The good news: “In Treatment” is returning to HBO for a second season. The bad news: after the network provided us with several great photos of Gabriel Byrne to utilize along with his quotes during the panel, we were given the bad news that Mr. Byrne had come down with a nasty case of the flu and would not be in attendance after all. In a word: d’oh!
Still, we must rise above our difficulties. Though the panel contained 100% less Gabriel than originally advertised, we were at least graced by the presence of Executive Producer Steve Levinson and Executive Producer and show runner Warren Leight. But, dammit, we got these photos and we’re damned well going to use them anyway! And, besides, it’s not like Dr. Paul Weston isn’t going to be a major topic of discussion.
As you may or may not know, Dr. Weston’s marriage has failed, resulting in a new setting for the series; possibly not coincidentally, the series itself is now being produced in New York, which is exactly where Dr. Weston is moving. Now he’s practicing in a Brooklyn brownstone, baby!
“I think once we knew we were doing it there, we thought we would embrace the city and embrace the location and certainly make reference to it,” said Levinson.
New York also happens to be where Gabriel Byrne himself lives. This is definitely not a coincidence.
Kevin Bacon’s a really underrated actor. We so often hear people refer to the whole “six degrees” thing that I think we sometimes forget just how talented a thespian he is…which is a little odd, really, given how often he offers us proof of his abilities. If you should happen to need another reminder, however, HBO’s “Taking Chance” fits the bill nicely. The film is based on the first-person narrative of Lieutenant Colonel Michael Strobl, USMC (Ret.), and chronicles Strobl’s journey as the volunteer military escort officer assigned to accompany the body of 19-year-old Lance Corporal Chance Phelps, USMC, who was killed in action in Iraq, across America to his hometown of Dubois, Wyoming.
Given that American forces remain in Iraq even as the film makes its network debut, it will certainly hit home to a great number of viewers, particularly as you experience the sad reminder that the soldiers dying over there are people’s friends and relatives. At the same time, however, it’s also a testament to how we can loathe the war but still respect those who are forced to fight it.
“One of the things that’s really interesting to me about the film,” said Bacon, “is that you really get back to the fact that…you can of read an article, and you can say a certain amount of Marines were killed in this city, when you see a body count coming up, but it doesn’t really hit home in the same kind of way as it does if you actually see what happens to the actual remains. You see the preparation, you see the respect, and you see the tradition and the honor that is involved with actually returning them to their final resting place. And the story is really a very, very simple one in that it’s really just the story of this man and this person, Chance, that he’s returning. And it’s almost completely unembellished with anything to make it more cinematic or dramatic or to somehow force us to feel one way or another based on what our preconceived notions are about Iraq and whether or not we should have been in there or whatever. It’s just the simple telling of what this process is like and, in its simplicity, I think, becomes an extremely profound kind of comment on the casualties of war.”
This is the third time Bacon’s played a Marine in his career, the other two occasions being in “Frost/Nixon” and “A Few Good Men,” but we shouldn’t infer any sort of military aptitude from these repeat performances. “There is no part of me that ever considered being a Marine or could make it in the Marine Corps,” he said, with a laugh. “I am definitely not that guy. I’m not the guy to throw myself in harm’s way. I would never make it through boot camp. It’s all acting.”
The actual Lt. Col. Strobl was on the panel as well, and he was asked if he thought it was a disservice to the memory of American servicemen that we rarely see their final farewells and are so often forced to remember them as numbers rather than names.
“Perhaps it might be good if we saw or thought more about them than just a line in the newspaper and went on with our day,” said Lt. Col. Strobl. “Hopefully, this movie will make people realize…I know we all know, but that there have been 3,400 combat deaths so far, and there’s a risk that they all run together. This movie will remind us all that they all have families that love them. They all had vibrant lives up to that point. So, yes, I suppose there is a risk, but maybe this movie will address some of that.”
“Taking Chance” premieres on HBO in February 2009.
Tell a film buff that HBO is getting ready to air a new movie called “Grey Gardens,” and watch their smug expression as they try to one-up you and say, “That’s not new! That came out back in 1975!” Well, they’re half-right, anyway. There was a movie that came out in ’75 called “Grey Gardens.” That, however, was a documentary about Edith “Big Edie” Ewing Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edith “Little Edie” Bouvier Beale, the aunt and first cousin of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. This “Grey Gardens” tackles much of the same material but offers up a fuller picture of their lives, and this time the parts of Little Edie and Big Edie are being played by Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange.
