Can we all just say "Awww!"

Here's a new way to pick a president. Forget the issues, just look at which candidate seems most comfortable holding a squirming infant. Babies and politicians, what could be more American?

Darren Garnick, a freelance writer and independent filmmaker from New Hampshire, puts the candidates to the test. He set out to get a picture of almost every every presidential candidate holding his adorable baby daughter, Dahlia. (And he was pretty successful. Fred Thompson, who apparently hasn't spent much time in the Granite State, is the lone holdout).

Garnick writes that had two ground rules: 1. No actual kissing. No Democrat or Republican is putting saliva on Baby Dahlia. 2. No pictures with former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel. He's way too creepy.

At Slate.com, you can see the results, and read Garnick's very funny commentary.

The Osage County-Seinfeld connection

Who knew? There two Seinfeld connections to August: Osage County.

Kimberly Guerrero plays Native American housekeeper Johnna in the Steppenwolf Theatre Company production that's become a hit on Broadway. Osage County playwright Tracy Letts, pictured above, an ensemble member since 2002, also acts. Both Letts and Guerrero appeared in separate - and classic - Seinfeld episodes. One of my favorite television series and one of my favorite plays are joined together for posterity.

I found out about the first connection when I saw the play on Broadway in November. In her Playbill profile, Guerrero mentions her role in The Cigar Store Indian, an episode from Season 5 that originally aired on Dec. 9, 1993. (Guerrero told me at the stage door that she included it because she thought it was something that would resonate with New York audiences).

Guerrero also plays a Native American woman, Winona, whom Jerry is interested in. Things get off on the wrong foot when she sees Jerry give Elaine a statue of a cigar store Indian as a peace offering, and is offended. They go downhill from there, as Jerry ties his tongue in knots trying to avoid saying the wrong thing and the most innocuous remarks become verbal minefields of political incorrectness.

There are a couple of other very memorable subplots. It's the episode where Kramer comes up with his idea about a coffee table book about coffee tables, and Elaine incurs the wrath of Frank Costanza, (the always hilarious Jerry Stiller), by taking his TV Guide to read on the subway, thus breaking up his prized collection.

(As someone who looked forward every week to TV Guide arriving in the mail when I was a kid, I share his pain. I can still remember how exciting it was when the Fall Preview issue came and I found out which movies would have their television premieres that season. It was always the fattest issue of the year. It's hard to believe now, but in the days before cable and VCRs, you had two options for watching movies: see them in the theater or wait until they came on network television. And yes, there were only three channels back then. I'm not even sure PBS existed yet).

Letts has a very small part in The Strike, an episode from Season 9 that aired on Dec. 18, 1997, but it looms large in Seinfeld history. It's the "Festivus" epsiode, celebrating the holiday that Frank Costanza invented because he hated the commercial aspects of Christmas.

For the uninitiated, the Festivus celebration includes feats of strength and the Airing of Grievances. As Frank explains it, after the Festivus meal, you gather your family around the table and tell them all the ways they've disappointed you throughout the year.

Letts only has about three lines and maybe a minute of screen time. He plays a counter guy at H&H Bagels, a New York City institution, where Kramer used to work before going out on strike 12 years ago. Now that the strike is settled, he tries to get his old job back.

I found out about Letts' connection to Seinfeld in an interview with Associated Press writer Colleen Long. In the interview, Letts talks about his writing process, the genesis of August: Osage County, his work with Chicago's Steppenwolf, and about the four years he spent in Los Angeles trying to make it as an actor. (Despite his success as a playwright, he tells Long that he's primarily an actor).

Letts sounds very happy that he returned to Chicago, and as an avid admirer of August: Osage County, I am, too. I've written before about the play's humor, emotional pull and true-to-life characters, and about the amazingly talented Steppenwolf cast. It deserves all the accolades it's been getting.

"The business was brutal, and the people in the business were brutal," Letts recalls about his time in Los Angeles. "I felt, ultimately, at the end of four years my options were to hide under the bed or go out and be humiliated, so I returned to Chicago and I'm really glad I did."

He says that Chicago suits him better, and he considers Steppenwolf his home. "No matter what happens, no matter how bad I get savaged, I get to go back to Steppenwolf and go back to work, as an actor, as a writer and as an artistic director," he says. "I have a place to go and work that supports me as an artist, and that's very rare in our business."

Winter reading

I usually buy my books in paperback, so I'm always a year behind the season's hottest reads. But every year there are one or two titles that sound so terrific, I can't wait for the paperback, so I plunk down the money for a hardcover copy.

I've been checking out some winter books previews, including this one from USA Today. The book that has me most excited is Adam Langer's Ellington Boulevard, which will be published on Jan. 22. This is one I'm going to buy right away, no doubt about it.

