The new Broadway season is just starting to heat up, and it is jammed full of boldfaced names. This week, Scarlett Johansson started previews, performing in A View From the Bridge opposite Liev Schreiber. Though official reviews are still weeks away, the initial reactions from the blogosphere have been, if not overwhelmingly positive, then pleasantly surprised. But Broadway pulled a huge coup this week by securing Denzel Washington for the Winter season—though it was announced in November that Washington would be starring in August Wilson’s Fences in April, details have emerged and they are even better than we thought. Doubt’s Viola Davis, who managed to steal an entire movie from Amy Adams and Meryl Streep, will co-star, and Kenny Leon, director of Broadway’s Radio Golf, Gem of the Ocean, and A Raisin in the Sun, will take the reins.
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Though her death didn’t come as a complete shock, socialite/heiress/tabloid fixture Casey Johnson, who passed away on Monday and was theoretically engaged to reality TV star Tila Tequila, became the first celebrity whose significant other announced her death via Twitter. And within a few days of Johnson’s death, Tequila and gossip blogger Perez Hilton spent the whole day fighting on Twitter about the custody of Johnson’s adopted daughter, Ava, the fate of Johnson’s dogs (which Nicky Hilton reportedly wants to adopt), and Tequila’s new gossip site, which she claims with “dethrone” Perez. We all grieve in different ways.
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Actor James Franco has admitted outright that he decided to take a role on General Hospital as a performance art project, so it was really only a matter of time until he put on an actual gallery show about the claim. This week, Franco announced that he will, in fact, put up a show at Deitch Projects as part of a special episode of GH (which he himself will direct). Odd, but not so much--this seems to be all part of Franco’s plan to ensconce himself in the art world. As New York magazine notes, “Franco has been worming his way into the art world for some months now: teaming up with the video artist Carter for the art film Erased James Franco; schmoozing the booths at Art Basel Miami Beach; presenting at the Guggenheim's Art Awards; and buddying up to the new head of P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center (and MoMA chief curator at large), Klaus Biesenbach.” And when he is not trying to become the next New York art star or studying for his MFA in writing at Columbia, Franco will appear in what looks like a hilarious guest spot on 30 Rock on January 14.
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This week, Hollywood is abuzz with the news that Warren Beatty has bedded nearly 13,000 women (at least according to author Peter Biskind’s unauthorized biography, Star: How Warren Beatty Seduced America). But while the rest of America is left scratching heads and doing the math, there’s also the tale of another pop culture Casanova— Baby, Let's Play House: Elvis Presley and the Women Who Loved Him, a new biography by Alanna Nash. Chronicling every major (and minor) relationship in Elvis’ life, from Ann-Margret and Cybill Shepherd, to even (gasp!) Johnny Cash’s gal, June Carter, Nash also notes the ladies who dared to turn Elvis down, even in his glory years—Cher, Karen Carpenter, and Petula Clark where among those who had the physical fortitude to refuse the King. And in the end, reading about his women does more to cast light on Elvis’ career than many other biographies that proceeded this one—as New Republic critic David Hadju writes, “ Baby, Let's Play House is a masterwork of psycho-sexual history neatly disguised as celebrity journalism." Read an excerpt from Alana Nash’s Baby, Let’s Play House.
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The Winter Olympics are right around the corner, and this year, the Games are getting a bit more gay friendly. The PRIDE house, a special haven in Whistler “where Olympic and Paralympic athletes, coaches, family, fans and allies can come out and be their authentic selves,” will now feature the work of sculptor Edmund Haakonson in front. The work, a bronze nude hockey player, will no doubt prove controversial, but for now, the artist had this to say of his piece, “There is an element of the absurd in a hockey player wearing only skates, gloves and helmet, especially for anyone who has actually played hockey. There is however, no conflict in the absolutely serious and the humorous co-existing in a single work, I would suggest that it reflects the true reality of life.”
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As the final season of the epic ABC drama looms (February 2! Mr. President, don’t you dare schedule your State of the Union at the same time.), fans are going rabid. This week, a group of Losties petitioned Disney to transform Tom Sawyer’s island in Disneyland into a Lost-themed attraction, and even got Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof to sign on. Someone does have to preserve the “Hatch” and the “Frozen Donkey Wheel” when it’s all over.
Bob D'Amico / ABC
Acclaimed Color Field artist Kenneth Noland, passed away this week at 85. After serving in the Air Force during WWII, Noland attended the alternative Black Mountain College in his home state of North Carolina, where he studied Klee and Mondrian. But after moving seeing the work of the abstractionists in New York, he began to make his signature works; large scale chevrons, spirals, or concentric rings (also known as his Targets series), all playing with both minimalism, color, and paint drips. His final solo exhibition of his lifetime was staged as recently as last October, at the Leslie Feely gallery in New York, and was scheduled to close on January 9, a fitting memorial for the end of a great artist’s life.
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Finally, the fantastically successful Green Day musical is coming to Broadway. After a run at the Berkeley Rep, the show comes to New York in the spring, just in time for Tony consideration. Based on songs from Billie Joe Armstrong’s band’s 2004 American Idiot (that’s also the title of the show) and 2009’s 21st Century Breakdown, the musical will be directed by Michael Mayer, who shepherded Spring Awakening to a Tony. We’re looking forward to seeing Armstrong up on stage in front of the theater world—it will be Green Day’s equivalent of being Three 6 Mafia at the Oscars.
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Dr. Vito Franco of Palermo University has been analyzing the world’s great art works for signs of medical trauma in the models. Seriously. And this week. he found that the Mona Lisa, due to a large fatty pocket under her eye, was likely dealing with cholesterol buildup and a king of tumor known as a lipoma. "Illness exists within the body, it does not have a metaphysical or supernatural dimension," Dr Franco told La Stampa newspaper. Franco has also diagnosed the boy in Botticelli’s “Portrait of a Youth” (Marfan syndrome), and Michaelangelo himself (excessive uric acid, renal calculosis). The point of all of this remains unclear, but at least the Mona Lisa wasn’t as perfect in life as she is on canvas.
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When you think of Grammy-winning, face-tattooed rapper Lil Wayne, who is on his way to prison next month for possession of a weapon in the second degree, God isn’t the first image that pops to mind. But perhaps that’s what’s so brilliant about the Cartoon Network, which cast Wayne to play the voice of Jesus in an upcoming Adult Swim special called “Freakniks.” And Wayne will be in good—and equally hilarious—company: T-Pain will also appear on the episode, playing “the ghost of Spring Break past.” Now you just have to wait until March 21 for the greatness.
Trailer of the Week: Kick-Ass
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