HOLLYWOOD’S NEW “STARS”
Barbara Walters just got hers a few days ago and now other celebrities are following suit. Ricky Martin, Tim Robbins, Cate Blanchett, Angela Bassett, and Howie Mandel are among the celebrities who will be honored next year with Hollywood Walk of Fame stars.
The list of 2008 inductees was just released yesterday and it includes some of Tinseltown’s biggest names including Stan Lee, the Munchkins (from “The Wizard of Oz”), Christina Aguilera, Susan St. James, Bill Geist, Kate Linder, Sherwood Schwartz, and Vince McMahon among others.
The entertainers were reportedly chosen from hundreds of nominations received by the Walk of Fame Committee. Sidewalk stars are given to entertainers in the movie, television, theater and recording industries. The stars get their stars and mere mortals like myself can then make a pilgrimage to L.A. to stand or pose near them. For many of us it’s the closest we will ever get to the names immortalized in concrete.
WOODY ALLEN’S NEW GIG
Woody Allen, the director, is branching out into the music world. According to news reports, Allen will be directing an opera in Los Angeles this September. I’m not kidding. The bespectacled New York filmmaker will make his operatic directorial debut with the opening event of the LA Opera’s 2008-09 season.
“I have no idea what I am doing,” Allen recently told reports. “But incompetence has never prevented me from plunging in with enthusiasm.”
That’s the spirit.
Allen is scheduled to direct “Gianni Schicchi,” part of Puccini’s “Il Trittico,” a trio of one-act operas. It is Puccini’s only comedy, and according to those in the opera world, it is the perfect fit for Allen.
But Allen is not the only Hollywood movie director who will take on the task of directing an opera. According opera directors, William Friedkin (“The Exorcist,” “The French Connection”) will also take the reigns of two operas.