Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Number One-Hundred-Fifty-Seven

The Hollywood stars who never quite made it
You see a film and an unknown actor makes an indelible impression on you - then you never see them again.
by Maxim Jakubowski, London Guardian Arts Blog

Star quality… Pamela Gidley.

You know how it is: you see a film, and an actor or actress you’ve somehow never come across before just stands out and it makes an indelible impression on you. It might be their looks, their sexual aura or the intensity of their acting. It doesn’t even have to be a good movie, although that does help. Think of Julie Christie walking down the street in Billy Liar, or Edward Norton as the duplicitous character of Primal Fear, or even the young Gwyneth Paltrow’s jailbait character in Steve Kloves’ Flesh and Bone. I could go on: Connie Nielsen and Charlize Theron in The Devil’s Advocate, Vanessa Paradis in Noce Blanche, more recently Ellen Page in Hard Candy.

And yes, most of these examples are of actresses; blame it on my libido! At any rate, you tell yourself this is a talent to follow, a future star. And in most instances, that has proven the case. But what of those who fall through the net?

In 1991, British director (and fellow Guardian blogger) Mike Figgis followed-up his US breakthrough Internal Affairs with a self-penned thriller, Liebestraum. I still believe it to be one of the most underrated thrillers of that decade, but I know I’m in a minority. An architecture professor returns to his hometown in Illinois to visit his dying birth mother, who had him adopted years before. Here he gets involved with the wife of a college friend whose construction company is involved in demolishing an old building. Lust, murder, the hidden secrets of the past all combine to make this an exquisite and subtle mystery about feelings, buildings and the oppression of emotions.

Liebestraum is now best remembered for a brief appearance by Kim Novak as the older mother. Somehow Figgis’ story pushed all the right buttons for me when I first saw it at a film festival in Italy and this was due in no small part to the casting of a young American actress, Pamela Gidley, as Jane Kessler, the adulterous wife of Bill Pullman’s businessman.

Her whole performance walked a thin line between decorum and raging passions under the skin, and she made the part her own. Without even showing much skin in her brief shower scene, she conveyed the foolishness of lust barely under control with both discretion and elegance, and made her character’s dilemmas poignant and understandable. Even now, having watched the film several times, I still can’t point my finger at what makes the part work so well. Gidley’s beauty is understated throughout, her hair dark and Jean Seberg-short, but she burns up the screen as far as I am concerned.

Her career before Liebestraum was undistinguished, with small parts in minor films and TV series and, surprisingly, apart from an appearance in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, she has barely been heard of since, although her resume shows her as always busy in B-movies and well-regarded small screen series like CSI, The Pretender and Skin.

Am I the only spectator to have been struck by her in this way? Film viewers as well as critics all get unconscionable crushes on actresses, as the venerable David Thomson recently betrayed with his book on Nicole Kidman, but in my folly I really thought she had what it takes in looks and acting talent to take on Hollywood.

So, which actors haven’t met your personal expectations?

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Sincerely.
Eve and JW3 and Mélisande
Dirty Girl Things ©
Unrepentant.  Unpretentious.  Unconventional. ©

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Number One-Hundred-Fifty-One

Tis the Season

Holiday parties at Leo Burnett, the advertising agency, have that something extra special.

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Sincerely.
Eve and JW3 and Mélisande
Dirty Girl Things ©
Unrepentant.  Unpretentious.  Unconventional. ©

Friday, October 12, 2007

Number One-Hundred-Twenty-Two

Amid Family’s Quarrels, a Home Worthy of Gatsby Begins to Crumble
By BRUCE LAMBERT, NY Times

KINGS POINT, N.Y. — For more than half a century, Marjorie Brickman Kern has lived in the main mansion at the Point, the grand estate on Long Island’s Gold Coast that is believed by some to have inspired the fictional West Egg home of “The Great Gatsby.”

The Point sits atop a 20-foot cliff in the village of Kings Point overlooking Long Island Sound, where sailboats glide through a panorama of bridges and lighthouses against the backdrop of the Connecticut shore and the Manhattan skyline.