I've enjoyed Langer's two previous novels, about growing up in Chicago, Crossing California and The Washington Story. I absolutely loved the first one, in a never-want-it-to-end kind of way. The sequel was good, but it kind of went off into too many tangents and I lost a lot of interest along the way. However, both books are a funny, warm look at the Jewish neighborhood of West Rogers Park and the changes that occurred there in the 1970s and '80s. They're filled with lots of quirky, true-to-life characters and teenage anxiety.

In Ellington Boulevard, Langer has turned for inspiration to New York City, specifically the height of the city's real estate boom. On his Web site, Langer says the novel "explores the lives of a series of characters all directly or tangentially involved in the sale of one small and suddenly-valuable apartment."

Here's how the publisher describes the book: "It’s the story of why people come to a city they can’t afford, take jobs they despise, sacrifice love, find love, and eventually become the people they never thought they’d be—for better and for worse."

I'm interested to see how he does with bringing New York City to life. Part of the attraction of the two previous novels is that Langer grew up in the neighborhood he was writing about, so it was a world that he knew intimately. He was also dealing, in large part, with teenagers, where here he seems to have moved firmly into the world of grownups and greed. Ellington Boulevard sounds more like Tom Wolfe's territory in The Bonfire of the Vanities, another book that I love.

Langer's already gotten some great blurbs for Ellington Boulevard, including this one from "Wicked" composer Stephen Schwartz: “I laughed out loud throughout this simultaneously cynical and sentimental New York fairy tale with a love for off-Broadway musicals and the seventeen-key clarinet, and a profound understanding of the importance of dogs.”

I have no idea how or why he got the plug from Schwartz, the composer of my beloved "For Good," a man for whom I have almost god-like reverence. But despite my disappointment with Langer's sophomore effort, I'm really looking forward to Ellington Boulevard. If Stephen Schwartz liked it, that's good enough for me!

Indy No. 4

The new Indiana Jones movie, which opens May 22, is getting a major plug in this month's Vanity Fair. I have to say that Harrison Ford and Shia LaBeouf look pretty good together on the cover. I loved all three previous movies, from 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark onward, so I'm definitely looking forward to this.

The main article, by Jim Windolf, gives a brief summary of the careers of filmmakers Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, reviews the roots of the series, and offers a little bit about what fans can expect.

The fourth installment, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, takes place in 1957. Indy will be battling the Russians, including a very severe-looking Cate Blanchett, judging from her picture. There's also supposedly a science fiction element to the story, which I'm not crazy about. I like my archaeological adventures grounded in the real world.

Even more tantalizing is this paragraph about what Spielberg will be tackling after Indiana Jones:

"My glance strays to a side table, where headshots of actors under consideration for his likely next directing project, Chicago 7—about the conspiracy trial that grew out of protests at the 1968 Democratic convention—lie on the surface. Among them I spy Will Smith, Taye Diggs, Adam Arkin, and Kevin Spacey; Sacha Baron Cohen (as Abbie Hoffman) and Philip Seymour Hoffman (as William Kunstler) are also linked to the project, which has a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin. ... After Chicago 7, Spielberg will probably go on to direct Lincoln, with Liam Neeson in the title role."

Ok, I'm not a Sacha Baron Cohen fan. I think his routine is obnoxious and offensive. And I've written about my problems with Aaron Sorkin's play The Farnsworth Invention. But for me, the 1960s will always be the most fascinating decade, and I once met Chicago 7 defendant Tom Hayden, back when he was married to Jane Fonda. Plus, the rest of the cast sounds pretty intriguing. I'd love to know which role they have in mind for Kevin Spacey.

Vanity Fair also has several Web exclusives: interviews with Spielberg and Lucas, some speculation about whether there'll be a new Indy trilogy, with LaBeouf taking over the franchise for movies 5 and 6, and video footage of Annie Leibovitz' photo shoot from the set.

While there isn't too much to see yet on the official Indiana Jones Web site, you can watch a video with "wrap shots" from each of the movies. And it's pretty thrilling to hear the first strains of the rousing John Williams theme music.

I always plan to watch these big summer blockbusters in the theater and not wait for them to come out on DVD, but for some reason I never get around to it. I have to admit that watching Spider-Man 3 on the small screen definitely takes away most of the excitement. So this time, I plan to be at my local air-conditioned multiplex with a tub of popcorn.

Hats Entertainment!

Brrrr. It's barely in the double digits in southern New England today, and by the time I get home from work tonight, it'll be even colder. This is the time of year when I always think about buying a new hat.

It's not that I have a large collection. I'm not Carrie Bradshaw with her Manolo Blahniks. I hardly ever even wear a hat - just during the coldest winter days, or in the summer if I'm sightseeing someplace and the sun is really bearing down. But I do like trying them on.

