Gossip Central

Roman Polanski: Wanted, Desired, and in his Own Words

Known as much for his personal life as for his film career, director Roman Polanski’s last scandal, for having illegal sex with a 13 year old and his flight from justice, still polarizes the public. “I don’t care,” said one viewer after a private screening of a new documentary, Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir, a conversation between his longtime friend, producer Andrew Braunsberg and the filmmaker while he was under house arrest in Gstaad, Switzerland, “he still had sex with a teen.”

Bowling for Our Time and West Side Story on Broadway

Among the many theater talents donning their bowling shoes at Lucky Strike on Monday night in support of Our Time—Paul Rudd, Steve Kazee, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Eve Plumb, Noah Emmerich, Mariska Hargitay, to name a few, one stood out: Julianna Padilla. A young woman who bravely introduced herself in a determined effort, illustrating a mastery of strength over stutter, then blew the crowd away singing “Put Your Hand Up,” her own composition. Her act illustrated the success of an organization committed to helping young people who stutter step forward in school, theater, and life with skill and confidence.

Dr. Ruth on Sex in The Sessions

Excuse the pun: When Peggy Siegal introduced The Sessions as the feel good movie of the year at a special screening Thursday night, she was not kidding. Based on the true story of Mark O’Brien, a poet who spent much of his time in an iron lung, a result of childhood polio, The Sessions tells of his “first time” at age 38, thanks to the permission he gets from a Catholic priest (William H. Macy) and the expertise of a sexual surrogate (Helen Hunt as you have never seen her).

Chasing Ice: Weather Woes: Meltdown in the Forecast

A documentary exploring one photographer’s obsession with man in nature, Chasing Ice must be one of the most beautiful films of the year. But the raw splendor of ice, in the far reaches of Iceland and Greenland to name a few locations, belies a grim truth: global warming is real. As photographer James Balog pointed out at a special screening Wednesday night that included Harry Belafonte, Judd Hirsch, Israel Horowitz, Josh Mostel, among many others at the Museum of Art and Design, the public perception is that there is a debate going, but in actual fact the science on global warming is clear. The question is, what are we going to do about climate change while we have a chance?

The Girl on HBO: Do Blondes Have More Fun?

British actress Sienna Miller plays Tippi Hedren to Toby Jones’ Alfred Hitchcock in the HBO movie The Girl. Observing the movie’s star at this year’s Hamptons International Film Festival receive honors at “Variety’s 10 to Watch: Breakthrough Performers of 2012,” a brunch held at Nick & Toni’s, you think, oh yes, blondes have it all. The group includes a blond or two: Dree Hemingway who headlines Starlet assures viewers that she had a body double in some of her most risqué scenes. But to see The Girl, which airs this weekend, is to witness vulnerability.

Substance Abuse: Flight Closes the New York Film Festival

Flight, Robert Zemeckis’s new movie, closed the New York Film Festival with a bang, taking you aboard a plane falling apart in heavy winds. Pilot Whip (Denzel Washington), seen drinking heavily before and during this disaster, maintains his demeanor, landing the plane with less damage than you would imagine. He is a hero, but as a husband, father, lover, he’s the proverbial eh, plane wreck.

Two Films from Israel at the New York Film Festival: Fill the Void and The Gatekeepers

Is it too soon to talk about Foreign Film Oscars? Fill the Void, Rama Burshtein’s glimpse into Tel Aviv’s Hasidic world, Israel’s entry for Academy Award consideration, should make the top five. Among the many pleasures of the New York Film Festival in its 50^th year, this stunning drama takes the viewer into the marriage practices of a hermetic community, offering an intimate, if fictional view, of how matches are made. Ultimately a love story, Fill the Void is most surprising in revealing unexpected emotional connection and subdued passion in places where love is most often a last consideration.

Ann Roth: Reluctant Honoree at the Hamptons International Film Festival

How do you pay tribute to a star in the film industry, playfully dubbed “The Meryl Streep of Costume Design?” That was the dilemma Nathan Lane faced in front of a crowd at the Hamptons International Film Festival that included Scott Rudin, Bruce Weber, and eh, Meryl Streep. “You have to say something nice,” said Lane by way of lauding Ann Roth’s genius. But Roth would have none of it. Horrified when director Mike Nichols announced that they’d worked together for 47 years, she seemed horrified that she was honored at all.

Grace on Broadway: Let Us Now Pray

The play Grace, written by Craig Wright and directed by Dexter Bullard, takes stylistic liberties, showing the end at the beginning, and playing scenes in reverse, almost cinematically, so that the actor Paul Rudd walks backwards trying desperately to return to pre-cataclysmic grace. But as you can guess, some things you simply can’t take back, particularly if there is a weapon involved, and you know, in theater, what happens once you see a gun. Of all the risks taken in Grace, however, the biggest is seeing the ever affable, perfect Paul Rudd pushed to the edge, as the maniacal heavy.