http://bigtweet.com/c/b/twitter/lowercase_dave/38uA88 I’m at least somewhat familiar with the Marlowe authorship story – faked his death, blah blah blah.  Here we have a nice little 15 minutes of video from a documentary filmmaker who goes into detail about why he believes the theory.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/poll/2009/feb/04/shakespeare-hall-fame I like the idea.  Loses major credibility for including Leonardo DiCaprio, who no matter how good he may or may not have been as Romeo still really has just the one credit to his name – but maybe they felt the need to pull in the younger crowd? What’s cooler is that we get to vote on the remaining member. But how could it *not* be John Gielgud?  He gets my vote. UPDATE:  The results make it look like David Tennant is a shoe-in.  That upsets me, I hate popularity contests.  I’m sure the Dr. Who guy is a fine Shakespearean actor, but I mean come on, Gielgud was doing Shakespeare longer than Tennant’s been alive!

http://shakespeare.about.com/b/2009/01/13/hitler-shakespeares-most-controversial-fan.htm I think I missed this when it came around a few weeks ago.  Hitler was in the habit of quoting (badly) Julius Caesar? It doesn’t bother me as much as others, it seems.  It’s not like Mr. Shakespeare had anything to do with what Mr. Hitler did with his life. 

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117999542.html?categoryid=13&cs=1

Wow.  Oh, geez.  Umm…. I think I’m a little speechless. The first thing that comes to mind is “Oh, crap, the director is the same guy that did Pacino’s Merchant – and that got crucified by the Shakespeare crowd.”  (See Rosenbaum’s Shakespeare Wars for a good example of said crucifixion.) But…it’s Pacino!  Can he do it?  Does he still have the chops?  Is Michael Corleone/Tony Montana/Sonny Wortzik still in there?  Or would we get the screaming half-deaf Lear ala Colonel Frank Slade?  COME NOT…BETWEEN THE DRAGON, AND HIS WRATH!  HOO-AH!

Seriously, has Pacino ever had it in him to play Lear?  He’s been a great actor, no doubt – but has he ever really had that kind of range?

I want to thank everybody for participating in our “Bill Bryson For Everyone And Their Grandma” contest, sponsored by Harper Collins.  The winners, chosen randomly from all the entries received, are… ANN (from Shakespeare Tavern), who wrote:
I’d give one to the volunteer coordinator at the Atlanta Shakespeare Tavern (http://www.shakespearetavern.com/). Not only does she enjoy that sort of book, but she often leaves them out for everyone else to read and gives them as gifts. REN GIRL, who wrote:
I would keep one to read, & give one to my school’s drama department. Unlike the Big State School down the road from us, we don’t have a full-on drama library, just the shelves of our professors & some older books (hard to get to) locked up in our greenroom, but I would LOVE to start a drama library collection that we could just waltz in & borrow whenever we wanted. I’d start with something fun & light but good, like this book. 🙂 and… LIANE66, who wrote:
I would keep one and give the other to my college son.   Congratulations!  Winners, please contact me with your mailing address so Harper Collins can send your books along.    Thanks to everyone who participated, hopefully this puts Shakespeare Geek on the radar for more book publishers looking to give away their goods!