Hello, Hubsters!
Well, the race in South Carolina is over….and CAIN CAME IN FIFTH! *Balloon drop* Okay—perhaps not the best, but better than Cain ever did before, so that’s something. How will Stephen react to this? Will he continue to explore? Jump in? Drop out? Come up with something entirely new and unexpected? Whatever he chooses to do, I thank him for fun and education he’s brought to the race, and the light he’s so consistently shone on our messed-up electoral system.
Corporations aren’t people. People are people.
Stephen is the best of people.
After two breathtaking weeks, I think it looks as if another is coming our way. Both he and Jon have a wonderful and varied line-up. So let’s see what we have to look forward to….
Monday, 1/23: Bruce Bueno De Mesquita
Now that Stephen’s running for President of South Carolina—oops, EXPLORING a run–he can probably use a little political advice. How should he govern? Should he be concerned about the good of the people? Or should he just worry about amassing power? Bruce Bueno De Mesquita is here to help answer some of these questions. He’s the Juliius Silver Professor of Politics and director of the Alexander Hamilton Center for Political Economy at New York University, and co-author(with Alastair Smith) of The Dictator’s Handbook: Why Bad Behavior Is Almost Always Good Politics. And De Mesquita’s counsel is likely to be a touch Machiavellian, because he believes that even in a democracy, leaders care most about keeping themselves in power rather than the country’s welfare. It’s a premise that will likely appeal to Stephen the character, with his inflated ego and strong sense of self-interest.
Coercions, persuasions, and political predictions appear to be De Mesquita’s stock in trade; he created a computer model based on game theory that serves as a kind of “crystal ball” into what the future will bring. The New York Times wrote an article on these speculations, in particular when and whether Iran will build a bomb, and later De Mesquita discussed the matter with Jon on The Daily Show.
De Mesquita has won received several honors, including the Dag Hammarskjold Memorial Award; Karl Deutsch Award in International Relations and Peace Research; and a Guggenheim Fellowship. In addition to teaching at NYU, he’s a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University—and he has a sideline running Mesquita & Roundell, LLC, a consulting company to governmental agencies and corporations. (And why not—they’re people too!)
Visit his NYU bio page, which contains a number of other links to his courses, his publications, and more.
You don’t need to be Stephen to have De Mesquita come speak at your organization! He takes on lecture engagements.
Here’s the elaborate website for his former book, The Predictioneer’s Game.
Like his Facebook page.
He and Alastair Smith wrote an article assessing Syria’s President Assad.
Tuesday, 1/24: Placido Domingo
First a classical cello player (YoYo Ma), then ballet’s best (Hallberg), now an opera legend: Stephen’s beginning to corner the high-culture market. Happy 71st birthday, Placido Domingo! Domingo was one of the “Three Tenors” (along with Luciano Pavarotti and Jose Carreras), whose blockbuster records, concerts, and TV broadcasts helped make the once-elite musical form wildly popular. Last year, he celebrated his 50th year in opera: he made his stage debut in La Traviata in Monterey, Mexico back in 1961. In honor of that anniversary, a variety of record companies re-released several of his CDs—and he received an honorary doctorate from Harvard. During Domingo’s unparalleled career, he took on a stunning 134 roles; won 12 Grammy® awards, including three Latin Grammys; and made more than 100 recordings.
He recently announced the 20th edition of the World Opera Competition, which will take place from June 4-10th in Beijing (where you used to be jailed or sent to the farms for political re-education if you played Western classical music). Domingo founded the contest with the goal of “discover[ing] and honor[ing] the best new young opera singers of today.”
The Madrid-born tenor has now turned his musical talents to conducting, and he also serves as the general director of both the LA Opera and the Washington National Opera. But not to worry; he continues to sing, and will perform the lead in Simon Boccanegra with LA Opera this year–which is pretty incredible as few opera performers can sustain their voice over such a long period of time.
Visit his official website to get news, find out about those re-released CDs, and much more.
PBS did an American Masters on him. (Though strictly speaking, while he’s a master, he’s not American.)
He made his debut in La Traviata, and fortunately, his performance in that opera was captured forever by filmmaker Franco Zeffirelli.
Here he is singing “Nessun Dorma” from Puccini’s Turandot, one of the most famous arias in opera.
And I admire him because he’s just shown a little love for New York’s music education program. He’ll even conduct a children’s orchestra.
Go to his artist page on NPR.
Domingo not only sings—he Tweets!
Here’s part of a mini-documentary on him.
