Great Gatsby

The trailer for "The Great Gatsby," Baz Luhrmann's new adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel, shows promise. (It certainly couldn't be as bad as the 1974 adaptation, which was flat and passion-less, despite a cast that include Robert Redford, Mia Farrow and Bruce Dern.) The new version, scheduled for a Christmas release, stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan as the lovers separated by a vast gulf of wealth (not to mention marriage vows). The party scenes featured in the trailer bear a close resemblance to the scenes in Luhrmann's "Moulin Rouge," and that's a good sign, because it contrasts sharply with the lifelessness of the earlier version.

Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of "The Great Gatsby" will kick off the 66th Festival de Cannes, organizers announced today . "It is a great honor for all those who have worked on 'The Great Gatsby' to open the Cannes Film Festival," Luhrmann said in a statement. "We are thrilled to return to a country, place and festival that has always been so close to our hearts, not only because my first film 'Strictly Ballroom' was screened there 21 years ago, but also because F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote some of the most poignant and beautiful passages of his extraordinary novel just a short distance away at a villa outside Saint-Raphaël.

Stacy Keibler's appearance Sunday evening on the arm of George Clooney confirmed two things: 1. They're still an item; 2. She still adheres to a serious fitness routine. Keibler wore a beaded Naeem Khan gown and, according to Us Weekly, Giuseppe Zanotti shoes, Lorraine Schwartz jewels and a Tiffany & Co bag. The sophisticated, silver-and-black dress and her short, softly waved hair evoked a '20s flapper mood, far removed from the metallic gold, strapless gown she wore last year.

Stacy Keibler's appearance Sunday evening on the arm of George Clooney confirmed two things: 1. They're still an item; 2. She still adheres to a serious fitness routine. Keibler wore a beaded Naeem Khan gown and, according to Us Weekly, Giuseppe Zanotti shoes, Lorraine Schwartz jewels and a Tiffany & Co bag. The sophisticated, silver-and-black dress and her short, softly waved hair evoked a '20s flapper mood, far removed from the metallic gold, strapless gown she wore last year.

Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of "The Great Gatsby" will kick off the 66th Festival de Cannes, organizers announced today . "It is a great honor for all those who have worked on 'The Great Gatsby' to open the Cannes Film Festival," Luhrmann said in a statement. "We are thrilled to return to a country, place and festival that has always been so close to our hearts, not only because my first film 'Strictly Ballroom' was screened there 21 years ago, but also because F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote some of the most poignant and beautiful passages of his extraordinary novel just a short distance away at a villa outside Saint-Raphaël.

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)Fitzgerald was distantly related to Francis Scott Key, to whom he is a namesake.His first novel, "This Side of Paradise," catapulted him into wide popularity. It was autobiographical, featuring a male student at Princeton as the protagonist.Fitzgerald spent the 1920s living a glamorous life and even chronicled his decadent generation with "The Great Gatsby," for which he is best known."The Great Gatsby" is arguably the great American novel.Pub Date: 12/13/98

Almanac-- April 10--1912: The RMS Titanic set sail from Southampton, England, on its ill-fated maiden voyage to New York. 1925: The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, was published. 1972: The United States, Soviet Union and some 70 nations signed an agreement banning biological warfare.

The Learning Channel highlights a handful of the world's greatest books today. TLC's "Great Books Festival" (9 a.m.-3 a.m.) includes the premiere of an hour devoted to one-time Baltimore resident F. Scott Fitzgerald's jazz-age chronicle, "The Great Gatsby" (10 p.m.-11 p.m., repeats 2 a.m.-3 a.m.). Narrator Donald Sutherland and a host of writers and academics (including Jackson Bryer from the University of Maryland, College Park) bring Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan and the gang to life -- not by acting out the story but by relating the plot; putting the story in the context of when it was written; providing details of the turbulent life of Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda; explaining the novel's effect, on its time and on history; and subjecting the novel to both literary and cultural criticism.

A novel whose author has a tenuous connection to Annapolis might help connect people living in the city and get them more involved in their community. That's the premise of a citywide literacy program being formally announced tomorrow. Annapolitans will be invited to read The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald this spring as part of the Big Read, an initiative sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts. Annapolis Alive!, the city's 300th anniversary planning committee, will get a $40,000 grant to promote the book and plan related events through April.

