Ynetnews.com reports that BRIDE AND PREJUDICE will open the Eilat International Film Festival in Eilat, Israel on April 7 at 9 p.m.

John Weeks of the San Bernardino County Sun is a wee bit miffed with all these moviemakers stealing Jane Austen’s plots and putting them in odd settings such as a Beverly Hills high school and Amritsar, India. (Psst. John. You forgot YOU’VE GOT MAIL. There’s even a flash of Colin Firth’s mug in that one, on the cover of the copy of P&P that Tom Hanks reads. Dead giveaway. Oh, and speaking of The Colin, don’t forget both versions of BJD. Just saying.) Mr. Weeks suggests taking Hollywood films and making BOOKS out of them. Since he has no sense of humor, we will reign in our own and point out that he can’t do so, since those films are protected by copyright, and Jane Austen’s novels are no longer so protected. We would also like to say that we Janeites find the modernized film adaptations perfectly delightful, so butt out, mmkay?

The Brigit Saint Brigit Theatre Company of the College of Saint Mary in Omaha, Nebraska, is currently staging a production of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. The play runs through April 3. The link has a phone number for ticket information.

The production has engendered a bit of a slapfight in the local press. Bob Fischbach, writing in the Omaha World-Herald, gave the production a lukewarm review, finding it a bit stiff and proper.

So in check are the emotions, so refined the language, so strictured the manners of polite society, it’s a wonder any lives get lived at all.

Warren Francke took umbrage in The Reader:

We’re talking about a romantic comedy where proposals fill the air like confetti at a parade on Broadway — where hopes are dashed and then revived, where idiots keep making complete asses of themselves to our perpetual amusement, where total ruin or total triumph hangs on every artful word.

Now, boys. Can we settle this over a cup of tea? Perhaps with a drop of Tullamore Dew? Dorothy’s ready to oblige at a word.

As always, we would be delighted to post a reader review of this production.

…that the library at AustenBlog World Headquarters will henceforth be known as the Jane Austen Reading Room.

So there.

Not for a dedicated Janeite, we dare say!

Alert AustenBlog Reader Sumita sends a link to New York magazine in which Karen Rosenberg reviews Jane Austen’s Guide to Dating by Lauren Henderson.

Of course, in one sense, Austen’s novels were the chick-lit of their day, burnishing romantic alliances still driven principally by real estate, dowries, and other mundane concerns, with a veneer of epic longing. More than that, though, the recent spate of Austen adaptations lets women believe that they can have it both ways, obtaining a comfortable lifestyle as a reward for holding out for true love. “Lucky Elizabeth!” Henderson crows. “She gets both the right man for her and, as an extra, a lovely way of life!” But to reduce Austen’s works to a series of do’s and don’ts is to gloss over their fascinating triangulation of love, wealth, and status.

Perhaps, but we found that the book touched more deeply on the various love relationships than Ms. Rosenberg seemed to think.

Thanks for the link, Sumita!