wowOwow - The Women on the Web

02/23/2010 5:00 am

Culture

Liz Smith: Kevin Spacey's Greetings From China

Also from Our Gossip Girl: 'Time Stands Still' at the Manhattan Theater Club.

"Night and morning are making promises to each other which neither will be able to keep," wrote Richard Shelton.

***

I HAD no more than mentioned in this column that Kevin Spacey was making a film in China than I received a personal letter from the director of The Old Vic Theatre Company.

Kevin wrote from Guangzhou, which is a metropolis on the south coastline of China. This place is a pioneer of economic development and Mr. Spacey himself describes it as "a city that has what looks like 97 buildings under construction. The thing is it’s like watching an industrial revolution happen in about five minutes. They also work all night long, which means if the glass on the windows weren’t so thick, you’d hear nothing but the sounds of trucks, drills, hammers and the generally pleasing sounds of construction sites – all night long!"

Kevin added: "I am delighted that you still have a place in your heart for this London-based American. We are in the middle of our sixth season of work at the Old Vic and I am having the best time I could have imagined. Working with remarkable artists like Sam Mendes, Matthew Warchus, Jeff Goldblum, Simon Russell Beale, Sinead Cusack and Ethan Hawke has proved to be exactly what I dreamed of coming to London and starting a theater company would be. I feel very fortunate and lucky to be doing what I love."

This personal expression of joy is, of course, at odds with the usual British critique of Mr. Spacey and/or anybody trying to run the Old Vic. His American credentials were probably against Kevin in the first place. But then, the British press just hates to be nice. Kevin writes me that he "wasn’t aware that I was being called ‘the darling of the left-wing intelligentsia,’ something that made me laugh very hard when I read it."

When he isn’t running the Old Vic, the Oscar-winning ("American Beauty’) actor-director does do an occasional movie. He shot "Casino Jack" last year in which he’ll be seen playing the notorious Jack Abramoff, Washington lobbyist. He has another movie comedy, "The Reinvention of Robert Axle," coming with Heather Graham and Johnny Knoxville.

***

Paul McCartney’s ex – the often excoriated Heather Mills –who used part of her enormous divorce settlement to set up a café called V-Bites for vegans near her house on what the Brits call "Millionaire’s Row," is now planning a worldwide chain of vegetarian restaurants. They will cater to wedding parties.

***

THE MANHATTAN Theater Club has its ups and downs like all "experimental" theater, but this time, Lynne Meadow and Barry Grove are two happy people indeed. They have brought to Broadway one of the most intelligent, moving and thought-provoking dramas in years, "Time Stands Still."