Pop culture Q&A

December 4, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

Pop culture Q&A

By Rich Heldenfels

Q. I am looking for the movie that was on television in the 1960s that was a musical of “Cinderella.” It starred Lesley Ann Warren (as Cinderella) and “General Hospital’s” Stuart Damon (as the prince), I think. Please let me know if it is available for rental anywhere.

A. The production you remember — with the stars you recall — originally aired in 1965 on CBS. It had songs by Rodgers & Hammerstein and a cast that also included Ginger Rogers, Jo Van Fleet, Walter Pidgeon and Celeste Holm. Though I do not know what is carried by your local rental outlet, I can tell you that it was released on DVD in 2003. It appears that it is not currently in distribution, but you may be able to find old copies for viewing or purchase. I also spotted it in the listings for one of our local libraries.

Q. I always have wondered if anyone has the movie rights to “A Confederacy of Dunces”? I thought that John Belushi would have been great for it, but now I think Robin Williams would be.

A. For those of you tuning in late, “A Confederacy of Dunces” is the comic novel whose author, John Kennedy Toole, died 11 years before its publication in 1980. His mother persisted in trying to get it in print and caught the attention of writer Walker Percy. He turned it over to the Louisiana State University Press, which published it to enormous acclaim. The press estimates there are 2 million copies in print, in 18 languages; “Dunces” also won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

The movie rights were sold in 1981, and over the years, there have been reports of film adaptations to star Belushi, John Candy and Chris Farley, all of whom died before the movie could be made. About five years ago, there was detailed discussion of a version to star Will Ferrell, but it has not happened, either.

Peter Hyman wrote on the website Slate in 2006 about the problems besetting the move from book to screen: “Throughout Dunces’ history, studio chiefs have been reluctant to bet on a colloquial story involving an overweight intellectual who avoids sex and is fond of alluding to Roman philosophers. ... Yet these same executives are often attracted to the book’s status as an ‘important’ work. And therein lies the tension that keeps a Dunces adaptation forever on life support. As Will Ferrell has said, ‘It’s the movie everyone in Hollywood wants to make but doesn’t want to finance.’”

I asked LSU Press where things stood and received this emailed reply: “The film rights are indeed licensed, and have been since 1981, but so far, all attempts to bring the novel to the screen have failed. Perhaps one day!”

Q. In the series “Nikita,” is Michael (Nikita’s partner) the same person who played the villain in the last “Die Hard” movie? Incidentally, Maggie Q (who plays Nikita) was also in that movie if my memory serves me right.

A. Shane West, who plays Michael on the CW series, from some angles resembles Timothy Olyphant, the villain in “Live Free or Die Hard.” But they are not the same person. You may remember West from “ER,” and Olyphant’s many TV credits include FX’s “Justified” and HBO’s “Deadwood.”

And yes, Maggie Q was in “Live Free or Die Hard.”

Q. Who was singing “You’re the One That I Want” from “Grease” on the Nov. 15 episode of NBC’s “Parenthood”? Is this version on CD?

A. The cool, acoustic version of the John Travolta-Olivia Newton-John duet was done by The Lennings, a group from Austin, Texas. According to the band’s website, http://lenningsland.com the song “started out as a simple rainy-day recording and YouTube video of a pot of water slowly coming to a boil. It was more or less an experiment to see if a song could actually make people put up with having to stare at a pot of boiling water ... not to mention, proving that a watched pot does in fact boil.” It took off from there (and you can still see the video on YouTube).

The song is available as a download on iTunes and Amazon.com, and on a CD sampler including songs from the band’s first two albums as well as “You’re the One That I Want.”

2011 the Akron Beacon Journal

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