The Bearded One himself, Peter Jackson, made a surprise cameo in the latest episode of the hit HBO show ‘Entourage’. Much like UK’s ‘Extras’ (where Sir Ian McKellen and Orlando Bloom spoofed themselves), ‘Entourage’ focuses on the entertainment industry. Peter most likely spoofed himself in the episode (I have yet to see it). If anyone catches it on YouTube, drop me a line!
Ronald let us in on PJ’s cameo: Actually Peter played himself talking directly with Eric (Vince’s personal business manager) about producing a movie with Vince based on some of Peter’s gaming ventures. Pete was in a “Motion Capture” suit practicing swordplay with another fellow. Said specifically he was glad to be able to reach into Vince’s camp without having to go through Ari Gold to do so.
Category: Production
Stan writes: LOTR artist Daniel Reeve has a new font, “Shire Regular, as written by Frodo Baggins” available for purchase on his website danielreeve.co.nz.
Washington, Aug 3 (ANI): Michael Imperioli is all set to become a part of the star- laden cast of Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones’, a film adaptation of Alice Sebold’s best-selling novel. The Emmy award winner will be seen with Susan Sarandon, Rachel Weisz and Ryan Gosling, reports the Hollywood Reporter. The film is the story of a girl, Susie Salmon, who is brutally raped and murdered. But after death, she continues to watch her family from heaven. [More]
Star actors in Academy Award-winning filmmaker James Cameron’s latest film move to Wellington in October for their performances to be incorporated in fantasy worlds created by the Weta workshops.
Showbusiness newspaper Variety reported that Cameron had added two more cast members to the science fiction film Avatar, Stephen Lang and Michelle Rodriguez, who have joined Australian actor Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Wes Studi and CCH Pounder.
“In October, the company will move to Wellington close to Peter Jackson’s Weta Digital, which is supervising the film’s visual effects,” Variety reported today. Thirty-one days of live-action photography will be carried out on Weta’s soundstages. [More]
BEWILDERED AND BEMUSED
Or the True Nature of Glamour
Today, the word “glamour” is more closely associated with ’50’s film starlets and glossy magazines than with its original meaning.
Here is what the dictionaries say:
GLAMOUR:
1720, “magic, enchantment” (especially in phrase to cast the glamour), a variant of Scot. gramarye “magic, enchantment, spell,” alt. of Eng. grammar (q.v.) with a medieval sense of “any sort of scholarship, especially occult learning.” Popularized by the writings of Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832). Sense of “magical beauty, alluring charm” first recorded 1840. Glamorous can be dated to 1882 (slang shortening glam first attested 1936); glamorize is dated 1936.
The etymology is intriguing and a little frustrating. “Gammayre” is almost systematically listed as a Sottish variant on “grammar” (14th century), which is of course from Greek grammatike tekhne ‘art of letters’, from gramma ‘letter of the alphabet’. Not much to do with spells, but more with spelling. Hmmm… spells and spelling… it’s tempting, but a bit of a long-jump of faith, casting spells is not really like spelling correctly, despite the magic of putting names to things. [More]
With kind permission John Howe has allowed us to re-print his newsletter entries as they are released. Take a look at the latest edition!
The Rest of the Rest – I realize I have been remiss is announcing events in Saint-Ursanne – actually I’ve been a little too busy with what I’ve been doing to think about announcing what I will be doing…
Here are the rest of the dates:
AUGUST 10th Conference/debate With François Rouiller, author & illustrator The theme will be the many faces of Heroes in fantasy. Hotel La Cigogne, 8:00 p.m.
AUGUST 11th Signing session At the cloister. This will begin at 2:00 p.m. and likely last a couple of hours. Normally, we will distribute numbered tickets for a dozen signatures with drawings, the remainder will be signatures only.
AUGUST 23rd Conference/debate Medieval fantasy art, with Sara Petrucci. Restaurant de l’Ours, 7:00 p.m.
SEPTEMBER 1st Conference/debate Fantasy bestiary, with Sara Petrucci. Hotel de la Demi-Lune, 6:30 p.m.
SEPTEMBER 2nd Signing session This will be a joint signature session with Alan LEE, so it’s possible it will turn into a bit of a marathon. This will be Alan’s first (but hopefully not last) visit to Switzerland. The cloister: starting at 2:00 p.m. John