Philadelphia Story

Bowie Community Theatre's current production of Philip Barry's "The Philadelphia Story" provides a satisfying evening of theater on several levels.The play -- commissioned for a young Katharine Hepburn -- opened on Broadway in 1939. Hepburn took it to Hollywood, where it became a 1940 classic film also starring Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart. Later it was reborn in a 1956 movie called "High Society" starring Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby with music by Cole Porter.In 1998, "High Society" resurfaced with additional Porter tunes.

Movie fans will have to look no further than TCM all weekend, as the folks at Turner salute the late Jimmy Stewart with a 48-hour, 23-film salute to one of Hollywood's best, running from 6 a.m. today until 6 a.m. Monday.Since the films are airing chronologically (beginning with 1936's "Rose Marie"), the best stuff isn't necessarily reserved for prime time; in fact, some of Stewart's most memorable films will air in the wee hours of the morning. But arguably the best of the bunch, 1950's "Harvey," comes on when the whole family can enjoy it: 4 p.m. tomorrow.

A watershed moment comes in "It's a Wonderful Life" when Jimmy Stewart's character, George Bailey, learns that his brother Harry has gotten married and has been offered a job out of town. These events will shatter George's own lifelong dreams of escape. In the next seconds, Stewart's face undergoes an astonishing series of transformations, most of it conveyed by his eyes.First is dumbfounded surprise at his brother's good fortune, followed swiftly by the shadow of despair as George calculates his loss.

"James Stewart: A Biography," by Donald Dewey. Turner Publishing. 521 pages, $24.95.On screen James Stewart played anybody's son. He was the vulnerable, unthreatening hero, kind-hearted and plain-talking, a voice of reason and common sense. His performances were characterized by a monologue he spoke in a slow drawl, every sound scrupulously enunciated, evoking the small town of Indiana, Pa, where he was born. Stewart created a stereotype of the quintessential American, nowhere better than in Frank Capra's "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (1939)

"The Palm Beach Story" by Roxanne Pulitzer. Simon & Schuster. 256 pages. $22Roxanne Pulitzer doesn't need a book review, good or bad, to sell her books. "The Palm Beach Story," like any book about rich, shallow people having mind-blowing sex as they jockey for social position and money, will sell a copy or two. But shouldn't its eager buyers hope for better?Perhaps the most annoying offense of "The Palm Beach Story" is its not-so-subtle invocation of "The Philadelphia Story," although the similarity doesn't go far past the name.

OUR NEIGHBORS to the north in Philadelphia are still coping with the aftermath of the fatal baseball bat beating of a 16-year-old high school student at the hands of other teens in a northeast section of that city, as well as the belated response of 911 operators.On Veterans Day, Edward Polec had his skull fractured seven times as some of his attackers held him up to allow someone else to get a clean shot at him with a bat.Philadelphia police have arrested several suspects and are continuing to investigate the murder.

PHILADELPHIA -- I am watching this game with a towel over my face.I am trying to sit here with a straight face as I take in the majesty and the grandeur of the World Series and all the time I am worried that a little car is going to pull up and 50 clowns are going to jump out and start chasing Mitch Williams around the field.I am here for the world championship of baseball and I am watching the fat man's softball game at the company picnic.This is the silliest baseball game I have ever seen.

On The Weekend Watch:THE HOLIDAY BLUES -- Is anybody else upset every year at the onrush of old episodes of series? They are especially exasperating in shows with continuing story lines. A case in point is "L.A. Law," whose episodes this season have included the sub-plot of the breakup of Stuart and Ann's marriage (Michael Tucker and Jill Eikenberry). Again tonight (at 10, Channel 2) for the second week running, look for the two to be incongruously back together, for the show is from last season.

WHIT STILLMAN begins his ''Metropolitan'' with the advisory that the film takes place ''not so long ago,'' and it is good he does. If he didn't, you'd wonder where these people live, on which planet, in whose time?''Metropolitan'' is Stillman's first feature film. It was shown as part of the New Directors-New Films series in New York last March where it was so well received that it was screened, commercially, in both New York and Los Angeles.It opens here today at the Rotunda, and if it is humor you want, this film has it. Sometimes it is quite obvious, but most often, it is subtle and delicate.

tv/mckerrowAs show biz book memoirs go, "Don't Shoot It's Only Me" is not bad, and you certainly could never fault Bob Hope, right, for his timing. Thus tonight's NBC special titled after and based upon Hope's recent book, at 10 on Channel 2, is a natural. American troops are overseas and Hope is on the air. In this case, the show reaches back to the earliest performing years of the entertainer. With lots of clips, the show's guests run from Milton Berle to Danny Thomas, and include a fair number of U.S. presidents.

