this and that

A couple of weeks ago Simon Cowell, of American Idol fame, was accused of being homophobic when he told a contestant, who was mistakenly labeled transgender, that he should wear a dress. The comments Simon Cowell made were not homophobic; rude, yes, homophobic no. Let's face it, Simon is going to say whatever he wants to say. The contestant in question came into the audition room walking like a girl, talking like a girl and singing like a girl. At first I even thought that the guy was wearing a woman's wig, but he wasn't. His hair was certainly fashioned to make him look like a girl. I think he should have worn a dress, maybe he would have passed the audition.

Game, Set, Match: It's Room At The Top meets Fatal Attraction in Woody Allen's new film, Match Point, which tells the story of a former tennis pro who becomes engaged, and eventually married, to the woman of a wealthy businessman. It has a very talented cast, is sharply written, and very well directed. The story has been done before: man meets woman, gets engaged, meets best friend's woman, falls in love, gets married to the first woman and starts having an affair with best friend's woman. Woody Allen takes the action out of NY (YES!!!!) and into London where the playboy du jour is played by none other than Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, fresh off his Golden Globe win for portraying Elvis. Rhys-Meyers has a good deal of talent and it serves him well here with his pouty good looks and smooth operator charm. The woman he falls in love with and has an affair with is Scarlett Johansson, herself blessed with pouty good looks and charm. Rhys-Meyers plays Chris who marries Chloe, played by Emily Mortimer. Chloe's parents love Chris and are determined to do anything to help him out. Johansson plays Nola whom Chris starts having an affair with then when her own engagement to Chris's friend goes kaput, she leaves and the affair dies. As fate would have it, however, Chris runs into Nola again after some time has passed and the affair resumes. The consequences are shocking and a bit unbelievable. I thought Woody Allen did a great job directing and it is arguably his best film since Manhattan Murder Mystery. Rhys-Meyers and Johansson are talented and do well in the film, however, I thought Johansson's transition from cool sudectress to needy mistress was too drastic and I didn't buy the ending, much less like it. The film is based on the premise that much of life depends on luck, whether good or bad, and sometimes the ball (the tennis reference) goes over the net after hitting it and sometimes it falls backwards. I thought the main character had too much good luck.