C: Is for Carrie

The 2010 Grammy Nominations were announced. As I reported earlier Carrie Fisher new show Wishful Drinking is an outstanding look at a Hollywood life gone array. Carrie received a nomination in the Best Spoken Word Album category for her bestselling memoir version of Wishful Drinking .

For a full list of nominations: http://www.grammy.com/grammy_awards/52nd_show/list.aspx

In Wishful Drinking, Carrie Fisher recounts the true and intoxicating tale of her life as a Hollywood legend, told with the same wry wit she poured into bestsellers like Postcards from the Edge. The daughter of Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, Carrie Fisher became a cultural icon when she starred as “Princess Leia” in the first Star Wars trilogy at 19 years old. Forever changed, Carrie’s
life did not stay picture perfect. Fisher is the life of the party in this uproarious and sobering look at her Hollywood hangover.

Wishful Drinking has been extended on Broadway through January 17th, 2010. This is one entertaining night of theatre.

A: Is for AIDS

I already told you Broadway star and vocal magician James Barbour. Saturday Night December 12th will feature stage veteran, The Broadway community to commemorate World AIDS Day, yesterday, December 1st dimmed the marquees of Broadway theaters, at exactly 8:00pm for one minute.

In addition to Broadway theaters, participating venues across the city including the Brooklyn Bridge, Lincoln Center, Madison Square Garden, the Chrysler Building, Radio City Music Hall, the Beacon Theatre and the Washington Square Park Memorial Arch also showed their support.

A roster of notable guests, including United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and actress and UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador Naomi Watts, kicked off the global Light for Rights campaign in New York City as lights on numerous landmarks all over the city turned off to remember those we have lost to AIDS and turned back on to emphasize human rights for those living with HIV/AIDS around the world.

The global initiative, organized by UNAIDS (the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS); amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research; Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS; and the World AIDS Campaign, will showcase the importance of fundamental human rights as citizens and organizations around the world fight AIDS.

The New York anchor event began at 6:00 p.m. in Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village, where the Secretary-General and Naomi Watts will be joined by Kenneth Cole, chairman, Kenneth Cole Productions and chairman of the board, amfAR; New York City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn; and 13-year-old Honduran AIDS activist Keren Dunaway-Gonzalez, who is living with HIV.

During the event, at 6:15 p.m., the lights on the Washington Square Park Memorial Arch will be turned off and then re-illuminated as the speakers talk about the importance of human rights when confronting the AIDS pandemic.

AIDS is a F.A.C.T

F: Is from stage to film

From left, Angel Ramos, Vilma Ortiz Donovan, Kenneth Harrigan and Casimiro Torres, the “Castle” cast.

The original cast of the hit Off-Broadway play, The Castle, heads to the film studio to set their performance on celluloid. Shooting started taking place yesterday in Manhattan, with a portion of the film to be filmed before convicts in a New York Correctional Facility. The Castle was conceived and directed Off-Broadway by David Rothenberg, who founded The Fortune Society 42 years ago It was written in collaboration with and performed by Vilma Ortiz Donavan (6 years), Kenneth Harrigan (16 years) and Angel Ramos (30 years) and Casimiro Torres (16 years) -- all of whom share their own real-life stories and collectively served 70 years in prison.

The Castle, a unique theatrical event that presents a searing, first-hand look at the lives of four formerly incarcerated New Yorkers and their re-entry into society, following a successful world premiere at its namesake venue in February 2008 and became a critical hit and an instrument of education and change within the New York State Department of Correctional Services system. The Castle received its Off-Broadway premiere to critical acclaim in March 2008 where it was presented by Eric Krebs and Chase Mishkin at New World Stages. It ran for 14 months giving its final performance in May 2009.

The Castle, an imposing upper west side residential facility for the formerly incarcerated, was opened (and is maintained) by The Fortune Society, a non-profit organization that helps put men and women, recently emerged from prison, on their re-entry into society. The organization was established by Mr. Rothenberg following the success of the 1967 Off-Broadway production of the play, Fortune and Men’s Eyes (itself, a play about a young man’s experience in a youth detention center).

This is a film that should open the eyes for many and that is a F.A.C.T.