her again?

Well I am just blogging all sorts of things today.

I read this item about Scarlett Johansson replacing Emily Blunt in the next Iron Man movie on Nikki Finke's blog this morning, and was totally disheartened. I had heard rumors about it elsewhere (perhaps from Finke, perhaps elsewhere), and was hoping some other actress (anyone, really) to fall from the sky and into the lap of the casting director. Or for something terrible to befall the over-employed Johansson (not like tragic-terrible, more like gain-a-bunch-of-weight or caught-in-an-embarrassing-scandal terrible).

Blunt is a far more interesting choice (not only can she act, but she's funny and mischevious and not a cookie cutter starlet). It's bad enough that we had to endure Johansson in Vicky Christina Barcelona (so joyless compared to the rest of the game cast). Why more? Why?

P.S. - I try not to make a habit of Finke's blog ... it was a must when I lived in LA, but now it's not crucial for my day-to-day (obvs). She's a course, overzealous, mean-spirited know-it-all. So it's kinda like reading a train wreck. Or, rather, a five car pile-up on Sunset.

row e, center

I haven't used this space for notes on theater before (well, lately I haven't used this space for notes on anything, but that's another matter entirely). I'm lucky to live in New York, and to have friends (well, a friend, really) who works in theater and therefore gets free tickets to many things. I'm a frequent companion, and I take her out to dinner. It's a great deal for both parties.

Last night we saw God of Carnage, the new Yasmina Reza play which was a big success in London and has now transferred to Broadway with a new (stellar) cast. It's about two very different pairs of Brooklyn (tony Cobble Hill) parents who meet after their young children get into a fight. In its opening moments, the play feels like a sassy jab at bourgeois parenting, but as it progresses, and as everyone starts behaving badly and gulping rum, it turns into so much more.

The actors (Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, James Gandolfini, and Marcia Gay Harden) are all fantastic. Daniels' role is the least interesting (a stock lawyer type), and Gandolfini's unsophisticated hardware salesman could live around the corner from Tony Soprano (it's a niche, but nobody does it as well as him). The women are the standouts. Davis is game for some hilarious physical comedy, and Gay Harden, in the play's plum role, blows everyone out of the water. As she's such a commanding presence onscreen, it's no surprise to see her milk every line reading and moment here. She's a pleasure to watch (and quite funny).

And the audience ate it up. It's currently in previews, and will assuredly open to stellar reviews. I can't help but think back to a time (and I don't know when this was, but it's certainly not now) when a show like this would be the talk of the town. Something on Broadway that New Yorkers (not tourists) saw and talked about. Oh well.

(A note on the headline. And this is really gay. In All About Eve - yes, I'm going there - Addison DeWitt comments in the film's opening voiceover that nothing in the playwright's wife's background should have brought her closer to the stage than Row E, Center. I've always thought that it would be great to date a stage actor - wouldn't it? - and to make a living running a bistro called Row E, Center. That, or Theater By Marriage).