The stucco mansion, one of nine homes across the estate’s 21 acres, is filled with arched doorways, marble fireplaces, Oriental carpets, crystal chandeliers, genteel furniture and photographs of celebrated visitors like Eleanor Roosevelt, John V. Lindsay, Woody Allen and Sarah Ferguson.

These days, Mrs. Kern, an 81-year-old widow, lives alone amid floors rotted in places and some paneless windows. Parts of the grounds — which include a vineyard, a lily pond, a clay tennis court, a horse paddock, a squash court, a gym, a greenhouse and formal gardens — are neglected and overgrown.

....

The turmoil echoes the “Gatsby” theme of intrigue and betrayal beneath the facade of wealth and society, a tale set in the Jazz Age when Kings Point boasted of tycoons and celebrities like Walter Chrysler, W. R. Grace, Oscar Hammerstein and George M. Cohan.

The Point is on a private road off Gatsby Lane, a name apparently chosen by a developer, at the tip of the peninsula where Manhasset Bay meets Long Island Sound, a location matching the West Egg area that F. Scott Fitzgerald described in “The Great Gatsby,” said John Handler, the official village historian of Kings Point. The mansion in the book was even bigger than the one where his mother lives, John Handler said. He and others say that Fitzgerald, who once lived in Great Neck, probably attended parties at the Point held by Richard Church, who bought the estate in the early 1900s from the family of John Alsop King Jr., for whom Kings Point is named.

...

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Sincerely.
Eve and JW3 and Mélisande
Dirty Girl Things ©
Unrepentant.  Unpretentious.  Unconventional. ©

Sunday, September 02, 2007

Number Ninety-Nine

Dangerous Liaisons: The Perils of the Pied-Affaire
By Teri Karush Rogers, of the New York Times

THE middle-aged investment banker already owned a home in an upscale Connecticut suburb when he sought the help last fall of Darren Sukenik, a senior vice president at Douglas Elliman, to buy a one-bedroom pied-à-terre. Within days, the man settled on a $1.1 million condominium in a new West Village building. His offer accepted, he asked Mr. Sukenik to arrange a time to show the apartment to “Anne” before signing the contract.

“I made the mistake of phoning him at home,” Mr. Sukenik recalled. The banker’s wife answered, and when Mr. Sukenik blithely explained that he was calling to confirm the showing, she expressed bewilderment. But her attitude changed to pleasant surprise when Mr. Sukenik explained that her husband wanted her approval on a Manhattan pied-à-terre before signing the contract.

A few minutes later, the banker called Mr. Sukenik from his cellphone.

“He was furious,” Mr. Sukenik said. After a moment, the client, apparently understanding that he was to blame for not making the situation plainer, “very gingerly and very gently explained to me that ‘Anne’ was not his wife.” the broker said.

“He handled it with her by saying he was surprising her for their anniversary,” said Mr. Sukenik, who wound up touring the client’s wife and 20-something girlfriend through the apartment separately. (Not long after the closing, Mr. Sukenik said, his client filed for divorce.)

Such soap-opera skulduggery is all in a day’s work for brokers who become involved, knowingly or not, with a client seeking a place for extramarital assignations. But business is business, and for brokers, the rewards can occasionally be high, as some philandering spouses seem not to blink when it comes to housing the object of their affection.

To use an engagement-ring analogy, pied-affaires range from the micro-diamond-chip variety (one-bedroom rentals in the $2,000 to $2,500 range), to a respectable one or two carats ($1 million to $2 million, or, in a rental, $4,000 to $5,000 a month), all the way up to more-than-respectable, multimillion-dollar dazzlers. (In comparison, Bernard Kerik’s rented Battery Park City two-bedroom love nest seems downright proletariat.)

Asked who precisely looks for these specialized second homes, brokers answer that, with some exceptions, the old stereotypes hold true: well-off older men seeking to set up young, attractive women in style - in a condominium, if they can afford it, or a rental, if they cannot. Many times, though hardly always, the men retain ownership of the place and simply let the women live there.

