Word: witting
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...answer, as anyone knows who has been watching TV promotion spots lately, is ABC's new series Battlestar Galactica, perhaps the most blatant rip-off ever to appear on the small screen. The show ripped off, naturally, is Star Wars, which Galactica copies in nearly everything but wit and talent. As a result, even before the show premieres this Sunday, it has been caught up in legal controversy...
...that officially turns the sane into the insane and pretends that its own insanity is rea son itself. As slyly as if he were pulling a rabbit from his hat, Stoppard has written a play as propaganda, and its anti-Soviet message is all the more effective for its wit and humor. Andre Previn's music, which he himself conducted, is equally witty. Hinting at Prokofiev and Shostakovich, Previn underlines Stoppard's words and adds his own notes of satire. When Alexander, for instance, says that confinement will at least allow him time to read War and Peace...
...Neville Marriner, 54, and Klaus Tennstedt, 52. Minnesota is lucky. It has landed two men who have gained formidable international reputations in a relatively brief time. Marriner, conductor of London's Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields chamber orchestra, has "charm and wit and intellect," says one London observer. His 200 recordings, many of Baroque music, have pleasingly brisk tempi and a gay, intimate sound. As music director, Marriner will bring his favorite Haydn and Mozart to Minnesota; his weakness may well be that specialized repertoire. But, says he, "if you want to have any impact as musical...
...Richard Meryman's delightful biography shows, Mank's wit had an undertow of bitterness and desperation. "I am the most serious man in the world," he said, "even when I'm joking." The son of a German immigrant who believed in Prussian discipline, Mankiewicz was ceaselessly downgraded by his father. The old man, a professor of languages, seemed jealous and resentful of Herman's precocity. Early on, the boy became convinced that he was a failure and spent the rest of his life trying to prove himself right...
...wit alone remained unblunted. In vited to a preview of a film about an alcoholic, The Lost Weekend, he declined wryly: "Would you invite Admiral Halsey to play with the boats in your baby's bathtub?" Even when it was directed at someone else, Mank's lance was really pointed toward himself...