What a week! We got two different versions of the Black/Norwegian experience. If Tiger Woods was going to be a guest programmer on Turner Classic Movies tonight with Robert Osborne and introduce one of his favorite old movies, it would have to be GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES. More fair-haired women claimed to have had affairs with the superstar golfer, taxing his marriage to his Norwegian wife even more. If Tiger had been married to one of the women on my block when I was a kid growing up in South Central Los Angeles, his proctologist would still be working to remove the nine iron. You do not make a woman sit through that much golf and then cheat on her. You just don’t. On the other hand, a very happy President Barack Obama and Mrs. Obama travelled to Norway where Mr. President received the Nobel Peace Prize just a couple of weeks after announcing that he’s sending more troops into war.
As for Tiger, I logged onto his website and saw his post that he’s taking “an indefinite break from professional golf.” If you’re really into the game, check out the left side for Tiger Tips. A few are:
–Fix, finish and swing
–Maintain a quiet head
–Face up in the rough
–Staying connected
–What’s changed in my swing?
Details are on www.TigerWoods.com.
For your Saturday night entertainment at home, CBS is repeating the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer classic claymation special. That’s the one with Hermie, the elf that looks like a little version of “Good Morning America” weatherman Sam Champion. NBC airs Frank Capra’s now-revered holiday noir, It’s A Wonderful Life. When we babyboomers were kids, we could –and often did — see that movie in the middle of summer on any local independent TV station. It was a public domain film, not in mint condition. The license had not been renewed. Capra’s movie could have found a home on The Island of Misfit Toys visited by Hermie and Rudolph. My generation embraced that tale of an unemployed, middle-aged family man who is so broke that he considers suicide so his family can live on the insurance money. When Jimmy Stewart’s George Bailey glimpses the possible future thanks to Clarence the Angel and overcomes the local Scrooge, that film (along with LOST HORIZON and MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON) prove that Capra indeed was the Charles Dickens of Old Hollywood. I’m so glad that film preservationists restored and remastered the 1946 feature to the pearly state you can see on the network tonight. And how relevant it’s become again in these unfortunate financial times. One last thing about IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE. To me, film is literature and many telling things about character are visual, not verbalized. For instance, when Lionel Barrymore as the spiritually and physically crippled Mr. Potter is out to heartlessly seize corporate control of Bedford Falls, notice that he’s photographed near a bust of Napolean. George Bailey is framed near a portrait of a beloved American president. When George gets the psychic gift of seeing what the town would’ve been like had he never lived, notice that there’s not one single Black person in Pottersville. Compare that to the racial diversity in the scene where all the neighbors and friends come to the Bailey home at the end. Very cool, Mr. Capra.
I returned Wednesday from a 2-day trip to Atlanta for the good fortune to shoot an audition for a possible new TV vehicle. This year, I’ve repeatedly had to pick myself up off the mat from the longest stretch of unemployment in my entire life. To get that audition and to work with the excellent crew was a blessing. I came back, continued the job hunt here in Manhattan and took yesterday off from the job hunt to attend a screening of James Cameron’s new sci-fi thriller, Avatar. More about it later. But I will tell you this: It has a character called Sully and some aircraft is brought down by birds. Go figure. Enjoy your weekend.