Audra McDonald, your lips are fabulous

I love this comment from the lovely Anne Hathaway, doing Shakespeare in Central Park through July 12, when the weather cooperates.

Hathaway, whose character in Twelfth Night is masquerading as a man, tells the women of The View what it's like to kiss costar Audra McDonald:

"We did a photo shoot yesterday and the photographer wanted us to kiss. So we kind of spent a good 15 minutes making out and I've never really focused on it before but Audra McDonald, your lips are fabulous. I mean they're just pillowy and soft. And I was just like, wow."

Here's Hathaway's appearance on The View:



And here's an article on the production from The New York Times:

“I have a double learning curve, not only because it’s my first time with Shakespeare but because this is my first major theatrical production,” Ms. Hathaway said. “So just staving off a nervous breakdown has been the main thing for me.”

Even though I'm not a big Shakespeare fan, the cast for this play really makes me wish I could make it to Twelfth Night. The whole Shakespeare in the Park experience sounds great - theatre under the stars, with a gentle summertime breeze.

I'll have to put it on my list of goals to accomplish next year.

Stepping into Judy Garland's slippers

Last week I wrote about how I'd love to see Anne Hathaway in a musical - and now it looks like I'll get that chance. The Oscar nominee is going to play Judy Garland in movie and stage versions of the biography Get Happy, by Gerald Clarke.

The rights have been scooped up by The Weinstein Company, and Harvey Weinstein told Variety that Hathaway "will be a true class act in this challenging role." He said Clarke's biography "is particularly outstanding because of its exclusive details from her [Garland's] own writings."

I'm not quite sure how it will work. Will they make the movie first and release it simultaneously with a stage version? The only thing remotely resembling this is when Kevin Spacey did a concert tour singing Bobby Darin songs to promote his biopic Beyond the Sea.

I'm assuming Weinstein is planning a full stage production, which isn't a bad idea. You'll get twice the buzz. People who like Hathaway as Judy Garland in a movie will probably want to see her on stage as Garland. Didn't the movie of Chicago gave the Broadway show a boost?

Now, I think Anne Hathaway can do just about anything. Supposedly, she's always wanted to make a musical and this is her dream role. But one possible roadblock: according to the Hollywood Reporter, she has about eight inches on Garland, who was barely 5 feet tall.

Of course, Philip Seymour Hoffman was a lot taller than Truman Capote, too. And he did fine in the movie Capote, winning an Oscar for his performance. Although it's easier to mask that height difference in a movie than it is on stage.

The versatile Anne Hathaway

I just finished watching Rachel Getting Married. Wow, I love Anne Hathaway. I know she's had parts in serious movies before, but I still think of her as sweet and innocent and princess-y, like she was in The Devil Wears Prada or The Princess Diaries.

In Rachel Getting Married, she plays a drug addict who gets a pass from rehab to attend her sister's wedding. Hathaway is beautiful, but she looks so pale and drawn here. Her character is defensive and angry and generally irritating but never in a way that's over the top. It's a terrific performance and she deserved her Oscar nomination.

Anyway, Nathaniel at the Film Experience asked his readers to weigh in on their dream cast for the movie version of Wicked, when it finally gets made. And Hathaway's name came up quite often for the role of Elphaba.

Yeah, I know, we can play this casting game endlessly. By the time the movie gets made, they'll probably go for someone younger and more hip with the kids.

Still, I can dream, can't I? Here's taste of Hathaway's singing, from a performance at the Hollywood Bowl in 2005 in honor of Stephen Sondheim's 75th birthday.

The Oscars: A few of my favorite things

Time for a little Oscar postmortem:

I thought Hugh Jackman's opening number was hilarious and wow, he has such a terrific stage presence. It's nice to have a host who looks good in a tux and can do more than tell a few topical jokes. He reminded us that the movies are about glamour. Plus, Anne Hathaway is so funny, so adorable. I've loved her ever since The Princess Diaries and I'm sure she'll get an Oscar someday soon.

