Downton Abbey
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lifestyle SUNDAY, JANUARY 5, 2014 ‘Gone With The Wind’ actress Alicia Rhett dies at 98 ctress Alicia Rhett, who was the oldest surviving she had lived since 2002. her father died in World War One, Bishop Gadsden said. with the Wind” counterparts, and works seen in books, a cast member of the classic 1939 film “Gone With Other surviving cast members from “Gone With The She was seen as “intensely private” and uninterested state library, and a theater in the coastal city, Bishop AThe Wind”, died in South Carolina on Friday, offi- Wind” are 97-year-old Olivia de Havilland who played in the “trappings of celebrity,” and preferred a quieter, Gadsden said. cials at her retirement community said. She was 98. Melanie Hamilton, Ashley Wilkes’ cousin and wife; 93- art-filled life connected to the Deep South, according to Beside her work depicting high society, Rhett also Savannah, Georgia-born Rhett portrayed India Wilkes, year-old Mary Anderson, who played Maybelle a biography on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) website. volunteered to paint public school children, workers, sister of Ashley Wilkes in the award-winning film based Merriweather; and 81-year-old Mickey Kuhn, who played Rhett was the great-granddaughter of South Carolina and others at its periphery, TCM said. on Margaret Mitchell’s Pulitzer Prize-winning historical Beau Wilkes, Bishop Gadsden said. senator Robert Brunwell Rhett, whose “anti-Union rheto- She died at Bishop Gadsden at about 5 pm EST (2200 novel of the same name. Ann Rutherford, who played protagonist Scarlett ric and pro-slavery stance in the years leading up to the GMT), officials there said. The cause of death was not “Truly a beautiful woman, her passion for the arts and O’Hara’s optimistic younger sister in the film about American Civil War earned him the sobriquet the Father immediately known. — Reuters love of Charleston were unrivaled... Alicia was a kind and white southerners in the American Civil War era, died in of Secession,” TCM added. gentle lady,” said Bill Trawick, CEO of the Bishop Gadsden June 2012 in Los Angeles. Rhett was born on Feb. 1, She was devoted to painting and illustration, produc- Episcopal Retirement Community in Charleston, where 1915 and moved to Charleston with her mother after ing on-set portraits of fellow actors, including her “Gone This photo released by PBS and Carnival Film and Television Limited shows, from left, Lesley Nicol as Mrs This photo released by PBS and Carnival Film and Television Limited shows Laura Carmichael as Lady Edith in a scene from season four Patmore, and Sophie McShera as Daisy, in a scene from season four of the Masterpiece TV series, of the Masterpiece TV series, “Downton Abbey.” As it returns for its much-awaited fourth season, “Downton Abbey” remains a series “Downton Abbey.” — AP photos about elegance, tradition and gentility, and the pressures of preserving them. The show premieres today at 9 pm ET on PBS. Americans rekindle its ‘Downton Abbey’ affair mericans rekindle their peculiar love affair with the (Chicago PBS affiliate WTTW boldly suggests chicken episode since the first US telecast in 2011. firmed a fifth season, even though “Downton Abbey” failed post-Edwardian demise of English aristocracy today tikka masala, “which arrived on the British culinary scene “I would put this, in many ways, in the same family as last year to win any Emmy awards to add to the eight it Awhen season four of “Downton Abbey” premieres around 1903,” as an alternative best served with a ‘Dallas’ and ‘Dynasty’ and ‘Falcon Crest’ and ‘Melrose Place’,” had previously collected. on US public television. The internationally-acclaimed Burgundy, Graves or champagne.) he told AFP, name-checking classic prime-time US soaps In a nod to its stateside popularity, season four adds a British period drama set in a grand old Yorkshire country Once the eight-episode season wraps on February 23, from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. new American character, a black jazz singer in London estate is seen in about 100 countries around the world-but hardcore fans can don their official “Downton Abbey” T- played by Gary Carr, alongside Oscar winner Shirley nowhere does it enjoy the kind of cult following it has in shirts or unofficial Downton Abbey knits and trek to east- Viewers agree MacLaine, reprising her role as Robert Crawley’s American the United States. coast Delaware for a “Costumes of Downton Abbey” exhibi- “It’s evil versus good with ridiculous hair-dos and won- mother-in-law. More than 24 million Americans watched season three tion. derous one-liners,” said Brenda Clevenger, 51, of Kansas Gone forever is Matthew Stevens, the wounded World last year, making it