Gossip Central

Mamma Mia!

“If you don't like spandex and platform boots, you can leave quietly now,” announced producer Judy Craymer at the Mamma Mia! premiere at the Southampton Cinema Sunday night, before introducing “the most kissable” star Pierce Brosnan who said of making this dizzying, Dionysian spectacle, and showcase for those addictive Abba tunes: “We had the time of our lives.” Fans of the long running Broadway musical and skeptics alike will find much to love in this fairy tale of female bonding: postcard perfect Greece, the irresistible performance of Meryl Streep as Donna, an American raising a daughter (Amanda Seyfried) on a tiny mountainous island where she runs a rundown bed and breakfast. On the eve of marriage to Sky (Dominic Cooper), Sophia secretly invites three men she suspects of being her dad, on the basis of mom's 20 year old diary, to escort her down the aisle: Brosnan and fellow cocksmen Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard. Donna imports her gal pals (Christine Baranski and Julie Walters), back up singers from their defunct rock group Donna and the Dynamos, and part of the merriment in this celebration of spirited women is reviving their old act in full regalia thanks to the superb work of costume veteran Ann Roth. The movie is a chain of joyful, jaw-dropping song and dance numbers: a Greek chorus of villagers that pop up at random to accompany Streep singing rooftop, a bachelor party cum flipper dance; Walters's valiant turn on “Take a Chance on Me” ensures that no one goes uncoupled; and, a rousing rendition of “Dancing Queen,” has you gasping, what was that bulbous thing between your ample long legs, Christine? Mamma Mia! Yes, Craymer told me at the lavish after party at the Parrish Art Museum honoring Evelyn Lauder's Breast Cancer Research Foundation sponsored by Pink Blackberry Curve, Bloomberg, and Conde Nast Portfolio, despite that bawdy British humor, they got a PG-13 rating! Christine Baranski was flown into East Hampton's airport by helicopter after the matinee performance of “Boeing! Boeing!” for the party, and this being the Hamptons, the limo transporting her through the towns on Sunday night hit so much traffic, she may as well have taken the Jitney from the city. Nevertheless she joined the happy crowd: I saw Barbara Walters at the screening, and spotted many guys (lest you think this was strictly a girls' night out): Marty Richards, Ted Hartley, Terry George, David Margolick, Steven Gaines, Bob Balaban, Bob Colacello, among those boogying and cheerfully chowing down on moussaka, stuffed grape leaves and grilled lamb-and Pierce Brosnan who played the elegant but stiff 007 and these over-the-top comedic roles with such finesse. Which does he prefer? “You only go once, Baby,” he said three times with a wink. “I love it all.”

Regina Weinreich

Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura

Momma Mia! (trailer)

Hellboy 2

You may not find lobster your ideal complexion hue for an action hero. Hellboy, nicknamed Red (Ron Perlman) is not Robert Downey Jr. as Ironman. Nevertheless with his Kojak-style appeal and quick wit, thanks to the clever imagination of writer/director Guillermo del Toro, he has charm galore. Del Toro is, of course, the creative mind behind the 2006 Oscar nominated Pan's Labyrinth, a film that was so astonishingly original that everyone waited to see what del Toro would dream up next. Hellboy, based on the comics by Mike Mignola, is a more formulaic work with a twist: this epic savior as a  young boy watches Howdy Dowdy, pondering the nature of existence as if he were an ordinary earthling instead of a demon, and faithfully squelches evildoers despite an ungrateful public. On Sunday night, at a post-screening dinner in East Hampton's Cittanuova, Chuck Scarborough, Tracy Feith, Joe Pintauro, among many others, dined and delighted in the director's work. Del Toro's drawings for the movie's spectacular creatures: elves, goblins, giant beanstalks, and the apish Mr. Wink were featured in Sunday's New York Times. Clearly, he is the right man for "The Hobbit." And, check out the incendiary Selma Blair!

Regina Weinreich

Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura

Hellboy 2 (trailer)

Celebrating Gonzo

When Alex Gibney was cutting his documentary, “Taxi to the Dark Side,” the Academy Award winning investigation of the grim business of a simple Iraqi man tortured to death in Bagram Prison in Afganistan, he would go into the next room to work on his documentary on Hunter S. Thompson for comic relief. Now that film is about to open, appropriately for the 4th of July. Thompson, originator of gonzo journalism, investigated “the American Dream,” embedded himself with the Hell's Angels, reported on American politics for “Rolling Stone,” and wrote one of the funniest books in the language, “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.” Gibney's prismatic biopic (a high just watching), narrated by Johnny Depp and featuring interviews with Pat Buchanan, Jimmy Carter, a diverse who's who in contemporary American culture, reveals Thompson's development as a writer (he obsessively typed out “The Great Gatsy”) as well as the consuming fame that may have contributed to his suicide. Even talking about Hunter brings a tear to editor Jann Wenner's eyes, halting his tribute. Wenner as well as the film's producer Graydon Carter and a duly eclectic group including Meg Ryan, Arianna Huffington, Tom Wolfe, Gail Sheehy, Gay Talese, Lynn Nesbit, Dominic Dunne, Jimmy Buffett, etc. crowded into the hip Waverly Inn for a pre-screening party last week. Graphic designer George Lois who recently had a show of his classic Esquire covers at MoMA pointed out the Waverly Inn's mural, painted by New Yorker Magazine illustrator Edward Sorel: who could be Narcissus? asked Lois, reflecting on the literary/mythological conceit of the painting adorning the restaurant's walls. Norman Mailer is stretched out looking at his reflection in a pond. Near him, Jack Kerouac, a cigarette hanging out of his mouth works a surreal typewriter as Bob Dylan hovers above. Presidential historian and close Thompson ally Douglas Brinkley introduced me to Juan, the writer's son. “Gonzo,” for all its bravado, is also a warmly felt family portrait thanks to Juan and his mother, Thompson's first wife. Then William Kennedy and family piled into Sean MacPherson's jeep for a short trip to the Angelica theater for the screening. Brian Williams, the NBC newsman who sat in for the deceased Tim Russert on last Sunday's Meet the Press modestly explained the secret of a great talk show: get Joe Biden. And then he noted how great it is that Tom Brokaw volunteered to take on the awesome election season, calling from a cell phone, from a spot on his Montana ranch that's not a dead zone, to say he's in.
                  And speaking of dedication in media, Clay Felker, famed New York Magazine editor, has just died. You could say that gonzo is a branch of the New Journalism, the use of novelistic techniques in the reporting of news, much championed by Felker.

