Tonight Woody Allen premieres Emma Stone, Colin Firth, Marcia Gay Harden’s “Magic in the Moonlight,” his newest bimonthly film.
“Hard is working up the new ideas. The early part, planning, takes months. Like, will that mesh? How’s this fit? Can I go from one action to the other? I pace the streets, walk up and down in my room, stand alone, think, make tough decisions. It’s difficult.
“Writing’s easy. Three weeks. Laying on my bed in the bedroom, I write with a ballpoint pen on a yellow legal pad. Then it’s typed.
“I’m always thinking up ideas. I jot them down on anything. A napkin, matchbox, then stick them in this drawer I keep in my house. Always writing notes, I never have to sit looking at a blank wall. I open that drawer, lay down on my bed and think. Some ideas turn out great, some not so good.
“Productions like ‘Jasmine’ must be done in the US. ‘Moonlight’ we shot in Nice. Summer, with kids off school, it’s good to shoot in Europe and spend the season in Spain or the South of France. Sounds shallow, but I’m filming now in Newport, R.I., because it’s charming for the kids.
“Shooting in the South of France took longer because of the sun. We had to be selective. Wait for the very few cloudy days or hang about all day until 6, then work until 8:30.”
And why the famous silence on mentioning anything new before it comes out?
“I dislike raising anticipation. Fussing over a movie? I hate to build up steam, tell people to see it. Maybe it won’t turn out good. Could be terrible. If it’s decent, we promote it. Once it’s finished and deserves to be loved, I’m thrilled.”
Pay attention
Tony Goldwyn, who directed the new series “The Divide,” inspired by the Innocence Project, says it’s “WE-TV network’s first scripted show” . . . Note: Don’t miss Rue 57, the always busy restaurant on 57th and Sixth. It’s excellent . . . Little Anthony’s 57 years in showbiz autobio “My Journey, My Destiny” is out Aug. 26 . . . Riverbank State Park. Wednesday. Harlem Summer Shakespeare begins “Romeo and Juliet.”
Books have value
Our famous Fifth Avenue library, circa 1904? Its new COO Iris Weinshall (a k a Mrs. Sen. Chuck Schumer): “As a Brooklyn kid, every Saturday my brother and I took out two books from the Kings Highway Library — the Fifth Avenue one was intimidating — read them, returned the next Saturday for two more. That night our kosher parents took us for our one nonkosher meal. I read ‘Nancy Drew,’ every historical book they had, and became a history major in college.”
Bio reminds us of pride
October brings the Da Capo biography “John Marshall: The Chief Justice Who Saved the Nation.” It tells how Lt. James Monroe, 18, and Capt. John Marshall, 22, fought hand to hand in 1777’s struggle for independence. It tells how George Washington drenched voters with 40 gallons of rum, 26 of rum punch, 34 of wine and 43 gallons of beer to win election. It tells how congressmen were paid $6 a day, $7 in the Senate to move to the new “miserable” capital, a “shell of homes, bare walls, fixtures of no kind.” And per Page 299: “Nothing in the Constitution gives a president power to issue executive orders with the force of law.”
Read. Be proud of our country.
A teacher drives up to the LaGuardia School of Performing Arts. A street guy says: “Your car’s smoking. That’s dangerous.” His cohort, in mechanic’s uniform, says, “Open the hood.” Fake mechanic: “The pin rods are broken. Give me some rags and your credit card. That’ll be $380.” Then: “No? You don’t have it? Go to your ATM.” Then: “No? Well, what cash do you have?” None? He then pours bottled water onto her engine. Scam over.
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.