ford performance

ET_E_3_E3_LA_1_07-14-03_mo_2_CMYK2003:07:13:15:27:03

CALENDAR , MONDAY, JULY 14, 2003 E3LOS ANGELES TIMES

It rated just a few para-graphs in the inside pages ofthe New York Times in Octo-ber 1999: St. Martin’s Presshad recalled “Fortunate Son,”the first published unauthor-ized biography of then-Gov.George W. Bush of Texas. In-terest in the book, which hadrisen to the bestseller list onAmazon.com, had beenfueled by allegations thatBush had been arrested forcocaine possession in 1992,but the publisher yanked thebook when it came to lightthat the author, J.H. Hatfield,was a convicted felon.

That is the starting pointfor “Horns and Halos,” adocumentary that sheds lighton events that followed theinitial controversy over thebook. A 29-year-old self-de-scribed “punk of publishing”named Sander Hicks strug-gled for more than a year anda half to get the book backinto stores and the nationalconsciousness.

The problems were not somuch political as financialand legal, and concerned thedifficulties a small under-ground imprint called SoftSkull Press faced in persuad-ing distributors and stores tocarry a stigmatized book. Di-rectors Suki Hawley and Mi-chael Galinsky, who are mar-ried, emphasize that themovie is not about PresidentBush.

“Bush is not one of ourcharacters,” Hawley said. “Itcould be anyone who hassome power. And we are notjournalists, so we weren’t at-tempting to dig into thatarea. We are filmmakers andwe are interested in how hu-mans relate to the media andhow the media affects peo-ple’s lives — particularlysmaller people.”

The filmmakers said thedocumentary is packed with

surprises, including the rev-elation of the sources for thebook’s cocaine allegations.

Under a deal they struckwith HBO, Galinsky said thefilmmakers are allowed todistribute the movie theatri-cally in 12 cities before HBOairs it on television, which willallow it to qualify for Oscarconsideration in the docu-mentary feature category.The film, which already beenshown in New York, Washing-ton, Boston and Austin, willopen Friday at the LaemmleFairfax in Los Angeles.

“We had to basically proveto L.A. theaters that we could[distribute] this properly,”Galinsky said. “They largelycare about box office and re-views. We did fairly well inNew York and other cities,but when I first called thea-ters in L.A. they said, ‘Let’ssee how it does in New Yorkfirst.’ ”

“If we get enough peopleout the first weekend, wecould run to the next elec-tion,” quipped Galinsky.

— Robert W. Welkos

The Week Ahead

A rocky road to andfrom the bookstores

Rumur Inc.

BIOGRAPHY: SanderHicks tried to get the Bushbook back on store shelves.

Ruben Blades, the ac-claimed salsa and world mu-sic star, is poised to launch amusical project this weekavailable exclusively on hispersonal Web site.

Starting Wednesday, fanswill be able to download a setof 11 new songs by Blades andseveral other performers,mostly unknown pop-rockartists whom he discovered intravels from Panama to Utah.

The songs will be availablefree but on an honor system.Those who download the mu-sic will be asked to send a con-tribution, in any amount thecustomer deems fair and af-fordable, to cover the costsand pay the artists. The novelmarketing experiment comesas Blades parts companywith his longtime record la-bel, Sony, which issued worksby the singer-songwriter overthe past decade.

His last release, “Mundo,”won this year’s Grammy forbest world music album. Thismarks the first time in morethan 25 years that Blades hasworked without a recordcompany.

The Panamanian singer,who made landmark albumsfor the Fania and Elektra la-bels in the ’70s and ’80s, hasrecorded an unreleased al-bum of new songs that he isconsidering to place for sale

on his Web site atwww.rubenblades.com

The singer has no plans tosign a new recording contractwith any label. He recently ex-pressed disillusionment withthe state of the music busi-ness. He said record labelsslavishly followed marketingformulas that discouraged es-tablished artists from explor-ing new creative directionsand offered few opportunitiesfor new artists.

Introducing his concepton his Web site, Blades wrotein Spanish: “This experimentwill determine whether wewill be able to forego inter-mediaries in the future andoffer our work at a lower cost,while preserving for the artistthe direct benefits of his la-bor.”

— Agustin Gurza

Blades putshonor to teston Web site

Francine Orr Los Angeles Times

GOING SOLO: Salsasinger Ruben Blades isparting with Sony Records.

Here are this week’s key releases on video/DVD and CD, avail-able beginning Tuesday.