I remember as a kid there was time when I absolutely had to have a Greek fisherman's cap. I don't remember why. I'd never been to Greece. I'd never met a Greek fisherman. Maybe it was my lame attempt at looking cool. Whatever the reason, I don't think I ever got one.

For the past few years, my Holy Grail of headgear has been a World War II aviator's hat, also known as Yukon trooper's hat and, unfortunately, as a bomber hat. (Or even worse, a mad bomber hat!)

I'm not trying to make a fashion statement. My purpose in acquiring one is purely utilitarian. It's just the perfect winter hat - unlike the knit variety, it keeps your ears warm without having to pull it so far down on your forehead that you can't see where you're going. My ears tend to get very cold.

I actually have a bomber hat - but it's kind of thin, made of polyester. While it's ok, it doesn't provide the level of luxurious warmth I'm seeking while I'm driving around doing errands or going to and from work. (But it has to be synthetic. There's no way I'm wearing the fur of a dead animal on my head).

I see a lot of people with great looking bomber hats this time of year, and I'm always a little envious. I'm often tempted to stop them and ask where they bought it, but then I lose my nerve. A lot of them probably wouldn't be available in my size anyway. They seem to be a popular item for the under-2 set.

I've tried some on in stores, but they've never seemed right - too big, too small, too thin, too furry, or they made me feel like Elmer Fudd when I really want to feel like a World War II flying ace. Once I saw the perfect hat in a Land's End catalog, but when I tried to order one, I was told it was sold out for the season.

So, I keep talking about getting one, and searching. Eventually, the weather gets warmer and I forget about my quest. But winter always returns. Like it did today.

To all my Iowa readers, if you're going out to caucus tonight, please stay warm!

Theater on the big screen

One of my favorite podcasts, "Filmspotting," has a segment each week on the Top 5 movies about a single theme. Recently, hosts Adam Kempenaar and Matty Robinson picked their top five movies about the theater. If you want to listen to Adam and Matty talk about their picks, go here and scroll down to show #173. The Top 5 discussion is at the 46-minute mark.

Here are their lists:

Adam:
1. All That Jazz (1979)
2. All About Eve (1950)
3. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
4. Waiting for Guffman (1996)
5. Moon Over Broadway (1997)

Matty:
1. The Goodbye Girl (1977)
2. All About Eve (1950)
3. Cradle Will Rock (1999)
4. Bullets Over Broadway (1994)
5. Waiting for Guffman (1996)

I've heard about or seen most of these movies, and they're great lists. The one I'm not familiar with is "Moon Over Broadway." Apparently it's a documentary by D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus about the making of a Broadway comedy, "Moon Over Buffalo," starring Carol Burnett. The show played for 309 performances, opening on Sept. 13, 1995. The documentary is available on DVD, so I'll definitely be checking it out.

Husband and wife team Pennebaker and Hegedus are acclaimed filmmakers whose works have included "The War Room," about Bill Clinton's presidential campaign. Pennebaker is also known for "Don't Look Back," his terrific documentary on Bob Dylan's 1965 tour of the United Kingdom.

A couple of other theater-themed films I've enjoyed are two that take place in wartime Britain: 1983's "The Dresser," about an aging actor, played by Albert Finney, who leads a touring troupe performing "King Lear" and from 2005, "Mrs. Henderson Presents," starring Dame Judi Dench, whose character revives a derelict London theater by putting on an all-nude revue. Bob Hoskins is the showman who becomes her partner. (Ok, I admit I'm an Anglophile. And if it involves a big country house, so much the better. I loved "Mrs. Miniver," too).

If you'd like more suggestions, here's a thread on the subject from rottentomatoes.com. The list overlaps a bit with Filmspotting, but there are some different ones. Several of them I've heard of but haven't seen, including a movie of Michael Frayn's play "Noises Off," about a traveling theater troupe, and director Louis Malle's "Vanya on 42nd Street," about actors in New York rehearsing Chekov's play.

Happy New Year!

I just watched about a million revelers ring in the new year in Times Square, from the comfort of my couch. This was the hundredth anniversary of the ball drop. For 2008, a new, energy efficient model was used.

I spent a lot of time in Times Square during 2007. I stayed there during each of my three unbelievably wonderful trips to New York City. It's pretty crowded on a normal day, the sidewalks so jam-packed you can barely move. So I can't even imagine what it's like to be in the vicnity on New Year's Eve. And I don't think I ever want to find out!

Ironically, during the countdown, out of a corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of the giant "Wicked" poster! I hope it's a sign that 2008 will be another great year of theatergoing - on Broadway and elsewhere.

Here's wishing all of my readers a happy, safe and healthy new year!