Hawaii
IT cost a reported $140 million to make, and Touchstone Pictures isn't about to stop at that where "Pearl Harbor" is concerned. Not only has the preview (or trailer) of the film been virtually impossible to ignore, but a huge nationwide press junket is slated to get under way next week. This is where the studio flies in dozens of writers from various newspapers and magazines to interview the principals of the film -- actors like Ben Affleck, Dan Aykroyd, Alec Baldwin, Kate Beckinsale, Cuba Gooding Jr., Josh Hartnett and Mako. The expectation is an onslaught of publicity that will help bring in the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to make the film a financial success. Early reports have been good. I mentioned the multi-Oscar nominee who said the film had the greatest special effects he'd ever seen. Newsweek has a cover story in the May 14 issue, and there'll doubtless be many more. The premiere itself, which will be attended by the visiting press and local dignitaries on the USS John C. Stennis May 21, brought about this response from a newspaper friend on the mainland, paraphrasing Winston Churchill: "This is a junket, up with which I will put." ... ‘Pearl Harbor’ primes
for May 21 premiereHERE'S an example of something getting better due to the teacher's strike. Because kids lost so much class time during the strike, the 32nd annual High School Journalism Awards luncheon slated for Thursday at the Pagoda has been transformed into a dinner. Same place, but at 5:30 p.m. instead of noon ... Things were bustling at the home of John and Betsy McCreary Saturday as daughter Susie prepared for her wedding that day to Bryan Duprey at St. Andrew's Cathedral. Lots of relatives flew in, including Betsy's mother, Florence Kendall, who turned 91 that same day. She's now off to Massachusetts to receive an honorary doctorate, her fifth ...
Age is relative
IT'S a sight to behold in the Blue Tropix nightclub on the first Sunday of each month. That's when dancers ages 21 to 90 turn out to relive or recreate the dance moves of the 1940s to some hot and heavy swing provided by the 14-piece Del Courtney orchestra. Sometimes the kids and the old folks switch partners and mix it up on the dance floor. You've never seen so much perspiration, and often it's the younger folks "Sweatin' to the Oldies." Guest artist Sunday was Art Todd, who performed George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" on the banjo, if you can believe that. Todd is still going strong at 87. The 90-year-old Courtney quips, "I call him 'Kid.' "...
Kingston trio
ALSO in the Blue Tropix Sunday was award-winning novelist Maxine Hong Kingston with her son, Joe, a singer who has his own CD out. Her husband, actor Earll Kingston, popped in after his matinee of a Civil War-themed show at the Yellow Brick Theater. We reminisced about the massive production of "Marat/Sade" I directed for the Mallory Players at St. Andrews' Tenney Hall in 1968 in which he played the mad priest, Jacques Roux, wearing a straitjacket throughout. He reminded me that I was playing Mr. Checkers on the KGMB "Checkers & Pogo" show at the time we were rehearsing the somewhat blasphemous "Marat/ Sade." Seems we were both fighting to break restraints ...
Dave Donnelly has been writing on happenings
in Hawaii for the Star-Bulletin since 1968.
His columns run Monday through Friday.Contact Dave by e-mail: ddonnelly@starbulletin.com