The Decade from Hell

Analysis of the Noughties from Time magazine...

Meryl on VF cover

Oh I shall be purchasing extra fast this month! Read preview here

For your consideration

If you're a movie award nerd like me, then this guide to all the Oscar pre-cursors will be invaluable.

The real master of your remote control

My interview with Ben Frow, head of programming at TV3, in Weekend magazine in today's Independent

Ben Frow has been sweating buckets all week. That's the reason he is ignoring the plate of biscuits that arrive with our pot of tea in Dublin's Shelbourne Hotel.

"I'm on a diet," he explains, with a smile. "I hate gyms, so I've started going to Bikram Yoga twice a week. I pose for 90 sweaty minutes in sweltering heat and that's my workout."

Right now, the British-born dressmaker-cum-TV executive has very little to sweat over in his capacity as director of programming at TV3. Just days before sitting down with Weekend, the news emerged that TV3's version of The Apprentice, starring Bill Cullen, had overtaken RTE's Nine O'Clock News in the ratings with almost 500,000 viewers, while the show's spin-off, You're Fired, hosted by Brendan O'Connor, was just 20,000 viewers off trumping its chief competitor, The Frontline with Pat Kenny.

Continue here.

We need a national exorcism

Another week, another utterly devastating report into the rape, sexual, physical and emotional abuse of children at the hands of the Catholic Church. What is there left to say, other than it is nothing short of insane that this country allows a depraved, immoral, criminal and inveterately evil institution as the Catholic Church to retain any influence at all in our society, much less in our health and education systems.

The Catholic Church will no doubt keep going, much like the mafia and other criminal organisations do, so perhaps the best we can hope for in this sick little country of ours is for total separation of Church and State, along the lines of the French model: no religious involvement in hospitals; certainly no involvement in schools which should all be under the auspices of the State and follow a strictly non-denominational line; no Angelus on RTE.

Everything and anything that gives any special preference or power to the Catholic Church needs to be stripped away immediately. If that involves drafting a new Constitution - which I think we need anyway - to totally re-model this country free from such a twisted dogma, then so be it. In short, and without meaning to sound any way facetious, we need a national exorcism to rid us of this devil.

Amidst all the coverage of this appalling national tragedy, two articles, for me, get to the heart of the matter: they are by the peerless Mary Raftery in yesterday's Irish Times, and Fintan O'Toole in today's Times.

Will to win

Interview with Will Young in Day and Night in the Irish Independent today

Will Young's rider has just arrived. It's a trolley brimming over with bottles of vodka, sachets of suspicious white powder, and DVDs of hardcore eastern European pornography.

I'm joking, of course. Nothing could be further from the public image of William Robert Young. He's the nice guy of pop: level-headed, sane, self-aware. The aforementioned rider is actually stocked with bottles of water, Coke (as in Coca-Cola), a variety of teas, honey and a heady stash of lemon and fresh ginger.

Continue here.

Plus my Nightwatch column from today's magazine

It could happen...

The year's best comedy, The Hangover, is a strong contender for an Oscar nomination in next year's expanded-t0-10-slots Best Picture race.

Brought to book

The books of the decade according to the Times of London...how many have you read?(I've read 11 - how intellectual am I??)

100 The Position by Meg Wolitzer (2005) An hilarious, serious novel about sex and love and family. Paul and Roz Mellow publish Pleasuring (think of The Joy of Sex) in 1975 — it’s a bestseller, but what do you think their four children make of this?

99 The Lost Leader by Mick Imlah (2008)

In his first collection for almost two decades, Mick Imlah takes up the challenge to forge poetry from the folk legends of his Scottish past.

98 Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie(2007)

The Biafran War of the late 1960s is seen through the eyes of Ugwu, a 13-year-old peasant houseboy, and the beautiful, passionate twin sisters Olanna and Kainene. This stunning piece of writing won the 2007 Orange Prize.

97 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (2007)

Oscar is a sweet, fat nerd, who lives in New Jersey with his Dominican family and dreams of being the next Tolkien and finding true love; a funny, charming and totally original take on the US immigrant experience.