It’s funny how differently the two actresses reacted to the challenge of playing their characters. Lange was rather casual with her description of the experience; although she referred to it as “the most difficult role I’ve had in a long time,” she also said that it was good for her, describing it as “a fascinating exercise.” When listening to Barrymore talk about it, however, her desire to come through with nothing short of the performance of a lifetime was palpable.
It’s a whole new year, and what better way to celebrate than by honoring five of the funniest mofos ever to walk the planet?
Yes, that’s right, it’s time to induct a new class into Bullz-Eye’s Stand-Up Comics Hall of Fame! The inaugural class included notable funnymen Richard Pryor, Rodney Dangerfield, Bill Cosby, Lenny Bruce, and Bill Hicks — tough acts to follow, to be sure, but if anyone can stand up to the pressure, it’s the five comedy legends in the class of ’09.
Like Don Rickles, for instance. The curmudgeonly insult comic has been gracing talk show couches for decades, tossing off cutting one-liners and turning the phrase “hockey puck” into something more than sports terminology. His routines may seem quaint today, but catch him on a good night, and he’ll put any younger comic to shame — even a new insult legend like, say, a certain canine puppet.
Another oldie-but-goodie on this year’s list is Bob Newhart, the film and sitcom star whose deadpan stare and trademark stammer has always masked an unexpectedly subversive sense of humor — remember the way he ended Newhart by turning the entire series into a bad dream suffered by the character he played on The Bob Newhart Show? Though surely the most old-fashioned humorist in this year’s class, Newhart was also one of the most groundbreaking comics of his era — and his routines have aged better than most.
Speaking of groundbreaking, how about Steve Martin? The silver-haired stand-up has kept a fairly low profile for the last 10 years or so, periodically emerging to star in one poorly reviewed film or another, but during his heyday, Martin was a platinum-selling, SNL-hosting pioneer of absurdist humor. Who else could have snuck a ditty about King Tut onto Top 40 radio, then gone on to a career as a critically respected novelist and playwright? Even now, Martin remains as nuttily prolific as ever; 2009 will see him reprising his role as the nouveau Inspector Clouseau in Pink Panther 2 and releasing an album of original banjo music.
The one member of this year’s class who won’t be releasing anything new is Sam Kinison, the screeching ex-reverend who perished after his car was hit by a teenage drunk driver in 1992. He’s remembered today chiefly as the beret-wearing little screaming dude whose Jessica Hahn-led video for “Wild Thing” sparked a tidal wave of nocturnal emissions in the ’80s, but Kinison’s humor was smarter — and more tender — than he was given credit for.
“Tender” is not a word often used to describe our fifth inductee. Actually, these days, “funny” isn’t often used either, but Eddie Murphy‘s incendiary early run was so incredible that no amount of Meet Dave-level “comedies” can wipe away his legacy. Forget about The Adventures of Pluto Nash — no comedy collection is complete without Murphy’s Delirious, not to mention most of his movie and television appearances from 1980-87.
So, like we said — the first HOF class was a tough act to follow, but we think you’ll agree that this year’s set of honorees is up to the standard. So what are you waiting for? Read all about them here!
If you’re not already familiar with Alexander McCall Smith’s series of books about a female private detective in Botswana, then you’d be forgiven for thinking that HBO’s “The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency” was some sort of premium-cable equivalent of ABC’s defunct “Women’s Murder Club.” It’s actually a rich look into modern day African culture that has as much to do with spotlighting the gorgeous landscape and establishing the personalities and quirks of its characters as it does with solving a mystery.
Fans of McCall Smith’s novels were chomping at the bit to see who would be cast to play the novel’s central figure, Mma Precious Ramotswe. The slightly surprising victor: Jill Scott, a woman known far more for her work as a singer than as an actress. It must be said, however, that Scott does a great job in the role, offering the appropriate notes of both humor and drama throughout the production. For his part, however, McCall Smith couldn’t say whether or not she truly fit his idea of what Precious would look like, if only because it’s something to which he ever gave any thought.
“As a writer, curiously enough — and people sometimes don’t believe me when I say this — but I don’t actually see my characters,” said McCall Smith. “I hear them, but I didn’t have a picture of what Mma Ramotswe would look like. So when Jill came along, I said, ‘That’s fine. That’s perfectly all right by me.’ And indeed, I think you have certainly given me a picture of my characters which I didn’t have before. But when I actually write, I don’t see people. I just hear things. And I see a countryside, but I don’t actually see the characters, which is a strange thing. So that was fine. I thought they were just right.”
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The one member of this year’s class who won’t be releasing anything new is 
