Not much details on the LA screening, but details of the NYC one are below!
From Playbill, by Adam Hetrick, on 27 February 2008
Grey Gardens Musical Documentary Gets New York and L.A. Screenings
Big Edie, Little Edie and their musical counterparts will return with New York and Los Angeles screenings of the Albert Maysles documentary "Grey Gardens: From East Hampton to Broadway."
Albert Maysles - who first revealed the women of Grey Gardens to the world in his acclaimed 1975 documentary "Grey Gardens" - has documented the creation of the award-winning 2006 musical, which was based on that film.
The 50-minute documentary traces the musical's origins from Maysles' original film, which presented the eccentric "Big" Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter "Little" Edie Beale, aunt and cousin to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The two had gone from wealthy socialites to recluses living in squalor in a 28-room mansion in East Hampton.
Maysles' latest documentary culminates in the film's musical adaptation for the Broadway stage, incorporating behind-the-scenes footage of the show's rehearsals, performances and interviews with the creators and cast. Maysles himself is interviewed within the film, which also provides insight from Beale authorities, devotees, cultural commentators, audiences and fans.
East of Doheny films presents the private screenings of "Grey Gardens: From East Hampton to Broadway." The New York event will be hosted by East of Doheny and The Actors Fund on March 3 at The Paley Center for Media. Grey Gardens composer Scott Frankel and lyricist Michael Korie will be on hand for a post-screening discussion.
The Los Angeles screening of "Grey Gardens: From East Hampton to Broadway" will take place in mid-April in Los Angeles.
Though "Grey Gardens" has yet to find a distributor, there already is a lot of interest in this film with Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore portraying the eccentric Jackie Kennedy Onassis' Bouvier cousins "Big Edie" and "Little Edie" Beale. The film was produced by HBO. If it is only released on the cable network (and not in theaters), it would not be eligible for the Oscars.
I just finished shooting 'Grey Gardens,' which is not a film of the recent musical but a drama based on the Maysles brothers' 1975 documentary [about Jacqueline Kennedy cousin Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter]. It's such a huge part: It covers a 40-year-period, from ages 39 to 79. In playing Edith Beale, I started with the documentary, which was shot when she was 79, and tried to imagine her 40 years younger. So going backwards was a great acting exercise. You've got evidence of her at the end of her life and you have to imagine what she was like 40 years earlier.
Just a few days ago, we got a video of the Subaru commercial that appeared on gay TV network LOGO, and now there's a video of Christine Ebersole appearing on LOGO's Big Gay Sketch Show!
I tend to stay away from posting East Hampton news, but just within the past two weeks Lily Pond Lane has popped up in the news twice.
First, a house featured in the original Grey Gardens documentary burned to the ground. No, not Grey Gardens itself, but this house, shown as it appeared in the film:
A historic house on Lily Pond Lane in East Hampton was destroyed by fire at midday on Saturday. It started when a spark from a light switch ignited paint thinner workers were using during a renovation project, according to East Hampton Fire Chief Tom Bock.
Kenneth Collum, the East Hampton fire marshal, is still investigating the incident. He agreed that a spark from a light switch in the living room had ignited chemicals being used to remove paint from a wall, and said it was possible that the chemicals had spilled on the switch.
The other big news is that there may be five lots opening up just down the road from Grey Gardens, to build one's dream Hamptons estate.
Easement expires, five lots proposed for exclusive Lily Pond enclave
The owners of one of the largest remaining undeveloped and unpreserved parcels in East Hampton Village — a 19.3-acre field near Georgica Beach — want to divide their land into five lots.
Until the end of December, the property on Apaquogue Road at the edge of Lily Pond was protected from development by a 30-year agricultural easement. Held in trust for the five children of Eugene and Evelyn Williams, the field had been managed by the Peconic Land Trust.
A nice little article on how playing Little Edie changed Drew. Thanks to the contributor who sent this in!
From Page Six, by Philip Recchia, on 19 February 2008
Drew: Jackie O.'s Cousin Made Me a Lady
Drew Barrymore says she found the role of a lifetime in HBO's Grey Gardens.
The currently-in-production flick tells the true story of Jackie Kennedy’s eccentric aunt, "Big Edie" Bouvier Beale (Jessica Lange), and cousin "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale (Drew), who ditched their high-society Manhattan lives for self-exile and eventual squalor on Long Island.
