Will Best Selling Novel Find Film Audience?

“I’ve learned it’s very difficult to articulate a lot of things about experience. It’s probably why I became a writer.” __ Susan Minot

Will the film version of Minot's best selling novel Evening translate to screen as beautifully as The Hours? While Minot originally attempted to adapt Evening for screen, the task eventually went to Michael Cunningham (The Hours). Expect changes between Minot's novel and the film version.

Perhaps more importantly, will Evening find an audience today as films like say Steel Magnolias or Terms of Endearment did in the 1980's? Evening opens in theatres this week with a stellar cast.

Paul Potts Wins Britian's Got Talent!

Paul Potts triumphed tonight in final competition on Britian's Got Talent.

He won't be returning to his day job selling mobile phones in South Wales. Instead, Potts heads for the recording studio to cut his first album.

Potts wins £100,000 and the chance to sing for HRH The Queen at a Royal Variety Performance in December. He wowed the judges and audience once again with Puccini's Nessun Dorma. Bravo!

Winner Announced:

Brenda Leigh Johnson Down To Her Bones

Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson returns for a third summer season in The Closer on Monday night and I'm happy.

If Jane Tennison returned in another episode of Prime Suspect one day, I'd be thrilled.

Juicy screen roles for women with a little seasoning under their hats seem few and far between. The lead in The Closer was originally written for a male. It looks like there's a trend brewing as more talented actresses play lead and ensemble roles in cable and network television series.

Anytime we see exceptional writing for exceptional talent, we breathe a sigh of relief and relish the storytelling. While the writer brings a character to life on the page, both Kyra Sedgwick and Helen Mirren help us discover Brenda and Jane down to their bones.

Brenda and Jane could be us. We connect. We understand them. We feel their disappointment and glow with pride in their triumphs. We've been there. We enjoy watching them reveal who they are in ways which surprise us---and them.

The two remain different in personality, if not in their approach to life and career.

Take a look:

Addictions: Brenda is addicted to sweets, Jane to alcohol.

Sex & Relationships: Brenda satisfies her sexual libido with a guy from the office. Ditto for Jane. Their relationships develop into more than one-night stands.

Saying What They Mean: Brenda uses a true Southerner's affinity for meaningful metaphor when describing a situation. Jane uses the English language. Brenda and Jane never mince words.

Fashion Sense: Brenda's wears off-the-rack ensembles, perhaps Target-like vintage. Sometimes they're flowery and quirky with a classic jacket over a short dress or skirt. Jane often prefers white blouses, classic skirts and jackets, and sensible heels. She begins wearing colored blouses, a single strand of pearls and nice scarves. Fashion remains a necessary afterthought at first as both evolve their own sense of style.

Heart: Brenda often hides her heart. Jane hides hers. Both are softies who wear a suit of armor and tough-as-nails attitude. A natural survival instinct, look at their line of work.

Humor: Brenda comes with a sense of humor. Jane either lost it along the way or never had one.

Love & Family: Brenda grapples with insecurity, commitment, parental approval, and a ticking biological clock. Jane struggles with most of these same issues. And don't forget about Jane's abortion decision as her own biological clock ticked down.

Professional Reputation: Brenda's competency and skill drives her boss and the other guys a little nuts. As rivalry among department peers and her own staff develop, she deftly works around and through it. Ditto for Jane. Both face sabotage and work to restore their professional reputation.

As Helen Mirren discovered Jane Tennison, we grew to love and accept Jane along with her often self-destructive behaviors and misguided relationships between home and office. We rallied around Jane when plum assignments and promotions passed her by. We worried about Jane when she drove herself to right criminal wrong doing---she was losing herself in the process. And there were times when we didn't know if Jane would see the light of tomorrow.


During interviews promoting last year's final episode, Mirren remarked how easy it was for her to play Jane Tennison even after being away from the role several years. She said that it was as if she were meeting 'an old friend.' Mirren wore Jane well.

