Awakened

Nicole Kidman shows her silly side in 'Paddington'

14 JANUARY 2014   ASSOCIATED PRESS   LINSEY BAHR

BEVERLY HILLS -- ... She's won an Oscar. She's worked with Stanley Kubrick, Jane Campion, and Lars Von Trier. So how did she end up in a modest role as a delightfully villainous taxidermist in the children's film "Paddington" with a relatively unknown director at the helm?

... "The desire to run the gamut and be diverse is something you're taught at drama school," said Kidman on a recent afternoon at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. "We're trained in Shakespeare and then we're trained in Noël Coward and we're trained in mime classes. But a lot of times you're not given the opportunity to explore the things that you've cultivated." 

For director Paul King, it was a no-brainer. But it wasn't Kidman's 1996 romantic fantasy romp "Practical Magic" that he was thinking of. He'd seen Gus Van Sant's "To Die For" and knew Kidman had to be his Millicent. 

The hard part was convincing everyone to actually put the script in front of Kidman. As King describes it, it's a process of being politely insistent. 

Despite all the warnings that Kidman was "never" going to say yes, as soon as she heard the name "Paddington," she jumped. Kidman had grown up reading Michael Bond's books in Australia and it just struck a nerve. 

Ultimately, King said, she was the easiest person to cast. She signed on in just 12 hours 

"You don't often see the silly side of Nicole and she's such a funny, easygoing person," said King, who really put the actress to the test. On day one, she was hanging upside down on wires and it just got more challenging from there. 

... But Kidman insists that she's "not the actor who makes strategic choices. If you look at my career, it's pretty random." Even the Fallon bit was "so not planned." 

Still, she is taking the reins where she can. Kidman and Reese Witherspoon optioned the rights to the book "Big Little Lies," which is in development as a limited series. She's also staring in and producing the adaptation of the quirky novel "The Family Fang." 

"My life is a roller coaster. My career is a roller coaster. Some people get smooth sailing. I never get that," she said. Read More

Christopher Columbus economics
What was the economic motivation for King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to back Christopher Columbus?
12 OCTOBER 2009   EXAMINER   JAMES STOTTER

The dominant economic thinking of Columbus’s era was what we call mercantilism. Basically that means the collective wealth of all nations was thought to be fixed. Therefore, a nation could only gain at the expense of another nation (war, theft, or favorable trading) or by discovering new wealth for the world. The new wealth was mostly precious minerals such as gold. However, it could also be something like spices that everyone wanted. Though it wasn’t called that then, mercantilism in one form or another was in practice since before Columbus through the mid-1700s. Some still hold to mercantilistic views. Mercantilism was the primary motivation for most of those explorers we read about in history courses.

Columbus, a navigator and cartographer by trade, figured the world is round and therefore by sailing west he could get to the East Indies. Instead of the East Indies he discovered his path blocked by what turned out to be a "new world." Since he thought he was in the East Indies, he named the native inhabitants Indians. 

Ferdinand and Isabella signed a generous agreement with Columbus in part because they didn’t think he would return. When Columbus returned with evidence of the wealth he discovered, he received numerous rewards and a lot of money. 

The wealth that flowed to Spain as a consequence of Columbus’s trip was a major help in securing Spain’s position as a dominant world power for another century. Perhaps more importantly, it boosted Spain’s finances which were badly damaged by unprofitable wars. Read More

Birds of a Feather: Dressing Down the Traditional Embellishment
14 JANUARY 2015   STYLE   EMILY FARRA

We’re used to seeing feathers on the red carpet and at the ballet, but the fancy fluff looks just as good on the street. We’ve spotted feathered coats, skirts, and even sandals on the show circuit, and mixed with casual knits and outerwear, they look special without being over-the-top. See five of our favorite outfits in our Look of the Day slideshow... Read More

"Super-fluffy sandals demand attention."

Photo by Tommy Ton