Wednesday, 1/25: Terry Gross
The tables are turned and fangirl Terry Gross is on the other side now! Gross, the host of NPR’s wonderful “Fresh Air,” has interviewed Stephen several times, and they are among the best interviews with him ever done. Here are just two of them: one in which he discusses his performance in Company and another that took place back in 2005.
Gross is a Brooklyn-born girl, from Sheepshead Bay, who earned her MA in communications from SUNY Buffalo and later began her radio career in that same northern NY city. In 1975, two years after she began, she moved to WHYY-FM in Philadelphia to start the program that she remains with to this very day. Gross has received numerous awards for her work, including a Peabody, the Foundation of American Womin in Radio and Television’s Gracie Allen Award, a CPB Edward R. Murrow Award, an a WHYY National Book Foundation Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community.
A anthology of her “Fresh Air” interviews was gathered in a book called All I Did Was Ask, for which Gross wrote the introduction.
Here’s one of her most recent shows, the with wonderful actor Michael Fassbender.
Gross called Stephen’s testimony before the House on immigration “so amazing!”
Like “Fresh Air’ on Facebook.
Terry interviewed Jon (a few times) too. Here’s her most recent talk with him, from 2010. Or you can watch a little video of the chat.
The “Fresh Air” archives need preservation—and you can help!
Follow “Fresh Air” on Twitter.
Is Terry too sexy for Mississippi? Apparently so.
Terry normally gets on fine with her guests—but this interview with KISS member Gene Simmons went very badly. (Never liked him anyway. He and KISS stole their makeup from one of my favorite Brazilian singers–but that’s another story for another place.) Oh, and she and Papa Bear O’Reilly didn’t get on too well either.
You can also listen to the podcasts on iTunes.
Here’s an interesting article that questions that tack she took when interviewing Jay-Z.
Thursday, 1/26: Drew Barrymore
She’s the talented and adorable actress who comes from one of the most renowned theater and film families in America: The Barrymores. Most of us remember Drew from when she was a small girl, showing her chops in Spielberg’s blockbuster E.T., although she actually appeared in Ken Russell’s psychedelic Altered States when she was just five years old and in commercials even before that. Of course, as we all know, since then she’s grown up to perform and to produce as well. She and Nancy Juvonen (aka Mrs. Jimmy Fallon) got together to create Flower Films. She’s also done a little bit of directing, including one short, Our Deal; Whip It, about roller derby; and Choose or Lose Presents: The Best Place to Start, meant to encourage young people to vote.
In 2009, Barrymore had a huge success with the HBO telefilm Grey Gardens, based on Albert and David Maysles’s well-regarded (except by me, but I’m not going to go into a rant here about why I don’t like it) documentary about two of Jackie Kennedy’s eccentric and reclusive relatives. Drew, as Edith Bouvier Beale, won a 2009 Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award and received an Emmy Award nomination. She did do a fantastic job.
Her newest film is The Big Miracle, based on a true story about the attempt to save a pod of whales trapped by ice in the Arctic. The role, as the animal-loving ex-girlfriend of a local journalist suits Drew, who has supported the ASPCA and Much Love Animal Rescue, and been an outspoken animal rights activist. She also served as an Ambassador Against Hunger for the United Nations Food Program. She and co-star Jon Krasinski gave an interview about the film.
Visit her official website, which covers everything from her fashion work to her philanthropy.
She’s been on The Daily Show before, many times: she’s their friend! Here she is in 2010; in 2005; and in 2004.
Go to her IMDB page for a full filmography and links to info on every one.
Like her on Facebook.
She just got engaged! Congrats, Drew.
Drew notoriously flashed Letterman.
And now, let’s check in with our good friend Jon Stewart!
Oh, my: Jon’s got FOUR WOMEN on this week! Two are politicians, one’s a military woman and an author, and the final guest is an actress.
Monday, 1/23: Kathleen Sebelius
As the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius’s administers over 300 programs designed to protect the health of all Americans and assure that the neediest get the help they require. Of course, one of the agency’s goals is health care for everyone, and my bet is she’ll be discussing “Obamacare” with Jon. The daughter of the former Governor of Ohio John J. Gilligan, Sebelius seems born for the political world, and she was formerly a lobbyist, the Kansas State Insurance Commissioner, and finally the two-term governor of Kansas—a position she won with a huge margin, despite being a Dem in a highly Republican state. (I’m pretty sure they don’t believe in evolution there.)
She’s been on The Daily Show before—in a two parter. Part 1 and Part 2.