96 The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda's Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright (2006)

Western writers’ responses to the most important international event of the Noughties were hindered by a shortage of insight and authority. But Wright brings both qualities to this powerful and compelling account of the prelude to 9/11.

Continue here...

The Black Narrative...

Precious continues to be the most talked-about movie of this award year so far. Latest debate in The New York Times...

Obamafest

It's almost three years on since he announced his candidacy, and one year since the election, but I can't get enough of the O Man.

Therefore, right now I'm reading The Audacity to Win, campaign manager David Plouffe's insider account of the 2008 election, and have just "acquired" the HBO documentary By the People: The Election of Barack Obama. Fired up, ready to go!

Leveraging Brand Obama

Obama's coattails: Good analysis from the New York Times magazine

All the president's secret peccadillos

From today's Independent...

Number 35 liked frolicking with female staffers in the pool, while number 36 often chose to walk around naked in front of his family. Later on, number 39 was a skinflint poser, while number 44 still likes to secretly smoke cigarettes behind his wife's back.

The numbered titles refer to recent US presidents, whose private behavioural peculiarities have just been served up to the public in a book called In the Presidents Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect.

Continue here.

"Sarah Palin insults all women in politics"

Feminist writer Jessica Valenti eviscerates Sarah Palin in this piece from today's Guardian

The Hand of Gaul

Good coverage in today's Guardian of the ongoing sporting - and, now, diplomatic - crisis arising from the Irish-French match on Wednesday night.

Ireland's Top Bird

Interview with Dustin the Turkey published in this Friday's Irish Examiner...

He has spent 20 years as Ireland’s top TV bird, scoring No 1 singles, running for president, and mercilessly roasting his star colleagues along the way. As Dustin the Turkey looks back on two plucky decades in showbiz, he seems as determined as ever to keep ruffling feathers in the small world of Irish celebrity.

Case in point: “I was in RTE the other day and I saw something that read, ‘Celebrating 20 Years of Comedy’,” he says. “I thought it was about me. Turns out it was about Fair City.”

So what is the secret of Dustin’s success and longevity in the business? “Everyone always said it was

me good looks, and I have to agree,” he states. “It’s a bit like Sharon Ni Bheolain and Amanda Byram: they’re bimbos, and they don’t have a brain in their heads, but at least they’re a bit of eye candy.”

Statements like that come thick and fast in a conversation with Dustin, so one can only assume that his poor manager, Darren Smith, has to spend many hours apologising and smoothing things out with offended celebs behind the scenes? “Oddly some people tend to get more upset if he doesn’t have a go at them,” Smith explains. “Bob Geldof actually sent back the first recording of their duet ‘Rat Trap’ because he didn’t feel Dustin was slagging him enough. Dustin was then only too happy to oblige.”

Be that as it may, Dustin must have made at least a few enemies over the years? “Well, there’s yer man Twink, and Anne Doyle, who I’m genuinely quite scared of,” Dustin admits. “Obviously there’s The Plank [Pat Kenny], and as for The Twig [Ryan Tubridy]: he’s a human bookmark with feet. If the camera adds ten pounds, does Tubridy actually exist?”

So is it safe to say that Dustin won’t be appearing on Tubridy’s inaugural Late Late Toy Show Friday week? “Well, The Plank never wanted me on,” Dustin states. “Gay Byrne, God rest his soul, always turned a blind eye when I showed up. I don’t get on with Tubridy, but I’d like to show up to wish all the boys and girls a happy Christmas.”

Dustin’s time in the spotlight has also coincided with the careers of other ‘animated’ stars, such as Wallace and Gromit in the UK (also celebrating their 20^th anniversary this year), and, of course, our own Zig and Zag, and Podge and Rodge.

“You know, I’m happy for Podge and Rodge’s success, but they were only ever riding on my coattails,” he states. “I still see Zig and Zag a bit, but I can’t understand their English accents. They’re Brits. They sold out on the Irish people. They came to our planet from Zog, which is a place without any humour - kind of like Carlow. The Irish people embraced them, and they betrayed us by fobbing off to Channel 4.”

