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17-4-2000THE BAFTAS
he BAFTAs have come and gone and, unfortunately, our Cate did not receive the gong for Best Supporting Actress. Perhaps the British Academy wanted Cate to savor her Best Actress BAFTA for "Elizabeth" last year just a wee bit longer.
T This recap is provided by Reuters:
"Do you want me to have a heart attack? It seems to me I'm having a honeymoon with the British audience," enthused gay Spanish director Pedro Almodovar as he collected BAFTA awards for both Best Foreign Language Film and Best Director on April 9 in London for All About My Mother.
The annual awards by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts are considered Britain's Oscars, and like the U.S. version they were largely a triumph for American Beauty, which went in with 14 nominations and came out with six awards.
Almodovar's Best Director trophy marked a most embarrassing moment for host Jack Docherty, who said, "And there's Pedro now going off to celebrate as the Spanish do, by chucking a donkey from a bell tower." This remark, labeled "gauche and offensive" by The London Times, was greeted with complete silence by the BAFTA crowd.
Almodovar topped Oscar-winning Briton Sam Mendes for Best Director, but American Beauty repeated its Oscar triumphs for Best Film, Best Actor (Kevin Spacey) and Best Cinematography (Conrad L. Hall). It added Best Actress for Annette Bening (Oscar winner Hilary Swank missing from the BAFTA nominees along with any other recognition for the transgender-themed Boys Don't Cry) whose award was accepted by Beauty co-star and BAFTA nominee Mena Suvari, since Bening's pregnancy precluded her flying to London.
Best Editing went to Beauty's Tariq Anwar and Christopher Greenbury. Beauty's Thomas Newman won for Best Music, with Mendes accepting on his behalf and saying, "I would like to thank BAFTA for acknowledging the work of such a talented man."
Oscar-winning gay Alan Ball was not nominated for his Beauty screenplay -- losing out to Charlie Kaufman for the thrice-nominated, sexually quirky Being John Malkovich -- but was acknowledged in Hall's acceptance speech, as the cinematographer said, "I have so much to be grateful for. For DreamWorks choosing Sam as a director and for Alan Ball for writing it."
Spacey admitted, "I've been drinking all night," but retained his humility. He said, "I have to say that when I step before a camera I am grateful for every single minute of my stupid little life." He added, "I am forever grateful to Sam Mendes for casting me in this role. It was the most incredible part I have ever been given."
Franco Zeffirelli's Tea With Mussolini, completely neglected by America's Academy but a community favorite for its lesbian role played by Lily Tomlin, won Best Supporting Actress for Dame Maggie Smith and was also nominated for costume design. Smith told how the film had "kind of saved my life in a way," following a bereavement. She thanked co-stars Dame Judi Dench and Joan Plowright for "hours of Scrabble and gallons of Frescati" and said, "Without them I don't think I would have pulled through at all."
The Talented Mr. Ripley, based on novels by Patricia Highsmith (a.k.a. Claire Morgan, author of the lesbian classic The Price of Salt and rife with homoerotic overtones, went in with seven nominations but secured a victory only for Best Supporting Actor for the often-cast-as-gay Jude Law. He said, "Thank you, thank you BAFTA for the opportunity to say thank you to [director] Anthony Minghella who made me play this part, and made me play it well."
As for the fashions, four-months-pregnant Kate Winslet sported a black dress and jacket by gay British designer Alexander McQueen. Supermodel Naomi Campbell, in a black halter-neck dress and diamond solitaire necklace, said she was "honored" to serve as a presenter "which is really not in my world." Perhaps the most dramatic gown was Cate Blanchett's silver sequins, at 2,000-pounds fit for her film incarnation as Elizabeth I.
Has anyone ever read a news report that is as sexually preoccupied as that one? Geez, get a room, Reuters!
