Hot Stuff

I stood amazed, mouth agape in front of the magazine stand. Romancing the Tome muse Ioan Gruffudd stared back from the cover of the San Francisco glossy 7x7. (Already a favorite mag because when The May Queen launched last March, it made their Hot List.) The article's title and subhead prove that 7x7 totally gets him, proclaiming "Earnest Goes to Hollywood: Actor Ioan Gruffudd proves that, sometimes, a good guy isn't hard to find." You can read the entire article with Ioan and see more yummy pix from the photo shoot here. --Kim

As Clueless As They Want to Be

I try to avoid reading Gawker these days because it just depresses me (and sometimes starts an inner snarky dialogue that I don't want or need), but every once in a while I'm tempted to sneak a peek. Apparently they were tired of trashing the usual suspects and innocent bystanders (or yesterday was a slow "news" day) because I saw this: They've gone all Caroline Bingley on Jane Austen. And so has The New York Times, sort of. Admittedly Gawker's post is merely tongue in cheek and I agree with them, "whoever was in possession of the responsibility for putting this [NYT] section together must be in want of a clue."--Kim

For Love Or Money?

The Guardian has an interesting column on Austen adaptations, including a beef that not enough attention is paid to characters' economic woes. Point taken, but why no mention of the recent version of P&P (starring Keira Knightley), which very much addressed the money concerns of Austen's characters? With a pig waltzing through the Bennet house, I hardly think it was a rose-colored depiction. -- Amy

Her Royal Highness

Devil Wears Prada star Emily Blunt is on board to play a young Queen Victoria in a film aptly titled, The Young Victoria. Gosford Park scribe Julian Fellowes will be responsible for the screenplay which will chronicle the young royal's rise to power, the early turbulent years of her reign and her marriage to Prince Albert, reports Dark Horizons. No studio is yet attached to the project, but given the critical success of last year's The Queen, I'm sure someone will jump on it. Monarchy, it would seem, is cool again. -- Amy

Literary Adaption Conference

The University of Pittsburgh is hosting a conference on literary adaptations. While the likes of Patrick McCabe, author of The Butcher Boy and Breakfast on Pluto, will be speaking, we have yet to receive our invitation. I'm sure it's in the mail. More info here. --Kim

So Much For Sebastian

Thanks to a tip from an anonymous poster, we've heard that the 2008 version of Brideshead Revisited won't focus on poor little booze-swilling, teddy-bear-lovin' rich boy, Sebastian Flyte, and will instead deal more with the relationship between Sebastian's sister, Julia and his college pal, Charles Ryder. I never read the book, so maybe I'm totally wrong, but I thought Sebastian (played by Anthony Andrews in the 1981 version) was actually the only semi-interesting character in that story! I'll hold my peace, since Andrew Davies is responsible for the screenplay, and I pretty much love everything that comes out of his genius head. By the way, it now appears that Matthew Goode and Ben Whishaw will play Charles and Sebastian (not Paul Bettany and Jude Law, as had been once widely reported. No offense to Matthew or Ben, but talk about your downgrade!) -- Amy

Joads With "Jazz Hands?"

I'm finally getting around to reading John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and just found out there's a new musical adaption that's eventually supposed to make its way to Los Angeles. (Okay, it's an opera, technically, but "musical" made my headline work better.) Based on this review from The New York Times, I'm not sure I need to check it out. Considering I've yet to watch the classic Henry Fonda film, maybe I'll stick with that. Why I'm so behind on the Steinbeck curve (I only just read and watched East of Eden last year) is beyond me. But I'm glad I started. I'm having all kinds of "Ohhhh — this is why everyone calls it a classic" moments. -- Amy