Kyra Sedgwick admits that after first turning down the role of Brenda Leigh Johnson, she kept hearing a voice in her head say Prime Suspect. We're happy she listened. Like Mirren wears Jane, Sedgwick wears Brenda well. Both actresses know who these characters are right down to their bones.

Photo Credits: The Closer, TNT and Prime Suspect, Granada Television

I'm Paul Potts . . . Cell Phone Salesman's Opera Dreams

Great dreams, great talent, great inspiration! Paul Potts secures semi-final win this week on Britian's Got Talent.

British Cell Phone Salesman's Opera Dreams

Paul Potts sells mobile phones in South Wales, United Kingdom and holds a great dream of singing opera. Paul's audition for Britian's Got Talent brought the audience to their feet and landed him a spot to compete. Take a listen to Paul singing one of Puccini's most famous arias Nessun Dorma (None Shall Sleep) from Turandot. Bravo, Paul!

The Sopranos Cuts To Black In Final Hour

Wow! Brilliant. Series creator David Chase wrote and directed the final episode--he does not disappoint. From scene to scene, deliberate moment to moment. As real as one could have envisioned. A needles and pins riveting finale without resolution. Hamburgers and onion rings. Made In America. Of course it would end this way, it's The Sopranos.

Photo Credit: Will Hart/HBO

Made In America . . . The Sopranos Final Hit List

OK. I called my friends in New York. Here's my friend Larry's prediction for tonight's final episode. It's worth sharing.

Tony lives. The worse thing that could happen? Hit his family. Carmella is expendable. He'll be upset, angry. Feel guilty. And return to business as usual.

Carmella hit. Why? She's a phony. Lives a double-standard. Contrary to the Soprano clan theory that family members are not targets, they do get hit sometimes.

Dr. Melfi hit. Everyone knows Tony's been seeing a shrink for years. Who knows what she knows. Another Phil's "no scraps in my scrapbox" solution.

Paulie lives. Which ever way the wind blows, you always know where he stands.

Nancy's Sidebar: If this happens, Tony will move to Las Vegas and smoke peyote the rest of his depressed life. AJ escapes the hit (remember he's with Carmella)and joins a terrorist cell because he's confused, lost, and stupid. Meadow survives and goes to law school.

Photo Credits: HBO

Made In America . . . The Sopranos Family Ties Cut Chord

Tomorrow. One day.
And in less than one hour of small screen time, millions will watch a bittersweet ending to The Sopranos.

This feels alot different than anticipating the last episode of MASH, Seinfeld, or Friends.

Mastermind David Chase began picking off our closest "Family Ties" clan before Memorial Day. Tony's cold-blooded suffocation of Christopher left most of us rationalizing the act. Of course Tony would kill Christopher, he'd become more than a liability for Tony, we'd been waiting for Christopher to take a powder.

Of course Dr. Melfi cuts the chord to Tony, we figured she would. Finally. A great line in last Sunday's episode occurred as Melfi sat at a dinner table with fellow shrinks. Discussion turned to the relationship between shrinks and criminal sociopaths. Elliot offers a clue about Melfi's star patient, "the answer is: a female opera singer and gangster." As Silvio and Patsy leave the Bada Bing for Patsy's car, you know it's an ambush waiting to happen. When Bobby heads into the train shop, you know he won't come out.

Can I say this now? I've never cared for the Soprano kids. Not AJ in his meltdown, tragic and ironic as it is. Or Meadow as she matures into a respectable moral beacon of hope for Carmella and Tony. No matter what Meadow becomes, it doesn't stand up to Tony's expectation for AJ. Of course not, gender has a pecking order.



I figure Tony's done for. One day. We'll watch and see.

Photo: HBO

Sgt. Pepper Turns 40

A very cool album cover, this album's music changed music forever, and most of us spent hours in the dorm room listening for "Paul is dead" clues.

Here's a few of the most notable clues:

1) "Paul is dead" was rumored to be heard on A Day In The Life and Strawberry Fields ---a song recorded for Sgt. Pepper's but not included in the album's release

2) Lyrics which we believed referred to Paul's death in a car accident: "Wednesday morning at five o'clock," "Nothing to do to save his life," "He blew his mind out in a car, he didn't notice that the light had changed."