Here’s her bio on the Health and Human Services website.
Follow HHS on Twitter.
Like Sebelius’s Facebook page.
In 2010, Forbes named her the 13th most powerful woman in the world.
When the FDA wanted to allow teens access to the controversial “morning after” pill, Sebelius overruled them. I think it’s a lousy decision.
She had an article on women’s health in Marie Claire.
Tuesday, 1/24: Elizabeth Warren
You go, Elizabeth Warren! The former Special Advisor for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, member of the Congressional Oversight Committee, and Harvard law professor is running for senator in Massachusetts, and her candidacy has attracted lots of attention and huge liberal support. This is Ted Kennedy’s old seat, the one Republican Scott Brown won against the weak candidacy of Martha Coakley, and Warren has managed to build quite a campaign chest to fight him. (This article in Mother Jones discusses the run, and even includes a mention of Jon.) Against all expectations, Warren, who was instrumental in creating the new consumer protection agency was not chosen by Obama to head it–the Republicans grumbled too much and threatened–so now they may have to deal with her in a more powerful place.
Scott Brown said that if she’d curb SuperPac donations, he would too. She said no, claiming that “the proposal [Brown] has put forward still includes loopholes that Karl Rove could drive a tank through.”
Read an article on her in Vanity Fair.
The New York Times wrote about her campaign.
Yes, Jon does love her. She’s been on three times so far—in 2011 for an extended interview; in 2010; and in 2009 (part 1 and part 2.) This is the fourth visit!
Follow her on Twitter or like her on Facebook.
Wednesday, 1/25: Paula Broadwell
I had not previously heard of Paula Broadwell, but after reading about her, I am somewhat in awe. Broadwell is a journalist who has written for almost every major newspaper and a former army officer who served on the anti-terrorism task force (among other duties). She has put her extensive experience in both areas to use in her newest book, co-written with Vernon Loeb: All In: The Education of General David Petraeus, a look at the mastermind of the Iraq surge strategy, his development in army, and his impact on the military. Broadwell received cooperation from both Petraeus and his associates and she even became an embedded reporter with his group. And oh—just in case she didn’t seem impressive enough, she’s also getting her PhD from the War Studies Department in King’s College, The University of London, and is a research associate at Harvard.
Visit her website. Please note the link there for the Wounded Warriors Project. It’s an extremely worthy cause, and I’d like to put in a word for it here. Also, check out her glowing reviews from the likes of Doris Kearns Goodwin, Tom Brokaw, Mark Bowden (author of Black Hawk Down), David Gergen, and others.
Follow her on Twitter.
Like the Facebook page for her book.
Read this article to see exactly what she did in the military.
She commented on Petraeus on NPR.
Broadwell has written in The New York Times about women at war.
Thursday, 1/26: Tilda Swinton
One of today’s most versatile and unique actresses, Tilda Swinton has generally chosen to follow her heart and not her pocketbook when choosing films—although she has appeared in a few more commercial movies, including Michael Clayton, for which she earned both an Oscar® and a Golden Globe®. Swinton, who performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company, first came to worldwide attention in Sally Potter’s adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s gender-busting novel Orlando, playing a role that required her to switch from male to female midway through the story. But she especially dedicated herself to the gay director Derek Jarman, whose artistic and visually stunning cinema often challenged conventions; their partnership only came to an end with Jarman’s tragic death from AIDS in 1994.
Swinton’s newest film sounds fascinating: she plays the mother of a teen murderer in Lynne Ramsay’s adaptation of Lionel Shriver’s novel We Need to Talk About Kevin. I love Ramsay’s films (she was supposed to direct The Lovely Bones, until it was stolen from her by a certain, ummm, RINGY director, who blew it), I love Swinton’s work, and the advance reviews have been great.
Read a great interview with Swinton in The Guardian.
Here’s an article she wrote on Woolf’s Orlando.
Love this—she says she’d be willing to play Conan! (Yes, I do mean PLAY Conan, not appear on his show.)
Read an interview with her on her dear friend and director, Derek Jarman.
Watch Swinton in Jarman’s short section in the art-film Aria. (She’s not the one singing, though.) The film consisted of several music-video length pieces, each made by a different director–but with opera, not pop.
That’s it for this week. I am looking forward to the upcoming shows with so much anticipation. What are you hoping to see in the wake of the SuperPac/Primary madness? Where do you hope Stephen goes next? And which guest excites you most? I’d love to know!
Have a fabulous week, everyone!
