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January 17, 2005

The Three Day Wrap-up

Congratulations to William Shatner. I’ve sung his praises before but after a second award for his work on Boston Legal as Denny Crane, I think it’s worth noting again. Lots of people say its Shatner being Shatner, the over-the-top ham actor playing himself. Watch the show. He’s not. For the first time in a too many years, someone has taken the trouble to write a character that plays to Shatner’s acting strengths. He’s vain and vulnerable, irritating and irascible. You want to pity the man and then strangle him. All they need to do is get him back into court now and then where the “mental plaque” falls away and he’s still got “it.”

Speaking of last night’s Golden Globes, Deb and I were very surprised to see The Aviator take Best Picture, mainly because we saw it the night before and while we liked it, didn’t think it was that deserving of a major award. The movie itself is nicely made, terrifically evocative of the era but missing the narrative connective tissue to make it a better story. My brother was totally turned off by the romantic sub-plots while I thought they missed out on his running RKO Pictures while pursuing aviation. The RKO connection is even more striking since throughout the entire picture I thought Leonard DiCaprio’s look and performance was strikingly similar to Orson Welles’ Charles Foster Kane (produced by that studio). Cate Blanchett steals every scene she’s in and definitely deserves at least a nomination for an Oscar.

As expected, the new iron in the fire got hot fast and I’ve spent much of the three-day weekend doing some research and prepping a proposal. It’s been fun since it’s allowed me to get back in touch with buddies I haven’t talked to in a while and flip through stuff on the bookshelf. I hope it comes together and we can talk about it in some detail. On the other hand, it has meant moving the non-fiction sample chapter back on the schedule.

And we sent Kate back to George Washington University this morning. Classes begin tomorrow and she’s pretty much ready. She has two days of school and then things shut down Thursday for the Inauguration. She’ll be attending one of the nine Inaugural Balls that night, not because she’s a supporter of the current administration, but it’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities she didn’t feel she should pass up. It also provides a chance to use her newly-honed ballroom dancing skills.

One month until pitchers and catchers. Can’t wait.

Posted by Bob Greenberger at January 17, 2005 11:17 AM

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Comments

I read an interesting little column on Shatner just this morning. It can be found here: http://www.entertainment-geekly.com/web/general/jan2005/shatnernation

Posted by: Jeff Lawson [TypeKey Profile Page] at January 17, 2005 06:59 PM

I'm a bit worried about Shatner....He's on a rather big career renaisance right now, which is perfect for tragic headlines (for reference see: Ritter, John).

Posted by: Scavenger at January 21, 2005 05:33 PM

Watching Boston Legal recently I realized it wasn't Captain Kirk that Jean-Luc Picard found in the Nexus. It was actually Denny Crane.

Rewatch the "cooking with the Captains" scene in Star Trek: Generations. Watch how Shatner approaches the scene. That's Denny Crane scrambling the eggs and blowing off that constipated blowhard Picard, not James Tiberius Kirk.

No, I've no idea how Denny Crane found himself in the Nexus. I'll leave that to David E. Kelley to figure out.

And Todd, John Ritter is a bad example. Ritter never really went away.

Posted by: Allyn Gibson at January 22, 2005 10:11 PM