the most-watched drama ever on the It’s tempting to read something metaphorical into City, Missouri, who finds the show gives her “good materi- War I warrior and heir to Downton Abbey, who died last commercial-free PBS network, and more than double the America’s fascination with the Earl of Grantham, alias al” for her Midlife Mona Lisa blog. season in a car accident-or more precisely, when actor Dan 11.8 million Britons who’ve already caught season four on Robert Crawley (Hugh Bonneville), his quick-witted dowa- “It’s the perfect combination of drama, manners and Stevens quit the cast, throwing the show’s creator and ITV. From coast to coast, “Downtonians” will be at the edge ger mother Violet (Maggie Smith), his many children and enough period-piece genre to make the audience feel writer Julian Fellowes for a loop. of their chesterfields, keen to see what’s next for the their household staff in the twilight years of the British smarter than it is,” added advice columnist April Masini, a “‘Downton Abbey’ is long past its sell-by date,” wrote tel- Crawleys in 1920 after the unexpected deaths of two Empire. former TV producer once involved in the sultry beach dra- evision critic Alessandra Stanley in The New York Times on beloved young members of the patrician family. But pop-culture scholar Robert Thompson of Syracuse ma “Baywatch.” Friday, “yet it is still remarkably palatable.” — AFP Many will watch at home, of course. Others will flock to University in upstate New York said Friday it boils down to In the run-up to Sunday, PBS-funded by corporate and “Downton Abbey” viewing parties where they might nib- an enduring American passion for melodrama over the private donors plus a dollop of dollars from the US govern- ble on crab canapes or chicken and mushroom pie pre- ether. “Americans have always liked good, dishy, lathery ment-has been teasing season four with a rich heaping of pared from recipes in “The Unofficial Downton Abbey soap operas, and ‘Downton Abbey’ delivers,” said trailers on on-demand cable television. Cookbook.” Thompson, who acknowledges watching each and every So strong is audience support that PBS has already con- Ke$ha checks into rehab for eating disorder e$ha has checked into rehab to treat an eat- ing disorder. The “Tik Tok” singer says in a Kstatement provided by her spokesman Friday that she’ll be unavailable for the next 30 days while she seeks treatment for an undisclosed eating disorder. The 26-year-old pop star says she wants to “learn to love myself again, exactly as I am.” No oth- er details were provided. Ke$ha, whose real name is Kesha Rose Sebert, is the performer of such hits as “Crazy Love,” “Die Young” and “Timber” with Pitbull. She starred in the MTV reality series “My Crazy Beautiful Life.” — AP In this film image released by Sony Pictures Classics shows, from second left, Cate Blanchette, Sally Hawkins, and Andrew Dice layC in a scene from the Woody Allen film, “Blue Jasmine.” “Blue Jasmine,” “Nebraska” and “American Hustle” have been nominated for Writers Guild honors, continuing their imprint on Hollywood’s awards season. The three come- dies gained nods, for exceptional screen writing. — AP Sony Classics back in foreign language ony Pictures Classics has acquired North American same name, “The Notebook” received the top prize at the showings at the Toronto Film Festival. We have never real- rights to “The Notebook,” the Hungarian entry for 2013 Karlovy Vary Film Festival, where it had its world pre- ly seen a movie quite like this. Based on a famous SBest Foreign Language Film. SPC has won the last miere. The film had its North American premiere at the European novel, ‘The Notebook’ portrays the World War II four foreign-language Oscars in a row, and it went into this 2013 Toronto Film Festival. experience as a Grimm fairy tale brimming with darkness year’s race with three films thought to be among the fron- Ulrich Thomsen (“The Celebration”) and Ulrich Matthes and foreboding evil. It is fresh, brilliantly told by director trunners. But India opted not to submit “The Lunchbox,” (“Downfall”) star in the film, which Sony Pictures Classics Janos Szasz with stunning cinematography by the great and when Iran’s “The Past” and Saudi Arabia’s “Wadjda” did- acquired from Beta Cinema. Set on the onset of WWII, “The Christian Berger. It is great to collaborate again with Dirk n’t make the Academy’s shortlist, the company found itself Notebook” tells the story of 13-year-old twins abandoned Schuerhoff and Beta Cinema with whom we have shared surprisingly out of the running. by their parents and forced to live with their cruel grand- success in the past,” said Sony Pictures Classics in a state- Now SPC is back in the hunt with one of the nine short- mother in a village on the Hungarian border.