Hugh's big musical number, produced by Baz Luhrmann, was ok. It did seem a little strange to give a big wet kiss to movie musicals this year, since there weren't any nominated. But I enjoyed the shoutout to films like West Side Story. Coincidentally, I'd been listening to the Broadway cast recording on my iPod that very afternoon! Anytime I get to see the talented Mr. Jackman singing and dancing, it's a treat.

Honestly, I thought the show dragged a bit - maybe because I'd seen so few of the nominated movies. It was a little hard to get swept up in the all the hoopla for Slumdog Millionaire. From the descriptions I've read, it's much too violent for me. I'll have to wait until it comes out on dvd. As for The Wrestler, I'll probably never see it. Same for The Reader. I read the book, though. Does that count?

But I did like the way they gave out the awards - taking us from the script to the finished product and showing us a little bit about the process along the way. And I liked having winners from previous decades standing in a semicircle to introduce this year's nominated performances.

Seeing all of the little kids on stage when Slumdog Millionaire won Best Picture was awfully cute. And watching Phillipe Petit balance an Oscar upside down on his chin when Man on Wire won for Best Documentary was pretty cool.

There were very moving acceptance speeches from Dustin Lance Black for Best Original Screenplay for Milk; Kate Winslet for Best Actress for The Reader, the family of the late Heath Ledger accepting his award for Best Supporting Actor for The Dark Knight; and Sean Penn for Best Actor for Milk.

Both Black and Winslet were so personal about what the award meant to them. And I can't even imagine how difficult it must have been for Ledger's parents and sister, who aren't in show business, to get up there in front of thousands of people. I would have been like a deer in headlights.

Winslet was so sweet, talking about how she'd dreamed of this moment ever since she was a little girl: "I'd be lying if I hadn't made a version of this speech before, I think I was probably eight years old and staring into the bathroom mirror. And this (holding up her statuette) would've been a shampoo bottle. Well, it's not a shampoo bottle now!"

I got choked up when Black talked about what Harvey Milk's life meant to him as a gay man and the message that Harvey would want him to give to gay and lesbian kids who have been told that they are less than by their families, their church, their government: that "you are beautiful, wonderful creatures of value. And that, no matter what anyone tells you, God does love you."

And Penn, who portrayed one of the country's first openly gay elected officials, used his speech to remind the audience plainly and simply what this fight for our gay and lesbian friends and family and neighbors and coworkers is all about: "We've got to have equal rights for everyone."

Bob Fosse loads the dishwasher

Have you ever wondered how Bob Fosse would load the dishwasher, what kind of technique he'd use? I can't say it's a question that's ever crossed my mind. But I've been on a Fosse kick since I watched The Pajama Game a few days ago and became absolutely enthralled with his choreography.

In The Oregonian, Shawn Levy interviews Jonathan Demme, director of the new movie Rachel Getting Married, starring Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt and Bill Irwin. I haven't seen the movie but I do love Anne Hathaway. Her character is a recovering drug addict who gets a pass from a treatment center to attend the wedding of her sister, played by DeWitt.

So, what does this have to do with Bob Fosse? I'm getting there. Apparently the father of the bride, played by Tony-winner Irwin, and the groom, Tunde Adebimpe of the band TV on the Radio, have an impromptu competition to load the dishwasher. Demme says that the scene comes directly from the personal experience of screenwriter Jenny Lumet.

"It's rooted in Jenny's reality. She's the daughter of Sidney Lumet, and one night Bob Fosse was over for dinner, and they drifted into the kitchen, and Fosse was watching Sidney load the dishwasher and critiqued him a little bit, and they had this showdown. And as Jenny tells it, she's got Sidney, who looks like a pomegranate, with his Joe-Six-Pack approach to the thing, and Fosse, who's dressed all in black and never stops smoking his Nat Sherman, with his kind of balletic style of loading the dishwasher."