"Something about learning you can live without everything changes you. All my life, I've been waiting and waiting to become a woman, but I always felt like a little girl. Edie did, too," Drew, who turns 33 on Friday, tells Vogue in the March 2008 issue.
"But I think she might have been the thing that made me finally become a woman. I thought for sure it would be a relationship with another human being, a love. Little did I know, it would be a posthumous relationship with... Edith Beale."
A link to this blog post appeared in my e-mail, and I didn't quite understand it. It looks like the director of photography for the upcoming Grey Gardens film may be needed because more filming may be required. Can any of you Hollywood-savvy readers decipher the message below?
From autofocus, by Giles Borg, on 18 February 2008
Slowly but Surely
Still having trouble getting a tied down shoot date. This is the problem with having an extremely talented crew, they just keep getting work. Our main problem is with the DoP, Mike Eley, who last year shot a project for HBO called Grey Gardens. It was a huge shoot, very expensive, and now there's talk of it getting a theatrical release. All good stuff, apart from the fact they have scheduled the grade for the 8th to 18th April. Mike isn't sure if he's going to be required for the whole thing, but he'll definitely be needed for some of it, so we're now looking at two possible start dates, the 14th or 21st of April. 14th is nice in that it means we would finish at pretty much the start of Cannes, so we could have a trailer ready with everything we shot available, even possibly a rough cut. On the other hand, the 21st looks more realistic, and gives us another (precious) week of pre-production. We should know for certain this week.
In 2005, a TV commercial for the Subaru Outback ran on LOGO, the gay cable TV channel. This got some attention on the Grey Gardens Yahoo Group, but, as far as this raccoon knows, no video of the commercial ever appeared online. Well, here we are, in 2008, and a video of the commercial just appeared on YouTube!
From YouTube, by carlover1968, on 17 February 2008
Gay-Themed 2006 Subaru Outback TV Spot
A TV spot for the 2006 Subaru Outback that aired on gay cable TV channel LOGO.
She has a film with Drew Barrymore already in the can: a new version of Grey Gardens, the oft-told story of Jackie Kennedy's wacky cousins Big Edie and Little Edie Beale—Park Avenue debs in their youth who lived in a famous but rundown, cat-swarmed house in East Hampton, N.Y.
"We had great fun," she said of working with Drew. "Both of those women [the Beales] had a wonderful sense of humor about them."
Catching up with Maysles and Co. as new doc (and family rift) prepare for big debuts
Maysles added that the conflict inherent to the stories for which he and his late brother David are famous—Gimme Shelter, Grey Gardens and Salesman (not to mention the riveting first half-hour of The Gates) in particular—was never something they sought in their subjects. "I have a somewhat adverse reaction to the word 'conflict,' " he said. "Hollywood assumes that it's not a film unless there's conflict. I don't know that's always necessary. Especially since they assume the conflict has to be major proportions -- if not war, then maybe conflict within a family."
Which brought me to Wild Blue Yonder, his niece (and David's daughter) Celia Maysles' controversial new documentary about her quest to learn more about her father, who died when she was 7. I wrote about it in December for New York Magazine, when Albert Maysles declined to be interviewed about the film's allegation that he pledged, then refused access to David's unfinished solo project. Had Albert seen it yet?
"I've seen it," he said, nodding. What did he think?
"Terrible," he replied. "Unnecessarily, I come off badly. I wanted to cooperate with her, but I was—and am—making my own autobiographical film at the same time. I couldn't just let her pick whatever she wanted. I wanted the two of us to cooperate in that process. She took that as an offense. And as you see in the film, I come off as the bad guy."
I asked if his interviews were taken out of context or misleading, or if perhaps the film was poorly edited. "Actually, I think the film is fairly well-made," he said. "As she points out, the film benefits so much from the ruckus between her and myself. But it was unnecessary. And then there are certain things in the film that are totally wrong and wouldn't have [been included] if she'd been better informed about her father. There's a therapist my brother was going to, and she says that when he was given antidepressants, that he wasn't informed that he couldn't drink. That's totally wrong. When any doctor gives you that kind of pill, you have to sign a statement [acknowledging] that you can't take this that or the other. His wife also signed that."