Video/DVDsBOX OFFICE (MILLIONS)

DOMESTIC FOREIGN

---------------------------------------------------- --------------- ---------------“Shanghai Knights” Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson;directed by David Dobkin $60.5* $24.4

---------------------------------------------------- --------------- ---------------“Gods and Generals”Jeff Daniels, Stephen Lang;directed by Ronald F. Maxwell $12.9*

---------------------------------------------------- --------------- ---------------“Pinocchio” Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi;directed by Roberto Benigni $3.7* $44.9

CDsLAST ALBUM BIGGEST SELLER

------------------------------------------- ------------------ --------------------

Da BratLimelite, Luv & Nightclubz

Unrestricted(2000)907,000 sold

Funkdafied(1994)1.1 million sold

------------------------------------------- ------------------ --------------------Macy GrayThe Trouble With Being Myself

ID (2001)585,000 sold

On How Life Is(1999)3.3 million sold

------------------------------------------- ------------------ --------------------Source: Internet Movie Database; Leonard Klady, Movie City News;Nielsen/SoundScan, Inc.

By the Numbers

Counterpunch is a weeklyfeature designed to let readersrespond to reviews or storiesabout entertainment and thearts. Please send proposals to:Counterpunch, Calendar, LosAngeles Times, 202 W. 1st St.,Los Angeles, CA 90053. Or Fax:(213) 237-7630. Or e-mail:calendar@latimes.com.Important: Include full name,address and phone number.Please do not exceed 600 words.We appreciate all proposals andregret that we cannot respondto each.

Counterpunch

By David Macaray

Special to The Times

British film director Ken Rus-sell (“Tommy,” “Aria”) was onceasked by a magazine writer toname a truly “bad” actor. Russellastonished the interviewer byanswering, “Paul Scofield,” whohad not only won an Oscar for hisrole in “A Man for All Seasons,”but had been referred to by noless a heavyweight than Sir Lau-rence Olivier as “the finest actorin the English language.” Talkabout street creds.

But Russell’s reasons for sin-gling out Scofield were simpleand compelling: “I can see theman physically performing,” hesaid. “And when you can see theactual mechanism at work — seethe actor acting — it ruins the ef-fect.” Which brings us to the lateKatharine Hepburn.

Although I’ve always admiredHepburn’s feminist philosophyand personal courage (a con-summate professional, she once,reportedly, chewed out NickNolte on the set of “Grace Qui-gley,” calling him a lowlife degen-erate and scolding him for show-ing up unprepared), her actingskills have never impressed me.In truth, I’ve never been able towatch her without cringing.

The problem, unfortunately,is that, like Russell with PaulScofield, I can’t help but notice

her “actress tricks.” By mycount, Hepburn used three regu-larly: 1) projecting a theatricalfeistiness and stagy, faux nobil-ity; 2) an uncanny ability to fillher eyes with tears whenever shewished, right on cue, at the dropof a hat, always the same wayand with the same practiced in-tensity; and 3) jutting out andslightly elevating her chin to ap-pear earnest or spunky.

Actually, that chin was re-markably adaptable; it could jutout in defiance, as it did in “Afri-can Queen,” indignation (“Lionin Winter”), resignation (“OnGolden Pond”) and even weird-ness (“Suddenly, Last Sum-mer”). In any event, when youstrip away Hepburn’s assort-ment of “props” — the faux nobil-ity, those tear reservoirs andthat reliable chin — what are youleft with? Florence Henderson.

Arguably, the worst of herfilms was the mawkish “GuessWho’s Coming to Dinner” (1967),for which she won the AcademyAward, beating out, among oth-ers, the excellent Faye Dunaway(“Bonnie and Clyde”). Hepburnand Spencer Tracy play the par-ents of a daughter who wants tomarry a black man, played bySidney Poitier, who never lookedhandsomer or more dashing.Hepburn and Tracy spend virtu-ally the entire movie swappinghigh-minded platitudes.

Never mind that love even-tually wins out; the movie pullsits punches at every turn. Bymaking Poitier not only a bril-liant, successful physician andhumanitarian, but also an ar-ticulate, courteous, loving,sweet, mature and impossiblythoughtful and caring man, theypretty much sanitize the corecontroversy. I mean, what’s notto like? By the end of the picture,I wanted to marry him myself.

Still, if Hepburn’s craft isbased on little more than a col-lection of stagy contrivances, ascharged, how do we explain hersuccess? Well, the answer couldbe as simple as serendipity: theability to get cast in great roles inmarvelous movies. Being alongfor the ride, so to speak.

