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Weekend Butler: Feeling lucky. Must-see weekend movies. Cannabis prevents COVID? Nancy Pelosi’s 1/6 “Lost and Found.” Best slippers for women. And more.
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Published: Jan 20, 2022
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Weekend
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THIS WEEK IN BUTLER
Let’s Take the Long Way Home: A Memoir of Friendship
The Adventures of Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Thief
Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963
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ABOUT THE IMAGE: Robert Smith is a painter who lives in Los Angeles. Given the constraints of the pandemic, he’s spent a lot of time in his back yard. As a break from painting small abstract landscapes, he did a few portraits of flowerpots, all oils on redwood fencing, that grew into this installation of sixteen pieces, hung side by side on a redwood fence, of course.
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“LUCK IS NOTHING BUT FEELING LUCKY”
All through Capricorn, my horoscope has been telling me this-is-your-moment, go-for-it, and as I am a triple Capricorn, I hunkered down in the perfect weather for hunkering down and just wrote. And now we’re moving out of Capricorn, this is me praying: please let this continue.
I would have called them if I knew.
Jean-Jacques Beineix died. He was 76. I was teaching screenwriting at NYU when “Diva” reached New York theaters after playing for a year in Paris and winning César awards for Best Music, Best Cinematography and Best Directorial Debut. Some of my students saw it. “This one’s for you,” they said. I got an assignment from Esquire Magazine and was soon having dinner with Beineix in Paris. Alas, my piece never ran. Beineix was about to release his next film, “The Moon in the Gutter,” and it was such a pretentious bomb that he was considered a one-hit wonder.
Yvette Mimieux died. She was 80. I met her once in Los Angeles, at a billionaire’s dinner, where I was seated next to her. There was a connection, confirmed when she put her hand in mine under the table, and kept it there. A promise? An invitation? Then she was gone.
André Leon Talley died. He was 73. Everyone who knew him has posted accounts of his wit, his style, his deep knowledge. I saw him a bit of that backstage after Isaac Mizrahi’s killer show in 1988, where he was shouting “Gale force! Gale force!” My experience was quieter. In 1987, I shared an office at Vanity Fair with Articles Editor Jane Sarkin, André, and an intern. André was traveling a lot that summer. When he returned, he asked Jane what he’d missed. “We have an intern,” she said, “and every time he gets up to go to the men’s room, he says, ‘I’m going to the men’s room.’” André: “Ah, yes… share the fantasy.” Then we were to meet in Barcelona for a photo shoot. André was in Italy, a short flight away. But he didn’t have the right clothes, so he was going to fly back to New York, repack his Vuitton hard suitcase (with tissue between the clothes) and then meet me in Barcelona. Our subject balked, the shoot was canceled. I did get a word of praise from him. That fall, the New York Times Magazine published The Woman Who Beat the Klan and the next time we were together, he told me it was good. Not “gale force” good, but good in a way that didn’t require a public performance.
A death cluster. In my age cohort, that has to make you wonder. I don’t wonder. I see one day flowing into another as if the road ahead is long and smooth. John Mellencamp said, “Luck is nothing but thinking you’re lucky.” I feel lucky.
The weather is going to be frigid and windy and wet this weekend. So let me first commend…
MUST-SEE WEEKEND DOUBLE FEATURE
“Munich – The Edge of War”
Based on Robert Harris’s historical thriller, the film follows four frantic days leading up to the 1938 Munich conference, where world leaders tried to avert war by allowing Hitler to annex the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. In Munich, Chamberlain also signed an agreement between Britain and Nazi Germany that he said would ensure “peace for our time.” Jeremy Irons plays Chamberlain, and he is, as ever, delicious to watch. Irons: “I love reappraisals of history, and Robert was very keen to try to clear the name, to a certain extent, of Chamberlain. I think we do understand that Chamberlain was a man between a rock and hard place at that time.” Here’s the trailer. And the Netflix link.
“Their Finest”
Another little-known story: Women wrote the scripts that the British government used to keep morale high and move the United States closer to joining the war. “Their Finest” has wit, romance, danger — and Bill Nighy, who is reason enough to see it. Let the trailer convince you. To rent the stream from Amazon, click here.
THE HEADLINE SAYS IT ALL: CANNABIS COMPOUNDS PREVENTED COVID INFECTION IN LABORATORY STUDY
From Bloomberg: Cannabis compounds prevented the virus that causes Covid-19 from penetrating healthy human cells, according to a laboratory study published in the Journal of Nature Products. The two compounds commonly found in hemp — called cannabigerolic acid, or CBGA, and cannabidiolic acid, or CBDA — were identified during a chemical screening effort as having potential to combat coronavirus, researchers from Oregon State University said. In the study, they bound to spike proteins found on the virus and blocked a step the pathogen uses to infect people.
THE HEADLINE SAYS IT ALL #2: CAPITOL RIOTERS CALLED NANCY PELOSI’S OFFICE LOOKING FOR A ‘LOST AND FOUND’ FOR ITEMS THEY LEFT BEHIND ON JANUARY 6.
From Business Insider: As crews cleaned the US Capitol on January 7, 2021, the phone lines in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office began to ring.
Rioters were calling “asking whether there was a lost and found because they forgot their phone there, or they left their purse or what have you,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., told Insider. Police officers swiftly took down information from the callers: “The officers quickly got on the phone and said, yeah, just give us your name, your address, your social, you know, and we’ll tie up those loose ends… What’s so fascinating to me is that there really were people who felt as if they had been summoned to Washington by the president.”
PERFECT
Lou Reed’s song, “Perfect Day,” was recorded as a BBC promotion in 1997. In the all-star cast: Lou Reed, Bono, David Bowie, Suzanne Vega, Elton John, Burning Spear, Emmylou Harris, Tammy Wynette, Dr. John, Elton John, Tom Jones. Joan Armatrading, and Laurie Anderson. The song was later released as a single for the charity Children in Need. It raised 2 million pounds and sold 1.5 million copies. Click for the video.
“PEOPLE DON’T JOIN CULTS, THEY JUST FORGET TO LEAVE”
As seen on Twitter: “QAnon lunatics strongly believe Covid patients are being murdered in hospitals (because they can’t accept their loved ones die because they aren’t vaxxed.) They are now starting to dox ‘killer’ nurses who cared for Q-relatives who died & post home addresses. This could get bad.”
JULIA HAS A PAIR OF UGGS SLIPPERS. SHE SAYS THESE ARE BETTER.
My friend Julia Pizzolato — a majorly talented copywriter, website developer, and branding consultant — writes: When the temp drops below 70, practically nothing can warm me, so I turn to accessories — anything that will help me forget it’s winter. I’ve had these “Memory Foam Fluffy Soft Warm Slip On House Slippers, with Anti-Skid Cozy Plush” on my feet since December 12th, and they still look brand-new. (I haven’t washed them yet, but they are machine-washable in cold water on gentle.) How great are they? My feet feel like they’ve been wrapped in sunshine and happiness. To buy these slippers — they’re only for women — from Amazon, click here.