Albert also denied a charge that he threatened to sue or seek an injunction against Wild Blue Yonder's exhibition. (The film has its U.S. premiere next month at South by Southwest.) "I guess I could have, but no," he said. "I don't want to hurt her. She's my niece! I'd love to help her out."
Quite obviously and closely resembling Edie's taste in jewelry, the Grey Gardens brooch now has its own site where the reproduction (a.k.a. "fake Mexican") brooch can be ordered!
Al Maysles will be at the Steven Kasher Gallery tomorrow from 6-8 pm for a booksigning and reception for his show and the launch of his book, A Maysles Scrapbook. This raccoon had posted about this before, but wants to note that he's received updated pricing information for the "cinemagraphs", which he is told will be $400-$3,000.
I had heard through the grapevine that Drew had done this to prepare for her role, but it's nice to be able to finally share this information with you all! What I had actually been told was that Drew wasn't using her cellphone or laptop, and that she only read newspapers from the time period she was filming that day.
From Associated Press, by Anna Jane Grossman, on 8 February 2008
Stars Come out for Madonna's UN Bash
Barrymore recently finished shooting "Grey Gardens," a movie based on the documentary of the same name about "Big" Edith and "Little" Edith Bouvier Beale, Jacqueline Kennedy's reclusive aunt and cousin. Barrymore plays the younger Edie, who gained sartorial notoriety in the 1970s for wearing odd head coverings made of skirts and towels and broaches.
Preparing for the role meant reading Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Marble Faun," a book referenced often in the documentary, and watching the movie to "a psychotic degree," Barrymore said. She also lived for a period a la "Little" Edie Beale, without television, magazines, newspapers, computer or phone.
Eva Beale has launched her new online store, Grey Gardens Collections, "inspired by the life of Edith Bouvier Beale." Currently, there are cuffs, bracelets, journals, and photo albums for sale.
To be clear, it looks like none of the items for sale were previously owned by Edith or Edie, but that they perhaps could have been.
Eva Marie Beale's new, Grey Gardens Collections pulls its inspiration from Little Edie’s style and her life at Grey Gardens giving it a current twist and relevance for today's glamorous fashions.
Most people know of Edith Bouvier Beale as "Little Edie" through the 1975 documentary, Grey Gardens, by Albert and David Maysles. The film focuses on her life during her later years, when she had returned to care for and live with her mother at Grey Gardens, the family's decaying East Hampton estate.
Less is known about Little Edie's earlier days, when, as the oldest daughter of the Beale family, her beauty, self confidence and charm established her as the "IT" girl of East Hampton and New York during the 1930's and 40's. Little Edie was a gorgeous and accomplished young woman with a wonderful sense of style and creativity.
Known in town as, "Body Beautiful Beale," Little Edie was also very athletic. Growing up in a large house in East Hampton just around the corner from the beach gave her easy access to swimming in the ocean and spending time outdoors during the warm weather. As she entered society, she had her debut at the Pierre Hotel on Fifth Avenue in New York in 1936, attended glamorous parties, modeled haute couture fashion, and was escorted by world renowned beaux. It is Little Edie's unique style and creativity as well as the fashion of her time that Grey Gardens Collections celebrates today.
Eva Marie Beale, family member and founder of Grey Gardens Collections, has combed through family photographs, diaries, letters and poetry of Little Edie. Her upcoming book, Edith Bouvier Beale of Grey Gardens, A Life in Pictures, provides a glimpse into the intimate and enchanting world of Edith Bouvier Beale, a privilege few others have had in the past.
World traveler, collector and artist in her own right, Eva combines her love for Little Edie’s eclectic style with her own fabulous design sense and passion for treasure hunting at flea markets all over the world. Eva has collaborated with jewelry designer Susan Jane to produce a collection of one-of-a-kind vintage-style jewelry and with Alison Ramos, to design uniquely handmade journals with plans of expanding to additional products in the near future.
Eva Marie Beale's new, Grey Gardens Collections pulls its inspiration from Little Edie’s styles of the past and her life at Grey Gardens giving it a current twist and relevance for today's glamorous fashions.
