FILM 1522: MUSIC AND LYRICS

TRIVIA: As a child, Hugh Grant took piano lessons from Andrew Lloyd Webber's mother. At some point, he stopped piano lessons and subsequently forgot what he had learned. Prior to the filming of the movie, he was taught to play the portions where his hands would be visible on the keys.

Hugh Grant had to be convinced to sing himself and initially wanted nothing to do with his singing parts. After practicing and performing in the studio, he then felt so comfortable with it and announced he would perform the big concert scene live. When it was played back he was highly amused and humbled by how terrible it sounded and was then happy to use the pre-recorded sound.

The film's director/producer/writer Marc Lawrence offered "Dance With Me Tonight" to Hugh Grant while he was trying to find the right song to sing during one scene. What he didn't tell him was that Marc's 13-year-old son, Clyde Lawrence, wrote it. On the soundtrack, Clyde actually plays the piano.

… OF THE DAY

This is a blind drawing of Jackie Curtis.  I forgot to load this yesterday…

FILM 1232: SUPERSTAR IN A HOUSEDRESS

"Jackie Curtis is not a drag queen. Jackie is an artist. A pioneer without a frontier." -- Andy Warhol. Superstar in a Housedress examines the life and legend of Warhol transvestite superstar Jackie Curtis who was a poet, playwright, performer, and one of the great personalities of his time. Jackie both lived and performed sometimes as a man, sometimes as a woman - and died tragically of a drug overdose under bizarre circumstances when he was only 38. The film features on-camera interviews with actor Harvey Fierstein who played Jackie's mother in "Americka Cleopatra" when he was 18, Ellen Stewart, founder of LaMama Experimental Theater Club, John Vaccaro, founder of the Playhouse of the Ridiculous, Paul Morrissey, Director of the Andy Warhol films, and surviving superstars Holly Woodlawn and Joe Dallesandro, plus 24 other friends and colleagues of Jackie's. The film includes never-before-seen video and film clips of Jackie performing in stage plays including "Femme Fatale," "Glamour, Glory and Gold," and "Vain Victory: The Vicissitudes of the Damned." and cabarets. The music of jazz musician and composer Paul Serrato is featured, as is the photography of Jack Mitchell who took more photographs of Curtis and the Warhol crowd than any other professional. Interviews with media personalities, writers and editors put the work and life of Jackie Curtis in historical perspective. Narrated by Lily Tomlin.

- Written by Craig Highberger

FILM 1156: FACTORY GIRL

TRIVIA: Sienna Miller was cast twice as Edie Sedgwick. She was dropped by the producers because they felt they needed a "bigger name." Miller was eventually re-cast in the role, due in part to massive publicity from her public break-up from fiancée Jude Law.

Bob Dylan threatened to sue the producers for defamation, claiming that the film portrayed him as responsible for Sedgwick's death. Thus, any mention of Dylan was omitted from the script and Hayden Christensen is billed only as "musician."

The scene with Mary Elizabeth Winstead was shot after principal photography had taken place. Her character, Ingrid Superstar, is based on a real girl.

Katie Holmes was originally set to play Edie Sedgwick, but dropped out due to her conflicting religious beliefs with the character's drug-addiction. Holmes also became pregnant right before filming was scheduled to begin.

In the 1980s Warren Beatty was set to direct a film about Edie Sedgwick with Molly Ringwald in the lead role.

BOOK 95: EDIE: AMERICAN GIRL – JEAN STEIN

"Edie Sedgwick was the spirit of the Sixties, and these pages capture her power to dazzle us. I have read no social history to compare with it. While it is not a novel (although it reads like one) I still will say: This is the book of the Sixties that we have been waiting for" (Norman Mailer)

"Like all American stories, Edie's is about being born in paradise and then being ejected from it... in spite of the wealth and fame and catastrophe which seem to make it singular, it is everyone's" (Peter Conrad Observer)