By Dave Donnelly
Tuesday, February 25, 1997
Steven Spielberg, Sam Choy
Steven Spielberg, Sam Choy
AFTER the showing of "Schindler's List" Sunday night, the inescapable conclusion is that network television will never be the same. It is possible to show a film without commercials, save maybe one or two pauses for an intermission, though they'd better sell a lot of Fords to justify the expense. It's OK to use profanity - even the dreaded "f" word - on the network if the situation calls for it. (I well remember hearing the word on a movie screen for the first time in "Ulysses" a mere 30 years ago, and now it's hard to find a movie where it isn't used.) Then there's nudity: Oldtime movie maker Sam Goldwyn was once told by a young director he needed a nude scene in a film he was making for the producer. The director assured there'd be no "frontal nudity." Goldwyn, in his classic old-world accent, told the man, "I don't vant any nudity in my films - frontal, backal or sidal." That's now by the boards with total nudity - frontal, backal and sidal - so commonplace throughout "Schindler's List," though usually in a non-sexual, unerotic way, that censors will be hard-pressed to prevent it in the future ... ‘Schindler’s List’
sets TV precedentNO film shown on TV again will likely be adjudged as too violent by censors, without the director evoking the "Schindler's List" precedent. Steven Spielberg gave us all of the above as well as an emotional bath, the likes of which we've never experienced on network television. It may end up being justified by an uplifting epiphany, but the betting here is that despite the violence, the nudity, the profanity, the sex and even moreso, the monumental inhumanity of man to man, "Schindler's List" may well change the way people watch television in America. In short, the film has written a new set of ground rules, and you know what Thomas Wolfe said about going home again ...
SO who, you ask, is the entrepreneur and author who's appeared on the cover of Time magazine and who's speaking at St. Andrew's Priory this week? No, it's not Bill Gates. We're talking about Wally Amos, the man who created and then sold those "famous" cookies a few years back. He's visiting St. Andrew's to speak to middle school students during Black History Month. The idea by teachers Barbara Ford and Julie Hansen to bring a speaker to the school has mushroomed into a three-day event with four speakers. Others sharing their experiences with the kids are Priory mom Cynthia Jenkins, federal Judge Sandra Sims speaking on the role of the judiciary in civil rights, and activist Jayne Sayles Ratcliff reading ethnic stories. Waiting in the wings is opera performer Emma Edwards who, once her calendar opens up, wants to sing at chapel service at the Priory with her granddaughter, 7th grader Ella Soto-Edwards ... A-Plus for Amos
AT the Sunday wedding of commercial leasing exec Ed Reinhart and Kathy Fu, the minister, Alan Fisher, started things off by strumming a ukulele left handed, prompting one cry of, "Oh no, it's Tiny Tim!" But he was merely beginning the song "Hawaiian Lullaby" to get the ceremony underway ... Royalty rumors: Word spread at Rumours nightclub that Mark Phillips was dancing in the club. False rumor! It wasn't the former husband of Princess Anne, though he was in town getting married, but The Artist Formerly Known As Prince, enjoying a spin around the dance floor with his wife while in town for his Arena concert ...
WHEN you think of chef Sam Choy, you think of his girth and his mirth, not to mention his wizardry in the kitchen. Those who've been golfing with the king-sized chef think sand traps. He played last week with actor Michael Douglas and entertainment mogul Shep Gordon at Hualalai, and you'd have thought he'd spent a day at the beach from all the sand he dragged home. Sam figures he was in every trap on the course, and even his driving came in for a rap. John de Fries looked at Choy's golf bag and said, "Whatta ya know? Kamehameha Woods." ... Choy of golf