That hasn’t stopped Dustin from doing some work in the UK himself. “I did a few episodes of The Xtra Factor recently,” he admits. “What can I say? Holly Willoughby was all over me.”

No matter how big his success, Dustin never forgot his human comrades either. “Me old bud Eoin Dempsey was my favourite,” he reminisces. “I’ll never forget that Eoin Dempsey. He has his own radio show now, which is brutal, but fair play to him.

“[Ray] D’Arcy stitched me up though. We planned on forming a boy band. Now, the hardest thing D’Arcy ever had to do was to pick which sister to take to the debs, him being from Kildare and all. He said he’d take me RTE payments to get the band off the ground, but he just knicked me money and left RTE. I don’t talk to him anymore.”

Dustin’s interests have extended beyond pop culture too: he contested the 1997 presidential election, but he isn’t sure if he’ll bother running again. “The problem is, I don’t know how much more money there is left to be ripped off,” he says. “Is it worth me while? There aren’t that many brown envelopes going around anymore.”

Of course, Dustin has also had an illustrious pop career: six No 1 singles, six albums, and duets with the likes of Ronnie Drew, Joe Dolan, Chris De Burgh and Bob Geldof, not to mention, his (in)famous, and ultimately failed, entry for the 2008 Eurovision, ‘Irlande Douze Points’. He has seen off many pop contemporaries, and he knows exactly why. “I open my beak and a magical sound comes out. It’s unique. It’s like when people say Ronan Keating can’t sing. They’re right, but it’s still a unique voice, ya know what I mean?”

*Dustin - Twenty Years a-Pluckin’ is out now on DVD.

Top of the world

Irish-born New York-based author Colum McCann has won the National Book Award in the US for his latest, Let The Great World Spin. Previous winners of the award include Philip Roth, Cormac McCarthy, Jonathan Franzen, Susan Sontag, and John Updike. It's a very big deal for Colum: next stop the Pulitzer?

What a Leap of shit!

Sweet Lord. Has anyone associated with this movie actually ever been to Ireland?!

Top of the Docs

Another 'of the decade' list. This time it's documentaries.

For my money, the two best documentaries of the decade are James Marsh's spellbinding Man on Wire and Charles Ferguson's devastating, infuriating No End in Sight.

The Dutch and same-sex marriage

The effect that same-sex marriage has had in the Netherlands - from the New York Times.

A companion piece to the same writer's earlier article on gay parenting.

Jed a little off the top part 2

Jedhead, courtesy of my housemate and FotoShop-obsessed pal Jonathan.

Jed a little off the top

The Mirror gives the Jedward look to the judges, amongst others.

Best movies of the Noughties...

...according to the London Times. Click here.

Jed We Can

Week 5 of The X Factor live shows, and the John and Edward - Jedward - phenomenon continues apace. The savvy Simon Cowell decided to save the boys tonight, in his first real public acknowledgment that this year's show would be a boring bust without them.

The twins continue to divide the public, and there are two things worth considering about 'Grimes Time TV', as the tabloids dubbed it this weekend:

1) Simon and Dannii's contention that the boys' success makes a mockery of the show because it's a "singing contest". Hmm, really? Look back at the VT footage on last night's show of all the finalists doing the red carpet at that shamelessly plugged movie premiere that doesn't need any more free publicity. In their interviews, every single one of the contestants - without fail - commented on how amazing it was to be mobbed by fans and paps, and basically how desperately they all wanted to be famous celebrities. None of them said they want to be singers. The whole point of this show is about becoming famous. Musical talent or ability doesn't even seem to be on their own minds.

And on that, ahem, note, was Leon Jackson a much better singer than the boys?

2) This year's X Factor is kind of like a real life - correction: reality TV - version of the movie (and stage musical) The Producers, about two shysters' attempts to produce the worst Broadway show ever made in order to make off with the investment money. The show, Springtime for Hitler, somehow, ends up striking a chord with the audience and it becomes a huge success. The lesson from that movie: there really is no accounting for the tastes of the public. The Grimes Twins are living proof of that.

Jedward to win...just to see what will happen.

