Gay Men's Health Crisis Goes Fashion Forward

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Tuesday, 30 November 2010 14:28

Written by T. Terry Maloney

Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) held its fourth annual Fashion Forward fundraiser on November 8th, 2010, at the Manhattan's Metropolitan Pavilion (123 West 18th St # 804 New York, NY 10011-4133 212-463-0200). Once again the sold-out event was hosted by the affable and always elegant Tim Gunn, host of Lifetime TV's Project Runway.

Presented by Bank of America, the event is one of the largest New York fashion shows between the two Fashion Weeks. It kicked off at 7 pm with the always popular two-hour reception, which featured delicacies from some of the city's finest restaurants and a variety of yummy libations.

At approximately 9 pm (do runway shows ever start on time?) Dr. Marjorie J. Hill, chief executive officer of GMHC, introduced Tim Gunn. Following a brief auction of Delta travel packages, including an "Enchanted Italian Hideaway," the runway show (finally) got underway.

The show featured looks from the collections of superstar designers Diane von Fursetnberg, Anna Sui, Yigel Azrouel, Richard Chai, Simon Spurr and Narciso Rodriguez.

The runway show was cast by Andrew Wier and styled by Jason Farrer and featured top models Jenny Shimizu and Omayra Mota.

Celebrity guests in attendance included television personality Wendy Williams, stylist Patricia Fields, designers David and Philippe Blond, designer Robert Tagliapietra, singer Deborah Cox and AIDS activist Jack MacKenroth.

The fundraising total for the evening was estimated to be upwards of $250,000 including the amount raised from the silent and live auctions.

GMHC launched Fashion Forward in 2007 to salute the fashion industry's longstanding commitment to fighting HIV/AIDS. Said CEO Dr. Marjorie Hill, "From the earliest days of the epidemic, the fashion community has been on the front lines, using its creativity, visibility and compassion to raise public awareness and galvanize fundraising efforts to support GMHC's lifesaving services."

Monies raised by Fashion Forward  will help GMHC continue to provide its services to more than 15,000 men, women and families in the New York City area living with or affected by HIV/AIDS, and to advocate for public health solutions for hundreds of thousands of people worldwide.

Sponsors for the event included CFDA, Diane von Furstenberg, Insignia, Jeffrey Fashion Cares and Delta.

Gay Men's Health Crisis
The Fashion Forward fundraiser
November 8th, 2010
Metropolitan Pavilion
123 West 18th St # 804
New York, NY 10011-4133
212-463-020

Theater Review: "Lombardi" Scores a Touch Down

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Sunday, 28 November 2010 14:42

Written by Lloyd Carroll

Lombardi
Written by Eric Simonson (Based on David Maraniss's book When Pride Mattered)
Directed by Thomas Kail  
Starring Dan Lauria, Judith Light, Robert Christopher Riley, Bill Dawes, Chris Sullivan, Keith Nobbs

This past September, 2010, marked the 40th anniversary of the passing of Vince Lombardi -- the most famous head coach in NFL history. Another sign that my fellow baby boomers are getting older.

This milestone has not gone unnoticed. The NFL has been instrumental in getting Lombardi’s story on Broadway as a major financial backer of the new play, Lombardi, based on David Maraniss’s bio, When Pride Still Mattered (Simon & Schuster).

Lombardi cleverly examines a random autumn week in the coach’s life as his Green Bay Packers are preparing to take on the San Francisco 49ers. Look Magazine has dispatched a young sports reporter, Michael McCormick (Keith Nobbs), to spend the week with Vince (Dan Lauria) and his wife Marie (Judith Light) for a profile.       

What McCormick does not know is that his editor and Lombardi are old friends and he's there to do a puff piece. Even worse, Look is willing to give the Packers coach the final edit over the piece. It turns out that the gruff Lombardi was sensitive to a harsh article about him that had been published a few weeks earlier in Esquire.       

