A group of New York cognoscenti turned out on Thursday night to see Kenneth
Branagh's new movie.
It's a musical version of Shakespeare's Love's Labours Lost and it features
Alicia Silverstone, Nathan Lane and about a dozen people you've never heard
of.
These cats sing songs by Cole Porter, the Gershwins and Irving Berlin while
they perform an updated, abridged version of the romantic comedy.
Miramax will release LLL when they've finished
trimming and polishing, but all you need to know
now is that Nathan Lane steals the picture and
Natascha McElhone, who should already be a
bigger star, is luminescent.
Guests at this small gathering started with director
Martin Scorsese and wife Helen Morris, who is
very pregnant.
Legendary — and I do mean that — director
Stanley Donen, who made so many great MGM
musicals, made a rare appearance. Kevin Kline
and wife Phoebe Cates were there as well, along with Tina Brown and Ron
Galotti from Talk magazine and the great Broadway star Jim Dale.
Branagh, looking confident, was brave enough to take questions about his break
up with actress Helena Bonham Carter. He said, "No one is to blame and
we're still friends."
Yeah. Listen, I told him, I heard they actually broke up last December,
right after
Theory of Flight crashed into theaters. He said, very British gentleman
like, "I'm
just not going to comment on that and you wouldn't either."
Well, I'll tell you what: They've been broken up all year, if you care. It
doesn't
matter, though. Life goes on. No blood was shed.
Helena Bonham Carter co-stars in the ultrarepulsive Fight Club soon, where she
gets to work through her anger.