“In the movie ‘Pretty Woman,’ she only wanted to get married, but a lot of the pretty women in New York really only want a condo,” said Michele Kleier, president of Gumley Haft Kleier, who has brokered her share of such transactions, typically condominiums in the $2 million to $3 million range.

Among this demographic, condos are prized particularly for their less-intrusive (compared to co-ops) application process and their usual indifference to the divergence of identity between owner and occupant. Because established condos can be almost as nosy as co-ops, philandering buyers often turn to new condominium buildings, where screening is often more perfunctory. Sometimes, they buy them in their own names, and other times, they set up a corporation for the purpose of making the investment.

For buyers of preconstruction-stage apartments, “Ninety-nine-point-nine-nine-five percent of the time, if they’re approved for the mortgage, they’re approved for the building,” said Mr. Sukenik of Douglas Elliman. Someone buying a new condominium as a love nest, he said, “is doing three things: A, there’s a huge amount of upside because you’re buying preconstruction; B, the chickadee has somewhere to live; and, C, the corporation has a tax write-off.” Reflecting on his investment banker client, he concluded, “While he might be shady, he certainly was smart.”

Barbara Corcoran, founder and chairwoman of the Corcoran Group, suggested that some pied-affaires evolved out of real estate speculation. “A lot of smart businessmen have heavily invested in apartment buildings in the recent go-go years,” she said. “They often leave apartments vacant, an ideal spot for housing a girlfriend.” She added that the sybaritic trappings of the “super-duper luxury condo"- including amenities like double-wide tubs, gleaming top-of-the-line kitchens and gigantic flat-screen televisions - make staying in more appealing to illicit couples. In addition, mobile communication has made nesting more feasible. “It’s easier to be somewhere and have others think you’re elsewhere, thanks to the Treo and Blackberry,” she said.

Of course, plenty of lotharios who don’t have a spare million or two lying around rent instead. “Usually they’re East Side rentals,” said John A. Vassallo, a matrimonial lawyer at Franklin, Weinrib, Rudell & Vassallo, who often sees the arrangements surface during the unthreading of the marital knot. “Very often it’s a young gal, and if she’s got a $2,500-a-month apartment, she’s in bliss.”

Another reason to rent, said Donna Olshan, president of Olshan Realty, is that “in the co-op buildings and good condo buildings, the doorman, the elevator man and the super really know the gossip.” In a rental, such an arrangement isn’t likely to stand out.

Norman Horowitz, a senior vice president at Halstead Property, said rentals in Battery Park City, with its proximity to Wall Street, are particularly appealing. “If you’re going to be working down in Wall Street or the insurance field or something of that nature, if you’re going to have a liaison with somebody, then Battery Park City would be a target area, because they have compact studios and one-bedrooms down there that are reasonably priced,” said Mr. Horowitz, who worked in the neighborhood as a rental agent for several years beginning in the late 90’s.

Mr. Horowitz described what he said was a typical situation: A woman, “a very sexy type, saucy type,” sought his help finding a one-bedroom apartment, and it quickly became clear that she had no assets at all. “She basically told me, ‘There’s a guy who owns several insurance companies in the Midwest and he’ll pay for everything.’ “ A full-year’s rent in money orders was presented to the owner of a $2,200-a-month condo. “This way there were no questions asked in terms of credit or anything like that,” he said.

He identified the men in each situation as “middle-aged, 40’s to 50’s, successful” and working in the securities or insurance industries. “The women were in their late 20’s, very good looking, with no particular skill set,” Mr. Horowitz said. The lease would always be in the man’s name, he said, with “no questions asked as far as the price.”

Though Battery Park City may be a playground for some, brokers said that paramours are hardly confined to a single neighborhood. Popular choices include the Upper East Side for its prolific housing stock, downtown for its plethora of new construction and Central Park South for its proximity to Grand Central as well as the veil of anonymity granted by the dense hotel population.

