Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Opening tonight in Los Angeles, the Ahmanson Theater is presenting Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf". Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin reprise the roles that gave them rave reviews in New York City and London. I saw it twice on Broadway two years ago so it'll be interesting to see if the show has changed at all. Turner/Irwin are great but my first time seeing this play with Diana Rigg and David Suchet in the West End will always be my fave production. Suchet was a vicious player while Irwin is more of a resigned wimp getting revenge.

The Last Morning

As the sun began to rise in Argentina, we hustled over to the hanger where the Campo's owner had two planes. One of them was rolled out and as the sky became bluer, a ritter fan was wheeled into place and the actors were placed on top of the cabin. The huge fan was turned on and the props people began to throw hay at our amourous duo. I thought the cold of the night would give the actors hypothermia and in between takes, they huddled together to stay warm. But the sun finally came blazing up and the shoot was over. Except for the pies.........

Last Supper

Our last dinner in Argentina was a huge affair. The massive cook at the Candelaria fired up the enormous grill outside and created a true Argentine BBQ. Thick choking smoke billowed forth from the flames and the chicken, beef, chorizo were stacked high. Then the more adventuresome cuts like intestines and blood sausages were served.
Once satiated, it was tough to get back to work.

Back in the Barn

We drove back to La Candelaria to shoot the remainder of the scene we missed the other night due to burning down the set.....by accident, we think. 150 strands of christmas tree lights, 4 live chickens and a pair of chaps and a bra with l.e.d. lights installed. Pure magic.

Lunch With Orlando

The other day, Ellen and I woke up after a night's filming to meet our friend Flora with her guest Orlando Bloom. We met at San Telmo's legendary La Brigada restaurant. Bloom was making his way south to join his cousin on an expedition of antartica to view the effects of global warming. The very topic we spoke of is in the news today.
Flora and he want shopping the old mercado and I grabbed a cab back to the hotel to catch the van to work.

Juan P and Me

Last night we spent some time in a small water tank in the Palermo district of Buenos Aires.
The crew here in BA has been wonderful. Fast, excellent technicians. Ellen has really enjoyed working with a female camera crew headed by the lovely Magda (pictured above).
The electricians have all have great attitudes and are very knowledgeable about their craft. The local gaffer has been a wonderful man Quito. Always calm and collected in the face of some formidable problems, I will always remember his quiet voice asking when I wanted something, "Jhon, tell me, please".
Quito's best boy here is Juan P. Of obvious italian heritage, Juan P as been nearby on all occasions and has been run the crew most efficiently. His name, when said fast in spanish to the english ear, sounds like "Wompby". Ellen has gotten to calling him Womp. Perfect. I hope to work with this crew again.

La Candelaria

A few last pics of our castle in the country. Estancia La Candelaria. We are actually going back tomorrow to shoot the barn scene we missed the other night due to fire. Hope we are more successful this time.

Ranch Web's La Candelaria page in English
The history of the manor is different here than it was recounted to us. So who knows what's true about the castle.

Maureen Dowd on Cheney

Dowd destroys beyond delusional, deranged Dick
by Joe in DC - 1/27/2007 09:49:00 AM

Vintage Dowd. This is why we love her:
Delusional is far too mild a word to describe Dick Cheney. Delusional doesn’t begin to capture the profound, transcendental one-flew-over daftness of the man.

Has anyone in the history of the United States ever been so singularly wrong and misguided about such phenomenally important events and continued to insist he’s right in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary?

It requires an exquisite kind of lunacy to spend hundreds of billions destroying America’s reputation in the world, exhausting the U.S. military, failing to catch Osama, enhancing Iran’s power in the Middle East and sending American kids to train and arm Iraqi forces so they can work against American interests.

Only someone with an inspired alienation from reality could, under the guise of exorcising the trauma of Vietnam, replicate the trauma of Vietnam.

You must have a real talent for derangement to stay wrong every step of the way, to remain in complete denial about Iraq’s civil war, to have a total misunderstanding of Arab culture, to be completely oblivious to the American mood and to be absolutely blind to how democracy works.

In a democracy, when you run a campaign that panders to homophobia by attacking gay marriage and then your lesbian daughter writes a book about politics and decides to have a baby with her partner, you cannot tell Wolf Blitzer he’s “out of line” when he gingerly raises the hypocrisy of your position.

Via AmericaBlog

Before Lunch Art

We arrived at the 120 year old barn on a vast campo near the castle yesterday to start shooting. The place is magnificent and we have burn pots around, a white horse and the perfect blue-ish backlight. We finish the exterior work and move inside. We have a girl in a bra and chaps that have hundreds of tiny l.e.d. lights attached. There are hundreds of strings of christmas tree lights wrapped around the rafters. The effect is one of pure male fantasy, the "Axe effect". We break for lunch and return to..............