WITH the Oscars further away than our financial recovery and none of these out yet, here’s what’s al ready being touted:
Best Picture: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1922 jazzed up short story with Brad Pitt regressing in age from octogenarianship to Angelina-hood to infancy. “Revolutionary Road,” a thing about marriage from Richard Yates’ 1961 novel. Sam Mendes directs his wife, Kate Winslet, and her “Titanic” co-star Leonardo DiCaprio. She’s in every frame, but she’s figured for Best Supporting since she might nail Best Actress for “The Reader.” Director Stephen Daldry‘s “The Reader,” set in post-WWII Germany, written by a German professor, is about heart, soul, reconciliation, all those good things including leading man Ralph Fiennes.
The Vegas line puts Sean Penn for Best Actor in “Milk,” director Gus Van Sant‘s saga of San Fran’s first openly gay politico. And after playing Dubya Bush, Josh Brolin now plays Harvey Milk’s live-in. He goes from loser to lover. Plus there’s “Slum Dog Millionaire,” some small cheapo Danny Boyle-directed indie job about an Indian version of how to be a millionaire and which “they” say, not me, “they” – is a small gem like “Crash” and “Trainspotting.” Like I said, “they” say. Me, I say, forget not Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Doubt.”
NOW, to the movie “Doubt.” The play opened 2004, ran on Broadway more than a year, garnered four Tonys. It’s about a Bronx Catholic school nun, a priest and the abuse of a boy student and, since its playwright’s name is John Patrick Shanley, I asked how much of his life is in this.
“Oh, that’s a long story,” smiled John Patrick Shanley. “I went to St. Anthony’s in The Bronx. In fact, the sister who taught my first grade when I was 6 and still teaches in The Bronx served as our technical adviser. This way we know how the convent operates, nuns live, details of the sacristy, everything is in strict accord with what really is.
“In this school was a male teacher who always supported me and championed me. I learned he’d been a serial child abuser. I suffered nothing in his hands, but I knew firsthand what he’d done and later realized he’d been attracted to me. Mike Nichols asked if this story poured out of me in one big writing session, and the truth is, it did. My final draft was close to my first draft.
“The play was only four people. You never saw the boy, only his mother. In the movie, everything opens up. We see the classroom, lunchroom, community, the congregation, the life of the priests.”
And this doubt as to did he or didn’t he, does it get resolved in the movie?
“There’s no simple verdict. This is not a whodunit where in the end the murderer is caught. You walk away with the different ways in which one could take this play. The answer belongs to the feelings that go to how we live our faith. It goes to behavior in a pragmatic way.”
And a lifetime later has he himself any doubt about sending a boy to Catholic school?
“My two sons go to Catholic school.”
JOHN Legend and Pink stayed out side signing autographs for fans after VH1’s countdown at Touch . . . Mario Lopez, on one side of Chez Josephine, and Spike Lee, on the other side, wanted to know one another so the meet ‘n’ greet was arranged in the middle . . .
Anyone know Don Cheadle is an accomplished saxophonist? . . . Ninety million on the table for one specific NYC property? Yes. That’s what’s now up for grabs but nobody – but nobody – is talking about it openly . . . Charles Durning, seemingly not in the best of health, clambering into a car on 54th Street . . . So where to spend a first wedding anniversary? For Julianna Margulies and Keith Lieberthal, it was at New York Stage and Film’s gala honoring Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon with guests like Jon Hamm (who showed late because he was filming) and ladyfriend Jennifer Westfeldt.
OBAMANEWS: This inaugural will be so overcrowded that DC eateries are already ringing regulars to ask do they want a table during that three-day period. If yes, book now because they’re already overcommitted . . . OK, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, the question is, what do you guys now do for Act 2? . . . Big thought: When Dems were in the minority in the Senate, some faced indictment. Considering they’re suddenly in the majority, qui½ pasa?
TWO guys in a gym. The one on the Stairmaster asks: “So she’s the type that’s been around?” And the dude under the barbells: “Put it this way. After you make love she calls out ‘Next!’ ”