For June Gay Pride Month Paul Rudnick, the novelist-humorist-screenwriter-playwright of too many to mention gay-themed movies, plays, books and TV shows, has published ‘Playing the Palace,’ a very funny, very merry gay romance between an American event planner and Britain’s out gay heir to the throne, Prince Edgar. I think of Oscar Wilde’s ceaseless stream of perceptive quips when I read Rudnick’s novels. Line by line they are a continuous display of vividly realized characters, clever insight and ribald humor. Here, following a HERALD feature about Rudnick and ‘Playing the Palace,’ is more from a recent phone interview.
Q: The idea of royal verifier or consultant — did you have one? Because it seems like the whole protocol and a lot of the attitudes just seem to be perfectly struck.
PAUL RUDNICK: I have friends who I certainly did plenty of research on actual protocol. I do have friends who are the most serious Monarchists. And these are Americans! They know about English royalty but they also know about countries where royalty no longer even functions, like Greece. They know who the Queen of Sweden is. They know who the Viscount of Sweden is. My god, they are tough cookies. Some of that I made up just to serve my own purposes. But it is fascinating. Also, a little bit of what I discovered was people imagine that there are more time-honored rules than there are. A lot of it mutates with each new generation. The rules are not quite as set in stone as I always imagined. You know, you can see things have evolved, especially after Diana’s death. The royals made a genuine effort to become more approachable. Now, when I started watching the Meghan and Harry interview — did you watch that?
Q: Yes. Of course.
PR: I thought, Oh, I’m gonna watch five minutes and then turn it off. Of course, I went until the bitter end; it was so riveting. And you think, Okay, they’re making this up as they go along and doing a very credible job. I just loved everything about that. There was something so theatrical about it. You know, the sunlit setting, it looked like a Maxfield Parrish print. And I really wanted to see, you know, Gayle King wandering around the lawn in the background. A fantastic job, as you expected. And they handle themselves beautifully. So you think, ‘Oh OK this is our next chapter.’ And no wonder we’re all obsessed. And now I just read that Harry is having his first documentary series, on Amazon, on mental health. That’s a huge leap for a royal! I mean when he talked about being depressed and wrestling with his mother’s death! That would have been unheard of not that many years ago. So you think, ‘That’s how royals can make a genuine difference.’ Because they have access to the media certainly and to all of our brains. It’s fascinating to watch Meghan and Harry making their way and deciding, ‘OK, how do we not just monetize all this, but do some good?’
Q: They do seem to be a lightning rod. I mean the reaction to what that interview was, the Piers Morgan rant and his being shown the door. This outrage — your royals don’t face that kind of hatred, do they?
PR: Well, they do a bit. I wanted them to be subject to that scrutiny, especially from the internet. That they gradually become aware especially Carter, our American hero who comes from New Jersey. He’s the guy who works as an event planner and he’s not used to having every move he makes become so public and so criticized and so commented on. That’s one of the things you know I don’t envy the royals. They really are owned by the public. The global public. And the very different opinions from the English audience and the American audience in reaction to Meghan and Harry, I think that America is actually, maybe even more affectionate towards them. So yeah I did want to factor that in, in the sense of, OK, any mistake you make suddenly has the potential to blow up, worldwide. That’s not a life for everybody.
Q: This is coming out in conjunction with Pride month of June, and you’ve been legitimately I think, a gay pioneer. How have gay subjects, gay comedy changed in the 20 or 30 years that you’ve been doing this?
PR: I think one of the things I’m so grateful for is that no one movie or play is expected to carry the burden of representing all LGBTQ lives. For a while people were so aware that you’ve only had this tiny window of representation. Now, increasingly, you’re finding there’s so much out there. You can have this infinite variety of gay lives — and that’s something that I just feel grateful for. The other thing I love, especially with this book, is that there have been a lot of stories of prejudice and coming out against enormous odds from an abusive family. Those stories are completely legitimate and need to be told. But I was wanting to do something that was an all-out romantic comedy. Totally celebratory. That’s now not just acceptable but welcome: You can have every variety of gay story.
Q: Do you have a favorite among the movies you’ve made and a favorite among the plays that you’ve done?
PR: That’s tough because I treasure them for different personal experiences I had behind the scenes. I have a huge fondness for ‘Addams Family Values’ because it had such an extraordinary cast and I loved Charles Addams. And also because the first ‘Addams Family’ movie (which I did a big rewrite on) did well, that gave us enormous freedom in the second movie. So suddenly when we said, ‘Oh, can we throw a baby off a building?’ the studio said, ‘That’s just fine.’ [joint laughter] Also, the thing I loved about both Addams movies was that they were these big studio films that were not expected to be wholesome. You could be really dark and wildly funny. So that was just the best opportunity. 