But Ms. Corcoran said that Central Park South, known among brokers as “Mistress Row” in the early 80’s, isn’t quite the hotbed it used to be, in part because it has become too expensive.

The primary goal is anonymity, and high-rises and large buildings seem most likely to offer that. Indeed, clients rarely spell out the specifics of their situation even to their brokers.

“They always use the same words to describe the other person,” Ms. Corcoran said. “Personal assistant, dancer, actress, niece.” Other well-trod euphemisms include cousin, colleague and dear friend. Sometimes they say nothing at all.

Ms. Kleier recalled the “very European” client seeking two apartments in separate Manhattan neighborhoods. “I assumed one was for his family and one was for older children who were going to visit or whatever,” she said. “We wound up finding two apartments that were very different from each other.” His wife accompanied him to approve the purchase of one. The woman who showed up to green light the other condo turned out to be “a very beautiful tall blonde” with no filial ties. “He bought her a more upscale condo than he bought for his wife,” Ms. Kleier said.

Richard Steinberg, a managing director of Warburg Realty Partnership, said that “you can tell when someone’s not a wife or husband; they don’t make references to kids’ time schedules, carpooling, things like that.”

The spouse looking to house a lover often says it’s impossible to see property on the weekend, or be called at home, and frequently pays little attention to details of the apartment, like closet space.

Brokers, asked whether they wrestle with moral misgivings, tend to make adamant denials. “Our place is to do a good job and provide a good service,” said Mr. Kliegerman of Halstead. “Whatever consenting adults are doing is up to them.”

Brokers are quick as well to espouse their confidentiality. “What people tell me, you could rip my brain apart and it wouldn’t come out of my mouth,” said Laurance Kaiser IV, president of Key-Ventures Realty. Mr. Kaiser, whose clients include the wealthy Park Avenue variety, said these types of purchases are sometimes made by aging individuals - men and women - who want to ensure that a close companion will be taken care of after their own death.

While many of these arrangements stand up to challenges from family members after a death, that is not usually the case with divorce. According to divorce lawyers, the arrangements nearly always come out in the financial due diligence that accompanies divorces, and the deceived spouses usually succeed in recovering their share of money spent on support of an extramarital lover.

Sometimes, it has important psychological consequences. “It empowers the person who’s not been the cheater or the guilty party,” said Robert Stephan Cohen, a matrimonial lawyer with Cohen Lans, who has represented Marla Trump, Henry Kravis and Tommy Mottola, among other high-profile personalities, and who estimated that 25 percent of his cases involve some kind of support for a paramour.

Mr. Cohen recalled a client whose husband had funneled $4,000 a month through a friend for his mistress’s apartment. The case “took longer to resolve because the wife was so angry when we discovered this that she wanted every nickel she was entitled to,” he recalled. “She got most of it. It was not pretty.”

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Sincerely.
Eve and JW3 and Mélisande
Dirty Girl Things ©
Unrepentant.  Unpretentious.  Unconventional. ©

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Number Eighty-Seven

Viewing Pleasures.

Hotel Babylon is a tantalising and seductive insight into the sexy world of the five-star hotel industry, where money not only talks but can buy just about anything you desire!

Inspired by Imogen Edwards-Jones’ searing exposé of life behind the scenes of London’s luxury hotel industry, Hotel Babylon takes viewers on a journey beyond the glamour and façade of the smiling faces and glittering chandeliers and into the frenetic, non-stop world of the staff.

Among the many famous names who’ve checked into the hotel during the first two series, either playing themselves or a character in the show, are Joan Collins, Steven Berkoff, Anthony Head, Chris Moyles, Chantelle Houghton, Kacey Ainsworth, David Walliams, Cherie Lunghi, Jerry Hall, Kelly Brook, Julian Clary, Les Dennis, Russ Abbott and Jennifer Ellison.

Although Hotel Babylon looks as if it’s made in a genuine upmarket boutique hotel, it’s actually shot on a huge set in Buckinghamshire.

