Master of Ceremonies: Jennifer Ehle!

The New York Public Library will be honoring Tom Stoppard, Martin Scorsese, John Hope Franklin, and Jhumpa Lahiri at the 10th annual Library Lions benefit, and Jennifer Ehle will serve as Master of Ceremonies! According to Playbill:

[...] Jennifer Ehle, who won a Tony for her work in Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia at Lincoln Center this past season, will serve as Master of Ceremonies for the Nov. 5 evening, which will feature a cocktail reception at 7 PM in Astor Hall; an 8 PM program honoring Stoppard, Scorsese, Franklin and Lahiri; and a dance party sponsored by the Library's Young Lions at 9 PM. [...]

Playbill further explains:

[...] The Library Lion honorees are those "whose accomplishments enrich our lives with beauty and knowledge, and whose work is inspired by, and represented in, the Library's collections," the Library states.

The annual benefit supports the New York Public Library's General Book Fund, allowing the institution to acquire the books and materials needed to keep the collections current for the 25 divisions of its four research centers, including the Humanities and Social Sciences Library; the Library for the Performing Arts; the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; and the Science, Industry and Business Library. [...]

Broadway World and Theater Mania report much of the same, and All That Chat has the official press release. More information about the event and the honorees can be found at the New York Public Library website. Congrats to Sir Tom! [Many thanks to everyone who sent us tips about this event.]

And, while we're on the subject, I just want to remind everyone that Tom Stoppard's latest play, Rock 'n' Roll began previews at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre tonight.

Tom Stoppard isn't the only Utopian in need of congratulations. Director Jack O'Brien is to be inducted in the American Theatre Hall of Fame. According to The Stage:

[...] The inductees will officially enter the Hall of Fame on January 28, 2008 at a ceremony at Broadway’s Gershwin Theatre. In order to be considered for acceptance, a person must have a theatrical career spanning at least 25 years with a minimum of five major credits. [...]

Note that Rosemary Harris was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1986.

Ethan Hawke talks to Variety about his latest work as the director of Things We Want, and he also reminisces about his Utopia days:

[...] Hawke's last role -- Michael Bakunin in "Coast" -- earned him a Tony nomination but took its toll on the resilient actor. By the time the show closed, Hawke's voice sounded, like his character, as if he really had spent time in Siberian exile. "I spent most of last year in what really felt like some kind of grad school theater program," he says. "I spent a year in rehearsal with Tom Stoppard and (director) Jack O'Brien. And I came out of it really excited about the possibilities for theater." Hawke also notes that it was the last time he wanted to be onstage for a while. "I loved acting onstage all last year, and I have no desire to do it again for a while," he confesses. "But I still love the theater. So now I'm kind of interested in taking what I learned from Jack and Tom and seeing if I can distill that as a director." [...]

Cutie-pa-tootie Josh Hamilton, who will be starring in Things We Want, was interviewed by the Gothamist.

Screen India has another mention of Before the Rains' inclusion in the Pusan International Film Festival, as well as an interview with Jennifer Ehle's co-star Rahul Bose. Mr Bose, however, sounds slightly skeptical about the practical purposes of film festivals:

You are turning out to be quite a festival specialist. Pyaar Ke Side/Effects going to Cairo, Before The Rains to Pusan and what more?

I have been going to festivals long before it became fashionable. My very first film, English August went to the Toronto film festival and that was 14 years ago. But there is nothing special about going to film festivals. What’s the use, for the last five decades no Indian film has found a distributor in North America. Festivals mean nothing if they don’t translate into anything. [Dare we hope that Before the Rains will be the first?!]

Aren’t you happy going to all those film festivals?

It is absolute fun and a matter of great prestige to make it to the top festivals like Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Toronto and Sundance. The rest are like pleasant trips abroad. I wasn’t aware that Pyaar Ke... was going to Cairo or Santosh Sivan’s Before the Rains was headed for Pusan. I thoroughly enjoyed working with Sivan and Saket (directors).

Finally, I'll leave you with this - a Pride and Prejudice "cheat sheet" for the BBC miniseries, created by Buttercups and Ravenwood. It is designed for "those poor guys out there stuck with girlfriends or friends that are girls who love the film and want them to love, or at the very least watch, it too." It, of course, outlines the famous scene featuring "the wet shirt that launched a thousand sighs."