Film blog "Still in Motion" has a great interview with Celia Maysles about her film Wild Blue Yonder. There's been otherpress about her film before, but this is the first in-depth interview I've ever seen with her. I've posted the Grey Gardens-related excerpts below, but definitely go through the whole thing when you get the chance.
Interview: Celia Maysles, Director Wild Blue Yonder
I was scheduled to film her [Susan Froemke] and Henry came with me. We had a great day with her, and Muffie Meyer was also there [co-director with the Mayles and Ellen Hovde of Grey Gardens]. We went out with Susan and Muffie to buy tomatoes for lunch, and when we returned, there was a phone message from Lois Wright [who lived with the Edies at Grey Gardens, pictured with Celia]. Susan hadn’t heard from her in three years. I didn’t know who she was or that anyone was even still alive from Grey Gardens. She still lives in Easthampton. So we got in the car after calling and asking if we could come by to see her. That’s when it was clear that something very special was happening—filming with Henry and meeting all these people, I really understood what this was about and so we started working together making this film.
I think the whole experience brought back all the good memories Henry had from working at the Maysles' production company. He says he saw instantly a lot of my dad’s personality traits in me. It’s like when you work with certain people and you have the same sort of drive and energy and passions. It’s not work anymore. That’s how it was. It was an opportunity for him to give something back to my dad.
SIM: Tell me about the part of the story that involves your uncle, Al Maysles. I didn’t really take what happens in as a “good guy/bad guy” scenario at all. It’s another layer in what you’re trying to discover. At the beginning of the film, it’s all smiles and hugs and familial love—the family dynamic seems pretty healthy. But the main conflict of the film arises around this footage he has of David that you want to use, footage he refuses to give to you. What did you know about the kinds of resolutions you would probably have to make when you discovered this obstacle? You meet with him time and time again, conveying pure emotion and nothing but that. Every time you’re in his presence, you start to cry. And he’s so emotional, too. This is his brother, his partner we’re talking about. If anybody experienced a huge loss, it was him.
It seemed like being confronted by this raw emotionalism from David’s daughter was too much. He steps back and retreats; we see that happening on screen. The technical, or legal, explanation as to why he wasn’t willing to let you have the footage you wanted was valid and yes, legally he does own all of that and had to pay through the nose to get it. But his reaction to you was really interesting. Instead of making him look bad, it just makes him look incredibly vulnerable. When two vulnerable people confront one another, oftentimes, it’s pretty intense and people aren’t necessarily at their best. He was extremely conflicted and I think a bit overwhelmed by your determination to get what you wanted.
CM: He did keep getting hung up on retelling the story of the court case over and over. [David's wife, Celia's mother, had to sue Al for David's Blue Yonder footage. They ended up settling and he paid her for outright ownership of the footage.] And I didn’t give a shit about the court case. That wasn’t my lifetime. That’s fine; you’ve told your testimony, but now let’s focus on the present. I was asking him for something that I thought was quite simple. He’s given it to college students to use and other directors making films, like Ghosts of Grey Gardens that played at Tribeca in ’05. He just gave her [Liliana Greenfield-Sanders] the footage. He doesn’t even know her.
Wild Blue Yonder DVD
A Maysles Scrapbook: Photographs/Cinemagraphs/Documents
Grey Gardens
Grey Gardens
Grey Gardens &
Grey Gardens
The Beales of Grey Gardens
Grey Gardens
Grey Gardens 11" x 17" Reproduction Poster
BFI Film Classics: Grey Gardens
Grey Gardens
Soundtrack to Grey Gardens MP3s
My Life at Grey Gardens
Forty Years of Gardening
Edith Bouvier Beale of Grey Gardens
MemoraBEALEia
Little Edie Live! A Visit to Grey Gardens audio CD
A Maysles Scrapbook: Photographs/Cinemagraphs/Documents
Talk to Her: Interviews
Contemporary Film Directors:
Ghosts of Grey Gardens DVD
Grey Gardens the Musical
Grey Gardens
Grey Gardens: The Complete Book and Lyrics of the Broadway Musical
Grey Gardens Songbook
The Road Not Taken: A Selection of Robert Frost's Poems
The Marble Faun
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Gigi
Wings
Nashville
Andromeda and Other Poems (includes Lorraine, Lorraine, Lorree)
It's All in the Stars
Art by Pacifico Palumbo