The Show Must Go On - Except When It Must Not
The show, we’ve been told, must go on - except, it seems, when Paul Scofield decides it must not.
The English actor caused cancellation of two recent performances of Henrik Ibsen’s “John Gabriel Borkman” in London when he refused to play opposite an understudy for co-star Vanessa Redgrave. Actress Rita Davies had twice replaced Redgrave, who reportedly had a respiratory infection.
In Scofield’s defense, London Times theater critic Benedict Nightingale wrote, “He is an actor of quite extraordinary integrity and high standards, and if he feels there is some circumstance under which he cannot give the performance he feels he should be giving, I suppose it means he simply cannot do it.”
Loose talk
The New York bartender on Julia Roberts’ alleged 30-to-50-second soul kiss of another woman in a Manhattan nightclub: “That’s a long time for a first kiss. I don’t know whether I could do that, even with a guy.”
These two helped put the boom in baby boomer
Tommy Lee Jones and Oliver Stone turn 50 today.
Let’s all protest the killing of those flying rats
Alec Baldwin is no friend of shotgun-toting Pennsylvanians. “This event is a slaughter and an embarrassment to the residents of your state,” Baldwin wrote to Gov. Tom Ridge, requesting that he cancel the annual Labor Day shoot of 6,000 pigeons in Hegins, Pa. Other celebs writing to complain include Alicia Silverstone and Denis Leary.
Don’t understand? Just rent ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’
Forget the classics, playwright David Mamet writes the most challenging dialogue. “It was the hardest stuff I’ve ever had to learn,” says Dustin Hoffman, referring to Mamet’s play-turned-movie “American Buffalo.” “Much harder than Shakespeare, much harder than Arthur Miller, because the words are messed with.”
Actually, he needed only one hand to do the job
Just before he debuted as conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic on Wednesday, 21-year-old Daniel Harding was too busy to grant interviews. But Harding’s manager was all too happy to talk. “He loves conducting,” said Rachel Bowron, “and he’s the sort who would grab the opportunity with both hands.”
And, as he claimed, he got the girl in most of his films
In a demonstration that intelligence doesn’t always equate to effectiveness, Forbes magazine reports that Jimmy Carter “probably had a good 50 points in IQ over Ronald Reagan.”
Inquiring minds want to know all about both of them
Haven’t heard from buxom celebrity Anna Nicole Smith lately? Don’t worry. She plans to get back in the spotlight by writing an autobiography that, her spokesman, Tony Angelloti says, will “set the record straight on all these things that have been capturing the public’s imaginations.”
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The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by staff writer Dan Webster