Pass the Kleenex
Wednesday, December 12, 2007 at 1:04PM 
Why Martha, Why?
Yes, it's a sad time for all of us clever gals of the design-and-craft variety. A while back, a magazine called Blueprint was launched by the master of them all: Martha Stewart. Finally, all of us 25 to 39 year-olds had somewhere to go to get chic, simple and creative inspiration that didn't look like a cottage industry. Of course, we could have read the great bastion Martha Stewart Living, but does one really want to read what one's mother does? No.
So it was with a most heavy heart that I learned yesterday that Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia has decided to cease publication of Blueprint after the January-February issue. Sigh! Just when they put a pink Christmas tree on their cover. I knew it was too good to be true! It makes me want to write a strongly-worded letter to Herself, asking "Why Martha, Why? Don't you love us any more Martha? Us young, creative aesthetes of the Future Homemakers of America? Don't you realize that you need to nurture the saplings before they can become full-grown oak trees of Good Things?"
Martha's mind works in mysterious ways.
Fortunately, the fun and fabulous Bluelines Blog will continue with its down-to-earth editorials and insider glimpses of what working at the MSLO must be like...
Don't Remake Me!
I also recently learnt that there are plans to remake the 1939 classic film and fashion touchstone, The Women. To be perfectly fair, The Women was initially a stage play written by Clare Boothe Luce which was then adapted to the screen by George Cukor, with a screenplay by Anita Loos. The rapid-fire dialoge is a mix of humor, insult, cutting remark, gossip and tenderness - hallmarks of the golden era of early Twentieth-Century drama. The whole story is all about men - loving them, holding them, letting them go, fighting to keep them - yet you never see a single male in the entire picture.
And what a cast! Norma Shearer (aka Mrs. Irving Thalberg), Joan Crawford (aka Mommie Dearest), Rosalind Russell (aka Cary Grant's Girl Friday), Paulette Goddard (aka Mrs. Charlie Chaplin, III), Joan Fontaine (aka Olivia de Havilland's sister), and plenty of others take on the ensemble seamlessly. The whole thing is a melee of Hollywood in the golden age with stories and scandal behind every scene. If The Women is known by anyone, it is most likely known as "the best bitch film of all time," but I've never found it to be all that bitchy. It's shocking and sad, but also quite funny, and in the end everything works out as it should.
Oh, and most importantly, the film features the lovely little credit of "Gowns by Adrian"...
The remake version is due to be released in October 2008 and will also follow the play by Clare Boothe Luce, but with an updated screenplay by Diane English who is also directing the film. I must say, according to IMDB's lineup of the current cast, I have my eyebrows raised about this one. How will Meg Ryan hold the quiet dignity of Mary Haines? How will Debra Messing play Sylvia Fowler without completely reprising Rosalind Russell and making a complete joke of herself? How will Bette Midler play the Comtesse de Lave and not receive guffaws?
This is me, sitting here in silent horror. I can't read about it any more - it's giving me the shakes, like those five frames of a colorized Casablanca I saw one time. Ugh!
Why is it that Hollywood is so compelled to make remakes these days? Do they really think they need to "perfect" something that is already perfect? Are our current writers so uninspired and lacking in originality that they can't come up with any new stories to tell? Is it that the studios only want to spend money on producing projects they're already sure of? Where is the risk these days? Why do plotlines need to be shaped by focus groups and comment cards?
Someone please explain the remake phoenomenon to me, because I'm not sure I'll ever understand. In the case of something like Pride & Prejudice, I enjoy the many versions of this story because the characters are so rich they can be re-interpreted each time anew. However, with the original cast of The Women, those actresses ARE those characters; for me it will be very difficult not to draw comparisons.
Am I the only one who thinks this way? Sorry for the rant, but lately I feel like when I go to the movies I'm seeing things I've already seen...and I don't think it's deja vu!
Reader Comments (3)
However, a well done hommage to the original was Francois Ozon's wonderful "8 Femmes" (http://imdb.com/title/tt0283832/). Was that even released in the USA?