Gere

NEW YORK -- Like many Americans of my generation, I grew up putting change into envelopes for Christian missions in China and praying for the souls of people in that far land. It was God's work, saving souls whether they wanted to be saved or not. Now, all these years later, I think we might consider a 27-word China policy based on a prayer I remember this way:''God, grant me the courage to change what needs to be changed; the serenity to accept what cannot be changed; and the wisdom to know the difference.

The stage version of Chicago has been hunkering down on the Great White Way for such an extended period - since Nov. 14, 1996, to be precise - that it has become a recognized and reliable source of income for A-list, B-list and, yes, even C-list celebrities. Chicago is the seventh-longest-running Broadway musical of all time. At least 44 performers with semi-recognizable names have tackled the role of Billy Flynn, the smooth-talking, glad-handing attorney who helps two femme fatales beat murder raps, from Kevin Richardson of the Backstreet Boys to Mr. Dirty Dancing himself, Patrick Swayze.

Let's invent a new disease. Let's call it "dementia hitchcox" and define it as a brain inflammation primarily afflicting young movie directors who've seen too much Alfred Hitchcock. In its grip they come to believe the delusion that it is possible to make an Alfred Hitchcock film if they are not Alfred Hitchcock."Final Analysis" is a case of "dementia Hitchcox" that ought to go into the textbooks.The movie is "Vertigo" freeze-dried, calorie-leached, flavor-drained, frozen in a little plastic sack and then fired up in the old Hollywood radar range for a mere $20 million or so. The silky Richard Gere is cast in the Jimmy Stewart part as a naif who falls in love with a blond goddess, which in turn makes him vulnerable to a dastardly plot involving murder.

Awards *Inc . magazine presented Baltimore-based Barcoding Inc. with an Inner City 100 award as one of the top 100 inner-city companies in the nation. The local company, which specializes in automated data collection, was ranked 68th. *The Residences at Bulle Rock received a Nationals regional award from the National Sales and Marketing Council for Best Landscape Design for a Detached Community. Kudos *Robert W. Cannon, a partner in the Baltimore office of Saul Ewing, was named by the Maryland Bar Association's Real Property, Planning and Zoning Section as 2008 Distinguished Real Estate Practitioner of the Year.

BERLIN - More than two years after Paramount Pictures turned historic Berlin into the fictional village of Hale for the movie "Runaway Bride," the town continues to reap tourism benefits. "A day doesn't go by without someone coming in and asking about the movie," said Fran Murray, owner of Sassafras Station, an antiques, garden and gift shop. "If they didn't know it was filmed here, they do as soon as they get to town." And those people who come to Berlin, population 3,300, to see where the Julia Roberts-Richard Gere movie was filmed, typically spend money.

Is it just me, or do you suspect these are not the times for an elegantly mummified, slickly vulgar movie that presents a wealthy, flamboyantly successful man, torn between his beautiful wife and beautiful mistress, as a victim?What utterly ruins "Intersection" is a strain of adolescent self-pity and sentimentalization delivered in a tone of shrieking hysteria, built around Richard Gere at his most irritatingly sensitive. He makes Richard Simmons look like Schwarzenegger!How this boy suffers!

You're in the nuthouse, Mr. Jones. That's the gist of th drably titled "Mr. Jones," the picture that asks, "Have you hugged your manic-depressive today?"This is another in an endless litany of Hollywood films that hopelessly sentimentalizes the cruel condition known as mental illness and holds that somehow the "touched" are more pure, more innocent, more special than the rest of us. Their agony, or so runs the line, is a higher form of being.But give this one a tiny little sliver of credit.

A Headline News look at this week's reading fare:Fans of Tibetan hunk Richard Gere can get his full account of a turn to Buddhism in September Body Mind Spirit, including what he says was a critical day in which he walked around New York City for the whole day not speaking a word, "just thinking to myself, 'I wish you happiness and the causes of future happiness.' " But did Mr. Gere ever stop for a bagel along the way?The Aug. 21 New York reports that New Yorkers' favorite bagels are, in order, plain, cinnamon raisin, sesame, poppy, onion, garlic, pumpernickel, salt and whole wheat.

John Clark ought to be a happy man. He has a successful law practice in Chicago. He's married to a beautiful woman who loves him. And they have two terrific kids. But - as we learn in Shall We Dance? - the spark has gone out of his life. If you're thinking midlife crisis, that doesn't quite do it. John (Richard Gere) isn't in crisis so much as he's in stasis. Let's call it a midlife rut. Shall We Dance? - the brassy new Hollywood remake of the delicate 1996 Japanese film - is about how this man rediscovers the romance within himself by enrolling in a ballroom-dancing class.