Just as Jane Wyman or Pau-lette Goddard could have beenplugged into the Ingrid Bergmanpart in “Casablanca” withoutdamaging in the slightest anotherwise classic film, so couldGlenda Jackson or Vanessa Red-grave have played the femalelead in “Lion in Winter” or Jo-anne Woodward in “Guess Who’sComing to Dinner.” And so forth.

The difference between Kath-arine Hepburn and nimble ac-tresses, such as Meryl Streep orJulianne Moore, is versatility. Asimple exercise: Picture Katha-rine Hepburn in every movie sheever starred in and ask yourself if

she’s not playing, essentially, thesame part over and over. Theonly variable is tempo.

Think about it. The speechesshe gives in “On Golden Pond,”for example, are given in thesame manner as those in “Din-ner,” which are identical to thosedelivered in “African Queen.”Now put her on a horse and she’sdoing her same bit in “RoosterCogburn.” Icon or no icon, let’snot confuse a truly fascinatingand unique woman with a su-perior actress.

David Macaray is a LosAngeles-based freelance writerand playwright.

COUNTERPUNCH

Admire Hepburn’s qualities, but not her acting

By Lewis Segal

Times Staff Writer

Fear of sex dominates manyMichael Mizerany choreogra-phies and many others find thebody divided against itself — in-ert arms and torso stretched onthe floor, for instance, while en-ergetic legs push against thedead weight and get it moving.

Both preoccupations were onview at the John Anson FordAmphitheatre on Friday whenthe locally based modern dancechoreographer and company di-rector presented a capably ex-ecuted program of four shortpieces, most of them familiar. In-deed, even Mizerany’s brand-new, half-hour “Man Clan”seemed familiar, for it reworkedmost of the same whimsical, neo-primitive options as “TroyGame,” a popular male diver-tissement created by RobertNorth nearly 30 years ago andlong in the repertory of DanceTheatre of Harlem.

Like North’s showpiece, Miz-erany’s eight-part “Foray Intothe Male Pedigree” (his words)used a percussion-dominatedscore and focused on issues ofcompetition.

Clever touches included thefootball-style offensive line thatassembled to break up a maleduet.

But only a solo for the power-ful Jose Carcamo displayed agenuine edge, a sense that Miz-erany just might take the pieceinto deeper areas of male pathol-ogy à la DV8 Physical Theatre.Instead, he kept matters lightand diversionary — especiallythe comic duet in which Stepha-nie Scott (the only woman in the10-member cast) cheerily do-mesticated and balleticized JeffBulkley, until he rebelled at herattempts to force him into a foxtrot.

However, after seeing con-flicts about intimacy somberlyexplored by the same two danc-ers in Mizerany’s newly re-worked “The Box” earlier on theprogram, the cartoon-style sex-war of “Man Clan” gained seriousovertones.

Like the interrupted maleduet, it conveyed a feeling thatrelationships are inherentlytroublesome and sometimeseven hazardous — a feeling thatMizerany has also expressed inthe past few years in such neo-Expressionist dance dramas as“Edgewalkers” and “NecessaryDepravity.”

But Mizerany solos on theFriday program also showedthat solitude has its risks,whether the physical threatsstrongly embodied by ChrisStanley in “Tin Soldier” (1995) orthe dangers of self-infatuationadroitly parodied by Bulkley in“Bump in the Road” (1996).

Nothing groundbreaking orindispensable here, but plenty tothink about.

DANCE REVIEW

Mizeranydeliversthe maleissuesConflicts aboutintimacy are among thethought-provokingmatters raised in awell-executed programfrom the choreographer.

By Don Shirley

Times Staff Writer

“As the evening wore on — theevening wore on! That’s a niceexpression. With your permis-sion I’ll say it again. The eveningwore on.” So says Elwood P.Dowd, the kindly man whosecompanion is an invisible whiterabbit, in Mary Chase’s “Har-vey.” He’s describing a night onthe town with Harvey and Dr.Chumley, a psychiatrist whowants Dowd committed to hissanitarium.

Unfortunately, Dowd’s wordsalso describe opening night ofCharles Nelson Reilly’s stagingof “Harvey” at Laguna Play-house. The evening wore on. Forthree hours and 10 minutes.

That’s almost twice thelength of the 1950 movie version.And it felt about an hour toolong. Gentle whimsy does not filla theater for much longer thantwo hours.

Reilly’s staging includes twointermissions, which was typicalof Broadway plays of the time(1944) when “Harvey” was firstproduced. Nowadays, most di-rectors figure out a way to dothose plays with only one inter-mission.