"One of the prettiest sights in this pretty world is the privileged classes enjoying their privileges," says journalist Mike Connor in The Philadelphia Story, now at Colonial Players in Annapolis. The show is a visual feast, with well-dressed, attractive characters and elegant furnishings illustrating the lifestyle of a Philadelphia Main Line family engaging in drawing-room repartee. The most requested show by Colonial Players subscribers, The Philadelphia Story was chosen to open the 60th-anniversary season.

Turner Classic Movies' "Summer Under the Stars" ends this weekend with two days dedicated to that most storied of Hollywood couples who never made it to the altar, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. Tracy gets his turn tomorrow (don't miss Captains Courageous at 8 p.m.), but today it's the Great Kate's turn. For a look at what made Hepburn such an endlessly intriguing personality (as well as a role model to a whole generation of women), check out a 1973 appearance she made on The Dick Cavett Show (11:15 a.m.)

On a muggy late-summer night, any movie set in San Francisco, where the fog cools and drains the air and wipes it clean, is apt to feel refreshing. That goes even for a movie as fifth-hand as Just Like Heaven. This boy-meets-ghost-loses-ghost-gets-ghost story blends ingredients from every spectral romance ever made. But when the shaggy boy (Mark Ruffalo) and the well-coiffed ghost (Reese Witherspoon) bop up and down hills filled with seductive and eccentric cityscapes, the setting provides its own fairy-tale uplift.

Cary Grant was born 100 years ago today in Bristol, England. The fantasy life of England, America, and all of planet Earth would never be the same. In his 34-year big-screen career, he epitomized -- and for many, defined -- the man of the world. When Frank Sinatra presented an honorary Oscar in 1970 to Grant "for his unique mastery of the art of screen acting," Sinatra said, with legend-to-legend sympathy, that he earned it "for being Cary Grant." Actually, he earned it for acting Cary Grant: the urban cavalier with a quick tongue and cunning moves.

The title doesn't speak for the audience: Viewers want all they can get of Eva in Deliver Us From Eva. This alternately amusing and irritating romantic comedy centers on Eva Dandridge (Gabrielle Union), the eldest of four sisters whose parents died in a car crash. She's acted as both mother and father to her siblings since they were teen-agers - and she continues to do so even after two of them marry and the third settles into a long-term relationship. Eva lays down edicts on everything from the right time to have babies to the perils of cohabitation, and thinks nothing of entering her sisters' homes - and bedrooms - without invitation.

Philip Barry's "The Philadelphia Story" already exists as one of Hollywood's few perfect movies, and you can rent it anytime at your local video store. But is that any reason not to put this 1939 play on the stage? Hardly. Director David Hilder's production at Columbia's Rep Stage serves this lovely comic fable well, holding the audience rapt with Barry's glistening dialogue and glib characters. The show has a splendid center in Michelle Shupe, whose portrayal of Tracy Lord (the brittle rich girl who finds her heart)

Bowie Community Theatre's current production of Philip Barry's "The Philadelphia Story" provides a satisfying evening of theater on several levels.The play -- commissioned for a young Katharine Hepburn -- opened on Broadway in 1939. Hepburn took it to Hollywood, where it became a 1940 classic film also starring Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart. Later it was reborn in a 1956 movie called "High Society" starring Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby with music by Cole Porter.In 1998, "High Society" resurfaced with additional Porter tunes.

Movie fans will have to look no further than TCM all weekend, as the folks at Turner salute the late Jimmy Stewart with a 48-hour, 23-film salute to one of Hollywood's best, running from 6 a.m. today until 6 a.m. Monday.Since the films are airing chronologically (beginning with 1936's "Rose Marie"), the best stuff isn't necessarily reserved for prime time; in fact, some of Stewart's most memorable films will air in the wee hours of the morning. But arguably the best of the bunch, 1950's "Harvey," comes on when the whole family can enjoy it: 4 p.m. tomorrow.

A watershed moment comes in "It's a Wonderful Life" when Jimmy Stewart's character, George Bailey, learns that his brother Harry has gotten married and has been offered a job out of town. These events will shatter George's own lifelong dreams of escape. In the next seconds, Stewart's face undergoes an astonishing series of transformations, most of it conveyed by his eyes.First is dumbfounded surprise at his brother's good fortune, followed swiftly by the shadow of despair as George calculates his loss.

"James Stewart: A Biography," by Donald Dewey. Turner Publishing. 521 pages, $24.95.On screen James Stewart played anybody's son. He was the vulnerable, unthreatening hero, kind-hearted and plain-talking, a voice of reason and common sense. His performances were characterized by a monologue he spoke in a slow drawl, every sound scrupulously enunciated, evoking the small town of Indiana, Pa, where he was born. Stewart created a stereotype of the quintessential American, nowhere better than in Frank Capra's "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (1939)