We received a press release from Theater Ten Ten in New York City about their upcoming stage production of NORTHANGER ABBEY, which will run from October 20 through November 19, 2006. (more…)

Alert Janeites Bobbie and Caroline wrote to tell us about the latest column from Dear Margo, in which a lovelorn swain asks for advice because he has a crush on another woman and his wife is jealous. The other woman is…Jane Austen. (more…)

Our Gentle Readers will no doubt forgive us as we do the Superior Dance. Hit it, Dorothy!

Anne Hathaway is interviewed in the Times in reference to THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA and talks a little about BECOMING JANE.

Hathaway seems to have things mapped out. In her next outing, Becoming Jane, she will be pursuing the well-worn route to big-league affirmation by playing English, as none other than Jane Austen. In this UK Film Council romp,

Romp?

shot in Ireland, she stars as the young author opposite James McAvoy’s Irish lawyer, Tom Lefroy — their doomed affair purportedly launching Austen on her literary trajectory.

“Purportedly,” indeed.

A sort of Shakespeare in Love take on proceedings, Hathaway says.

Not at all. As we’ve explained before, if it was a SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE-type film, then the indications that it was a Made Up Story would be honestly telegraphed early on. In that film, William Shakespeare drinks out of a mug that says “Souvenir of Stratford-upon-Avon,” which indicates to the audience “we’re having a little fun with Will here.” If Jane drinks out of a teacup labeled “Souvenir of Hampshire, Jane Austen Country!” or some similar metaphorical wink at the audience is employed, not only would we would be thoroughly delighted, but the comparison would then be valid. Until then, it’s just a Made Up Story.

Here’s where things get tricky, for the “Austenites”, as she calls them,

We prefer Janeites, dear. Probably not a bad idea to learn this now.

are already mobilising, crying excessive artistic licence. “We don’t have documented evidence.

HA!

What we do have is the letters and hearsay, and probably, on our behalf, some invention.

HA HA!!!!

A few things are out of sequence.

A few things are MADE UP!

But everything that we see between Jane and Tom could possibly have happened.”

And this blog could possibly win the Pulitzer Prize, and the Editrix could possibly become Queen of all the Russias.

The International edition of Newsweek also mentions BECOMING JANE in an article about the recent spate of biopics coming out of Hollywood.

And what about Jane Austen, the original doyenne of chick lit?

Grrrrrr….

Maybe a sprightly, well-connected singleton working the room and trading gossip at a lavish dinner party?

Yeah. Sure. Whatever. (Not!)

Adrien Brody, who plays the Spanish bullfighter Manolete in a forthcoming film, says he wondered how audiences would react to his depiction of such a beloved icon, whom he strongly resembles. So far, they seem pleased.

We swoon, off-topically.

We heard from Marta Acosta, the author of Happy Hour at Casa Dracula. Marta wrote that her book

mentions Pride & Prejudice in the first pages as the protagonist, Milagro De Los Santos, longs for “an Eliza Bennettish existence: a house filled with family and friends, the agreeable conversation of a kind and compassionate sister, and the promise of dances and engagements.”

This is a comedy of manners with a paranormal element. Also featured are other elements that Austen fans will recognize, such as the charming brother and sister who come to a country house and wreck havoc.

Reading the description of the book on Marta’s Web site, we were amused by this bit:

Then one night, at a book party for her pretentious ex-boyfriend, she meets an oddly attractive man. After she is bitten while kissing him, she falls ill and is squirreled away to his family’s estate to recover.

The idea of Mr. Darcy as a vampire delights us to no end, though we are not sure that the plot of the book exactly echoes that of P&P.

(And yes, we are keeping very weird hours again. Normalcy SHOULD return in a week or so. Yeah, right.)