Alert Janeite Alan posted in comments for another post that Anna Maxwell Martin’s agency CV page says that she will shortly begin work on BECOMING JANE. No word on her part; Alan thinks Cassandra Austen, and we tend to agree.

Anna recently played Esther Summerson in the BBC/Masterpiece Theatre production of BLEAK HOUSE and played Bessy Higgins in NORTH AND SOUTH.

Alert Janeite Mandy wrote to tell us that Burghley House, which was the setting for Rosings Park in P&P3, will reopen in April with a special exhibition based on the film and on THE DAVINCI CODE, which also was filmed there.

Insert your own joke about blasphemy here.

The PRIDE AND PREJUDICE content will include costumes worn by Keira Knightley and Judi Dench and behind-the-scenes footage and filming information.

Alert Janeite Dianne from JASA wrote to tell us that the Region 4 DVD for PRIDE AND PREJUDICE has been released. She also passed on the following:

…the list of extras on the back cover includes something called “The Life and Times of Jane Austin”. Seriously. On the back cover of the DVD. In print. Fortunately for my poor nerves, it doesn’t appear anywhere else, and the featurette itself has the correct spelling.

*sigh* Dorothy! A strong pot of tea, directly! With a generous splash of the Tullamore Dew, if you please.

Well, the DVD cover for P2 got corrected eventually, so we’ll hold out hope for the Janeites down under!

No, AustenBloggers, it’s not a modern-set fan fiction; it’s real life!

The Northanger Film Company is currently shooting an independent science fiction film called ZORG AND ANDY on location in Indiana.

Wilkens plays Colette in Zorg and Andy, a feature filmed at Wabash College last week. Colette is the leader of a cult of economics professors who want to achieve tenure through the power of a sandstone idol named Zorg.

No, it’s the Cult of Da Man. DA MAN! DA MAAAAAAN!!!!

Northanger, named after Jane Austen’s novel Northanger Abbey, has been in business for a year.

This makes us so happy, you have no idea.

An article about old paperbacks falling apart, as is their wont, contained the following gem:

In the late 1970s, I worked as a curatorial assistant at the Pierpont Morgan Library, and on the shelves behind my desk stood books that were hundreds of years old - their paper crisp and white, the ink still precise. Jane Austen’s autograph letters to her sister, Cassandra, were not quite as fresh as the day they were written, perhaps, but even they were fresh enough to last another few centuries. The point of publishing was more than simply to emit a book; it was to give a text a kind of permanence.

We like our Oxford Illustrated Editions of Jane Austen’s novels because they are quite solid. It’s always interesting to attend meetings of our Jane Austen book group (the Chawton Regulars) and seeing long-time Austen readers with Oxford editions much older than our own, still very much readable and in great shape. We also have an assortment of paperbacks for lending purposes and one that we bought because the cover made us laugh, as well as NA in italiano. Alas, we cannot bring ourselves to write in our books.

What edition of Jane Austen do you have? If more than one, what is your favorite?

AN IMPROBABLE PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, an updated version of P&P as a play-within-a-play, is being staged in Wichita, Kansas through March 20.

Maynard turned the willful Miss Elizabeth Bennet into Beth (played by Anna Kraus), an actress-turned-playwright who has adapted Austen’s “Pride & Prejudice” for the stage.

The mysterious and brooding Mr. Darcy is now Farley Williams (Kenton Beattie) –a play on Darcy’s first name, FitzWilliam — who is brought in as the dashing director of Beth’s play.

Their witty battles are now over artistic differences toward the play rather than class differences toward romance.

As always, if you go we’d love to read your comments.

The Huntsville-Madison County (Alabama) Library is having a Jane Austen Film Festival, including showings of the latest PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, PERSUASION and SENSE AND SENSIBILITY. All film showings are free. (What, no EMMA?)

From the Too Cute Not To Share Desk: A young couple was inspired by a quote from Emma to throw an impromptu wedding in Texas.

For years, Barbara Dike has kept a Jane Austen quote magnetically pinned to her refrigerator. “Why not seize the pleasure at once? How often is happiness destroyed by . . . foolish preparation?” it reads.

Her daughter, Ashley Dike, a Westcliff Elementary teacher, took that saying to heart on Saturday when she wed Jason Bagaz, son of Dagmar and Paul Bagaz Jr.

Ashley’s cousin, Susanne Dike Dial, and her husband, Jason Dial, had already planned an engagement party for the pair, but when preparations for a June wedding in Mexico hit a snag, the happy couple decided to seize the moment.

As Ashley’s father, David Dike, offered a toast, Ashley changed from jeans to a wedding dress. “Friends and family are so important,” he said. “We’re all together now — and we’re going to have a wedding!”

Surprised guests formed an aisle and the bride, in a simple, long white halter-style gown, and the groom, in a suit and tie, exchanged vows.

Ashley and Jason took Monday off, and they plan a summer honeymoon.

Awwww!