After a 62-day shooting schedule that took them from Baltimore to Berlin on the Eastern Shore, "Runaway Bride" wrapped up location shooting Tuesday inside a West Baltimore sound stage."

FREDDIE FIELDS, 84 Agent, studio executive Freddie Fields, the Hollywood agent, producer and studio executive who helped make stars of Mel Gibson, Richard Gere and others with films such as The Year of Living Dangerously, American Gigolo and Glory, died Tuesday of lung cancer at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif., said publicist Warren Cowan, a longtime friend. During a long, colorful career as one of Hollywood's biggest behind-the-scenes players, Mr. Fields founded the international talent agency Creative Management Associates and served as president of two major film studios, MGM and United Artists.

"Only the most ridiculous parts are true," say the words at the start of the Bosnian adventure The Hunting Party. That sums up what's wrong with this picture. If the film had kept the faith with its source material, everything in it would be ridiculous and true, and exhilarating. Instead of embracing the real-life absurdity of Scott Anderson's October 2000 Esquire article, titled "What I Did on My Summer Vacation," the film's writer-director, Richard Shepard, transforms it into a quasi-tough, semifacetious redemption saga.

91 Daniel Schorr Broadcast journalist 72 Frank Robinson Baseball Hall-of-Famer 62 Itzhak Perlman Violinist 58 Richard Gere Actor 35 Chris Tucker Actor

Richard Gere stars in The Hoax. What is your favorite Gere movie and why? WHAT YOU SAY Richard Gere ... gets my vote as a great actor in a heartbeat. I have thoroughly enjoyed all of his performances but the movies that have impressed most go back as far as Pretty Woman when he displayed a great amount of charm and sexuality. I thought his acting and dancing ability were superb in Chicago and then he continued on with his unlimited talent in Shall We Dance. Freda Garelick , Baltimore THE NEXT QUESTION Halle Berry stars in Perfect Stranger, which comes out in theaters today.

Actor Will Ferrell never tires of goofy roles. His new movie Blades of Glory, which opened last week, appears to be typical Ferrell. What makes his brand of humor so hilarious? WHAT YOU SAY The key to his comedy is the same key Robin Williams used to have my daughters and I cracking up in Happy Feet. They're BIG kids! Seriously, Ferrell needs to thank SNL [Saturday Night Live] every day for allowing him to crack me up with great skits. My favorites are the cheerleader [with Cheri Oteri]

Unmoored charm used to be Richard Gere's calling card. Skating over the razor's edge between seductiveness and smarm was his specialty as a performer even before he really mastered it as an actor and rooted it in a character's needs and impulses. Now that he's become a formidable leading man, that knack is just one tool in his kit. He's never shown truer colors or a wider spectrum than as that notorious faker Clifford Irving in The Hoax. And for Irving he forges a quality all his own: a serpentine virility.

The two stars reportedly hated each other during the filming, but Richard Gere and Debra Winger sure made convincing romance on screen in "An Officer and a Gentleman" (8: 05 p.m.-10: 50 p.m., TBS).Director Taylor Hackford's 1982 film follows Gere as he maneuvers his way through Naval Officer Candidate School, despite two strikes against him: his attitude (he's quite the operator) and his drill instructor (Louis Gossett Jr.), who's hardly his biggest fan.Gere has never been better; he and Winger generate plenty of heat (some of which will be toned down for commercial TV)

91 Daniel Schorr Broadcast journalist 72 Frank Robinson Baseball Hall-of-Famer 62 Itzhak Perlman Violinist 58 Richard Gere Actor 35 Chris Tucker Actor

John Clark ought to be a happy man. He has a successful law practice in Chicago. He's married to a beautiful woman who loves him. And they have two terrific kids. But - as we learn in Shall We Dance? - the spark has gone out of his life. If you're thinking midlife crisis, that doesn't quite do it. John (Richard Gere) isn't in crisis so much as he's in stasis. Let's call it a midlife rut. Shall We Dance? - the brassy new Hollywood remake of the delicate 1996 Japanese film - is about how this man rediscovers the romance within himself by enrolling in a ballroom-dancing class.

The musical Chicago, the epic Gangs of New York and art-house hit The Hours sprinted out of the gate as Oscar's front-runners when the nominations for the 75th annual Academy Awards were announced yesterday. Julianne Moore received two nominations, for best actress in Far From Heaven and best supporting actress in The Hours. "In such a year of such wonderful performances, I am incredibly honored to be among these nominees," Moore said. "Never in my career have I ever imagined I would have two nominations!"