But I love ‘In & Out,’ I love the movie of ‘Jeffrey.’ As far as the theater goes, ‘Jeffrey’ holds a sort of wonderful internal place in my heart. Because it was the first time that I felt my writing had improved to a certain point I wanted to be worthy of that subject matter. Because I was writing about gay lives and I was writing about the AIDS crisis and I didn’t want to let all of that down. I wanted to be worthy of it. And that play was turned down by every theater across the country, by every theater in New York. So it really was the most gratifying success when audiences responded to it.
I know other people have found this experience, that even in the midst of such horror, like the pandemic we’re still coming out of, there’s a certain excitement because suddenly there’s this enormous common enemy and the stakes are sky high and we’re all in it together. ‘Jeffrey’ came out of that sort of chaos. I just was so grateful to all the actors who were warned away from it. It was the first time I’ve worked with Chris Ashley, who’s a superb director, who’s now this big Tony Award-winning Broadway guy. But that was everybody’s first moment. That becomes so memorable.
Also because it was so unexpected — it was a play that was supposed to run for like two weeks at this tiny off-off-Broadway theater. And it went on to have a much larger life. It was just sort of the most delicious shock. I remember I sat in the last row during one the last previews of ‘Jeffrey’ and I don’t cry much and I started to cry because I thought, ‘Oh my God I really like this and people don’t. Oh my God, am I gonna be depressed.’ So when it was well received I just thought, ‘Oh good Lord, this can actually happen.’ It was so great that I could be of service to the gay community. That was something I’d always dreamed of. And because it was a New York phenomenon as well, that was done in Boston, in San Francisco, in Los Angeles — right where those lives were at stake. I felt, OK I’m now a part of this. Which is also what that play was about, a character who felt sidelined. So ‘Jeffrey’ really stands out and means the world to me. There were others that thrilled me to death: ‘The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told’ and a play like ‘Regrets Only,’ where I got to work with Christine Baranski and George Grizzard.
Q: You mentioned ‘Addams Family Values’ and that of course has one of your most iconic lines enter the culture: ‘Be afraid. Be very afraid.’ I mean, don’t you think?
PR: That was Christina Ricci! Because she was just a total gift, because to find a child performer who was a complete actress already. She knew the style, which was difficult even for adult performers. She was just this gift. And especially because I’d worked with her on the first movie, everyone involved knew, ‘Yes, let’s give Christina as much as we possibly can.’ Because she was so good. But they all were.
NEW DVDs:
ARTFUL OLYMPIC SKETCHES Producer David L. Wolper did something unusually creative with his documentary on the 1972 Munich Olympics. Wolper asked 8 directors to fashion a segment that captured an element of the Games (actually he asked 10 but Fellini, Zeffirelli bolted). The result is ‘Visions of Eight’ (Blu-ray, Criterion Collection, G) in a new 4K digital restoration. Its filmmakers include Britain’s gay Oscar-winning John Schlesinger (‘Midnight Cowboy’), America’s Arthur Penn (‘Bonnie and Clyde’), Sweden’s movie star-turned-director Mai Zetterling (‘Loving Couples’), France’s Claude LeLouch (‘A Man and a Woman’), Czech émigré Milos Forman (‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’) and Japan’s Kon Ichikawa (‘The Burmese Harp’). The Munich Games are notorious for the Black September terrorist assault on the Israeli athletes which left 17 dead, 11 of them Israeli coaches and competitors. Only Schlesinger’s segment acknowledges the massacre. Zetterling scores best with an alternately hilarious and touching portrait of the bulbous weightlifters. Bonus: A podcast, a new documentary featuring participants, a promo short shot on location in 1972. There is also a George Plimpton essay from ’73 and an excerpt from Wolper’s 2003 memoir that is revealing about the behind the scenes transactions that made the film possible. Also, a new reflection on the many facets of ‘Visions’ by novelist Sam Lipsyte.
