Page 24 - 04_Bafta ACADEMY_Mark Thompson_ok

Inside 195 Piccadilly & Reviews
JOHN MORRELL’S
THE VARIETY ALMANAC 2000
(Boxtree, £25)
Although we’re
more than
halfway
through this
year, I still
have no hesitation in
recommending what
must surely be the definitive
showbiz survey of the past 12 months which only reinforces Variety’s claim to be the showbusiness “bible”.
But this brilliant annual isn’t just about What (and Who) Was What in ’99, it also proves to be a veritable arts festival covering film, television, video, music, books and theatre. Then there are endless
“baftalk”
BOOKREVIEWS
BY QUENTIN FALK
All-Time lists of everything from Oscars, US network TV show
ratings and Pulitzer Prize-winning fiction to an adjusted chart of
movie box-office champions.
So here, Gone With the Wind is number one ($2.3 billion) based on
admissions, followed by Snow White And the Seven Dwarfs and
Bambi. That compares with the official, inflated dollar triumvirate
headed by Titanic, Stars Wars and Star Wars: Episode 1,
The Phantom Menace.
The reviews section is especially rewarding with many referring to films yet to open in the UK – enjoy a sneak preview to, among others, Flawless, The Big Kahuna and The Third Miracle – and there’s even a Future Films survey and Divorces section. ■
Regular visitors to 195 Piccadilly won’t see him very often, but might have got a whiff of him around the place. Welcome to Dominic Barham, the Academy’s new chef who describes his food as “mod- ern contemporary with classical influ- ences.” Which dovetails quite nicely with a number of changes in the pipeline to give 195 a spruce up this August - without losing the classical dignity of the building.
Dominic, recently appointed head chef for Roux Fine Dining at BAFTA, will soon have a brand new, state-of-the-art kitchen. The old one
has served us well for
ten years but is creak-
ing and leaking and,
like an old car, cost-
ing far too much to
maintain. The Servery
too is - let’s be gener-
ous - dated. A make-
over there will
include new menus,
new name - CAFE @
195- and new decor.
To guide Dominic
on the menus, we are
most grateful to the 500
members who respond-
ed to our Catering
Questionnaire. The
response has been ter-
rific. A 20% response rate when the experts told us to expect 5/8%.
Update on the Interactive Entertainment Awards - Royal Lancaster Hotel, October 26, tickets from Dan Boothby - the evening will be presented by Phill Jupitus,
regular team captain on BBC 2’s pop quiz Never Mind the Buzzcocks. Last day for entries – August 25.
Another date for the diary - the week- end of September 23/24. As part of the Academy’s policy to inform the public about our charitable activities, we shall be taking part in the London Open
House Weekend. This is an event which pro- vides public access, free of charge, to all types of eminent pub- lic and private build- ings across the capital including the Bank of England, the British Library and ITN.
Our sincere apolo- gies to Bruce Jones who was not credited for his multitude of superb Television Awards’ photographs in the third issue of ACADEMY.
especially my new PA Ruth Grenville,
GETTING INTO FILMS & TELEVISION
John Morrell Executive Director BAFTA
And finally... all of us in the office,
BY ROBERT ANGELL (* HOW TO BOOKS, £9.99)
Ihis Foreword to this Sixth Edition, Lord Puttnam writes: “Robert Angell has over the years given advice to lit- erally hundreds of young people wanting to ‘get into film or televi- sion’. In this book he consolidates that advice based on his many years as a doc- umentary producer who started in the cutting room and progressed through many different areas of production.”
Angell breezily covers the worlds of feature films, commercials, documen- taries, television and training right up to the point of Selling Yourself all in an
INSIDE VARIETY
BY PETER BESAS (ARS MILLENII, £25.00)
Words such as “corny”, “icky”, “pay-off”, “whodunnit” and “soap opera” – now, surely, all common usage – are credited as having been coined by Variety.
They were all part of that
unique “slanguage” intro-
duced to the trade paper’s devoted fol- lowing in the earlier years of the leg- endary showbusiness trade paper.
Undoubted king of the new idiom was theatre show critic Jack Conway – former trolley car conductor, sometime semi-pro baseball player and very occa- sional vaudeville actor – who exploded with etymological invention after being
appointed to the staff in the Twenties by the paper’s founder Sime Silverman.
It was Conway who appar- ently came up with enduring pearls like scram (beat it), click (instantaneous success), gams (legs) and, yes, even bimbo (moronic female – the author’s translation, not mine!).
eminently readable format. Numerous appendices range from Useful Addresses to Training & Working
Overseas. ■
* How to Books,
Customer Services Dept, Plymbridge Distributors Ltd, Estover Road, Plymouth, PL6 7PY Tel: 01752 202301
Then, of course, there are those much
imitated headlines, the most famous of which must be Sticks
Nix Hick Pix (rural films fail in country
areas) and Wall St. Lays An Egg (referring to the
1929 stock market crash) which now regu-
larly punctuate any period showbiz movie or
TV series.
All this, and much, much more – in
fact, 563 pages of it – are lovingly detailed in Peter Besas’ massive, unauthorized his- tory of Variety 1905-1987 which might have defined the expression “labour of love.”
Besas, a charming, refined New Yorker, was a Variety staffer for 30 years, starting as Madrid bureau chief in 1969, and one of its most loyal “muggs”, as reporters were called in the days before the paper was sold to a multinational company in 1987.
In a lengthy epilogue, Besas, who “ankled” (left) Variety in April ’99, brings the story virtually up to date covering the tricky transitional period before the paper reached its present stability and prosperity. A film buff’s must! ■
May I remind members that a range of specialists will be at work in the Academy during August and we shall be closed to members and guests from July 31- August 31. As well as the kitchen and the Cafe, workmen will be fitting new air-condition- ing in the David Lean Room; new fire alarm system throughout; re-designing the second floor reception area; refresh- ing the Run Run Shaw as an electronic viewing/meeting room; re-equipping the Projection Box to meet the digital demands of a converging industry.
When we re-open at the beginning of September, members and guests will cer- tainly notice the difference. The aim: to enhance the building, improve the facili- ties, add value to membership with a new range of food in an updated environment. Dominic sums it up: “we must use these new opportunities to improve standards of cuisine and speed of service.”
wish to thank BAFTA member Michael McStay for the best laugh of the month. He wrote...
“I’m sorry! I’m very sorry! No, I’m late! I know! I really am sorry! I mean, what else can I say? I just am very, very sorry!
You see – the thing is... No, you’re not interested in all that. It’s not your concern that my desk is in the usual muddle and that letters sent four weeks in advance and demanding money always get placed very carefully at the bottom of that mud- dle. You don’t need to know that my wal- let was stolen ten days ago, and only later did I discover that I had already removed my BAFTA membership card and placed that at the bottom of the muddle so that I could send it off to you, and that it hadn’t been lost in the wallet along with the credit cards, debit cards, membership to Gerry’s Club (Gerry’s Club?), library card, that funny cutting I always keep about Kenneth Branagh, and all sorts of poten- tially embarrassing telephone numbers. None of that is your problem.
The fact is that I am late! And I am sorry! Very, very sorry! Oh, Lord! What can I say! I’m sorry! I’m enclosing the present membership card rather than a new photo because I’m never going to look any better than that. I’m sorry about that, too.”■
Photo above left: Dominic Barham, the Academy’s new chef
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