Alert Janeite Deborah wrote to tell us that Maureen Dowd’s column in the New York Times today included a reference to Jane Austen. The column is not available online for free but Deborah helpfully sent the money quote.

In discussing Shonda Rhimes, the creator of the TV show “Grey’s Anatomy,” Dowd writes:

“She resisted pressure to make the women nicer, she told Nikki Finke for Elle Magazine. And she told Time that she wanted to write about real women who are ‘a little snarky’ and don’t ‘exist purely in relation to the men in their lives.’ With the male characters, she followed Jane Austen’s lead and conjured up her fantasy men.”

While we can enthusiastically get behind the concept of snarky women, we would hope that Jane Austen’s heroes are more than just vague fantasy figures. In our opinion, the heroes (not the bad boys!) are the kind of men that women should aspire to meet: kind, generous, intelligent, confident, loving men who treat the women they love with respect. We are not so lost to cynicism as to think that such men exist only in fantasies.

Attention Janeites in the Dublin area: Here’s your chance to experience the Made Up Story up close and personal!

THE producers of ‘Becoming Jane’, filming in Trim and Dublin, are looking for extras for their Jane Austen period drama. The feature is directed by ‘Kinky Boots’ director Julian Jarrold and stars Anne Hathaway as a young Jane Austen. Filming is taking place around Dublin with transport provided from the city centre.

Contact Laura or Martina on 086 3870210 immediately if you are interested.

If you get in, don’t forget to share the backstage news with your pals at AustenBlog! Can we manage a Screenplay Exchange Program, do you think? No?

And parenthetically, from the rest of the article it looks like our Brontëblogging friends will be sharing our pain shortly…Michelle Williams as Charlotte Brontë?

F.O.J. Nancy Pearl reviews Michael Dirda’s Book by Book for the Washington Post, and points out that he gives suggestions for a well-stocked guest room library:

One section is, as they say, particularly worth the price of admission: “The Guest-Room Library.” Dirda recommends some general categories of books for the ideal guest bedroom — in addition to a Bible, the collected works of Shakespeare, a novel or two by Jane Austen and a recent edition of Leonard Maltin’s guide to movies — including mysteries, humor, biography, poetry, children’s classics, philosophy, reference and journals and diaries.

We would certainly feel at home in such a guest room!

The title says it all…if you want to see it, make haste!

I Love You Because, directed by Daniel Kutner, opened off-Broadway on February 14 to mixed reviews. In his Broadway.com Review of the play, William Stevenson wrote: “Ryan Cunningham’s book and lyrics aren’t nearly clever enough to be mentioned in the same breath as Jane Austen’s sparkling prose (or even the recent film adaptation). If one forgets about the allusions to the book, however, the show does boast several cute songs… If the semi-sweet, semi-silly show does prove to be a hit, perhaps the creative team will lower the volume a little. And while they’re making improvements, they might consider excising all the Jane Austen references. As it is, they just make this upbeat little musical look dumb.”

Ouch!

The Ottawa Citizen reports:

Pride and Prejudice it is. The Ottawa Public Library’s contest to find Ottawa’s favourite book has crowned the Jane Austen classic the winner.

If you’re not a subscriber, don’t bother clicking the link; there’s nothing else to read. But it’s still very exciting news!

Dorothy has been carrying gossip again. Normally we would not lower ourself to listen or to pass it on, but as it is rather juicy we could not keep silent.

We have heard a rumor that BECOMING JANE will be released to theatres in the spring or summer of 2007. We have received no official confirmation of this whatsoever; it is firmly in the area of RUMOR at this point. Please keep that in mind.

That being said, our authority is quite good. But then so was Aunt Gardiner’s when she thought Mrs. Reynolds was slandering Wickham.

The winners will be announced after we receive the go-ahead from our sponsor, Vivavocebooks.com.

Nobody got all five answers right…though we think perhaps that was because we were not completely clear in our questions. Here are the answers:

1. Mr. Collins

2. (little more than) 16

3. (to her uncle’s in) Liverpool

4. This is one that was a problem. It’s not mentioned in the book, but in James Edward Austen-Leigh’s Memoir of his aunt, Jane Austen, he says:

She would, if asked, tell us many little particulars about the subsequent career of some other people. In this traditionary way we learned that Miss Steele never succeeded in catching the Doctor; that Kitty Bennet was satisfactorily married to a clergyman near Pemberley, while Mary obtained nothing higher than one of her uncle Philip’s clerks, and was content to be considered a star in the society of Meriton; that the ‘considerable sum’ given by Mrs Norris to William Price was one pound; that Mr Woodhouse survived his daughter’s marriage, and kept her and Mr Knightley from settling at Donwell, about two years; and that the letters placed by Frank Churchill before Jane Fairfax, which she swept away unread, contained the word ‘pardon’. Of the good people in Northanger Abbey and Persuasion we know nothing more than what is written: for before those works were published their author had been taken away from us, and all such amusing communications had ceased for ever.

5. Most respondents said “The Bible,” which is correct, though what we had in mind was the Solemnization of Marriage from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer.

Thy wife shall be as the fruitful vine: upon the walls of thine house;
Thy children like the olive-branches: round about thy table.

However, since it’s taken from Psalm 128, of course it’s in the Bible. We won’t be picky about it. Though a few people did mention that the olive-branch was meant as a sign of fruitfulness, which is closer to what we were thinking.

Because of the confusion, everyone who sent in a response had a chance to win. Winners will be notified within the next couple of days. Thanks to everyone for playing, this was fun! We have to do this sort of thing more often.