Kate Winslet’s new movie “Ammonite” sounds like a cholesterol drug. (“Ask your doctor about Ammonite.”) It’s about Brit paleontologist Mary Anning, who dug up bones and had an affair with another woman, played by Saoirse Ronan.
Kate: “She’s an important science figure. Only for her do we know about the early age of dinosaurs and what they ate because she discovered fossilized feces.” Wow-ee! With what’s unfolding now, it’s real great to hear about a dinosaur’s insides.
“Ronan and I worked out the love scene together. Theirs was brave for the 1840s, a very oppressed society and how she was herself. Anning’s emotions are tightly held because of the time. She lived a hermit life.”
COVID canned a Cannes premiere. The thing opens Nov. 13.
More movies. “French Exit” is about an East Sider moving to Paris with her son and cat. Cat turns out to be her late husband reincarnated. (You’re better off with the dinosaur.)
Star Michelle Pfeiffer says: “Life’s most dire situations are sometimes when people are at their funniest. My acting teacher used to say, ‘How would you react if your father and my mother died?’ And the reaction’s always different. It’s a defense mechanism.” This I don’t understand.
Lucas Hedges, who plays Pfeiffer’s son: “Comedy’s a mystery to me. Buster Keaton said, ‘Comedians do funny things. And great comedians do things funny.’ Humor comes from genuine impulses.” And this I also don’t understand.
This plays theaters next February if any are left. Better to forget the cats. The theaters should only have nine lives.
Barr wants a bar
Built on law and order, our nation is even now processing a next Supreme Court justice. So what’s it take to become a great brilliant incisive legal mind? Enough to not flunk out of Harvard, Yale, Stanford or NYU? Nay. Forsooth. It takes more than that. It takes the spirit.
To sharpen his mind, hone his decisions, to know a hitherto from a wherefore, Attorney General Bill Barr — schlepping to Albuquerque, NM — preordered what he wanted the galley to serve. Burger? No. Shove a salad. He requested it be supplied with little bottles of scotch.
Ask not how I know. Trust Mother. She knows.
It’s Tony time
Theaters come and now theaters go. There are 18 shows eligible (last year, 34) for Thursday’s awaited nominations for Tony’s abated shows for Broadway’s undated opening: “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune,” “Moulin Rouge!,” “Sea Wall/A Life,” “The Height of the Storm,” “The Great Society,” “Slave Play,” “Linda Vista,” “The Rose Tattoo,” “The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical,” “The Sound Inside,” “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical,” “The Inheritance,” “My Name Is Lucy Barton,” “A Soldier’s Play,” “Grand Horizons,” “A Christmas Carol,” “Jagged Little Pill,” “Betrayal.”
Open mouths guess at nominations:
Best Musical — “Moulin Rouge!” (I still don’t know what it’s about, but it’s a big hit)
Best Play — “Slave Play” in a squeaker over “The Inheritance”
Best Revival of a Play — “Betrayal”
Best Actor in a Play — Tom Hiddleston in “Betrayal”
Best Actress in a Play — Mary-Louise Parker in “The Sound Inside”
Best Actor in a Musical — Aaron Tveit in “Moulin Rouge!”
Best Actress in a Musical — Adrienne Warren in “Tina”
James Nederlander, whose shows include “Hamilton” and “Wicked:” “Besides masks and social distancing — how about onstage: kissing scenes, close dancing? Can’t do it accurately now. We have to work that out. At this minute, I only know every theater will eventually open.”
Steve Garrin at the Met museum. “A guard: ‘Please wear your mask over your nose.’ The woman: ‘Not my nose yet. I’m still paying it off.'”