From the people who killed LACMA’s classic film program: a film museum 1
Oct
4
2011
It’s really difficult living in this city if you have a memory that operates longer than two weeks. It can drive you insane. Having wiped the slate clean by annihilating the perfectly superb classic film program at the County Museum, and installing in its stead an incoherent line-up of movie gobbledy-gook, along comes LACMA Trustee ...
Cirque du Soleil’s swell Hollywood opening night party
artsmeme’s debra levine & hollywood dance historian larry billman Fun photos of the super party the Cirques threw in Los Angeles last night posted below. The mighty Montreal’eans upped and closed, from car traffic, a humongous stretch of Hollywood Boulevard in front of the Kodak Theater. There, under a tent, to thumping, hypnotic music, attendees ...
Tutu Taylor
It was a hell of a week for ballet. Our most brilliant male ballet dancer, a true wunderkind, a homegrown wonder, David Hallberg, got a job offer from the Bolshoi Ballet, better, obviously, than his current gig with American Ballet Theatre. So off he goes. Hallberg’s young, 29, he doesn’t speak the language, and Russia ...
Backward-leaning Bolsheviks, er…Bolshoi men
The hiring of David Hallberg by the Bolshoi Ballet, founded in the late 18th century, is being trumpeted as a sign of Russian openness and progress. But an arts·meme investigation indicates that rather than Hallberg moving the stodgy Russians forward, they are already pulling him back. Please refer to the image at left in which ...
Emilio Doorgasingh, actor, “terrorist” & funny Indian
You meet a great mix of people in L.A. Dare I say, ‘fruits and nuts’? It’s all the more fun when the chatter happens at a garden party like the one Bill Stern convened in the soft air ricocheting ’round Malibu’s Carbon Canyon Sunday afternoon. Stern’s annual fundraiser for the Museum of California Design is ...
Malcolm McDowell memories: Lindsay Anderson & Stanley Kubrick 3
Sep
17
2011
On Lindsay Anderson, with whom he worked on “If” & “O Lucky Man” He was a great man. He was a genius. And I say that even though today you’re a genius if you can do a crossword puzzle. He was a real curmudgeon; for a young actor, to put in so much time, he ...
Malcolm McDowell: “I love Cagney.”
Sep
17
2011
Charming the knickers off his audience by telling witty tales of Stanley Kubrick and Lindsay Anderson, actor Malcolm McDowell earned extra points by showing respect to the great James Cagney. The occasion was the 40th anniversary screening, at the Academy of Motion Picture of Arts & Sciences in Beverly Hills, of Kubrick’s exuberant, brilliant, thought-provoking ...
Meow! Bette Davis discusses her dear colleague Joan Crawford 3
Sep
16
2011
Quotations from Chairman Bette: “I wouldn’t piss on her [Joan Crawford] if she was on fire.” “She [Joan Crawford] has slept with every male star at MGM except Lassie.” “Why am I so good at playing bitches? I think it’s because I’m not a bitch. Maybe that’s why [Joan Crawford] always plays ladies.” “[Joan Crawford] ...
A Gish gift for Trish
Pleased to see Hollywood riches supporting New York creativity. That’s the way it oughta be. And especially nice that it’s an exchange between three creative women. [Item below re-posted from New York Times Culture Beat, September 7, 2011, 12:45 pm , by Daniel J. Wakin] Trisha Brown Wins Gish Prize A Gish for Trisha: the ...
The Agnes & Cecil Show 1
From Empire of Dreams: The Epic Life of Cecil B. DeMille, by Scott Eyman, published by Simon & Schuster, 2010, page 307-308. Agnes deMille was struggling in London to make ends meet when Cecil hired her for six weeks at $250 a week to create the dances for Cleopatra. It ended badly, but then it ...