OTTO SPEAKS FOR GABBO From 1929, a distinctive, influential early sound picture, a musical based on a Ben Hecht story ‘The Rival Dummy’ about, yes, a ventriloquist. Starring Erich von Stroheim (‘Sunset Boulevard’ and Jean Renoir’s ‘Grand Illusion’) ‘The Great Gabbo’ (Blu-ray, Kino Classics, Not Rated) has this epitome of Prussian rectitude and discipline as a ventriloquist wholly dependent on Otto, his dummy. Gabbo is famous because while Otto talks, Gabbo smokes, drinks, even eats. But his insistence on meeting the world via Otto drives his love Mary (Betty Compson) to exit. Two years later with Gabbo now a celebrated headliner, Mary returns on the same theatrical bill with her new beau Frank. Although Gabbo has changed and can now talk to Mary without Otto as go-between, can they reunite? What will Otto say? (Or do?) In this 2K restoration of the entire 96-minute movie (for decades seen only in a half-hour shorter cut), there are musical numbers including the telling Spider and the Fly riff, ‘Caught in a Web.’ Truly a most peculiar pre-Code musical. There’s an audio commentary by ‘A Song in the Dark: The Birth of the Musical Film’ author Richard Barrios. ‘Gabbo’s legacy includes a 1993 episode of ‘The Simpsons’ called ‘Krusty Gets Kancelled.’ There’s also footage in ‘Fractured Flickers.’
CLASSY TRUE CRIME For adults of a certain age ‘Georgetown’ (DVD + Digital, Paramount, R) is simply ‘delish.’ Marking the directorial feature debut of its star Christoph Waltz with substantial support from the legendary Vanessa Redgrave, ‘Georgetown’ is character study, murder mystery and sly satire. It’s based on the NY Times Magazine feature ‘The Worst Marriage in Georgetown’ and closely follows real events, no matter how strange, that saw the victim murdered in 2011. Waltz is ideal as a European wanna-be buzzing into Washington DC politics via his marriage to the much older, wealthy, well-connected widow, a WWII immigrant. Change of fortune indeed. He rises in the politically-centered enclave as some kind of Swiss-based behind the scenes dealmaker with the help of his well-connected 91-year-old wife. Sometimes with an eye patch, often in an Iranian officer’s uniform, he struts and spins his ridiculous lies. Waltz is 64 while in reality there was a 44 year age difference between the widow and her young intern.) The elderly bride’s daughter, a tenured Harvard professor, is naturally appalled by this union. As played with a continued sense of bewildered skepticism by a frosty Annette Bening, she just can’t believe what’s happening. That’s partly why ‘Georgetown’ is so delicious, everyone seems to know exactly how to play this incredible but true tale, a credit to the actor in the director’s chair.
KICK BREATHE & REST A kung-fu comedy produced by a ‘Cobra Kai’ veteran, ‘The Paper Tigers’ (Blu-ray, Well Go, PG-13) opens as 3 kung fu prodigies, now washed-up with dead-end jobs and ancient grudges, find themselves with a mission. Their old master, who taught them kung fu as 10-year-olds beginning in 1986 when they were known as the Three Tigers, has been murdered. What better way to reunite with a new sense of purpose than to investigate and bring the killer to justice? Like ‘Karate Kid’ these ‘Tigers’ are here for action, emotion, respect and laughs. ‘Paper Tigers’ has the distinction of being a first-rate movie funded initially by a Kickstarter campaign. Well done! Bonus: Behind the scenes, deleted scenes, bloopers.
THE KILL OF IT ALL Bob Odenkirk makes the violent, deadpan ‘Nobody’ (Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Code, Universal, R) a must-see. An elaborate and elaborately plotted action movie notable for its vividly executed Tarantino-style slam bang wham! action, ‘Nobody’ works best as a couch potato’s wish fulfillment fairy tale where this Mr. Ordinary somehow becomes the baddest of the bad, no matter how many or how expert his would-be assassins are. A sequel is hoped for. Bonus Features: Deleted scenes, featurettes ‘Just a NOBODY,’ ‘Hutch Hits Hard,’ ‘Breaking Down the Action. Feature commentaries.
PFEIFFER DEFINES HAUTEUR Chosen as the prestigious opening night film for last year’s NY Film Festival, ‘French Exit’ (DVD, Sony, R) is quirky and definitely one of a kind. French-Israeli director Azazel Jacobs maintains a tone that alternates between supremely silly, slightly surreal and ‘stiff upper lip’ land. It’s hard to feel sympathetic for Michelle Pfeiffer’s Francis Price, a widow who was once rich and is now broke. What to do? Suicide is her response, via a trip to Paris via ocean liner. Along for the final tour is her wastrel son (Lucas Hedges) and a cat, Small Frank. In Paris other eccentrics enter the fun as Francis, eternally remote and self-contained, gives away piles of her last cash to homeless men. The film’s biggest question: Is the cat really her late husband’s reincarnation?
