Gossip Central

Deconstructing a Dutch Master: Tim’s Vermeer

When the Frick Museum featured “Girl with a Pearl Earring” in “Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Hals: Masterpieces of Dutch Painting from the Mauritshius,” its formidable Fall exhibition that just completed a 3-month run, curators could not have anticipated a timely coincidence: that a new documentary in which a humble, self-effacing and very talented inventor seeking to copy Vermeer ‘s “The Music Lesson,” would be taken up by the duo Penn & Teller. Teller’s directorial debut, Tim’s Vermeer, follows Texas-based Tim Jenison as he constructs a room taken from the famous painting; the original is housed in Buckingham Palace. Jenison has one of his daughters model for the young woman at the harpsichord, and essentially repaints the Dutch masterpiece, all on the hunch that Vermeer crafted the work using mirrors. The Frick show underscores Vermeer’s greatness, while the documentary demystifies the notion of high art. 

Uma Thurman Reads from Moby Dick and Salman Rushdie Wins a Prize at House of Speakeasy

Good news: the written word thrives downtown. The brainchild of Doctor Amanda Foreman, the author of historical works like Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire, “House of Speakeasy” was founded to keep writers visible, engaged with audiences, and earning money for their craft. At a sold-out salon at City Winery on Monday night, the first of a series, some writers who do, also showed another side of their chops as performers: moderated by humorist Andy Borowitz, authors Adam Gopnik (The Table Comes First: Family, France, and the Meaning of Food), Susan Orlean (The Orchid Thief), Simon Winchester (The Men Who United the States), and songwriter Dar Williams sang—in other words, working writers at The New Yorker magazine and other venues-- who also earn a living—told stories on the theme of “plays with matches.”

An Irish Moonstruck: Outside Mullingar with Debra Messing and Brian F. O’Byrne

It would be impossible to imagine two more wrong-headed individuals than Anthony Reilly and Rosemary Muldoon, the next-door neighbors in John Patrick Shanley’s new play, Outside Mullingar. The idea that they would live side by side for their entire lives and not realize their desires for one another strains the imagination. But if the playwright of Doubt is looking for a fresh window into the human heart, or a way to express his inner Irishman, this old school play at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater, produced by the Manhattan Theater Club and directed by Doug Hughes, is surprisingly satisfying, especially in our age of social media with its laconic exclamations.

Josh Groban’s Master Class on HBO

For the 18th edition of YoungArts on HBO, Josh Groban, the youngest ever to give such a class, challenges three YoungArts alumni to write a song in two days. Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon, Academy Award winning documentarians, follow the creation and ultimate performances of the SB3 (Super Baby 3), Miranda Scott Johnson, David Stewart, Jr., and Elena Pinderhughes, all the way from brainstorming to the ultimate performance with Groban in Boston. It’s a thrilling ride, entertaining as a reality show, but with Groban’s insights about what works and what doesn’t useful to anyone who is learning anything. Josh Groban charmingly seems surprised as his pupils succeed so well in this process. As a display of what YoungArts, a foundation dedicated to providing life-changing experiences to young artists, can do, this film is both entertaining and inspiring. On Monday night at a special screening at MoMA, they all performed their song, “Fade Away” for family and friends. Everyone could see, these young artists have a big future.

Regina Weinreich

Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura

 

Salinger: The Documentary on PBS

It’s fitting that the 200^th episode of American Masters on PBS features writer J. D. Salinger, an author so influential it is hard to imagine the course of 20^th century American literature without his imprint of lost innocence in the novel The Catcher in the Rye. Not only are at least three assassination attempts attributed to this book, but much in the arts bear its stamp. Just look in the Museum of Modern Arts’ Education Center’s display of a facsimile of the first edition, an act of appropriation by Richard Prince, and thereby an appreciation. Featuring interviews with notables: John Guare, Edward Norton, Philip Seymour Hoffman, A. Scott Berg, Phoebe Hoban and many others, this copiously researched documentary also has Joyce Maynard and the “Esme” girl, Jean Miller, telling their side of seduction and betrayal by Salinger. Back in September, when the film first screened at MoMA, Simon & Schuster published a valuable accompanying volume compiled by David Shields and Salinger’s filmmaker Shane Salerno.

