Vindicator Logo

newsmakers

Sunday, July 3, 2011

newsmakers

Maguire: Nothing wrong in poker games

LOS ANGELES

Tobey Maguire didn’t just win more than $300,000 during poker matches against a man convicted of running a Ponzi scheme; the actor’s attorney notes in court filings that he also lost $168,500 to the convicted con man.

Maguire’s attorney denied the actor did anything wrong by playing in the Texas Hold ’Em matches held at upscale Beverly Hills hotels and private residences and shouldn’t be required to turn over any of his winnings to Ponzi investors, court filings released Thursday state. But attorney Robert Barta argues that if a bankruptcy court rules that the “Spider-Man” star has to turn over any of his winnings, he should be credited for the nearly $170,000 he lost to Bradley Ruderman.

The actor and 21 others, including several celebrities, were sued in March by a bankruptcy trustee hoping to recoup more than $4 million in Ruderman’s gambling losses during the poker games, which the lawsuits claim were unlicensed. The winners, including Maguire and actor-director Nick Cassavetes, have no right to keep their winnings, the trustee’s lawsuits claim.

English troupe travels with its own theater

NEW YORK

The Royal Shakespeare Company has to be considered a very gracious house guest. Not only has this English troupe arrived in New York to show off five of its productions with its own actors and costumes, it also has brought its own stage.

The acclaimed company has built and shipped a replica of its home stage in Stratford-upon-Avon and is assembling it inside a 55,000-square-foot hall within an armory on Park Avenue.

“Where else in New York City can you see a theater actually built within another building? It’s amazing,” said Rebecca Robertson, president and executive producer of the Park Avenue Armory at 67th Street.

The company’s 41 actors and 21 musicians will perform five William Shakespeare works — “As You Like It,” “Julius Caesar,” “King Lear,” “Romeo and Juliet” and “The Winter’s Tale” — in repertory for 44 performances from Wednesday to Aug. 14.

The traveling 975-seat, steel-framed replica of an Elizabethan-era three- level theater includes a stage that extends into the audience on three sides. The theater is incredibly intimate, with the farthest seat from the edge of the stage only 49 feet away.

Associated Press