EAST ASIAN B-BALL BIOPIC ‘Boogie’ (Blu-ray + Digital Code,, Universal, R) is restaurateur Eddie Huang’s semi-autobiographical remembrance of his youth. Set in Queens where Alfred ‘Boogie’ Chin, a basketball phenom, dreams of joining the NBA. His East Asian parents’ focus is that he qualify for an elite school scholarship. Meanwhile, there’s his Black girlfriend, athletic rivals, high school. Writer-director Huang chose Taylor Takashi, in his film debut, to play Boogie. This marks the first and only film appearance of rapper ‘Pop Smoke’ Jackson who died in February 2020. Th soundtrack, featuring new music by Pop Smoke, is available. Bonus features: ‘The Road to Boogie-town,’ which explains how Takahashi went from Huang’s assistant to star, ‘Eddie Huang: It’s Personal,’ ‘Shout Out to Pop Smoke.’
KIRK VS QUINN Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn, both here at the height of their Hollywood stardom, are friends who become deadly enemies in ‘Last Train from Gun Hill’ (Blu-ray, Paramount, Not Rated), a 1959 ‘classic’ Western directed by the revered John Sturges (‘Bad Day at Black Rock,’ ‘The Great Escape,’ ‘Gunfight at the O.K. Corral,’ ‘The Magnificent Seven’). This is the second film in this column to revolve around a rich man (Quinn) who attempts to keep his son (Earl Holliman) from justice – even though he raped and murdered Marshal Matt Morgan’s (Douglas) Native American wife. Special Feature: Leonard Maltin with a new filmmaker focus.
A NEW LOOK AT ‘FINAL’ The latest chapter in the CGI sci-fi adventure, ‘Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete’ (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital, Sony, Unrated) is now in a Director’s Cut with an additional 26 minutes of footage and over 1,000 revised scenes. Also ‘Complete’ boasts Dolby Atmos audio in both English and Japanese. The 2004 ‘Final Fantasy VII’ had Cloud leaving his life of solitude to confront a mysterious illness that could be part of an evil plot to resurrect an old enemy. Special Blu-ray Features: ‘On the Way to a Smile – Episode: Denzel,’ Original Story Digest, ‘Legacy of Final Fantasy VII.’
CRANSTON SCORES ‘Your Honor’ (DVD, 10 episodes, 3 discs, CBS, Not Rated) is a miniseries which like ‘In Treatment’ is adapted from a hit Israeli series. An expansive morality play, Bryan Cranston stars as a New Orleans judge who breaks the law big time to lie and protect Adam, his only son who is guilty of a hit and run that killed another teenager, the son of a powerful Mafioso family (Michael Stuhlbarg, Hope Davis). Complications ensue when Adam falls in love with their daughter. (Of course! It’s complicated) Things get even murkier when Kofi Jones (Lamar Jones), a young Black guy, is forced to take the fall for Adam. Bonus: Deleted scenes.
CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD BIOPIC ‘Madame Curie’ (Blu-ray, Warner Archive, Not Rated) In 1943 England’s Greer Garson reigned as Queen of MGM, the most important and dominant studio of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Garson, an elegant redhead with a patrician manner, had become a star in the late ‘30s with the schoolboy classic — and the first of her 7 Oscar nominations — for ‘Goodbye Mr. Chips.’ A string of box-office hits (‘Pride and Prejudice,’ ‘Blossoms in the Dust,’ ‘Mrs. Miniver,’ ‘Random Harvest’) simultaneously aligned with 5 consecutive Best Actress Oscar nominations – she won for the WWII classic ‘Miniver.’ As a biopic of the Nobel Prize winning Polish-French physicist who discovered radium – and died from radium poisoning — ‘Curie’ had been touted as a vehicle for Irene Dunne, Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford before Garson was cast opposite her frequent screen partner Walter Pidgeon as her scientist husband who shared the Nobel with her as well. As a biopic, ‘Curie’ remains highly fictionalized but still factual. Even if in this wartime release ‘Curie’ skips any mention of Mme. Curie’s vigorous, lifelong support for an independent Poland. Nominated for 7 Oscars including Best Picture, Actress and Actor, winning none. Special Features: the Oscar-nominated Pete Smith short ‘Romance of Radium.’
YOUTH IN REVOLT From Ireland ‘Here Are the Young Men’ (Blu-ray, Well Go, Not Rated) chronicles a Dublin teenage gang in the summer of 2003 who, having just graduated high school, can’t think of anything better than drinking, vandalism and drugs. As expected, there’s the nice girl with brains (Anya Taylor-Joy) caught between 2 of them. When she unluckily chooses Finn Cole’s sociopath, things can’t really be expected to go well.
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Stephen Schaefer’s Hollywood & Mine - Boston Herald
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