3) The flower arrangement on the album cover looks like one at a funeral, and

4) Paul is the only Beatle not facing the camera in a photo on the back cover.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Album Tracks:

1. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
2. With A Little Help From My Friends
3. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
4. Getting Better
5. Fixing A Hole
6. She's Leaving Home
7. Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!
8. Within You Without You
9. When I'm Sixty-Four
10. Lovely Rita
11. Good Morning Good Morning
12. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
13. A Day In The Life

Nia Helps Launch Mary J. Blige "Reflections"

What becomes a legend most? Nia launching Mary J. Blige's latest "essential collection" CD, along with recent features on The Today Show and in the New York Daily News.

La Môme . . . No Regrets, Piaf Film Portrait Triumphs

Crippled by arthritis and alcohol, La Môme struggles onto L'Olympia's concert stage with help from a morphine shot and the sheer will to sing once more. Olivier Dahan's poignant film portrait of Edith Piaf belongs to Parisian-born actress Marion Cotillard. Cotillard must have been channeling The Little Sparrow, her performance captures Piaf as spectacularly and exhaustingly as she lived.

Opening in early June as La Vie En Rose across the U.S., Dahan's stunning tribute recently closed the 50th Anniversary San Francisco International Film Festival. Dahan alternated speaking in French and English during a Q&A exchange with SF Film Society's Executive Director, Graham Leggat and the audience.

Dahan's inspiration for making the film came from a photograph of Piaf. He then set about reading everything he could find. He chose not to interview friends or others who knew her best because he wanted to develop his own interpretation of who she was. Dahan's initial script came in at 240 pages, the final came in at 140---still 40-60 pages longer than most screenplays today.

Unlike most of us, Dahan said that he doesn't consider Piaf an icon, (no one asked him who he does consider to be one). However, when asked what it was like to make the film, Dahan replied, "It was like standing at the base of an enormous mountain."

Dahan's technique of alternating flashbacks with "present" pivotal moments of triumph and tragedy is startling and perfect. In explaining why he placed one of Piaf's little known personal tragedies near the film's end, he said it was to honor how she herself handled it, 'Piaf never spoke about it in life' and he didn't want viewers to "dwell on it" throughout the film. That Dahan revealed this issue during Piaf's final hours was another brilliant choice.

It's hard to believe that Dahan doesn't consider Piaf an icon --- he so clearly honors her in one of the most---stunning (did I say that enough already?)---character portraits ever produced on film. Dahan said he feels proud. When long-time friends of Piaf finally saw the completed film, they told him, "Yes, that's her. You got her right."

SF International Film Festival At 50

San Francisco International Film Festival's 50th Anniversary celebration rolls into its final week with more innovative works and events. In between premieres and engaging world cinema offerings, this week's highlights include panels, live and onstage events,the Golden Gate Awards, and a closing night celebration:

Brand Upon The Brain! May 7, 8 p.m., The Castro
Join acclaimed director Guy Maddin, a 13-piece ensemble, foley artists, a benshi-like narrator, and a castrato

Rape of Europa, May 7 6:30 p.m., Kabuki Sundance Cinema

Ad Lib Night, May 7, 9p.m, Kabuki Sundance Cinema
North American Premiere, with Korean Director Lee Yoon Ki in attendance

Five-O Stories and Images From 50 Years Of The SF International
May 8, 6:30 p.m., Kabuki Sundance Cinema

Golden Gate Awards, May 9, 6:30 p.m., Fort Mason, Cowell

La Vie En Rose, May 10, 7:00 p.m., The Castro


More Info/Buy Tickets:
Celebrate 50th Anniversary SF International Film Festival

On Angela Lansbury's Return To Broadway

Angela Lansbury opens in DEUCE May 6 after almost a 24-year absence from Broadway and her fans are thrilled. She and the venerable Marian Seldes share the stage for a full 90 minutes without intermission. No small feat for anyone to play 8 shows a week, let alone someone who's been in the spotlight for more than 60 years.

