‘I CAN sing better than she can. If Madonna gets it [the lead role in ‘Evita’] I’ll rip her throat out!” said Meryl Streep back in 1996.
SPEAKING OF singing, this very Sun day the actress supreme, Christine Baranski, will depart the Longacre Theatre after the matinee of “Boeing Boeing” and step onto Jeff Zucker‘s GE helicopter. That will land her in Southampton in time for the gala Hamptons premiere of the new big hit movie musical “Mamma Mia!”
Although she’s the star of the film, Meryl Streep, won’t be attending – her co-star, the handsome Pierce Brosnan, will join Ms. Baranski for this exclusive event honoring Evelyn Lauder and her Breast Cancer Foundation. Forget about the guest list; it’s stellar, and how the small Southampton movie theater will accommodate all this high power, I don’t know.
But it’s happening (another Peggy Siegal p.r. production). And while I’m at it, what’s with our so-called competition at the Daily Snooze? Their reporter Jim Farber writes about Meryl and Christine and their singing in “Mamma Mia!” as if they are mere ordinary mortals doing karaoke. He refers to the singing of these two stars as “spirited amateurism.”
Both Meryl and Christine are accomplished singers. Acting aside, Christine starred as the lead in a recent Washington production of “Mame,” and Meryl had early ambitions for opera. She plays the violin and uses classical music to help her get into character for roles. She sang in the musicals “Happy End” and “Alice at the Palace” and also scored recording songs from the musical “Hair” and the Grammy-nominated “Philadelphia Chickens.” She played a professional singer in “A Prairie Home Companion” and has also sung in many of her films, such as “Silkwood,” “Ironweed,” “Death Becomes Her” and “Dancing in Lughnasa.” She belted out Brecht in Central Park’s 2006’s “Mother Courage and Her Children.” She was tremendous singing in the film “Postcards From the Edge.”
Farber seems to feel Christine and Meryl are actors who stoop to sing in this lively feast of ABBA tunes, something in the manner of Rex Harrison’s recitative in “My Fair Lady.” The reporter is complimentary of them in a way he shouldn’t be. Both these stars can really sing. They didn’t need any help from what he calls “tweaking.”
ALL YOU Strand Bookstore fans, relax! A recent tale of the unfortunate rent rise and August closing of the Strand’s 15,000-square-foot annex at Fulton and William streets caused fans of this great New York institution to all but riot. You can pick up big book bargains at the soon-to-close annex, which has operated downtown for a dozen years. But the main store at B’way and 12th Street will still be going strong! And it is always a fabulous tourist experience just to go there and walk around.
MY REMEMBRANCE of the departed Clay Felker included a list of many much better known than I, who had worked for him at New York magazine. I was writing on deadline and failed to include some of the most important – Byron Dobell, one of the best editors of all time, the gifted Barbara Goldsmith, Bergdorf mag’s editor Michael Gross and The New Yorker’s Ken Auletta. People were sensitive about being left out of this list, and I don’t blame them. (All others who feel aggrieved should ring in.)
Also, the mention of Clay’s widow, Gail Sheehy, writing about Hillary Clinton was inaccurate. Gail’s article appears in the new Vanity Fair, not New York.
It was a joy for me to see in the current New York an illustration of the cover by the artist Edward Sorel. It shows Truman Capote as a bulldog biting the bejeweled hand of society, and that cover story, written by yours truly, created a sensation back in February 1976.
SPEAKING AGAIN of the film “Mamma Mia!,” let’s note that the British press already called it “the only feel-good factor in this summer of credit crunch blues.” They noted that even Queen Elizabeth II says: “I always try to dance when ‘Dancing Queen’ comes on because I am the Queen and I like to dance.”