The Torygraph (via Gawker) reports that contained within my Secret Boyfriend‘s autobiography is a passage cribbed, apparently, from the movie The Queen, and completely, utterly made up.
In A Journey, Blair claims that the Queen said to him: “You are my 10th prime minister. The first was Winston. That was before you were born.” In [screenwriter Peter] Morgan’s script to the 2006 film The Queen, Mirren, in the title role, tells Michael Sheen’s Blair: “You are my 10th prime minister, Mr Blair. My first was Winston Churchill.”
As a longtime reader of Majesty Magazine, I can tell you that there is very, very little likelihood that the first quotation is correct. The Queen just does not express herself this way in a formal and historically loaded context. She would surely have said “Churchill” or “Winston Churchill” if she said anything. And the screenwriter is adamant that he didn’t base it on any facts, just made it up entirely. So, when you do your substitution at the bookstore, you’d best put his book with Crime Fiction rather than True Crime!
You want a famus? There’s one surefire way to develop your own public: get yourself on social media! On Saturday, June 19 I’ll be teaching a four-hour workshop on how writers specifically can use social media platforms like WordPress, Facebook, Stumbleupon, Twitter, Tumblr, and others to develop fans, followers, avid readers, and even a few enemies (you’re nobody till somebody hates you, darling!). This is a fundraiser for the Federation of BC Writers, and if you sign up as a member that day you’ll get $15 off membership AND save ten dollars on registration!
The specifics:
Social Media Self-Promotion for Writers
10am-2pm, Saturday, June 19
Boardroom, Alliance for Arts and Culture, #100 – 938 Howe St., Vancouver
$40 for Fed members, $50 for non-members
cheques to:
The Federation of BC Writers, PO Box 3887 Stn Terminal, Vancouver, V6B 3Z3
Payment must be received before the date of workshop
Receipts will be mailed
Register with The Fed office by phone: 604-683-2057 or by email: fedbcwriters at gmail dot com
Bring your laptop! This is a participatory course, and you will be working in various sites in the class; you can use a pseudonym if you like, but do register a new email for it in advance of the class.
This workshop is a hands-on, intensive introduction to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other popular social media platforms, all taught from a writer’s perspective. We will cover the etiquette unique to each platform and how it can work to a writer’s advantage, how to set up your profile with a professional tone, privacy concerns, how to promote your work and your persona via social media and how to separate the work and the personal in the intertwined world of social media. This course will make you aware of all your different social media options and give you some perspective to make an informed choice about your participation in the social media space. You’ll leave the class with an active Facebook Fan Page, a professional Twitter account, and a LinkedIn profile, and a good grounding on how to use each to promote yourself and your works in a powerful, professional and authentic way.
What: Social Media for Non-Profit Organizations
$20 includes dinner and a drink
When: 7-9pm Monday, April 26th, 2010
Where: UPDATED: On The Edge gastropub, 303 Columbia at Cordova
Why: to help bring non-profit communications into the 21st Century.
And also to have a great dinner out with fellow literati
That’s right, NOT in the Shebeen for once! We’ve moved a block east and around the corner to the On The
Cathy Browne at the On The Edge pub
Edge gastropub at 303 Columbia street at Carrall. There’s room for everyone and a new menu to enjoy. As always $20 gets you dinner and a drink, and if you want to order additional items you can start a separate bill.
Full details on our speaker, Wes Regan, and our topic, Social Media Communications for Non-Profits, are in this post. See you there!
I’m cross-posting this from raincoaster, but be warned that the jokes you enter to win have to be put in the comments on the post at raincoaster.com, not here. But you’re smart and figured that out already, didn’t you?
Only your taste (or is that “tastes”?) can say whether a date with raincoaster is a prize or booby prize. As you know, we’re all about the boobies lately around these parts. These specific parts, that is.
My parts are superfine, if somewhat bruised lately, just ask anyone who’s seen them, which includes you if you clicked on the link (you just went back and did that, didn’t you?). And they and the rest of me will be going (thanks to an invite from the generous and omnipotent Rebecca Coleman, publicist to…productions successful at getting pimped out on raincoaster.com and Twitter) to the West Coast premiere of Eugene Stickland‘s play Queen Lear at Presentation House Theatre. Want to come as my date? It’s easy (unlike me).
All it takes to win is to post the comment that I think contains the funniest literary joke. Tasteless is extra points, Shakespeare is extra points, King Lear is extra extra points, tasteless King Lear jokes posted by Kenneth Branagh are an automatic win. Sorry, boys, I have a weakness for blustery Irishmen.
Life Lessons and Sh8kspeare: Queen Lear
NORTH VANCOUVER, BC: Presentation House Theatre, in association with Western Gold, are pleased to present the West Coast premiere of Eugene Stickland’s Queen Lear. The older generation has much to teach the younger generation about theatre… and life. Or is it the other way around? Queen Lear runs March 25-April 10 at Presentation House Theatre.
An accomplished aging actress, suffering a dearth of decent roles for older women, is cast in the title role in an all-female production of King Lear and, terrified that her memory will fail her, employs a young girl to help her memorize her lines. Text messaging meets iambic pentameter in this amusing and touching story about courage and the strength of spirit. Both women struggle with fear, loss and challenge, illustrating how time and experience both separate and unite them. This new play, featuring celebrated actor Shirley Broderick, newcomer Jennifer McPhee, and acclaimed cellist Peggy Lee, is not to be missed.
Western Gold Theatre produces outstanding professional theatre that expands horizons and enriches the lives of mature artists and their audiences. The company offers powerful role-modeling, creative opportunity and active engagement to a rapidly growing senior population and provides inspiration to diverse generations of theatre lovers. Artistic Director Colleen Winton is particularly interested in creating mentorships between senior artists and emerging artists and sees this play as a wonderful opportunity to celebrate what the generations have to teach each other.
Queen Lear is part of The Third Street Theatre series. Founded in 2005 by Artistic Director Brenda Leadlay, The Third Street Series is the banner under which Presentation House Theatre (PHT) presents and produces a professional season of plays. The vision for the series entails a fusion of accessibility and artistic risk, in order to achieve a season that is appealing and marketable but challenges and educates our audiences about new artistic practices.
Queen Lear previews Thursday, March 25, and opens Friday, March 26 at 8 pm. It then runs nightly (Sunday evenings and Mondays dark) through until April 10. There will be weekend matinees on Saturdays at 4, and Sundays at 2. All performances are at Presentation House Theatre, 333 Chesterfield, North Vancouver (3 blocks from the Seabus). Tickets are $24 for Adults, $22 for Students/Seniors. All tickets are $2 more at the door, and $2 more on Friday and Saturday evenings. All seats for the preview are $12.
For tickets or more information, please call 604.990.3474 or email boxoffice AT phtheatre.org.
We’ve done this sort of thing before, so you know how it works: no complaining that it’s arbitrary because…well…this is a dictatorship, and when in the history of the known universe have I ever hesitated to be arbitrary? Deadline is noon Friday, and don’t expect me to phone you: mah Jeebusphone has gone AWOL. I’ll hit you up on email or Twitter.
You know what to do, so do it in the comments. And for god’s sake, clean up after yourselves when you’re finished!
The Shebeen Club 