Sam Berns, Star of Life According to Sam Dies at Age 17

 
Among the fine documentaries on the short list for Oscars is HBO’s Life According to Sam. Not your usual leading man, its star Sam Berns was an odd looking teen, bald and pin headed because of a genetic disease, Progeria, so rare few have heard of it. Last summer Life According to Sam made the rounds of the film festivals, garnering praise for the filmmakers Sean Fine and Andrea Nix, the husband and wife team who made the Oscar winning short, Inocente, about a talented artist who was also a homeless teen. At the Nantucket Film Festival in late June, I had the opportunity to meet the filmmakers, Sam, and his remarkable parents, doctors Leslie Gordon and Scott Berns. You could call them Sam’s secret weapon, committed to curing this disease, not only for their son, but for the children worldwide who endure it, dying by the time they reach 13. Creating a foundation, they researched, finding ways to impede Progeria’s quick progression.

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical: Bright on Broadway

Woody Allen sat aisle right next to his wife Soon Yi opening night of the new musical Beautiful, about fellow Brooklynite Carole King. Well, everybody has to be somewhere! Where he wasn’t? Picking up the Golden Globes Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award in Los Angeles. Diane Keaton accepted the statue for him. Nevertheless, he endured his own limelight, grimacing as a fan took a picture with an iPhone. Nearby Jerry Seinfeld chatted with Katie Couric, and checked the football scores on the way out. But hey, noted a companion, at least he was there. Elsewhere present: Clive Davis and Phil Collins. Sting and Trudie Styler just back from L.A. joined in for the party at Cipriani 42^nd Street. Whatever was going on out west, the place to be in New York on Sunday was the Stephen Sondheim Theater. That’s because the show Beautiful really is.

Anticipating the Golden Globes: One High Tea and Two Lunches

When a fan tells him she’s tongue tied, Martin Scorsese becomes wildly animated: “Why? You don’t need to be. It’s just me,” and gives her a hug. You could say his buoyant spirit reflects some optimism. It was Tuesday, and he’d just been nominated for the Directors Guild Award. Now surrounded by friends and colleagues at a luncheon at Michael’s, he would receive an award for collaboration with Leonardo DiCaprio at the National Board of Review gala that night. It was all good. New Year’s week is a bit like the circus comes to town: and in a day or so, they’d all leave town for L.A. and the Golden Globes on Sunday where his film Wolf of Wall Street may pick up a Best Motion Picture-Comedy Award.

Meryl Streep’s Ode to Emma Thompson at the National Board of Review Gala

What can’t Meryl Streep do? Presenting a Best Actress award to her friend Emma Thompson, she offered the 700 gala guests of the National Board of Review at Cipriani 42^ndStreet an option, a short speech of praise, or a longer complaint. I don’t remember a show of hands. Wearing a souvenir trucker hat emblazoned with the words, “Prize Winner” evoking Woody played by Bruce Dern in Nebraska, Streep launched into her kvetch with full gusto. “I’m not the prize winner,” noted Streep in mock rivalry, “That’s so weird.” Recounting instances of Walt Disney’s gender bias, in her final moments of praise for Thompson, she recited a poem she composed in her honor, ending:

Harry Belafonte Makes History at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards

In 1935, at age 5, Harry Belafonte saw his first movie, Tarzan, and knew he never wanted to be one of those people from Africa. This bit of personal history was the entry point for the 87-year old performer and activist, putting the achievement of Steve McQueen, the British director of 12 Years a Slave in the context of this country’s untoward history. He looked forward to more work from McQueen, but even if his career ended now, 12 Years a Slave was enough to move the conversation about slavery in America to a new place. Belafonte’s speech limning his experience of racial identity was so powerful that when the critics’ group’s choice for the best film, American Hustle, was presented by veteran director and film historian Peter Bogdanovich, the evening’s finale in a night honoring excellent work in cinema, director David O. Russell left the stage at The Edison Hotel speechless.