Word: britishism
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...London, Bill Clinton entices men to frolic with young ladies. Back at home in the British capital over the holidays, I clicked on the radio and heard a commercial open to the unmistakable beat of America's "Hail to the Chief," the tune that precedes our President on so many solemn occasions. At regular intervals, the equally unmistakable bump and grind of strip tease music, punctuated with high-pitched feminine giggles and deep male grunts, interrupted the song's stately rhythm, intimating what lay in store in a dubious London establishment. Then came another unmistakable sound--a hoarse, male voice...
...know this? It's in the scornful looks I received on the street when people recognized my American accent--looks I don't usually get. It's in the shame British newspaper columnists evoke when they write of Britain teaming up with the United States to bomb Iraq. Most poignantly and most painfully, it's in Prime Minister Tony Blair's hint of reticence where there was none before when he speaks to his people about joining the United States in bombing Iraq, as if he cannot be as certain of his ally in world affairs as he once...
Last week SIR ANTHONY HOPKINS called acting a "tiresome, disturbing and distasteful" profession, not to mention a "complete waste of time." Apparently years of accolades, knighting ceremonies and Academy Awards have left Tony a little bitter. In an interview with the British tabloid News of the World, Hopkins announced he was "getting out of this ridiculous business," adding that "acting is bad for the mental health." Once a mainstay of Merchant-Ivory productions, Hopkins has more recently appeared in such claptrap as the critically reviled Meet Joe Black. He says his project Titus Andronicus, currently filming in Rome, will...
...failure to honor tradition, not the dopiness of clinging to it, that's blamed. Sam Peckinpah, who loved to celebrate bad-boyishness, apparently tried for years to adapt Max Evans' 1961 novel to the screen. It says something about the reach and persistence of decaying myth that British director Stephen Frears, creator of such eccentric delights as My Beautiful Laundrette and The Grifters, has succumbed to it. There's no need to follow his example...
...novelty factor runs high with this first novel, nominated for a Booker Prize and written by a fellow who drives a big red London bus, and who, British newspapers feverishly reported, received a $1.6 million advance, which later turned out to be $16,000 (he still drives that bus). But this hilariously macabre tale of Tam and Richie, two Scottish fence builders who--once they can be dragged from their slovenly trailer, their cigarette breaks and their pub crawling--keep accidentally killing people on the job, marks a terrific debut. As the story veers into increasingly surreal territory--just...