SO NOT “LOST” IN TRANSLATION So, it’s safe to say that Sophia Coppola got the family filmmaking genes. I am late to the party in recommending her new film Lost in Translation, which has been nominated for several Golden Globes, and will probably earn Oscan noms for stars Bill Murray and Scarlet Johannson. The film is very controlled and probably establishes Coppola as the strongest artistic female director out there right now. We are so overdo for a great female... Read more

GOD, JOAN AND THE NJ STAR LEDGER Steve Beard from Thunderstruck.org, kindly alerted me to this bemused little piece about one junket weary journalist’s encounter with God on the set of Joan of Arcadia. Not a bad first day at the press tour. I witnessed the hijacking of a series of news conferences (see today’s All TV column for more on that), talked boots and saddles with cowboy movie veteran Keith Carradine, and got my pockets picked at Texas Hold... Read more

OH, BTW… Shivery, ‘Why-didn’t I buy something wool?’ greetings from Washington, DC. I am here all week working on a cool project that I must be coy and vague about at least until Saturday. Fortunately, I am really, really great at being humble. Read more

AND IT’S A BIG ‘IF’ One of my New Year’s Resolutions is to try and be more helpful to the legions of wannabee writers, actors, directors, producers, and basically film and television moguls, who send me letters/messages/videos/(never jewelry though…rats) asking for advice about getting started in Hollywood. Many of these people really don’t want advice, but rather, they want me to introduce them to one of my friends who can write them a check for $87 gazillion dollars and lead... Read more

PAYCHECK BUT NO PAY-OFF I saw Paycheck with two of my sisters last night. I wasn’t going to write anything about it as it doesn’t deserve any kind of serious treatment… Oh, did I let that slip? Well, now that I’ve started… We decided that although the film is somewhat disappointing and doesn’t amount to much, Paycheck would be a movie we will recommend to our Mother. She likes action-thriller kinds of movies — as long as they don’t have... Read more

OKAY. SO, GOOD ART ISN’T EVERYTHING A few weeks ago I blog-raved about the fabulous music at the United Nations area Holy Family parish at which my sister Val sings every Sunday. I noted that if I lived in Manhattan, I’d be at that parish every week. Sadly, all that has changed. This past Sunday, the priest homilist at the 12pm Mass decided to use the occasion of the Feast of the Holy Family to question the state’s prohibition of... Read more

” ‘TIS SO MUCH JOY! ‘TIS SO MUCH JOY!” (Emily Dickinson) Read more

WHEN CENSORSHIP IS A GOOD THING? Another TV writing friend told me about a recent discussion in the writer’s room about an upcoming show with an abortion storyline. All of the other writers in the room were pro-choice, and they had a nice long joke session about aborted fetuses and all the other funny things about abortion before they settled down to breaking the episode. At one point, one of the writers sheepishly made the comment, “One of my friends... Read more

HOW TO STYMIE A GROUP OF SITCOM WRITERS One of my friends just got a job as a writer’s assistant on a network sitcom. (In the interests of saving the individual’s job, we won’t say which one.) An upcoming storyline requires that a recurring character cease and desist his long-standing affair with one of the series regulars. Gathered in the writers’ room, the assembled writers brooded over possible explanations for the recurring character giving up sex. “Hey,” said one bright... Read more

DWELLING IN “A FAIRER HOUSE THAN PROSE” Someone wrote asking me why I love Emily Dickinson so much. It is an interesting question why we love anyone so much. Emily was a lofty soul, with one of history’s loftiest intellects bouncing her around perpetually between agony and exhilaration. She is the greatest enigma of literary history, incorporating in her life and work so many paradoxes that many people give up looking too close at her because the study leaves them... Read more