The problem, however, goesbeyond the number of intermis-sions. The nature of Elwood P.Dowd is that he is not a man tobe rushed. He loves to digress.He loves to repeat himself. Inmoderation, these qualities canbe charming, but they can be-come exasperating if a directorisn’t holding them in check.

The casting of Charles Durn-ing as Dowd aggravates thisproblem. In Chase’s script,Dowd is 47. In this production,that reference has been changedto “60 plus.” Durning is, in fact,80.

True, the character has anageless quality. ConsideringDurning’s girth as well as his age,he’s certainly spry. Occasionallyhe goes into little solo dance rou-tines, which add a bit of dyna-mism to his performance butalso add length to the evening.He musters a twinkle in his eye.

But his walk is often more of awaddle. His delivery of the linesis filled with little hesitations and“uhs.” Yes, we know that JimmyStewart, who played the samerole in the movie, was famous forhis patented stammer, amongother attributes. But Durningalso has some trouble projectinghis voice; it sounds weak as wellas hesitant. Durning’s deadpaninnocence is amusing in most ofthe right places, but his perform-ance needs more energy.

For sheer comedy, the star ofthe show is Joyce Van Patten asDowd’s would-be social-climb-ing sister, Veta. This isn’t totallyunexpected; Josephine Hull wonan Oscar for playing the samerole. At first Veta is filled with so-cial pretension — listen to VanPatten wax eloquently abouthow her house is “festooned” fora party. But mortification fol-lows — see Van Patten and JillVan Velzer, as her daughter,hang their heads on each other’sshoulders as Dowd talks to Har-vey in front of a grande dame(Pamela Gordon).

Van Patten’s best moment,however, is when she returnshome after having been mistak-enly committed to the mental in-stitution in place of her brother.With one shoe missing and onestocking halfway off, her preten-sions have vanished, and her be-draggled desperation is a hoot.Van Patten projects her linesbeautifully.

Two other Van Pattens are inthe cast. Dick Van Patten(Joyce’s brother) plays Dr.

Chumley with the requisite ner-vous energy. His voice, however,sounds even closer to collapsethan Durning’s.

James Van Patten, son ofDick, plays the rough-edgedsanitarium orderly well enough— and gets to juggle oranges inone of those moments that couldbe cut. Unfortunately, the or-derly and the three other young-er characters are matched offwith each other, into romanticcouples, in an exceedinglystrained fashion. These actorsaren’t able to add much credibil-ity to the mismatches.

The writing is particularlyawkward for the sanitarium’spompous junior doctor (StephenO’Mahoney) and the nurse (Eri-ca Shaffer). Bickering is not nec-essarily a clue that a man and awoman are secretly attracted toeach other; here, it never be-comes a convincing subplot.

Producer Don Gregory hopesto take this production to Broad-way, and the design elementslook handsome enough. But it’stime for someone to take a redpencil to the script.

As it is, Chase’s plea for theimportance of comprehendinglife’s invisible little virtues fallson impatient ears.

THEATER REVIEW

Photographs by Glenn Koenig Los Angeles Times

DUO: Charles Durning, left, plays eccentric Elwood P. Dowd, and Dick Van Patten his psychiatrist.

In unhurried ‘Harvey,’ theslow must go on — and on

FAMILY TIES: James andJoyce Van Patten.

Gentle whimsy goesonly so far in CharlesNelson Reilly’s stagingat Laguna Playhouse.

Where: Laguna Playhouse, 606Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach

When: Tuesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.;Saturdays-Sundays, 2 p.m.; Sundays,7 p.m.

Ends: Aug. 31

Price: $55-$62

Contact: (949) 497-2787

Running Time: 3 hours, 10 minutes

Charles Durning ........Elwood P. DowdJoyce Van Patten..............Veta LouiseSimmonsDick Van PattenDr. William ChumleyJames Van Patten .........Duane WilsonJill Van Velzer ..Myrtle Mae SimmonsPamela Gordon .........Ethel ChauvenetErica Shaffer.........................Ruth KellyStephen O’Mahoney ...........Dr. LymanSandersonLeslie Easterbrook......Betty ChumleyJack Betts...........Judge Omar GaffneyWilliam H. Bassett ............E.J. Lofgren

By Mary Chase. Directed by Charles Nelson Reilly.Sets by James Noone. Lighting by Ken Billington.Costumes by Noel Taylor. Sound by DavidEdwards. Production stage manager DavidMingrino.

‘Harvey’