Untitled Document

Anything Goes

September/October 2006

German Chancellor Angela Merkel boards a submarine during an inspection of the fleet

Hollywood legend Glenn Ford dies aged 90

Glenn Ford: 1916 - 2006
Glenn Ford, the laconic actor best known for his roles in Gilda, Blackboard Jungle, and as Jonathan Kent, the adoptive father in Superman, died Wednesday (8/30) in Los Angeles. Ford had suffered a series of strokes over the last ten years and was in failing health. He was 90.

Ford played the strong but silent type, most frequently on the range in films such as The Rounders and 3:10 to Yuma, but just as effectively in urban settings such as his role as the put-upon teacher in Blackboard Jungle.

Born May 1st, 1916 as Gwyllyn Samuel Newton Ford in Quebec, Canada did not seem a likely start for a man to become a box-office draw in the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s. When his family moved to Southern California at age 8, however, Ford became smitten with all things show business, leading to high school plays and West Coast stage productions.

Under contract with the notoriously difficult Harry Cohn at Columbia Ford was requested to change his name to something catchier. He salvaged what he could of his birth name, keeping his last name and switching his first to Glenn, after his father's birthplace of Glenford, Wales.

Ford labored for several years in productions that ranged from the broad serialized comedy of Blondie Play Cupid to program westerns such as Texas (which also starred contemporary and sometimes rival for acting parts, William Holden).

But Ford found particular on-screen chemistry with Rita Hayworth and their 1946 noir classic Gilda catapulted them both into stardom. Ford played Hayworth's ex-lover, who is put into the tempting position of watching over her by her unsuspecting crime-boss husband. The sultry turn for Hayworth made her a superstar and Ford a leading man, assuring work for him for the next two decades, including several more films with Hayworth (The Loves of Carmen and Affair in Trinidad).

In The Big Heat Ford was given the chance to work with Fritz Lang, a true craftsman (and again inHuman Desire), and the actor also starred in lesser films of Frank Capra (Pocketful of Miracles) and Vincente Minelli. The second film Ford made with Minelli, a collaboration called The Courtship of Eddie's Father, was quite popular and inspired a television show of the same name.

More often than not, however, he took direction from under-appreciated, work-for-hire helmers such as Budd Boetticher and George Marshall. His work in the `70s was largely restricted to television, of varying quality.

In 1978 his brief role as Jonathan Kent, the man who adopts Kal-El in Superman, Ford lent some moral heft and humanity to the film as the warm counterpart to Kal-El's Krypton father, Marlon Brando's cold intellectual, Jor-El.

Ford was married to famed dancer-actress Eleanor Powell for 16 years (1943-1959) and they had one son, Peter. Powell passed away in 1982. Peter hosted a gala birthday celebration at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood on Ford's 90th birthday in May (featuring a restored 35mm print of Gilda) but, due to setbacks in his health, the actor was unable to attend and sent a videotaped message in his stead.

A tearful Andre Agassi bows out of tennis after defeat to Benjamin Becker at the U.S. Open

Residents of New Orleans hold hands at a memorial service for the victims of Hurricane Katrina

PRINCESS DIANA FANS GATHER TO MARK ANNIVERSARY

People had travelled from all over the world to visit Princess Diana's former home on the ninth anniversary of her death on Thursday. Although there was no official ceremony nor formal tributes hundreds of people from across Britain and further afield made the journey to Kensington Palace in

IRANIAN AMERICAN ANSARI WILL GO TO SPACE

WAR Photographer Christine Spengler

French German Cultural TV ARTE recently had an extraordinary programme on Women War Correspondant photographers and a portrait of one of these extraordinary women Christine Spengler ((LIFE, Paris-Match, Time, Newsweek, El Pais...) . She is particularly known for one of her photos shot during the 1979 Islamic Revolution that was shown worldwide in the International press: That of the Women heading to Beheshte Zahra Cemetry with Tulips.

She has just published a book on her photographies and will be exhibiting in Paris in October:

See below her blog, dates and programe in French :

http://christinespengler.blogspot.com/2006/07/vnements-juillet-septembre-octobre.html

British stars of Channel 4's mini-series Elizabeth I are revelling in their triumph at this year's Emmy Awards.

Helen Mirren as Elizabeth I
Mirren cut a stern figure as the so-called Virgin Queen
The show scooped four awards to add to the five Creative Arts Emmys it won last weekend.

Although it was co-financed by US TV network HBO, it still marks a major coup for British broadcaster Channel 4 and its predominantly home-grown cast and crew.

These include Dame Helen Mirren and Jeremy Irons, who both won acting prizes, and Tom Hooper, recipient of best directing prize for a mini-series or TV movie.

Dame Helen's triumph in the title role feels particularly apposite. Indeed, playing members of the Royal Family is becoming something of a habit for the 61-year-old star.

Work begins on the World Trade Center memorial at Ground Zero

Mel Gibson formally charged with drink driving offences

Lewis Gordon Pugh swims the Thames to deliver a letter to Tony Blair urging him to act on climate change

Peace protestors hold a candlelit vigil in Beirut

New portrait of Lady Thatcher by young designer Benjamin Shine unveiled in London

Kirk Douglas honoured at
Santa Barbara International Film Festival

Arnold and Tony announce California/U.K. collaboration on research to combate global warming

Synchronised swimmers perform at the European Swimming Championships in Hungary

Fire wrecks James Bond film stage at Pinewood studios where filming for 'Casino Royale' has just finished

MADONNA'S $1-MILLION DOLLAR DONATION FOR MALAWI'S ORPHANS

As one of the music industry's top earners Madonna is no stranger to outsize paycheques, but now the self-dubbed Material Girl plans to join stars like Bono and Angelina Jolie, in giving money away. Being the Queen of Pop, the 47-year-old singer is not doing anything by halves, with a plan to donate $1 million to healthcare and education projects in Malawi, and use her profile to raise a further $3 million for the cause.

The money is to go towards funding a centre which will feed 1,000 children a day in the African country. Reading a book called The End Of Poverty prompted the American star to pick up the phone and call its economist author Jeffrey Sachs, who helped devise the programme.

According to the superstar, her role as a mother provided the inspiration for her generous gesture. "For the last few years - now that I have children and now that I have what I consider to be a better perspective on life - I have felt responsible for the children of the world," declared Madonna, who is parent to nine-year-old Lourdes and Rocco, five.

The megastar, who is to visit Africa for the first time in October, also credits her belief in Kabbalah for stimulating her humanitarian concerns. "We're put on this Earth to help people," she comments. "And your job is to figure out how you can help, and what it is that you can do."

Men's Fashion

Ralf Lauren - John Bartellet- Lacost