A QUEEN’S RANSOM
lthough such discussions are rather gauche, it is our sworn mission to bring you all the Cate News as we find it, thus, we pass on this little item which reports our Cate's rather staggering good fortune concerning her deservedly earned fortune:
A As originally reported by Mark Woods in Variety:
Savage Garden Tops Celebrity Earnings Down Under
SYDNEY, Australia - Nicole Kidman did very well, but Russell Crowe trailed a faux-Abba band, two life-sized bananas and a children's group that sings about hot potatoes.
Every year, Business Review Weekly estimates the top-50-earning entertainers Down Under; for the second year, pop duo Savage Garden led the list, with estimated earnings of A$30 million ($18.3 million) in 1999.
Top actors were Kidman and Geoffrey Rush, sharing second place overall with $11.3 million each, followed by Cate Blanchett at No. 7 ($5.7 million).
Cashing in on renewed interest in Swedish supergroup Abba after West End hit musical ``Mamma Mia,'' Bjorn Again minted $5.5 million to sashay into eighth place overall and tie with moppet band ``The Wiggles,'' just ahead of kidvid franchise Bananas in Pyjamas at No. 10 ($4.3 million).
Actor Russell Crowe was No. 11 ($3.8 million); Guy Pearce was at No. 16 ($2.8 million).
As for directors, Bruce Beresford was the top-earner with $3.5 million for 14th place, followed by Baz Luhrmann at No. 19.
While Forbes estimates Mel Gibson's earnings at $45.5 million, he was booted off Business Review Weekly's list last year after he said he'd never live Down Under again.
OSCAR REVISITED
e found this story by Jeannette Walls of MSNBC to be rather amusing:
W The on-going saga of stars not wanting to return their Oscar dresses continues. A source says that "The Talented Mr. Ripley" star Cate Blanchett wanted to keep the black backless gown that Jean Paul Gautier lent her for the evening. "She really wanted to keep it and Gautier had to decide what to do," says a fashion insider. "Ultimately, they insisted" on its return.
Not true, maintains Blanchett's spokeswoman. "She returned it with a nice note of thanks," says the star's flack. "How could she ever wear it again? People would say, 'Oh, that's the dress you wore to the Oscars."
Gautier's spokeswoman, however, has a slightly different story: "It would have been an honor to give her the dress. Cate is a pleasure to work with. I remember her stylist saying, 'That dress looks so good on Cate, she should keep it.' However, the dress was a sample and we needed it for press." She says they have not yet received the dress, but expect it back shortly.
RALPH WATCH & ALMEIDA RE-VISITED
This rather long-winded tale will by fancied by those Ralph Fiennes admirers and theatre buffs amongst you. For the rest, you may want to fast-forward. It comes to us courtesy of Alison Roberts at The Evening Standard UK:
T Stage Fight For Theatres
London's theatrical chatterati have a big fortnight ahead of them. On Wednesday, the first-night crowd will traipse to the Gainsborough Studios in Shoreditch to witness an Almeida Theatre production of Richard II, starring Ralph Fiennes. (Handy tip: don't wear your Manolo Blahniks: it's very muddy and the Portakabin loos are distinctly unglamorous.)
The following week, a revival of Peter Nichols's Passion Play opens at the Donmar Warehouse - and, yes, Sam Mendes will be there, fresh from Oscar triumph, if a little bored with shaking people's hands and pretending, poor boy, he's known them all his life. Still, anyone who's anyone in London's theatre world will fight for tickets to these two events, if only to rub shoulders with the other anyones, and thus prove that they're definitely a somebody.
Between them, the Almeida and the Donmar have got London's fashionable theatrical set sewn up. This is largely because they're both quality venues, each of them with a track record of fine, accessible and innovative productions. And it's also because they're natural expansionists, run by determined directors (Mendes at the Donmar in Covent Garden; Jonathan Kent and Ian McDiarmid at the Almeida in Islington) intent on colonising the West End and beyond. Success is undeniably sexy.
