A sense of humor about oneself is crucial to survival. So thumbs up, Linds. But, damnit, stop looking at the teleprompter! Memorize your lines. You know how to do that. Remember when you were 12 and you could do that plus juggle accents, act with yourself convincingly never flubbing a sight line and risk comparison to Hayley Mills? Hayley freaking Mills! And that was your feature debut. [sigh]
This post has been brought to you by Nathaniel's recent unplanned cable screening of Parent Trap(1998) in which this 'redhead with a little bit of sass' was completely awesome, Dennis Quaid leaned with ease on his familiar megawatt charms and Natasha Richardson was unexpectedly funny. [sniffle] *
"If I only could, I'd make a deal with God. And get him to link our places...."
This Woman's Link fourfour has a thang for Kate Bush. So many memories are embedded in this post I felt like my heart was going to burst whilst my mind was blown. I l-o-v-e Kate Bush. That is all. Where's her biopic? And who on earth would be gorgeous enough but suitably bonkers to play her?
Wuthering Links Blog Stage Jane Fonda and Angela Lansbury: "non-divas" Gawker is Warren Beatty holding up the rights to the Dick Tracy franchise. Did you even remember that this could have been one? Speaking of Dick Tracy... Boy Culture Madonna as Jeanne Moreau in Bay of Angels. Sorta... Screengrab inaugurates a new series "Not on DVD" with the bio Patty Hearst (1988) starring Natasha Richardson. /Film the strange case of the distributorless Jim Carrey/Ewan Macgregor prison love story I Love You Phillip Morris Victim of the Time the best review of Duplicity ever? World of Wonder says goodbye to Oscar nominee Betsy Blair (Marty). In the photo with this post she's pictured with Nathaniel's two all time favorite classic male movie stars. How about that?!
And finally, have to leave you with this pointed bit from Jimmy Kimmel Live. Portia De Rossi apologizing to everyone she hurt by marrying Ellen DeGeneres.
The family of actress Natasha Richardson (The White Countess) officially released the news earlier today. She was declared dead today at the age of 45. What seemed like a minor skiing accident on a practice trail in Quebec (she reportedly walked away from the fall, laughing) quickly morphed into a life ending tragedy. Head trauma and brain injuries are mysterious things and difficult to predict (here's an article with a neurologist theorizing on the matter).
This is a loss to everyone who enjoyed her work and of course especially tragic for her family, one of the most important film and stage families of the past century. Natasha's father, Oscar winning director Tony Richardson (Tom Jones) passed away in 1991 but her mother, the legendary Vanessa Redgrave is still vital and working. Natasha performed with Vanessa just two months ago here in New York City as mother in daughter in Stephen Sondheim's classic A Little Night Music. That will be an even more cherished memory now to any fans who attended. They also shared acting duties in Natasha's last film to be released in the US, Evening (2007). And in The White Countess (2005) she shared the screen impressively with both mother and aunt, Lynn Redgrave, a great rental choice should you want to enjoy her gift soon in this sad time. Natasha only shared the screen with her sister Joely Richardson (Nip/Tuck) once. They were both little children when they appeared (uncredited) in their dad's film The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968).
Natasha is survived by her two sons and her husband Liam Neeson. The couple met on the set of a TV miniseries in 1984 and began dating while sharing the stage in Broadway's Anna Christie in the early 90s. They were married in 1994 just months before their only feature film together, Nell (pictured left) was released.
Finally, here is a look at Natasha in her TONY winning Cabaret performance in the amazing Broadway revival. She's doing one of the all time great show tunes... "Maybe This Time"
With talent like that, we all won for a time.
I haven't written about the Richardson/Redgrave/Neeson family as much as I probably should have given their plentiful contributions to the screen but I hope to do more retrospectives in the future. A look back at Schindler's List was already in the works (soon) and Liam was featured in one of this site's most popular pieces, 40 Favorite Actors of the Aughts published in early 2006. Retrospectives of the entire decade's best work and films begin this fall.
Reports are coming fast and furious and not all of them agree on details but the lovely Natasha Richardson was in a skiing accident Monday. Liam Neeson, her husband, left the set of his latest film to be with her [LA Times]. Natasha hasn't been onscreen a lot lately but she triumphed on stage in the revival of Cabaret on Broadway in the 90s (and Sally Bowles isn't an easy part to play, despite the numerous women who took turns filling her shoes when she moved on). Just a few years ago she was radiant and center stage in the underappreciated Merchant/Ivory pictureThe White Countess (pictured left) opposite Ralph Fiennes. Here's a great fansite.
Let's hope that some of the more ominous reports, some mentioning traumatic brain injuries and death, are incorrect. Official details from her family are expected to emerge soon.
Natasha and her mother, the legendary Vanessa Redgrave, last March in London. [Photo source]
Update March 18th @ 2:56 Still no official word from her family according to the NY Times but many news sources are still proclaiming worst case scenarios such as "brain death" or "on life support". Here's an explanation of how these delayed brain injuries operate. Terrible terrible news.
It's a very cinematic year for the Tony Awards with lots of plays and musicals with previous film incarnations in the running... If you've never seen a Broadway show but have seen the following movies Glengarry Glenn Ross, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Sweet Charity, The Birdcageor La Cage Aux Folles, Little Women, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang than you've got half the categories covered. This is obviously not a good thing for the health of the theater BUT it will probably make the Awards show a lot more fun to play along at home with...
PLAYDoubt (7 noms) by John Patrick Shanley (known to filmgoers for his Oscarwinning screenplay for Moonstruck) and Glengarry Glen Ross (6 noms), the very well received revival of David Mamet's play, seem to be leading the play nominations. Rossbecame a 1992 film featuring Al Pacino and Jack Lemmon and is now, 13 years later, back on the Great White Way. The mixed-to-poorly received revivals of Tenessee Williams masterpieces A Streetcar Named Desire starring Natasha Richardson and the improbably cast John C Reilly and The Glass Menagerie with Jessica Lange were mostly ignored as was Denzel Washington's star turn in Julius Caesar--so the name recognition factor only went so far this year...
MUSICAL Spamalot!, the latest box office behemoth to hit Broadway seems to be sucking up a gargantuan portion of the nominations (14) in the musical category. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and The Light in the Piazza also did well. Not faring well at all was Little Women, one of the earliest entries which nabbed only a nod for cutesy Sutton Foster.
...now that the nominations are announced, watch for the closing notices to go up for the shows that didn't do well or were completely shut out. Goodbye Brooklyn the Musical and good riddance!