My first theatrical experience with Angela Lansbury took place at The Winter Garden Theatre on a cold Friday night in December 1966. The show was MAME. My high school friend, Pat Sousa, and I had received a weeklong theatre trip to NYC as Christmas gifts that year. We saw CACTUS FlOWER, DINNER AT EIGHT, MAME, SWEET CHARITY, and THE ODD COUPLE. If memory serves me correctly, Marian Seldes appeared in DINNER AT EIGHT.


If you're lucky enough to have seen Angela Lansbury in MAME, you've experienced the joy of musical theatre and perfect casting. Who can forget Mame sparring with Vera Charles (Beatrice Arthur), or embracing Agnes Gooch (Jane Connell) after she learns how "to live," and Lansbury standing arm-in-arm among the chorus line, all dressed in top hats and riding habits, as they sing the show's signature song.

Not only did we see the most popular theatre hits of the day, we also met the show's stars---this involved a little amateur sleuthing similar to Lansbury's own Jessica Fletcher.

Surprisingly, getting backstage at the Winter Garden proved simple. We found an unlocked door leading from the house to backstage. Pat and I stood (along with one tall wooden ladder and a stagehand) in the middle of an otherwise empty stage while trying to figure out where to find the dressing rooms. You can imagine how two starry-eyed teens with dreams of being on Broadway ourselves attempted to act as if we belonged on that hallowed stage where real magic had just taken place. And then, quite magically, Jane Connell appeared. We gushed about how much we loved her and the show, she signed our programs, and we said that we wanted to meet Angela Lansbury. It's possible that we used the explanation, "we came all the way from Florida to see the show." This innocent plea--out of the southern-laced mouths of babes with freshly scrubbed faces--had worked for us earlier in the week at The Palace Theatre. My gushing had landed us in Gwen Verdon's dressing room.

Jane Connell escorted us across the Winter Garden stage, through the wings, and let the stagedoor manager know "they're with me." As we began making our way upstairs to the dressing rooms, Angela Lansbury descended (gaily talking with her son and daughter). Jane introduced us, Pat gushed, I don't remember saying anything,(I had done most of the gushing when meeting the aforementioned Gwen Verdon). Angela Lansbury, tall, gracious, and kind, signed her picture in my MAME souvenir program. I've kept all my autographed programs from that fabulous holiday gift.

Years later, I caught Ms. Lansbury in SWEENEY TODD and watched "Murder She Wrote" off and on---a favorite television progam of my Mother's. On one of my parent's trips out to visit, I took them up the coast to Mendocino, the small picturesque seaside town we see as Cabot Cove, Maine in Murder She Wrote's opening scenes.

Bravo to Angela Lansbury for sharing her extraordinary talent with us again.

DEUCE Plays The Music Box Theatre, May 6 through August 19, 2007
Tickets: www.broadway.com

On Glory . . . Rostropovich

Master cellist, conductor, and accomplished pianist, Mstislav "Slava" Rostropovich died yesterday in Moscow. Here the master performs near Checkpoint Charlie at the Berlin Wall on November 12, 1989. . . A fierce crusader of artistic freedom during the Cold War, his many friends called him by "Slava," which means Glory in Russian.

“Explain to me, please, why in our literature and art so often people absolutely incompetent in this field have the final word . . . Every man must have the right fearlessly to think independently and express his opinion about what he knows, what he has personally thought about and experienced, and not merely to express with slightly different variations the opinion which has been inculcated in him.”
__Mstislav Rostropovich, letter to PRAVDA,Soviet State Newspaper,1970

Photo Credit: Reuters

Piano Playing Cat Nora Releases New Video

Nora, the piano playing cat, just released her new video. Nora's first video hit YouTube in January. More than 1.5 million views later, this little piano playing cutie immediately landed on television newscasts around the globe. Notable U.S. featured spots include The Ellen Degeneres Show and Good Morning America. Nora tickled the ivories on The Martha Stewart Show in March.

For more about Nora, visit: Ravenswingstudio.

Watch Nora:The Sequel