They are, however, quite different beasts. Should you wish, for example, you could divide them by average audience member. At the Almeida, the clientele is older and smarter. They might be celebrity academics or Left-leaning lawyers, arthouse types who'll eat, post-play, at one of those cosy little restaurants opposite the King's Head on Upper Street or head south to St Johns in Clerkenwell - the kind of people who can't quite bring themselves to throw out their old black polo neck. What they like about the Almeida is its intelligence, its casual - if somewhat uncomfortable - atmosphere and its proximity to their Islington town house.
At the Donmar, meanwhile, the audience is much more student-like, a mixture of late twentysomething postgrads (who'll sit in a Soho coffee bar afterwards) and media-based culture vultures (who'll eat pre-theatre dinner at The Ivy). They wear Levi's, liked the idea of Sam Mendes commissioning a musical from Alex James of Blur - sadly, it never materialised - and, rightly, worshipped Alan Cumming in Cabaret.
Oddly, given these (admittedly broad-brush) audience profiles, the Almeida is the more artistically daring of the two venues. While the Donmar generally sticks to Anglo-American plays and musicals, the Almeida isn't afraid to stage an international repertoire.
At the same time, both venues have big plans for the future - both are light on their feet and, thanks to long-term success, can afford to take the risks they might have baulked at before. If you can divide the two theatres by audience-member, you can equally divide them in terms of ambition. Fundamentally, both theatres want to run their own customised version of the National Theatre (that is, to stage more than one production at the same time, to run a mini-empire). They can do this by producing one show at headquarters and another couple at outposts in the West End. This isn't a case of simply transferring a successful play from original venue to West-End house - it means doing it all yourself, without the services of an intermediate producer. This way lies world domination.
Can they both pull it off? First of all, they need to attract the box office-busting playwrights and actors who'll pay the rent, leaving respective artistic directors free to plot the next push into Lloyd Webber territory. Both venues have glamour on their side, though the Almeida is still the heavyweight in this respect, supported by the big guns of British theatre, including Diana Rigg, Harold Pinter, Michael Gambon (with whom McDiarmid, who's also an actor, recently starred in Tim Burton's spooky thriller Sleepy Hollow).
The Islington duo can also count on their network of Hollywood friends: Fiennes, of course, Juliette Binoche (who adores the Almeida), Cate Blanchett, Liam Neeson, and Kevin Spacey, whose appearance in The Iceman Cometh proved how star-struck we really are. Spacey has since taken a place on the Old Vic's board.
It's perhaps no coincidence that the Almeida will move there early next year while the Islington base undergoes minor refurbishment, adding a south London outpost to its existing network of venues.
But Spacey, of course, is equally devoted to Sam Mendes. Together they made a movie, American Beauty, which won five Oscars. Mendes doesn't need to work at attracting Hollywood stars to his theatre (should he desire it), since they're lining up to work with him. And given the sensation caused by Nicole Kidman in The Blue Room, who can blame them?
On the home front, the Donmar's best friends include playwrights Patrick Marber and David Hare, actors Colin Firth and Natasha Richardson, and increasingly impressive director David Leveaux. Mendes's theatre relies less upon the really big stars of British theatre (though Helen Mirren and Nicholas Hytner both feature this season), often preferring sparky young actors whose work shows potential - Stephen Dillane, for example, gave his best performance yet in the Donmar's revival of Stoppard's The Real Thing.
The Almeida has the greater experience, having already run a second home at the Albery Theatre and having redeveloped the Gainsborough Studios. Indeed, the Donmar is pretty open about studying the battle plans already drawn up by its Islington cousin: staff talk about following the Almeida blueprint in a downsized form.
Significantly, though, the Donmar has money on its side, thanks to what Sam Mendes calls "quite small" gifts from Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks film company and a New York theatre producer who wants first-look rights for Broadway transfers. The Almeida, meanwhile, is still wholly reliant on Arts Council funding.
But it's not really a competition. There's lots of room in London theatre for rampant ambition: we're lucky like that. In any case, the more fashionable first nights the better - someone's got to keep the theatrical chatterati off the streets of an evening.
