Alert Janeite Joan Ellen wrote to tell us about a book deal she saw in Publisher’s Lunch (to which we subscribe, so we are ashamed to say we missed it):

Actress Emma Campbell Webster’s LOST IN AUSTEN: A Make Your Own Jane Austen Adventure, to Sarah McGrath at Riverhead, by Zoe Pagnamenta at PFD New York, in a pre-empt, for publication in early 2008, on behalf of Sam Copeland at the Robinson Agency (NA)

We have no idea what it is about, but it sounds rather intriguing. We won’t see it for a while yet, though.

Either that or there’s a lack of reading comprehension in the non-Janeite world.

I just read a hilarious blog for Jane Austenites…

Gee, thanks! But mostly we just use “Janeites.”

…who are all of a quiver because Davies is working on a new adaptation of Sense and Sensibility. There’s a juicy bit of back-story in the novel, with Willoughby getting it on with a teenager, and posters are getting nervous that Davies will seize on this and upset their ‘sensibilities’.

We are all astonishment that the author of the piece can borrow our language verbatim (and she might want to Google “Kaavya Viswanathan” on that subject–just saying) but still fail to comprehend the basic point of our post on the subject, to wit:

We are of the opinion that such “explorations” belong more properly to the realm of fan fiction and scholarly papers than to film adaptations, which tend to leave out important stuff in favor of this sort of useless crap anyway. Jane Austen most likely made it backstory for a reason.

Once again: we are not concerned about our “sensibilities.” We are concerned that important elements of the story will be excised in favor of unnecessary content. There, we think even Mr. Elliot would agree that we’ve expressed ourself in “clear, comprehensible, elegant English.”

New York Magazine has an article about Anne Hathaway, who is doing publicity for THE DEVIL WORE PRADA, so we dare say we’ll be seeing a lot of her the next few weeks. The only item of interest to our Gentle Readers is that filming on BECOMING JANE has wrapped. We also were intrigued by the following tidbit:

And she’s just wrapped the lead role of Jane Austen in Becoming Jane, a Miramax period piece about the young Austen’s romance with the feckless law student Tom Lefroy, which has breakout potential.

Ah, yes, “breakout potential.” That’s why they cast the flavor of the month in these snooty costume flicks, isn’t it? So that they can be Taken Seriously For Their Art? But really we were intrigued by the adjective that we bolded describing Tom Lefroy: feckless.

feck·less
adj.

1. Lacking purpose or vitality; feeble or ineffective.
2. Careless and irresponsible.

Is this a new meme? In practically all the press to date, Tom Lefroy has been described as “a roguish Irishman.” That’s a far cry from feckless. There, chew on that for a while.

Also, at pain of distressing the Hathaway groupies that insist on hanging around here and making nuisances of themselves, we draw your attention to a comment in another post, because it amused us and because it is actually somewhat germane to the topic.

Anne Hathaway is a very nice girl–and perhaps, on occasion, a good actress, though I don’t see it–but I have grave misgivings about her playing Jane Austen, and really, the film “Becoming Jane” as a whole. This isn’t so much on account of that exercise in futility, the Knightley version of “Pride and Prejudice,” or even Hollywood’s penchant for the maudlin (though both certainly play some part), but rather because I saw Hathaway, in a little known Milne adaptation of Pride and Prejudice,” assume the mantle of Elizabeth Bennet and she was dreadful. The show itself wasn’t great, mind you, but her performance I found particularly bad. I am no actor myself–and certainly no expert on dramatic craft–but I do know Lizzie, and that was not her!

I will say one specific thing about the acting, however: even to a layman such as myself, it was clear she hadn’t mastered the basic elements of her craft–namely, elocution, projection, enunciation. Three quarters of the way through what proved to be a long show, an audience member from the front row, with typical New York aggravation, shouted: “Speak up already.” He was not alone in his displeasure either; several people complained during intermission.

For the record (please pay attention, O Lurking Media): our concern about the film still lies with the concept in general and the refusal of the producers to publicly admit that it is a Made Up Story in particular. Failure to comprehend this simple fact will earn one a forcible introduction to the Cluebat of Janeite Righteousness. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.