Better Know a Guest: January 23 — 26, 2012
Hello, Hubsters!
Well, the race in South Carolina is over….and CAIN CAME IN FIFTH! *Balloon drop* Okay—perhaps not the best, but better than Cain ever did before, so that’s something. How will Stephen react to this? Will he continue to explore? Jump in? Drop out? Come up with something entirely new and unexpected? Whatever he chooses to do, I thank him for fun and education he’s brought to the race, and the light he’s so consistently shone on our messed-up electoral system.
Corporations aren’t people. People are people.
Stephen is the best of people.
After two breathtaking weeks, I think it looks as if another is coming our way. Both he and Jon have a wonderful and varied line-up. So let’s see what we have to look forward to….
Monday, 1/23: Bruce Bueno De Mesquita
Now that Stephen’s running for President of South Carolina—oops, EXPLORING a run–he can probably use a little political advice. How should he govern? Should he be concerned about the good of the people? Or should he just worry about amassing power? Bruce Bueno De Mesquita is here to help answer some of these questions. He’s the Juliius Silver Professor of Politics and director of the Alexander Hamilton Center for Political Economy at New York University, and co-author(with Alastair Smith) of The Dictator’s Handbook: Why Bad Behavior Is Almost Always Good Politics. And De Mesquita’s counsel is likely to be a touch Machiavellian, because he believes that even in a democracy, leaders care most about keeping themselves in power rather than the country’s welfare. It’s a premise that will likely appeal to Stephen the character, with his inflated ego and strong sense of self-interest.
Coercions, persuasions, and political predictions appear to be De Mesquita’s stock in trade; he created a computer model based on game theory that serves as a kind of “crystal ball” into what the future will bring. The New York Times wrote an article on these speculations, in particular when and whether Iran will build a bomb, and later De Mesquita discussed the matter with Jon on The Daily Show.
De Mesquita has won received several honors, including the Dag Hammarskjold Memorial Award; Karl Deutsch Award in International Relations and Peace Research; and a Guggenheim Fellowship. In addition to teaching at NYU, he’s a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University—and he has a sideline running Mesquita & Roundell, LLC, a consulting company to governmental agencies and corporations. (And why not—they’re people too!)
Visit his NYU bio page, which contains a number of other links to his courses, his publications, and more.
You don’t need to be Stephen to have De Mesquita come speak at your organization! He takes on lecture engagements.
Here’s the elaborate website for his former book, The Predictioneer’s Game.
Like his Facebook page.
He and Alastair Smith wrote an article assessing Syria’s President Assad.
Tuesday, 1/24: Placido Domingo
First a classical cello player (YoYo Ma), then ballet’s best (Hallberg), now an opera legend: Stephen’s beginning to corner the high-culture market. Happy 71st birthday, Placido Domingo! Domingo was one of the “Three Tenors” (along with Luciano Pavarotti and Jose Carreras), whose blockbuster records, concerts, and TV broadcasts helped make the once-elite musical form wildly popular. Last year, he celebrated his 50th year in opera: he made his stage debut in La Traviata in Monterey, Mexico back in 1961. In honor of that anniversary, a variety of record companies re-released several of his CDs—and he received an honorary doctorate from Harvard. During Domingo’s unparalleled career, he took on a stunning 134 roles; won 12 Grammy® awards, including three Latin Grammys; and made more than 100 recordings.
He recently announced the 20th edition of the World Opera Competition, which will take place from June 4-10th in Beijing (where you used to be jailed or sent to the farms for political re-education if you played Western classical music). Domingo founded the contest with the goal of “discover[ing] and honor[ing] the best new young opera singers of today.”
The Madrid-born tenor has now turned his musical talents to conducting, and he also serves as the general director of both the LA Opera and the Washington National Opera. But not to worry; he continues to sing, and will perform the lead in Simon Boccanegra with LA Opera this year–which is pretty incredible as few opera performers can sustain their voice over such a long period of time.
Visit his official website to get news, find out about those re-released CDs, and much more.
PBS did an American Masters on him. (Though strictly speaking, while he’s a master, he’s not American.)
He made his debut in La Traviata, and fortunately, his performance in that opera was captured forever by filmmaker Franco Zeffirelli.
Here he is singing “Nessun Dorma” from Puccini’s Turandot, one of the most famous arias in opera.
And I admire him because he’s just shown a little love for New York’s music education program. He’ll even conduct a children’s orchestra.
Go to his artist page on NPR.
Domingo not only sings—he Tweets!
Here’s part of a mini-documentary on him.
