Chemical Attraction

It's an odd thing, chemistry. Some movie couples have it; some don't. What fascinates me is when real life couples appear together as romantic leads, some simply don't have it. I've previously posted about how marvelous William Powell and Myrna Loy were as Nick and Nora Charles in The Thin Man series and how, in comparison, his real-life wife Carole Lombard and he didn't click nearly as well in My Man Godfrey.

Of course, even if real life couples are able to make the screen sizzle, sometimes their marriages falter. Consider these examples:

I loved the Taylor-Burton pairing in Zeffirelli's Taming of the Shrew (although the storyline is slightly problematic for me in comparison to some of the Bard's other plays, they made it work).


One of my very favorite couples, Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh, had fantastic chemistry in the aforementioned Much Ado as well as the superb version of Henry V.


They also starred together in one of my all time favorite little-known mysteries, Dead Again, loaded with twists and turns:


Chemistry is tricky. I'm reminded of Justice Potter Stewart's attempt to explain "hard-core" pornography, or what is obscene, by saying, "I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced . . . [b]ut I know it when I see it . . . "

These three couples had chemistry. Sometimes it was like adding vinegar to baking soda, bubbling merrily along; sometimes it was more like adding Mentos ® to Diet Coke ® - explosive. But it was always a blast to watch.

The Ugliness of Time Zone Adjustment (or alternatively, where in the world is Col. Brandon?)

I am doomed.

I should be fast asleep, but I'm sitting at my kitchen table as wide awake as can be.

It is 2:57 in the morning. After a week on the east coast, preceded by a virtually sleepless night, culminating in a post-midnight arrival at PDX, any normal person would be in bed, fast asleep.

My body had plenty of time to adjust to the three-hours-earlier time zone of the east coast. Which means that my body should have felt wiped out last night, because it was actually post-three am, body time.

And since I've only been back on the west coast since the wee hours of this morning - no, make that yesterday morning - and it is now 3:02 in the morning here, my body should be feeling it like it's 6:02 in the morning.

What is up with you, body? Even if I never took the trip, I should be sleeping because it is 3:03 in the morning. What normal person stays up this late?!

I have a couple of things on my mind I'll share and then I will try to join Professor X in sleepyland.

1. I have a bunch of cool new followers! You should check them out. There's Carla from 365 Letters, Joy from Red Silk Streams, Coyote Prime from Running 'Cause I Can't Fly, and Annie, who blogs at My Ranchburger and at the Bunny Bungalow and she's starting a new one, And So They Met. Of course, all my other lovely followers are extremely worthy as well. I'm seriously bummed out that I can't comment at many of the sites because the comment form is different than mine and I can't make it accept my comments. I feel totally stupid about this. I need to figure this out. I'm visiting and reading and enjoying but many bloggers don't know that because I can't comment.

2. One of my followers, Colonel Brandon of Nature Diary blog, has vanished. I mean, he has totally left blogland. Damn, damn, and double damn. I really loved his writing. The same person still has Brasserie Alizé, as Alexandre Fabbri, but Col. Brandon was terrific. His blog provided me with an opportunity to Austen-ify my writing when I left him comments. And BA doesn't allow comments or provide an email address. There's a cool chat feature, but I haven't hit it when anyone is there, even though I thought I understood what time chats would be.

How do you cope with it when a blog you've really enjoyed suddenly closes up shop and disappears? The feelings of loss are surprisingly strong.

Okay, enough whinging. Something fun that I'm excited about:

3. I've been asked to serve as a "Celebrity Speaker" for a film series that the local college is doing. This is a sneaky way of getting my services gratis, but that's okay. I have hopes they'll hire me in the future to teach a course again, so a freebie here and there isn't a terrible imposition. I'll be introducing two films as part of the Great Actresses of the Silver Screen series: Taming of the Shrew with Elizabeth Taylor and It Happened One Night with Claudette Colbert.

I've already started putting together a pair of little powerpoints of great photos to illustrate my talks. They're gonna be great.

I love movies. In fact, I took the family to a funny movie this evening. Well, it was actually last evening, I guess. I'll tell you about it tomorrow. Or perhaps later today after I sleep.

It's now 3:51 in the morning. I really need to get to bed now.