Chewing the fat with Chiwetel

My interview with Chiwetel Ejiofor in yesterday's Irish Examiner.

Let’s start with the name: Chiwetel Ejiofor. Doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, does it? “It’s pronounced ‘Chew-it-tell Edge-oh-for’,” he explains patiently with a smile, while stirring a cup of coffee in London’s Soho Hotel. Friends can call him ‘Chewy’, and his first name actually means ‘God brings' in Igbo, the native tongue of his Nigerian parents.

Still, I wonder if some agent ever suggested to him about adopting a more marquee-friendly stage moniker? “You know, I never thought I’d be a film actor; I always thought I’d be working in theatre,” he replies. “So by the time I started acting in movies, it was too late to change, because nobody would then know about the theatre work I’d done.”

The 32-year-old Londoner is right to protect his theatre credentials, for his past performances in productions of Romeo and Juliet, Blue/Orange and in the title role of Othello have helped to establish Ejiofor as one of the UK’s brightest and most in-demand stars of stage and screen (his Othello won him an Olivier Award, and was hailed as by critics as “the best Othello for generations", and a performance that would "transform the history of the play”).

One might ask then what Ejiofor is doing in 2012, the new mega-budget, special effects-laden extravaganza from director Roland Emmerich, helmer of such disaster flicks as Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow? In 2012, Ejiofor stars as Adrian Helmsley, a scientific advisor to the US president (played by Danny Glover), who discovers a geological cataclysm (predicted by the ancient Mayan calendar, apparently) that causes the Earth’s crust to collapse, ushering on the end of the world as we know it.

The standard race for survival begins, as Ejiofor, along with John Cusack, Woody Harrelson, Amanda Peet and the by-now permanently scowling Thandie Newton make their way towards a purpose-built rescue-spaceship as entire cities slide into the sea behind them.

Anyone who has seen the trailer for 2012 will have soon sense of the movie’s scale, but, to give Emmerich credit, it manages to be even more vertiginously spectacular to watch than anyone expected (it could be summed up as Apocalypse Wow or Independence Day After Tomorrow). Indeed, even an executive from Sony, the movie’s backer, has been quoted as saying that 2012 turned out so much better than the trailer had indicated.

So what is Chiwetel Ejiofor - OBE, no less - doing acting alongside blue screens, and delivering lines like, ‘Mr President, we have to evacuate the planet?’

“Man, if the planet’s in danger, sometimes you have to say a line like that,” he answers with a laugh.

“But what I like about this film is that the set-up is so strong. Plus there’s also a resonance with the way things are now. I mean, there’s a real understanding in our consciousness about the fragility of the planet, so it’s not like it’s that fantastical.”

Ejiofor doesn’t seem to be a snob about this type of explosion-packed blockbuster, and in fact argues that the likes of 2012 are works of art in their own right. “Everyone talks about what the real process of storytelling should be,” he says. “The argument goes that real film-making is about getting an audience to think very deep about certain things, but I think the real essence of film-making, and I see it in Roland’s work, is an absolute passion to give an audience a rich experience in the cinema.

“Roland is to the forefront of using the technology this way. I really like his films because, even though they cost so much money, they’re not commercial for the sake of commerciality. He isn’t cynical about how he approaches and makes these movies, and so I had no trouble signing up for it.”

It’s clear from talking to Ejiofor for even just a short while that he is a thoughtful and often self-effacing actor. Decked out in a black suit with open-necked shirt, he is impeccably groomed, and speaks in a collected, methodical manner. He takes his work very seriously, and indeed is taking full advantage of the industry buzz that has surrounded him for the past few years: he’s starred in almost a dozen movies since 2005, and there’s another five due over the next two years (including Salt opposite Angelina Jolie).

Ejiofor was born in London in 1977 to Nigerian parents. His father was a doctor, who also played music in a band, while his mother worked as a pharmacist. When Ejiofor was aged 11, the family visited Nigeria for a wedding. On the journey back to Lagos, the car carrying Ejiofor and his father was involved in a head-on collision. His dad was killed instantly; Ejiofor was in hospital for a month with broken arms and wrists (and still bears a small scar on his forehead).