The hotel’s look is down to Production Designer Paul Cross, who visited almost every five-star hotel in London in his research.

Hotel Babylon isn’t based on any one particular real hotel. “It evolved as an amalgam of three or four very different hotels,” reveals producer Chris Aird.

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Interview with Tony Basgallop, Lead Writer/Series Creator from the series BBC website.

Tony Basgallop’s, Lead Writer/Series Creator, writing credits include EastEnders and To the Ends of the Earth. He wrote four out of eight episodes of Hotel Babylon, and came up with the storylines that run throughout the series, established the characters and set the tone of the show. He tells us about the process.

What was your first thought on being asked to turn the book into a series?

My first thought was: “How much will they pay me?”. My second thought was: “What if it turns out like Crossroads?”

How did you turn the book, which is really a series of anecdotes, into an ongoing story?

The book was a great research document, and set the style and the tone of the show. But the book is condensed over a twenty-four hour period and so obviously we had to create a world that stretched beyond that.

In terms of week-by-week storylines the trick was to always find a way of introducing self contained stories that not only involved the guest, but also emotionally involved the regular member of staff. Easy, really.

Hotels are naturally transient environments so stories of the week work well, but we also wanted our main, regular characters to develop over time. Most dramas use this format [an arc plus a story of the week] because it gives the greatest scope for storytelling.

Explaining all the ins and outs of the hotel business must have been a challenge?

The series is narrated by Charlie, the Deputy Manager, as a sort of insider’s guide to hotels. Using voiceover and visual montages meant that we could add detail about the hotel experience without having to force it into strained dialogue.

We always wanted a very slick and visual style to the show, and the montages gave us that. Not every anecdote can make a rounded story, though, and so a lot of great stuff from the book never made it into the series.

Tell us about choosing which characters to focus on.

The choice of characters was largely governed by which parts of the hotel we wanted to show, and who had the most potential for stories. Because we were building the hotel as a set, we ruled out the kitchen early on, so we didn’t need any chefs.

Our two main characters are management, which allows them access to pretty much anywhere, and always keeps them in contact with the guests and the staff. Gino the barman, Derek the doorman, and Tony the concierge are all from the book. The book also refers to Jackie from housekeeping, but we never actually met her. So we tried to stay as close to the book as possible.

A lot of the characters are hugely bitchy - do you enjoy writing bitchy dialogue?

The thing about working in a service industry is that you have to be so polite to the guests, always calling them “sir” and “madam”. It’s about presentation.

So when the staff talk amongst themselves they don’t need to be polite and relish the opportunity to speak their minds. And yes, I particularly enjoy the bitchy dialogue. Which is why I created the character of Anna, the head receptionist - who wasn’t in the book.

There’s a lot of very saucy moments too.

The naked Finnish couple [in episode one] were fun to write. Obviously there’s a limit to what you can show but the directors will always push things as far as they can.

What was it like seeing the set for the first time?

It was incredible. It’s such a huge, elaborate set. You instantly feel like you’re in an actual hotel, despite it being in a warehouse. The views from the windows are these huge prints of the London skyline which, when properly lit, look very authentic.

Were there any fights between you and the other writers over who got which anecdotes from the book?

No fights, but a few swear words. Toby [Whithouse], Howard [Overman], Harry [Wootliff] and I all got together early on in the process, as I was still writing the first script.

They all got a grip on the characters and had stories of their own that they wanted to tell, as well as their favourites from the book. We approached each episode with a theme, so the anecdotes that best served those themes fell into order.

Did you visit many hotels for research?

Imogen and I went round some of the most renowned five star hotels in London before I started writing. At one place, that shall remain nameless, we posed as a best man and a bridesmaid looking to book a wedding in the hotel. It was incredible. They gave us access to the suites, the banquet halls, the swimming pool, the sauna…

We also stalked a few bars and restaurants just watching the staff do their job. Gino, the barman from the book and the series, is an actual person - though not called Gino.

Which bit are you proudest of?

