Cash for comment

Almost. Risky Regencies blog is running a contest for which the collector's edition of Pride and Prejudice is the prize. All you have to do is comment on at least one of their posts this week (Mon 2 - Sat 7).

Also in blogland, Erica reviews Possession. She digs the period part, not so much the modern.

Starting in the positive end then, period-junkies Jeremy Northam and Jennifer Ehle are breathtaking to watch as poets during the Richmond period in England. They are two people who cannot be together, for one has chosen a wife and the other has chosen a life of 'shared solitude' (which is a euphemism for a lesbian relationship).

Yet they begin a correspondence of love letters, which blossoms into a fully-fletched romance, embroidered in intrigue and quiet passion. Ehle's beautiful, reassuring smiles conveying the latter. At times their story is achingly romantic, so I think this aspect is very nicely tended to in the film. The graceful words in their letters even invests the film in a lyrical flow of sorts.

Just Jared has the text of Julie Delpy interviewing Ethan Hawke in Interview magazine. There's mention of The Coast of Utopia in a discussion on apathy:

JD:: Yeah, but most of the major figures that could serve as examples to the world have contracts with big companies that give them millions of dollars to represent a product, and they would probably lose that if they took a stand. I think that’s the big problem.

EH:: You’re right, and it puts the burden squarely on the artistic community. There’s a potential for real dialogue right now. It’s interesting, because this fall I’m doing this new Tom Stoppard play here in New York about the Russian Revolution. It’s called The Coast of Utopia, and it’s really incredible. It’s three plays that we’re going to present in succession, and I’m looking at all these fascinating characters who laid the groundwork for the 1917 revolution in Russia, and how hard it was for them to break through the apathy of their time. It begs the question of where our leaders are today. We’re in desperate need of a Martin Luther King, a Mahatma Gandhi, a Nelson Mandela; the Middle East is in desperate need of somebody to rise up and lead. I always think about how nearly every major city in this country has a Martin Luther King Boulevard, King’s picture is up in every classroom, we take a day off every year to celebrate him, and everyone universally admires him-but we all know what he would say about the Iraq war. We turn a blind eye to the things we know he would tell us.