bennet_7

Hello internet! I hope you all haven't decamped for some other journal site as I have a couple of random bits and pieces to share.

For the Austen fans, here is the first picture of Elinor and Marianne from the BBC's new adaptation of Sense and Sensibility.



I'm sure you're capable of guessing which is which.

I'm cautiously optimistic for this new production. The script was written by Andrew Davies, who did the 95 Pride and Prejudice and the recent Northanger Abbey, so 'yay' there. However, I really love Emma Thompson's film version with ALAN RICKMAN and Hugh Laurie and Greg Wise and Kate Winslet and Ang Lee's gorgeous direction. I'm not really sure that this new version is necessary, just like the new film version of Pride and Prejudice wasn't necessary (or good, for that matter).

And while I like David Morrissey very much as an actor (I recently watched Our Mutual Friend with my mum and she was blown away by his performance in that), he doesn't have Alan Rickman's middle-aged hotness or Alan Rickman's voice of hotness...in short, Alan Rickman owns that role for me and David Morrissey just isn't going to cut it.

Anyway.

For the fans of Friday Night Lights, the season 1 DVD cover has been released and well...it's fugly.

( Check it )

I get that the Panthers' colours are blue and yellow but did they have to make all the photos so horribly yellow? Against the blue background, it's terrible. I also really dislike the photos they've chosen. They do very little to show what the show is all about. And while I applaud their decision to make Kyle Chandler look like the Jesus, where is Connie Britton's matching halo?

So yeah. Change the cover NBC.

For fans of Kenneth Branagh I have...well a story about Kenneth Branagh.

I was working on Sunday (for those not in the know, I am a waitress at a very fancy French restaurant) and at one of my tables was this really lovely couple. They asked me my name (this has happened exactly once before) and what I was studying and I mentioned I'd done a unit on Shakespeare last semester. This lead them to tell me that their daughter basically wrote to Kenneth Branagh asking for help on how to get into the business of show (on the technical side) and he wrote back and she wound up working with him on Othello in Italy! Her parents have even had dinner with him and say he's just lovely.

*waits for everyone to get back from writing letters, either 'Ken, please let me learn from your wisdom' or 'Ken, please let me have your babies!'*

Finally, another picture, one that is just plain adorable. One of my favourite things about Alias was the relationship between Sydney Bristow, and her father, Jack. Well, the actors playing Sydeny and Jack, Jennifer Garner and Victor Garber, became really close (he was at her wedding to Ben Affleck and Matt Damon wasn't! ZOMG!!1!) and it's nice to see that they still are in a friendly, not creepy at all kind of way.

( Spy family reunites! )

How cute is that? And that stroller looks a bit too small for her daughter so it's obviously a present which makes the whole thing even more adorable. Still, even holding a tiny pink stroller, he totally looks like he would torture you in the most painful way imaginable for just saying Sydney's name.

Because Jack Bristow is a badass. *nods*

I haven't posted in aaaaaages. Sorry about that. Life has been weird.

Item the first: Back at university. This is actually my third week and it's all just going so fast. I'm taking a unit on Shakespeare, a unit on the theory of Comedy (Moliere and the Marx Brothers, woo!) and a unit on revolutionary and Napoleonic Europe. I should really be studying right now as I have a debate on Friday. My team is arguing that pre-revolution France wasn't actually so bad ;-)

Item the second: Got a new job today. I'm going to be waitressing at one of the best restaurants in the country. Seriously. It's won that award twice. The head chef has been awarded the Meilleur Ouvrier de France (France's highest culinary award) and he's been knighted (Chevalier Dans L'Ordre National du Merite).

Question: Should I curtsy when I start next week? Or just kiss his shoes and thank him for giving me this job?

Item the third: I was surprised to discover that three Austen novels have been turned into new mini-series: Persuasion, Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park. The official website is also up and running with trailers and galleries.

(Sense and Sensibility is in pre-production.)

Mansfield Park airs this Sunday and stars Billie Piper, James D'Arcy and Blake Ritson (I loved him on Red Cap). Mansfield Park is not one of my favourite Austen novels and I'd never pictured Billie Piper as an Austen heroine (a Dickens character sure) but I'll still be downloading it.

I'm a lot more excited about Northanger Abbey which is my third favourite Austen novel (after Pride and Prejudice and Emma) and was scripted by Andrew Davies who wrote the screenplay for the definitive and most wonderful version of Pride and Prejudice ever committed to screen (SHUT UP Keira Knightley! Go jump in a lake except don't because Colin Firth already did and it was awesome. Take your bangs and never darken my doorstep again!). Then again, Davies also wrote the 1996 version of Emma starring Kate Beckinsale which was entirely sucky and some of it can be blamed on the script. Hmm.

I'm also not much of a fan of Persuasion which lacks so much of the Austen wit. However, this version will star Rupert Penry-Jones in all his prettyness (Side-note: The new season of Spooks starts this friday for those in Oz) and Anthony Stewart Head.

Anyway, here are some pics, courtesy of jellybeanie87, of all three productions.

( Click! )

So the power cord for my laptop is now fixed. It doesn't make weird noises or spark anymore. This is good.


I had work today. I work at the local supermarket. Mostly in the deli. It's not glamorous but it will be paying my $200.00+ book fee next week when I go back to uni.

I once asked a guy how thick he wanted his ham cut and he said 'relative'. Umm, relative to what? 

That was the stupidest thing a person has said to me at work until today when a woman asked me if all the hams tasted differently.

'If they all tasted the same then we'd only have one ham instead of 15 you idiot' - is what I wanted to say but couldn't.


Last night I watched Red Eye and Monster-in-law. My mother wanted to see the latter not me. I only stayed in the room for the shirtless Michael Vartan and a small appearance by Will Arnett (Gob from Arrested Development). 

You really have to wonder why Jane Fonda came out of retirement for such crap.

Red Eye was actually pretty good. Very suspenseful in the beginning with a really good action sequence at the end. The story was simple and straight to the point, but so many movies these days over complicate things, that I really enjoyed the simplicity.

I loved how Lisa (Rachel McAdams) took action. When characters do stupid stuff on TV and in movies my mother likes to berate them from the comfort of her couch. This rarely happened in this movie.

Cillian Murphy as Jackson Rippner was great. I've liked him since I saw him in The Way We Live Now where he played Paul. His eyes....so pretty.

Brian Cox played Lisa's dad, and he just seems to be in everything these days. I for one am glad, because I really like him as an actor. I just looked him up on imdb.com and he's got a slew of movies coming out including one with...Bowie! Shamrock Boy.


Will be spamming the pics VM style later tonight.