Wednesday, 1/25: Terry Gross
The tables are turned and fangirl Terry Gross is on the other side now! Gross, the host of NPR’s wonderful “Fresh Air,” has interviewed Stephen several times, and they are among the best interviews with him ever done. Here are just two of them: one in which he discusses his performance in Company and another that took place back in 2005.
Gross is a Brooklyn-born girl, from Sheepshead Bay, who earned her MA in communications from SUNY Buffalo and later began her radio career in that same northern NY city. In 1975, two years after she began, she moved to WHYY-FM in Philadelphia to start the program that she remains with to this very day. Gross has received numerous awards for her work, including a Peabody, the Foundation of American Womin in Radio and Television’s Gracie Allen Award, a CPB Edward R. Murrow Award, an a WHYY National Book Foundation Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community.
A anthology of her “Fresh Air” interviews was gathered in a book called All I Did Was Ask, for which Gross wrote the introduction.
Here’s one of her most recent shows, the with wonderful actor Michael Fassbender.
Gross called Stephen’s testimony before the House on immigration “so amazing!”
Like “Fresh Air’ on Facebook.
Terry interviewed Jon (a few times) too. Here’s her most recent talk with him, from 2010. Or you can watch a little video of the chat.
The “Fresh Air” archives need preservation—and you can help!
Follow “Fresh Air” on Twitter.
Is Terry too sexy for Mississippi? Apparently so.
Terry normally gets on fine with her guests—but this interview with KISS member Gene Simmons went very badly. (Never liked him anyway. He and KISS stole their makeup from one of my favorite Brazilian singers–but that’s another story for another place.) Oh, and she and Papa Bear O’Reilly didn’t get on too well either.
You can also listen to the podcasts on iTunes.
Here’s an interesting article that questions that tack she took when interviewing Jay-Z.
Thursday, 1/26: Drew Barrymore
She’s the talented and adorable actress who comes from one of the most renowned theater and film families in America: The Barrymores. Most of us remember Drew from when she was a small girl, showing her chops in Spielberg’s blockbuster E.T., although she actually appeared in Ken Russell’s psychedelic Altered States when she was just five years old and in commercials even before that. Of course, as we all know, since then she’s grown up to perform and to produce as well. She and Nancy Juvonen (aka Mrs. Jimmy Fallon) got together to create Flower Films. She’s also done a little bit of directing, including one short, Our Deal; Whip It, about roller derby; and Choose or Lose Presents: The Best Place to Start, meant to encourage young people to vote.
In 2009, Barrymore had a huge success with the HBO telefilm Grey Gardens, based on Albert and David Maysles’s well-regarded (except by me, but I’m not going to go into a rant here about why I don’t like it) documentary about two of Jackie Kennedy’s eccentric and reclusive relatives. Drew, as Edith Bouvier Beale, won a 2009 Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award and received an Emmy Award nomination. She did do a fantastic job.
Her newest film is The Big Miracle, based on a true story about the attempt to save a pod of whales trapped by ice in the Arctic. The role, as the animal-loving ex-girlfriend of a local journalist suits Drew, who has supported the ASPCA and Much Love Animal Rescue, and been an outspoken animal rights activist. She also served as an Ambassador Against Hunger for the United Nations Food Program. She and co-star Jon Krasinski gave an interview about the film.
Visit her official website, which covers everything from her fashion work to her philanthropy.
She’s been on The Daily Show before, many times: she’s their friend! Here she is in 2010; in 2005; and in 2004.
Go to her IMDB page for a full filmography and links to info on every one.
Like her on Facebook.
She just got engaged! Congrats, Drew.
Drew notoriously flashed Letterman.
And now, let’s check in with our good friend Jon Stewart!
Oh, my: Jon’s got FOUR WOMEN on this week! Two are politicians, one’s a military woman and an author, and the final guest is an actress.
Monday, 1/23: Kathleen Sebelius
As the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius’s administers over 300 programs designed to protect the health of all Americans and assure that the neediest get the help they require. Of course, one of the agency’s goals is health care for everyone, and my bet is she’ll be discussing “Obamacare” with Jon. The daughter of the former Governor of Ohio John J. Gilligan, Sebelius seems born for the political world, and she was formerly a lobbyist, the Kansas State Insurance Commissioner, and finally the two-term governor of Kansas—a position she won with a huge margin, despite being a Dem in a highly Republican state. (I’m pretty sure they don’t believe in evolution there.)
She’s been on The Daily Show before—in a two parter. Part 1 and Part 2.