Update: In a followup story from the UK Telegraph by Nigel Reynolds, the badlands of Shoreditch in east London twinkled like Hollywood Wednesday evening, with some of the biggest names in films picking their way through the council estates.
Glenn Close, Cate Blanchett, Miranda Richardson and Donald Sutherland were among those headed for one of the most ambitious theatre projects undertaken in London for years. In the teeming rain on Wednesday night, they came to a derelict Edwardian warehouse and stayed, many of them celebrating beyond midnight, bearing witness to the box office pull of the British actor Ralph Fiennes.
At a cost of £2.3 million, the cavernous Gainsborough Studios has been converted into a temporary theatre as a vehicle for the Oscar-winning Fiennes to play two Shakespeares back-to-back, Richard II and Coriolanus, every night from now until early August. Fiennes got good-to-mixed reviews for the first, Richard II, yesterday but if there was a real star, it was the warehouse, seating and standing 850 people and fit for the best party.
A huge stage, almost 100ft across, was covered with turf and trees. Great fissures had been hacked in the brick walls. Through these Fiennes and his team, including Linus Roache, Emilia Fox and Oliver Ford Davies (all of them on the very sub-West End rate of around £500 a week), could enter and exit the stage. Sir Cameron Mackintosh, the West End impresario, said at the party afterwards: "It's an absolutely amazing place. I've often driven past it but never knew what was inside.
"It's wild and weird and almost a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I've only had a buzz like this in a theatre once before, 20 years ago when I saw Peter Brook's Carmen in Paris in his Bouffes du Nord." Glenn Close, in England filming 102 Dalmatians at Shepperton, said she had come because she was a good friend of Fiennes. Dressed in a black Armani cape and sandals, she looked out of place next to the peeling walls of the studios.
She said: "I've only seen Richard II once before, at Stratford. This production was amazing. Ralph was wonderful and this theatre is the most extraordinary place I have ever been to." Prominent cheerleaders for Fiennes were his girlfriend, Francesca Annis, and his actor brother, Joe. The production is the brainchild of the fashionable Almeida Theatre in Islington, which wanted a dramatic setting for the two Shakespeares.
Fiennes and the Almeida had previously linked up to stage Hamlet at the Hackney Empire. After a string of films, including The End of the Affair, Fiennes is giving eight and a half months to the two plays. Rehearsals started in early February. Coriolanus opens in June, then both plays go to New York followed by Japan, with the very last night on Oct 29 in Tokyo.
Shoreditch has had its fashionable moments before. England's very first playhouse, James Burbage's Theatre, was opened there in 1576. Many actors lived in the area and are buried in the parish church. The dramatist Ben Jonson fought a duel in the local park in 1598. For a while this century, the warehouse was even known as Hollywood on the Canal because it served as Alfred Hitchcock's film studio when Will Hay and Margaret Lockwood were the stars of the day.
Now Shoreditch is being cast as one of London's hippest residential areas. But when Richard II and Coriolanus go abroad in August, the last great days of the Gainsborough Studios will be over. A small film studio will be built there but the vast auditorium will be demolished to make way for apartments.
CHARITABLE CATE
ur Cate continues to make the news for her charitable endeavors. Victoria Mather, writing in The Evening Standard UK observed:
O Rich London Joins The Charity Circuit
Once it was the duchesses and the debutantes who dominated London's charity circuit. Invitations would arrive in SW1, SW3, SW5 and, although it was rather out of town, W8, encrusted with the names of committee members which sounded like Ruritanian states.
Her Serene Highness Princess Magnolia of Schlossfusel-Piesporter-Michelsberg would request the pleasure of your company at a ball in the Great Room of Grosvenor House in aid of distressed gentlefolk.
It was always a ball, and if it wasn't Grosvenor House it was the Dorchester, and the tickets (price tactfully concealed in small print under the RSVP) were available from a double-barrelled dowager who ran the event from the dining room table of her mansion flat in South Kensington. The duchesses dusted off their diamonds and heaved themselves out into the night to eat melon, and chicken a la king, and dance to the Dark Blues.
