The photo of our former governor with his beard and his boat and his dog and his smile and his sailing happily? The following is per an aide who sneaked these words to a friend: “He was advised to not shave for a few days. To grow a beard. Even to send out Instagram photos sailing on a boat with his dog. Why? Because stuff had been written that he hadn’t wanted the dog. So the idea being programmed is that this way he’ll look easy, friendly, likable. And less political.” An executive staffer’s still managing his press and image.
With the focal of local yokel Hochul, many already wish he were back.
So many great Shakes
We’re being Macbeth’d out. It’s Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga as Lady Macbeth coming to Broadway. It’s another “Macbeth in Stride” thing with Whitney White at American Repertory Theater. It’s Denzel Washington who knocked off “Julius Caesar” on Broadway, plus “Richard III” and just opened the New York Film Festival in yet more “Macbeth.” Age 66, among the oldest to play the tortured king, Denzel says: “This, the ultimate challenge and ultimate reward, is where I started and where I want to finish.” His Macbeth’s in black and white and to be or not to be in theaters Christmas.
Island tales
Kenneth Branagh knows Belfast.
“Belfast,” about a place and people I love, is my most personal film. The cast includes Judi Dench and Jamie Dornan. I was born there. The small boy is based on me.
“Late 1960s was tumultuous. Dramatic, violent, turmoil, fear, my family and I were caught in it. It’s taken me 50 years to find a way to write about this.
“The story percolated inside me. Not only about a small family in a stressful situation. Also about a different kind of lockdown. Barricades at the end of our street. Constraints tightening around the family. Struggling with the decision to stay or go. Confinement, concern for the safety of your family resonates with today’s pandemic.”
“Belfast” opens Nov. 12.
Getting in our last laffs
Bruce Vilanch, civilization’s best-known comedy writer, six-time Emmy winner, former joke writer for what’s left of the Oscars: “Can’t joke anymore. Today everyone’s terribly sensitive. Trigger words lead to a minefield. And whereas we could poke Donald, you can’t with multiracial first woman Kamala. And grampa Biden’s not funny. De Blasio’s not a national story. I’m Jewish and rabbis have humor, but every Catholic knows some Sister Margaret or Maryann or Linda so you can’t go there.
“During the Oscars we sat in a little TV room offstage watching to see whatever’s happening. Pros like Billy Crystal, Steve Martin could handle material we prepared. When Michael Moore won and started a speech about war and George Bush then got booed we writers went crazy screaming about what follow-up joke would be great. Right out of the commercial he calmly said: ‘Stagehands are now helping Michael Moore into the trunk of his car.’
“A pro comedian can survive. Different with a movie star presenting some award. You know these guys cannot work Carnegie Hall. They’re stiff. All they can do is eff up a great line.”
Much ado
To mask or not to mask is the question. The answer is: everybody’s out there doing . . . Marsha Mason in Neil Simon’s “Lost in Yonkers” at the Hartford Stage come April . . . For his 62nd birthday, real estate entrepreneur Marc Roberts fed 200 guests at Harriet’s at West Hollywood’s 1 Hotel.
Politician: “Evidence is against me but I have $75,000 to fight the case.” Lawyer: “With such small amount of money it is very possible you’re going to prison.”
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.