Here’s her bio on the Health and Human Services website.
Follow HHS on Twitter.
Like Sebelius’s Facebook page.
In 2010, Forbes named her the 13th most powerful woman in the world.
When the FDA wanted to allow teens access to the controversial “morning after” pill, Sebelius overruled them. I think it’s a lousy decision.
She had an article on women’s health in Marie Claire.
Tuesday, 1/24: Elizabeth Warren
You go, Elizabeth Warren! The former Special Advisor for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, member of the Congressional Oversight Committee, and Harvard law professor is running for senator in Massachusetts, and her candidacy has attracted lots of attention and huge liberal support. This is Ted Kennedy’s old seat, the one Republican Scott Brown won against the weak candidacy of Martha Coakley, and Warren has managed to build quite a campaign chest to fight him. (This article in Mother Jones discusses the run, and even includes a mention of Jon.) Against all expectations, Warren, who was instrumental in creating the new consumer protection agency was not chosen by Obama to head it–the Republicans grumbled too much and threatened–so now they may have to deal with her in a more powerful place.
Scott Brown said that if she’d curb SuperPac donations, he would too. She said no, claiming that “the proposal [Brown] has put forward still includes loopholes that Karl Rove could drive a tank through.”
Read an article on her in Vanity Fair.
The New York Times wrote about her campaign.
Yes, Jon does love her. She’s been on three times so far—in 2011 for an extended interview; in 2010; and in 2009 (part 1 and part 2.) This is the fourth visit!
Follow her on Twitter or like her on Facebook.
Wednesday, 1/25: Paula Broadwell
I had not previously heard of Paula Broadwell, but after reading about her, I am somewhat in awe. Broadwell is a journalist who has written for almost every major newspaper and a former army officer who served on the anti-terrorism task force (among other duties). She has put her extensive experience in both areas to use in her newest book, co-written with Vernon Loeb: All In: The Education of General David Petraeus, a look at the mastermind of the Iraq surge strategy, his development in army, and his impact on the military. Broadwell received cooperation from both Petraeus and his associates and she even became an embedded reporter with his group. And oh—just in case she didn’t seem impressive enough, she’s also getting her PhD from the War Studies Department in King’s College, The University of London, and is a research associate at Harvard.
Visit her website. Please note the link there for the Wounded Warriors Project. It’s an extremely worthy cause, and I’d like to put in a word for it here. Also, check out her glowing reviews from the likes of Doris Kearns Goodwin, Tom Brokaw, Mark Bowden (author of Black Hawk Down), David Gergen, and others.
Follow her on Twitter.
Like the Facebook page for her book.
Read this article to see exactly what she did in the military.
She commented on Petraeus on NPR.
Broadwell has written in The New York Times about women at war.
Thursday, 1/26: Tilda Swinton
One of today’s most versatile and unique actresses, Tilda Swinton has generally chosen to follow her heart and not her pocketbook when choosing films—although she has appeared in a few more commercial movies, including Michael Clayton, for which she earned both an Oscar® and a Golden Globe®. Swinton, who performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company, first came to worldwide attention in Sally Potter’s adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s gender-busting novel Orlando, playing a role that required her to switch from male to female midway through the story. But she especially dedicated herself to the gay director Derek Jarman, whose artistic and visually stunning cinema often challenged conventions; their partnership only came to an end with Jarman’s tragic death from AIDS in 1994.
Swinton’s newest film sounds fascinating: she plays the mother of a teen murderer in Lynne Ramsay’s adaptation of Lionel Shriver’s novel We Need to Talk About Kevin. I love Ramsay’s films (she was supposed to direct The Lovely Bones, until it was stolen from her by a certain, ummm, RINGY director, who blew it), I love Swinton’s work, and the advance reviews have been great.
Read a great interview with Swinton in The Guardian.
Here’s an article she wrote on Woolf’s Orlando.
Love this—she says she’d be willing to play Conan! (Yes, I do mean PLAY Conan, not appear on his show.)
Read an interview with her on her dear friend and director, Derek Jarman.
Watch Swinton in Jarman’s short section in the art-film Aria. (She’s not the one singing, though.) The film consisted of several music-video length pieces, each made by a different director–but with opera, not pop.
That’s it for this week. I am looking forward to the upcoming shows with so much anticipation. What are you hoping to see in the wake of the SuperPac/Primary madness? Where do you hope Stephen goes next? And which guest excites you most? I’d love to know!
Have a fabulous week, everyone!