That was then. Now, a dynamic young woman who runs her own company is on a committee that glitters with movie stars and millionaires. Her clients are big city hitters who she is going to hit on for sponsorship of a glamorous event, and donations towards a high profile charity. The pictures are more likely to be in Hello! (who will pay for the privilege) than in Jennifer's Diary in Harpers & Queen.
The charity circuit has changed dramatically, and for the better (Nicole Kidman donated a performance of The Blue Room to the NSPCC Full Stop appeal to end child abuse, Madonna did the radio campaign).
Charity work was once something a girl did after her cookery course, now it has been reborn as professional fundraising undertaken by men and women as part of the portfolio of their success.
Emma Soames, editor of the Telegraph Magazine and a trustee of the Rehabilitation of Prisoners trust, says: "The charity circuit is much younger, and it has entered the mainstream of all our lives. It is full of extremely talented and very hot people, it is very competitive and you have to be very professional about the work because there are a huge number of deserving causes chasing a limited amount of money."
"The charity circuit used to be the aristocrats but now it has become the movers and shakers," says Tanya Rose, who has her own business, Mason Rose, which does sales and marketing for some of the swankiest hotels around the world.
Charles and Maurice Saatchi wouldn't leave home without her advice on where to lay their heads, and it is precisely because she has contacts of this calibre that Rose is on the benefit committee for the gala performance of Richard II in aid of the Almeida Theatre.
Glamour and celebrity have been harnessed as the workhorses of hip London fundraising. The dessicated duchesses would have said: "Who are the Spice Girls?" Their husbands considered footballers simply not cricket. But nowadays a picture of Posh and Becks attending a charity do is worth front page exposure for the cause they're supporting.
The underpinning is the committee. In a charity's dreams the people on it should represent interlocking circles of money, power, influence and energy. The days of putting Lady Sophia Snodgrass on the writing paper for the sake of her title have gone with the wind of change. Now non-attendance at meetings would only be tolerated from an Elizabeth Hurley.
And she only has to turn up in spray-on Versace to be worth the weight she didn't pull in those front page pictures.
It is easy to spot little coteries on committees. For the NSPCC Full Stop Campaign, Lady Bamford and Martyn Arbib are neighbours in Barbados; Elisabeth Murdoch is there with Matthew Freud, and everyone would know Vivien Duffield and Peter Mandelson. Kedge Martin, the NSPCC regional campaign manager, says: "For the Full Stop committees, we have been fortunate in attracting the support of key individuals who are happy to use their influence."
So far they have produced what is virtually the ultimate celebrity wish list, including Clive Anderson, Cate Blanchett, the Spice Girls, David Beckham, Stephen Fry, Lennox Lewis, Alan Shearer, Carol Vorderman and Liam Gallagher, who are all actively supporting the £250 million campaign. On the Almeida benefit committee, Marguerite Littman and Lyn Rothman are the friends who founded the Aids Crisis Trust, now part of Sir Elton John's Aids Foundation. Mrs Rothman, who is married to the film mogul Mo, gave up her job as an interior decorator to pioneer Aids Crisis: "My friends were dying, there were no hospices. Raising money for a charity is a matter of networking unusual people who want to make it in London."
There you have it. The charity circuit is the most high-powered social networking in London. It is who you know, who you can call, and who will deliver something so fabulous it will inspire the assembled throng of bulging bank accounts to give, give, give.
So, on that happy note, we will bid you adieu. As always, we would direct your attention toward our companion News Page here at ACBO. This week's LOTR NEWS has lots of cool news, including quotes from our Cate speaking of the LOTR experience. Take a peek if you haven't yet visited.
And finally Blanchetteers, we would remind you once again not to forget that when it seems all clouds have lost their silver linings, simply bellow out, "PLAY A VOLTA!", and see if that doesn't put a smile on your face. Bye for now!
