The lotus represents karma in that it holds its seeds as it flowers. Photograph by Nevit Dilmen.
Violence is never the answer, but it is often the question. The attempt on former President Donald J. Trump’s life is nothing to celebrate as the taking of a life in anything but self-defense is morally and legally wrong.
But after almost 10 years of vitriol on the campaign trail and in office, he has come to his encounter with karma.
Read MoreWith my books prior to Westfair Communications Inc.’s first literary luncheon, “History: Fiction and Nonfiction,” held Feb. 23 in White Plains, New York. Photograph by Sarafina Pavlak/Westfair.
There are few things in life more satisfying than living the life you see in your head. Such moments are rare, but when they happen, you have to savor them. Such was the case Thursday, Feb. 23, as Westfair Communications Inc. presented its first literary luncheon in White Plains, New York.
“History: Fiction and Nonfiction” was the theme of “Literary Westfair,” featuring Mary Calvi’s new “If a Poem Could Live and Breathe: A Novel of Teddy Roosevelt’s First Love” (St. Martin’s Press) – about his first wife, the former Alice Hathaway Lee – and John A. Lipman’s biography “Alfred B. DelBello: His Life and Times” (Atmosphere Press). As Westfair’s chief cultural writer and luxury editor, I had a lot of skin in this game, serving as moderator and one of the authors who would be reading.
Read MoreHarry Styles, seen performing in Rio de Janeiro last year, was heckled by Beyoncé fans at “The Grammy Awards.” Photograph by Leticia Morales.
Heckling is as old as performing, but our digital cult and culture of narcissism, which has made everyone an instant celebrity, has given it a trending obnoxiousness. President Joe Biden was heckled by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and the other MAGA Republicans at the State of the Union address. Harry Styles was heckled by Beyoncé fans at “The Grammy Awards.” Novak Djokovic was heckled by a drunken “Where’s Waldo?” quartet at the Australian Open. And Sydney Warner, wife of San Francisco 49ers linebacker Fred Warner, was among the Niners contingent heckled at the Eagles-49ers National Football Conference championship game.
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Jacob Anderson speaking about “Game of Thrones” at the 2019 San Diego Comic Con International. Photograph by Gage Skidmore.
Some authors are proprietary about their characters; some readers even more so, which is partly why Stephen King’s novel “Misery” and the subsequent film were such successes.
When the casting for the 1994 film “Interview With the Vampire” was announced, author Anne Rice balked at the idea of Tom Cruise as the Vampire Lestat, the antihero of the novel who becomes the main character in the subsequent books in the “Vampire Chronicles” series.
When the AMC series “Interview With the Vampire” bowed Oct. 2, some fans balked at the casting of Jacob Anderson, a Black actor, as Louis, “Interview’s” main character, and the updating of the setting to the Black Storyville section of New Orleans in the 1910s, instead of an 18th-century Louisiana plantation. Louis, they argued, wasn’t Black but white. How could the series change the essence of the character? (We should note that Rice, who died in 2021, was slated to be a producer of the series.) I would argue the new series didn’t fundamentally change the character, but it’s complicated.
Read MoreDiana, Princess of Wales in Russia in 1995. Photograph by Nick Parfjonov.
In “Spencer” — the third leg in a November Diana trilogy that includes Season Four of “The Crown,” now on DVD, and “Diana: The Musical,” now on Broadway — director Pablo Larrain does for the late Princess of Wales what he did for Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in “Jackie” (2016) : He imagines a goddess at a tipping point.
Read MoreFloral tributes to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who was laid to rest Saturday, April 17, at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, line Buckingham Palace in London.
Having logged more than 22,000 solo engagements for the British monarchy, Prince Philip – who was laid to rest at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle Saturday, April 17 -- knew a thing or two about attending funerals. And so it’s no surprise that his own, which he planned himself, was lovely – simple, straightforward and moving as befitted a no-fuss naval man and our Covid times – with hymns, selections from the “Book of Common Prayer” and 30 masked, socially distanced mourners – led by his widow, Queen Elizabeth II – who could not help but shed the occasional tear.
Read MoreEva Perón addresses a group of women. Make way on the balcony, Evita, for Donnie.
He was busy concocting another White House crush on the South Lawn with another bizarre Evita turn on the balcony for Saturday, and on Monday, he’s scheduled to travel to Florida for what he called “a very BIG RALLY!” — Maureen Dowd, Oct. 10, The New York Times
It was the balcony, of course, it had to be the balcony. President Donald J. Trump came back to the White House from the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, climbed the steps of the Truman Balcony, unmasked his face and generated a thousand “Evita” memes. Makes perfect sense. He and Eva Peron were both diseased bottle blonds conducting love-hate relationships with the public. And ,as Dowd pointed out in a link in the quote above, “Evita” is his favorite musical. What a surprise.
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