Born On This Day- August 14th... Two Of My Favorites

I read Stephen Glenn Martin’s funny & moving memoir- Born Standing Up this spring & I thought it was one of the best show biz books ever. I have loved him since his absurdest stand up work in the mid- 1970s. Who knew that he would go on to write great pieces for The New Yorker, plus novels & plays such as The Underpants & Picasso at the Lapin Agile (both frequently produced in regional theatres)? My favorites of his film work: The Jerk, Pennies From Heaven, Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, All Of Me, Little Shop Of Horrors, Parenthood, Grand Canyon, Planes, Trains & Automobiles, & the apex of his career as actor & writer- LA Story & Roxanne. Even in dreck like Bringing Down The House, Cheaper By The Dozen or The Pink Panther he remains funny, charming & handsome.

Steve Martin is a first rate magician & musician. He has one of the most important private art collections in the country. Martin is an Emmy winner & he won Grammys for his comedy albums & for Best Country Instrumental Recording for his banjo work on Foggy Mountain Breakdown with Earl Scruggs. He has been honored with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor & a Kennedy Center Honor. On July 28, 2007, Martin married Anne Stringfield at his Los Angeles home. Former Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey presided over the ceremony. Lorne Michaels was his best man. Tom Hanks, Eugene Levy, Carl Reiner, & magician/actor Ricky Jay were not informed that a wedding ceremony would take place. Instead, they were told they were invited to a party, & were surprised by the nuptials!






One degree of separation… Marcia Gay Harden got her SAG card for an episode of Simon & Simon in a scene with Jamison Parker, who I also appeared with, in a different episode of the same series. I first made note of Marcia Gay Harden for terrific work in The Coen Brother’s Miller’s Crossing. Harden debuted on Broadway in Tony Kushner's Angels in America in 1993. For her film work, she won a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for Pollock (2000), & was nominated in the same category for Mystic River (2003). I loved her as Ava Gardner in the TV film- Sinatra (1992). She won a Tony this year for Yasmina Reza's God of Carnage. Harden has been mentioned in the short animated clips of Queer Duck. Queer Duck first starts by saying "Oh, there's Marcia Gay Harden," to which Oscar Wildcat replies, "She doesn't make this gay harden."