You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but that ain't no matter.4 "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," Mark TwainLate in the afternoon of a chilly day in February, two gentlemen were sitting alone over their wine, in a well-furnished dining parlor, in the town of P-, Kentucky.:. "Uncle Tom's Cabin," Harriet Beecher StoweOn a brilliant day in May, in the year 1868, a gentleman was reclining at his ease on the great circular divan which at that period occupied the centre of the Salon Carre', in the Museum of the Louvre.

The trailer for "The Great Gatsby," Baz Luhrmann's new adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel, shows promise. (It certainly couldn't be as bad as the 1974 adaptation, which was flat and passion-less, despite a cast that include Robert Redford, Mia Farrow and Bruce Dern.) The new version, scheduled for a Christmas release, stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan as the lovers separated by a vast gulf of wealth (not to mention marriage vows). The party scenes featured in the trailer bear a close resemblance to the scenes in Luhrmann's "Moulin Rouge," and that's a good sign, because it contrasts sharply with the lifelessness of the earlier version.

A novel whose author has a tenuous connection to Annapolis might help connect people living in the city and get them more involved in their community. That's the premise of a citywide literacy program being formally announced tomorrow. Annapolitans will be invited to read The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald this spring as part of the Big Read, an initiative sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts. Annapolis Alive!, the city's 300th anniversary planning committee, will get a $40,000 grant to promote the book and plan related events through April.

Almanac-- April 10--1912: The RMS Titanic set sail from Southampton, England, on its ill-fated maiden voyage to New York. 1925: The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, was published. 1972: The United States, Soviet Union and some 70 nations signed an agreement banning biological warfare.

In Rockville yesterday morning, hours before he would officially announce for governor, Mayor Martin O'Malley was already in full campaign mode. He spoke of hope, opportunity and faith in the future. He said he wanted a state "in which no one is left behind." He said the people of Maryland "can do great things together." So far, so good. But then O'Malley detoured into the bizarre. He closed his speech by saying, "I leave you with the words of the poet who was from Rockville: And `so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

Silence gives the proper grace to women. - Tecmessa, a concubine in Sophocles' Ajax, 440 B.C. TODAY, 26 centuries later, few women seek permission from men to speak in their own voices, let alone worry about doing so gracefully. While corporate women have yet to shatter the glass ceiling, they continue to rap loudly upon it. Equally vociferous are academic women, who have been disproportionately rejected from tenured professorships in many prestigious colleges and universities. Less well-known are the recent efforts of the publishing industry to rectify centuries of the silence about women's lives through the publication of their biographies.

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)Fitzgerald was distantly related to Francis Scott Key, to whom he is a namesake.His first novel, "This Side of Paradise," catapulted him into wide popularity. It was autobiographical, featuring a male student at Princeton as the protagonist.Fitzgerald spent the 1920s living a glamorous life and even chronicled his decadent generation with "The Great Gatsby," for which he is best known."The Great Gatsby" is arguably the great American novel.Pub Date: 12/13/98

Think spring break and college students, and what comes to mind? Florida. Beaches. Bikinis. Parties. Beer. Lots of beer.Demetri Lambros and his girlfriend, Elaine Bucher, couldn't have strayed farther from the road to the Sunshine State than when they opted to spend their spring break in Rockville -- as in Maryland."

The Learning Channel highlights a handful of the world's greatest books today. TLC's "Great Books Festival" (9 a.m.-3 a.m.) includes the premiere of an hour devoted to one-time Baltimore resident F. Scott Fitzgerald's jazz-age chronicle, "The Great Gatsby" (10 p.m.-11 p.m., repeats 2 a.m.-3 a.m.). Narrator Donald Sutherland and a host of writers and academics (including Jackson Bryer from the University of Maryland, College Park) bring Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan and the gang to life -- not by acting out the story but by relating the plot; putting the story in the context of when it was written; providing details of the turbulent life of Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda; explaining the novel's effect, on its time and on history; and subjecting the novel to both literary and cultural criticism.