He has always been reluctant to attribute any serious life lessons to the tragedy, and has reluctantly spoken about it in the past. These days, however, he politely draws a veil around his family history, and his private life in general.

“I don’t regret talking about what happened to my father,” he says. “I wanted to talk about it, because people were piecing parts of the story together. But it’s an indication of how talking about private matters can spiral out of control and suddenly it becomes common fodder. That’s slightly weird if it’s something personal and hurtful. My personal life isn’t copy, it’s not entertainment. There have always been certain actors where I didn’t care what was going on with them. I just love watching their movies. I think it’s good if people can come to an actor and his work with a blank canvass.”

Having started out in youth theatre, Ejiofor made his professional stage debut at age 18 in the role of Othello. This led to a small part in Steven Spielberg’s historical epic Amistad (1997), followed by more acclaimed stage work in the UK. In 2002, Ejiofor really grabbed the industry’s attention with the central role in Stephen Frears’ gritty immigrant drama Dirty Pretty Things, and parts soon followed in Hollywood movies like Love Actually, Serenity, Children of Men and Kinky Boots (for which he received a Golden Globe nomination).

Most recently, he starred opposite Denzel Washington twice in American Gangster and Inside Man, as well as playing Thabo Mbeki in the mini-series Endgame. Somewhat inevitably, Ejiofor has been crowned as the ‘best British black actor of his generation’. I ask if that tag drives him crazy?

He smiles and replies: “It’s funny, that title has disappeared recently. It could be because people are a little more sensitive about it. They’re like, ‘We don’t have to mention that he’s black every time we talk about him. He knows!’

“Or it could be that people don’t care as much, or that it doesn’t mean as much anymore. What does that title even mean anyway? People go to watch a movie because they’re interested in the actors and the story, and not all that other stuff. At the moment, there seems to be movement towards a place where people are more inclusive, and are capable of not worrying about what race someone is, but focusing more on what they do and who they are.”

*2012 is released nationwide on November 13.

Jedward and what they say about us. And politics. And bankers'n'stuff

The intellectuals are now weighing in on the Jedward phenomenon in this year's X Factor:

Fintan O'Toole in Tuesday's Irish Times...

Mark Lawson in The Guardian...

La Streep

She is 60 years of age. 60! J'adore

Precious reaction

Precious (Based on the novel Push by Sapphire) opens in the US tomorrow. There have been one or two mixed reviews, but overall critics are raving about the movie. I'm reading the book at the moment - it's pretty grim, very modern day Colour Purple-esque stuff - but I'm expecting a big emotional, triumph-over-adversity payoff in both book and movie. By all accounts, the performances are amazing: newcomer Gabourney Sidibe is said to deliver a star-making turn, with strong support from Paula Patton and even, heaven help us, Mariah Carey, who might - just might - also find herself in awards contention.


Meanwhile comedienne Mo'Nique is almost a lock to win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

To quote one critic on the performance:

"...But, it is the acting from Baltimore native Mo'Nique that will annihilate every viewer of Precious. Mo’Nique performed like it was the last second of her life as Precious’ mother, Mary. Not a trace of Mo’Nique, the “skinny bitches are evil” diva was on the screen. She was revolting, terrifying and absolutely grueling. [Director Lee] Daniels, who is known to grind audiences with uncomfortable but important scenes (think the graphic sex scene in Monster’s Ball), let Mo’Nique go further than probably any director would let her go. Mo’Nique was a life force on celluloid. Even if Bette Davis, Joan Crawford and Katherine Hepburn all came back from the dead — they could not pull that Oscar out of Mo’Nique’s hands."

Planet Cork

The piece I wrote about Cork for Lonely Planet's Best in TravelGuide 2010 got a lot of notice in the Irish press this week, among them RTE, the PA, and the Irish Times.

Also in the Irish Independent, Sunday Independent, and The Sunday Times...

Recent articles

Recent stuff of mine from the Independent last week...

Behind the scenes at The X Factor

Nightwatch column on Halloween...

Horror movies...

Charities battle the recession