I’m proud of most of it, in particular having Joan Collins play an obscenely rich guest in episode seven.

You never know if what works on paper will work on screen. After we see how the audience react to series one we will hopefully know how to approach series two.

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Sincerely.
Eve and JW3 and Mélisande
Dirty Girl Things ©
Unrepentant.  Unpretentious.  Unconventional. ©

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Number Forty-Nine

QUINTESSENTIALLY.  Penultimate Concierge for Private Members.

Quintessentially is first and foremost a club, a club for those who believe that life is too short to waste time on the mundane or second-best.  Members are given a membership card which brings with it a huge variety of benefits, many of which are worth a great deal of money.  Besides the monetary advantages, membership also brings the chance to enjoy a collection of goods, services, treats and practical help that they believe will make a serious difference to their members’ lives.  Most of what Quintessentially has to offer can be accessed online through their website.  Their mission is to bring you only the very best whether it be opera, music, art, travel, food and drink.

Launched in the UK in December 2000 by CEO Aaron Simpson and Marketing Director Ben Elliot, Quintessentially has grown at a remarkable speed over the last five years from a unique London based club, to a hugely popular international phenomenon. Our network and benefits are now available across the globe, with offices in London, Manchester, Dublin, New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Dubai, Istanbul, Beirut, Kuwait, Moscow, Cannes, Oslo, Helsinki, Copenhagen and Stockholm, and fixers and research teams in most other major cities.  They are also excited to open new offices in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Geneva, Athens, Chicago and Las Vegas in the coming months.

Focused on ‘accessing the inaccessible’, they aim to make life that much easier, that much richer and that much more fun.  With over 20,000 suppliers, Quintessentially offers great discounts and insider information for their members around the world.

Sincerely.
Eve and JW3 and Mélisande
Dirty Girl Things ©
Unrepentant.  Unpretentious.  Unconventional. ©

Number Forty-Eight

Nota Bene.  Premiere Destination Reviews. 

Nota Bene, the Latin words for ‘take note’, was conceived and founded some five years ago by Anthony Lassman as the world’s most discerning, independent, impartial source of luxury travel information for those who insist on the best.

Nota Bene is a subscription based travel book series together with a members’ website providing regular updated information, access to back issues and worldwide travel news. Subscribers to Nota Bene also receive unlimited personalised travel advice, regular online newsletters and the very latest information on new openings across the globe.

Each Nota Bene book brings its members:

- Totally independent and impartial information on the world’s most exciting cities or fashionable and exotic resort destinations.
- Full colour photographs, detailed, entertaining and brutally honest text.
- In depth reviews of hotels, restaurants, bars/lounges, cafes, shopping, contemporary art, together with maps and a directory.

Subscribers to Nota Bene know the best places to stay in great cities and exotic destinations worldwide…the best tables and rooms to reserve… and the places to avoid.

Nota Bene is for those who like to be looked after well and want to be discerning insiders. It really ‘tells it like it is’, its team of highly experienced reviewers travelling anonymously with an extensive check list, paying their own way, always avoiding press trips and free stays.

Nota Bene is regularly referred to as an opinion former and a respected authority on luxury travel. It is a highly regarded name within the industry and is frequently quoted for its views.

Meanwhile, NB Pulse has recently launched as a sister publication to Nota Bene.  NB Pulse is about the power of knowledge and the pleasure derived from the art of discovery, it is aimed at the international consumer who loves to travel and has a genuine passion for shopping, fashion and grooming. NB Pulse will offer advice, information and opinion on a myriad of lifestyle choices to accompany your journey. Each destination-focused issue will help you prepare for your trip, providing direction on what to pack, key looks and luggage for the season, the finest shops and most exquisite and unusual items to buy, the newest beauty and grooming products, tried and tested treatments, first class recommendations, plus interviews with fashion and beauty insiders and the latest information on what’s hot and new around the world.

Sincerely.
Eve and JW3 and Mélisande
Dirty Girl Things ©
Unrepentant.  Unpretentious.  Unconventional. ©