Hess’s partner for the last 15 years of his life, said in a telephone interview that the book was “about a three out of 10, in terms of accuracy,” while the movie, “in accuracy of spirit, is 10 out of 10.”
While the abuses of the Magdalene sisters in the 1950’s are documented, the movie has been criticized for its portrayal of the contemporary nuns and heightening some of the scenes for dramatic effect.
Posted on January 26, 2014 at 11:42 pm
Lana Del Ray sings “Once Upon a Dream” in this new peek at the upcoming “Malificent,” starring Angelina Jolie as Sleeping Beauty’s evil fairy.
Posted on January 26, 2014 at 3:59 pm
If you miss seeing Dan Stevens in “Downton Abbey,” here’s a chance to see him back in pre-WWI England again, here’s your chance, in “Summer in February,” based on the true story of painter A.J. Munnings