McCormick represents the public and does a great job of probing Lombardi, not only by interviewing him, but also by speaking with his better half, Marie, and a trio of Packers legends, Dave Robinson (Robert Christopher Riley), Paul Hornung (Bill Dawes) and Jim Taylor (Chris Sullivan). These supporting characters hold the interest as much as does the protagonist.       

Mrs. Lombardi is no shrinking violet and can go toe-to-toe with her boisterous husband if necessary. Clearly, their love was deep and the play makes illustrates that she was his rock when he once considered dropping football for a banking career because he grew tired of only being an assistant coach with the Giants. He couldn’t understand why he had been overlooked by every major college and NFL team until the lowly Green Bay Packers came calling in 1959.     

While she encouraged her husband to take the Green Bay job, life in the NFL’s smallest outpost did not suit her. She tells McCormick that she desperately misses Manhattan and wiles away too much of the time by hitting the liquor cabinet.       

Lombardi does not shy away from key social and economic issues. The coach was never a big fan of individualism and preferred a marine corps-style thinking -- put the best interests of the group first. The positive side of that philosophy meant that the Packers were remarkably free of prejudice at a time when it was rife in football. Louisiana good ole boy Taylor did not think twice about socializing with black linebacker Robinson.       

The negative side of his philosophy was that Vince, who was also the Packers general manager, had trouble dealing with his players when it came to their economic welfare. He goes ballistic when Taylor lets it be known that he has an agent who will negotiate his next contract for him (he  soon gets traded to the expansion team, New Orleans Saints) while Robinson is team’s first union rep and relishes the idea of getting better benefits for the rank-and-file.       

The play takes pains to talk about how the quote most associated with Lombardi -- "Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing!” -- has been misinterpreted over the years. Lombardi was only trying to cultivate a winning attitude and not suggest that a team member should commit harakiri if he was on the losing side.       

Lauria, best known for his role as the dad on The Wonder Years, bears a strong physical resemblance to Lombardi and sounds like him as well. He is so credible in this role that it feel like an NFL team may want to hire him as their next head coach. Light, best remembered for the ABC sitcom Who’s the Boss?, makes Marie a sympathetic character. And as the young reporter, Nobbs recalls a young Tom Cruise.

Lombardi comes in at a sprite 95 minutes and doesn't have an intermission. While it helps to be a football fan, even those with little interest in the gridiron will enjoy this play. If you know little about Lombardi except that his name adorns the Super Bowl trophy and is a rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike, then you owe it to yourself to get to the Circle In The Square Theater ASAP. 

HBO Sports and NFL Films will air a documentary on the cable network this December about The Coach.

Lombardi
Circle In The Square Theater
1633 Broadway
New York, NY 10019

website: www.LombardiBroadway.com
 

Kevin's November Digital Week II

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Saturday, 27 November 2010 05:00

Written by Kevin Filipski

Blu-rays of the Week
America Lost and Found: The BBS Story

Criterion’s set, with a superb booklet of historical and contextual essays, also features first-rate transfers and lots of extras, including audio commentaries and both new and vintage interviews and footage. Even if the films don’t make the grade individually, this important compilation chronicles one of the great game-changing periods in film history.

The Disappearance of Alice Creed

Lee Majors’ Steve Austin was a new type of hero, with Richard Anderson as his slippery boss and Lindsay Wagner as his lovely romantic interest who got her own spin-off, The Bionic Woman. This massive (and heavy!) boxed set comprises all 100 episodes on 40 DVDs, with 17 hours of extras including new interviews with Majors and Anderson. The set is available for purchase exclusively at 6MDM.com.
 
The Winning Season

Sam Rockwell gives another of his subtle portrayals in the lead role, and there’s superb support from Rob Corddry as the principal and Emma Roberts, Rooney Mara, Emily Rios, Meaghan Witri, Shareeka Epps and Melanie Hinkle as his team. Writer-director James C. Strouse has an ear for truthful dialogue, but lets sentiment to creep in toward the end, which is too bad. No extras.

CDs of the Week
Bejun Mehta: Ombra Cara—Handel Arias