Regina Weinreich 

Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura

Gonzo (trailer)

Trumbo

Dalton Trumbo may have made his living as a screenwriter and novelist, but as a play and a new must-see documentary film make clear, Dalton Trumbo excelled at the dying literary art of letter writing as his Hollywood career was stifled during the McCarthy 'fifties. Comprised of nine A-list actors reading from his witty and searing letters-Joan Allen, Michael Douglas, Paul Giamatti, Brian Dennehy, Liam Neeson, Donald Sutherland, Josh Lucas among them--the film “Trumbo” takes us back to the era of blacklisting, when writers were hauled before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) to define their communist affiliation and name names. Defying them, Trumbo spent 11 months in jail. Adapted by his son Christopher from his 2003 Off Broadway play and directed by Peter Askin, “Trumbo” features performances of his words, archival interviews and resonant clips from his movies “Papillon,” “Spartacus,” “Exodus,” and “Johnny Got his Gun” all focused on characters showing integrity, all standing up for what is right in times of crisis. Trumbo's language stars, as does the true meaning of patriotism especially now when some invoke The Patriot Act to muzzle democratic discourse, when loyalties are so rigidly questioned as to violate our First Amendment. See The DixieChicks. Nathan Lane does a superb and hilarious rendition of Trumbo's riff on “servicing himself” using every euphemism in his ample arsenal. And David Strathairn who so brilliantly brought Edward R. Murrow to life in George Clooney's “Good Night and Good Luck,” reads Trumbo's letter of outrage addressed to his daughter Mitzi's teacher as the child was ostracized at school when her father's history became playground news. The toll on family for resisting fear and cowardice is a large part of the story of Trumbo and the Hollywood Ten whose lives and careers were disrupted by this "witch hunt." See Arthur Miller, "The Crucible." The footage of HUAC is an embarrassing reminder of what Trumbo called "a time of evil."

Regina Weinreich

Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura

Trumbo (trailer)

Campaigning at the Museum of the City of New York

Buttons proclaiming “Bloomberg in 2008” will not go to waste. They are part of a new exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York, focused on the city's role in the outcome of presidential elections. The buttons, collected by the late Jordan Wright from the time he was a 10-year old, sparked the idea for this historic and timely show. At the display's center sits a lectern in a plexi-glass case lent by the Great Hall at Cooper Union, where Abraham Lincoln had delivered a key speech. Standing in his place, one has a view of cardboard life sized figures of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain seeming to listen. “I Like Ike” socks, a stars and stripes Robert Kennedy for president paper mini dress, and Richard Nixon Good Humor bar wrappers all remind visitors of the whimsy behind the serious business of the elections. At the opening on Monday, Mayor Bloomberg assured the crowd that he did not attend this celebration of presidential memorabilia to endorse a candidate for the upcoming election of the 44th U.S. president, but for the 45th. And then he introduced Ed Koch who took the podium to say, of course it is better to win than to lose, but the people who worked on Hillary Clinton's efforts to become president will never forget the experience. His message: get involved. Get out and work for your candidate.

Regina Weinreich

Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura

Chuck Connelly Rediscovered

Charming, disarming, with a tendency to profanity and cynicism, Chuck Connelly strolled around the National Arts Club last Tuesday delighted so many showed up to see his art, and celebrate a new HBO documentary about him. He invited well-wishers like Mark Kostabi to a show at DFN Gallery in Chelsea on the weekend, and then he waited for the bubble to burst. Who is Chuck Connelly, you ask. Connelly was a darling of the '80's art scene, compared to Van Gogh, collected at the MetropolitanMuseum, emerging alongside Basquiat and Schnabel. In the first of the film trilogy Love Stories, scripted by Richard Price, who is now enjoying acclaim for his recent novel “Lush Life,” and directed by Martin Scorsese, Nick Nolte plays a Connelly type painting in his downtown loft. The much-admired oils were Connelly's. Clearly on a path toward major superstardom, Connelly nevertheless could not curb his dark side. Drunk, he trashed Scorsese famously in Page Six, as reported by George Rush. The rest is history in opposition: obscurity and exile to Philadelphia. The documentary, “The Art of Failure: Chuck Connelly Not for Sale,” directed by Jeff Stimmel to air on July 7, attempts to explain the artist's contempt for the art market and consequent demise. A belligerent alcoholic, he is one of a dying breed, modeled on the image of the rebellious artist. Yet he also considers the highly sellable Warhol his hero, and in a contrary mood rails against commercialism. While it hurts him to see “crappy” art emerging, to see his peers Basquiat and Schnabel get the attention, he exclaims, “Now it's my turn,” and then, “I'd like to see this film make people get tired of the bullshit.”?

Regina Weinreich 

Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura