What Every Woman Knows - 1954 - Broadway Articles Page 2

With CHRISTMAS IN TINSELTOWN (HCI $14.95)- the follow-up to his international sensation The Dead Celebrity Cookbook - Frank DeCaro shows how to put the kitsch into your holiday kitchen as he salutes a quirky collection of celebrities who are gone, but fondly remembered every year at Christmastime.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center's annual horror fest Scary Movies returns for its 6th edition featuring a blood-curdling collection of first-time New York City screenings of highly anticipated horror films and thrillers, genre rarities and fan favorites.

Today we have the penultimate entry in our twelve-part series dedicated to Lifetime's hit dramedy DROP DEAD DIVA with an all-encompassing chat with the show's heavenly agent himself, Fred, portrayed by stage and screen star Ben Feldman! In this illuminating conversation we talk all about his three years on DROP DEAD DIVA and what the future holds for Fred, Jane, Stacey and company, as well as his favorite guest stars and memories so far. Additionally, Ben and I discuss his training for the stage and his work on Broadway, opposite Kathleen Turner in THE GRADUATE, as well as his performances in the recent remake of FRIDAY THE 13th and shooting the avant garde thriller CLOVERFIELD, in addition to his thoughts on various pilots with the likes of Christine Ebersole, Fran Drescher, Marc Blucas, Amy Smart and more!

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis, Interim Executive Director Joey Parnes) will continue its popular series of free staged readings of new plays by the Emerging Writers Group, beginning Wednesday, June 1 and running through Tuesday, June 28 at The Public Theater.

Today we lost one of the greats: the gentle giant of directors, Sidney Lumet. What a resume! Just to pick seven of perhaps the best known of the bunch, the bunch in question being over 100 titles strong: 12 ANGRY MEN, LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT, SERPICO, DOG DAY AFTERNOON, NETWORK and BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD - the films spanning fifty years from MEN in 1957 and DEVIL in 2007 - it is clear to see why Lumet was one of the most cherished and celebrated directors in Hollywood, especially known for his tough, gritty New York stories and his pristine stage-to-screen transfers. For an excellent example of the latter (in addition to LONG DAY'S JOURNEY and the others) check out DEATHTRAP - based on Ira Levin's play, the longest-running thriller in Broadway history - featuring Michael Caine in one of his best roles and Christopher Reeve and Dyan Cannon in their finest performances on film. For an example of the former genre, look no further than NETWORK, containing one of the strongest screenplays ever penned, from the fiery and ferocious pen of Paddy Cheyefsky, and Faye Dunaway in her Oscar-winning performance for all the ages. As far as theatrical screenplays on screen, Lumet would be hard-pressed to even come close to the power, prescience and transformative brilliance at the core of the conceit of that film - yet he did just that; with his final, 2007 film no less. I am speaking, of course, of the underrated and riveting BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei, with Albert Finney and Rosemary Harris. Taking an original screenplay that could just as well have been written for the stage - shades of 12 ANGRY MEN, DOG DAY AFTERNOON, NETWORK and SERPICO, certainly - Lumet made a bristling, biting brilliant work of staggering craft and ingenuity - all with verve, energy and drive of a man a quarter of his age at the time (80). His films were classics in his own time and, now, in his passing, they are just as timeless - if not more so. With each passing year, new layers of truth, beauty, sadness and soulfulness can be found in the countless frames in the innumerable unforgettable scenes in his many masterpieces.