It has been 150 years now since Louisa May Alcott wrote her beloved novel Little Women–and filmmakers can’t stop returning to this classic. Just as one updated version was being released this September, it was announced that Irish Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan would be teaming up again with director Greta Gerwig (they made the indie hit Lady Bird together) for yet another version … [Read more...] about Irish Eye on Hollywood: Saoirse Takes a Turn in Little Women
Oscars
Film Forum: The Importance of Being Earnest
Hyping up Wilde in Earnest won't win Parker and Oscars. "Life is too important to be taken seriously," Oscar Wilde observed. He demonstrated that principle most dazzlingly in The Importance of Being Earnest, his 1895 play satirizing, among other things, the uselessness of British upper-class twits, the hypocrisy of would-be moral arbiters, the shallowness of social standing, … [Read more...] about Film Forum: The Importance of Being Earnest
A Beautiful Success
After 22 movies Jennifer Connelly is an overnight success. Penelope Dening talks to the winner of the Best Supporting actress academy Award. A blur of bodies block the corridor, voices muffled to a hum by carpets thick as fur. At the center a slight figure in black (spike-heeled boots, leather trousers, off-the shoulder lace) extricates herself and moves towards me. Like a … [Read more...] about A Beautiful Success
Helen Hayes
First Lady of Theater
Dubbed the "First Lady of the Theater," Helen Hayes charmed audiences for 75 years, appearing in such theatrical productions as What Every Woman Knows, Victoria Regina, and The Glass Menagerie. In Hollywood she won Oscars for The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931) and Airport (1970).℘℘℘On her stardom: My very lack of glamour has kept me a star.To a reporter upon leaving Hollywood to … [Read more...] about Helen Hayes
First Lady of Theater
Anjelica Huston
Renaissance Woman
Oscar-winning actress Anjelica Huston is perhaps most memorable to the Irish for her role as Gretta Conroy in her father John's film of the James Joyce short story "The Dead." Here she recalls time her family spent in County Wicklow before moving to St. Clerans in Galway.℘℘℘I have very early memories of that house. It was very large and drafty with an enormous kitchen and big … [Read more...] about Anjelica Huston