The Actors Fund and Doyle Auctioneers & Appraisers have teamed up for “an auction event without precedent,” featuring a diverse array of rare and one-of-a-kind memorabilia from stars of Hollywood, Broadway, and beyond. This “landmark live auction,” set for Wednesday, April 28, will allow collectors and fans around the world to participate digitally, with live online bidding through BidLive!
The Actors Fund, the nonprofit that serves as a “safety net” for workers in the performing arts and entertainment industry, has provided more than $20 million in emergency financial assistance to more than 15,800 performers nationwide during the first year of the pandemic.
To continue supporting those still sidelined by the pandemic, The Actors Fund will receive all proceeds from items sold at the auction as well as all proceeds from donations by the auction’s online viewers. Additionally, the organization will reap 100 percent of sales from auctioned items in a collection of donated goods specially curated by the auction’s third partner and driving force behind the event, stage and screen star Christine Baranski.
“I asked my friends and colleagues of stage and screen to lend support to this meaningful auction, and the response has been extraordinary,” Baranski says in an official release. “Our colleagues in the performing arts need our support during this incredibly difficult time of crisis. The Actors Fund has provided a much-needed lifeline to our industry, and their work is nothing short of miraculous. I know I’m excited to see what Dolly Parton, Cher, Julie Andrews, Bruce Springsteen, and over 20-plus incredible stage and screen legends are pulling out of their closet!”
Some of the many highlights up for bid include an autographed pair of black-and-brown boots that Lin-Manuel Miranda wore in Hamilton; iconic glasses from Elton John; the leather suit Alan Cumming wore when he won a Tony in 1998 for Cabaret; Bob Mackie dresses from Carol Burnett; an autographed, limited leather-bound copy of the Downton Abbey screenplay; original drawings by Oscar- and Tony-winning costume designer Cecil Beaton, including a hat design from My Fair Lady and an ensemble for Barbra Streisand’s character in On A Clear Day You Can See Forever; gowns Baranski wore to the Golden Globes, the Emmys, and the Kennedy Center Honors; and celebrated dresses worn over the past decade by Tina Fey, Bette Midler, and Glenn Close. –Doug Rule
The “Stage & Screen” Live Online Auction is Wednesday, April 28, starting at 10 a.m. Visit www.doyle.com for more information including an interactive auction catalog.
Jonathan Bailey is the highest-grossing actor of the year, according to Variety.
The openly gay actor played key roles in two blockbusters this year -- Dr. Henry Loomis in Jurassic World Rebirth, the fifth-highest-grossing film of the year at more than $869 million worldwide, and Fiyero in Wicked: For Good, which has grossed more than $468.3 million since its November 21 theatrical release.
Bailey first rose to global fame as Lord Anthony Bridgerton on Netflix’s Bridgerton, and has since taken on a string of high-profile projects, including the role of a closeted congressional aide in Showtime’s Fellow Travelers, which earned him an Emmy nomination and a Critics' Choice Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Movie or Miniseries.
In 2015, it all seemed to be a novel concept. That's the year Jordan Harrison's Pulitzer Prize-nominated Marjorie Prime premiered Off-Broadway. Certainly, artificial intelligence had been developed, but in the ten years since, its sophistication and abilities have reached levels that are both beneficial and ethically questionable. Now, the piece has returned, this time on Broadway.
The use of AI rests at the center of Harrison's drama about Marjorie (June Squibb), an octogenarian who lives with her daughter, Tess (Cynthia Nixon), and her son-in-law Jon (Danny Burstein). Christopher Lowell rounds out the cast as Walter, a computerized version of Marjorie's deceased husband, known as a "Prime." With short-term memory loss and slight dementia plaguing Marjorie, the robotic form of her late spouse reappears in his thirties and relays information provided to him by Jon and Tess.
Douglas Sills loves to laugh. It's a big laugh, hearty and life-affirming. And it -- along with a warm, impossibly broad smile -- blankets a conversation with him in warmth and comfort. The laugh bursts forth at unexpected moments, such as when the actor, known for stints on Broadway and as French chef (revealed to be a Kansas cook) Monsieur Baudin on HBO's The Gilded Age, is asked if he has ever been part of a play that's gone terribly wrong.
"I don't have a disaster in my head offhand," he grins. "Do I? I don't. Maybe it's because you go to work every day for months and you're pouring your heart and soul into it, you're there for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours, and you're giving up everything to do it, and it's not a high-paying thing. And so you drink the Kool-Aid -- you have to. And so maybe that's why it doesn't feel like a disaster to me." He pauses. "But I've seen some disasters."
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