THE KING'S SPEECH

This is an absolute MUST SEE for everyone. There just aren't enough movies like this made anymore. The last one was Young Victoria, but The King's Speech is even better. It's a touching story of fear and courage, perseverance and love, duty and dread. Colin Firth has given the performance of a lifetime and deserves the Oscar, I don't care who he will be up against. Geoffry Rush is no less outstanding and I hope he gets the Oscar for Best Supporting Male. Helena Bonham Carter is the image of a young Queen Mother and gives an impeccable performance.

As I expected, it is a very moving story and I came close to tears at the end, but what surprised me was the humour in the movie and found myself laughing along with the rest of the audience many times.

Also fun for those of us who are die-hard Pride and Prejudice fans; Jennifer Ehl plays Myrtle Logue, Geoffry Rush's wife and David Bamber - the unforgettable Mr. Collins - has a small role as the unnamed Theater Director.

Go, go, GO to see this movie as soon as you can. It will be the best $12.50 you have spent in a long, long time.

THE FORT

I walk into Fort Langley to drop off a book I borrowed and pick up another that's arrived. An Embarrassment of Mangoes was excellent, and I spent most of yesterday typing all of the recipes into my computer. I just know I am going to need Caribbean recipes one day soon!

I pick up the third book in the Twilight series. I started them last summer and never got around to books three and four. Number four is still on order. I also pick up Dan Brown's new book, The Lost Symbol. As much as I don't believe at all the theory he proposed in the book, The Da Vinci Code, I enjoyed the story and read it in a day, sitting under a tree in the park.

I sit for a while under a tree on the grounds of the Fort Langley Hall, and enjoy the weather and the scenery. This building, along with the rest of the small town, has been in dozens of films. Hope Springs (a good chick-flick), with Colin Firth (who I got to meet) - where I first talked to a PA about working in film and she told me that the person who watches for mistakes while filming is called a Script Supervisor, and also told me I wasn't too old to get into the business; the remake of John Carpenter's, The Fog - they painted the hall a lovely Wedgewood blue, and then had to paint it back to this, comparatively, ugly yellow because it is the historically correct original color ; and more MOW's that you can shake a stick at - I have worked on several that have shot here and one that used the inside of the hall for a square dancing scene in a movie called The Secrets of Comfort House.

I ran into the circus for a Front Street production on my walk into the Fort. It is the bunch I just worked with when I did makeup for a few days. They are shooting Mrs. Miracle 2. I tried to get on it as scripty (as my friend Laura who was on the last one just got hired onto The Troop for three months) but they had someone else already. I don't think I will ever get to work for them again as scripty. Not sure why but it seems that way.