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.
Hugh Bonneville and I, at this moment in time, are waxing rhapsodic over the music of Downton Abbey. I've confided to the British actor that I am obsessed with the sumptuous, lush score to the point where I listen to little else for days on end.
"John Lunn," Bonneville smiles. "He's a lovely Scottish composer and a dear man. That music is just -- when you just hear those opening bars, it just gets you into a certain mood."
That certain mood will return in the fall as Julian Fellowes's extraordinary creation, in which Bonneville plays Lord Grantham, the head of the titular estate, will take its final bow with a third and final film, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale.
With the well-timed arch of an eyebrow, or just a sharp glance, Nathan Lee Graham can command a scene in silence, well before he unleashes some artful, perfectly enunciated turn of phrase.
The actor has been brandishing his enviable diction and expressive mien for decades on Broadway, in The Wild Party and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, in films from Zoolander to Theater Camp, and on TV shows, like the new Hulu sitcom Mid-Century Modern, where he stars with Nathan Lane and Matt Bomer as three mature gay friends who move in together à la The Golden Girls.
Obsession with eternal youth has always been a hot topic.
Theatergoers who can't get enough of the theme are in luck, as three New York shows prominently feature the idea of enduring beauty: a Broadway stage adaptation of the 1992 comedy Death Becomes Her has two dueling divas battling it out in comic fashion after drinking a potion that halts the aging process.
Downtown, meanwhile, a Faustian deal is brokered between a devil named Mephisto and a bank president where the financier can relive his years in one night in the immersive production entitled Life and Trust.
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