Woody Allen

11/06/09 In 1975, cartoonist and children's book illustrator Stuart Hample had the bright idea to take the luckless, lovelorn, philosophical persona of Woody Allen—then famous for what the aliens in Allen's Stardust Memories would later call his "early, funny filmsand turn it into a daily newspaper strip. Amazingly, Allen agreed, and even offered to provide Hample with a thick stack of pages compiled from his old notebooks, full of jokes and fragments of ideas. In 1976, Inside Woody Allen debuted from King Features, and it ran until 1984, by which time Allen's stature in popular culture had shifted from "likeable comic type" to "aloof arthouse filmmaker." The strip, however, kept harvesting the same fields for eight years, telling jokes about neuroses, therapy, and romantic woes as though Allen had never stopped making Play It Again Sam and Annie Hall . The thick, hardcover best-of collection Dread & Superficiality: Woody Allen As A Comic Strip (Abrams Comicarts) is hardly a repository of classic comics; the strips have an appealingly curvy style, and some of the jokes are clever, but mostly this is 200 pages of variations on the same five or six comedic ideas. Still, Dread & Superficiality is a must for Woody Allen fans, both for its reminder of how iconic he used to be, and for Hample's frank introduction, in which he writes about working with Allen in the early days of the strip. While the syndicate was pushing Hample to go broader and cuter, Allen was sending Hample notes encouraging him to use more non sequiturs and more tidbits from real life. Allen's instincts were good, as Hample now acknowledges, but the cartoonist bowed to pressure from his bosses, and Inside Woody Allen continued without much input from its title character. The intro to Dread & Superficiality is a keen dissection of how a good idea can go awry, and how a public figure can lose control of his own image.  |  The A.V. Club

11/04/09 Saluting evening co-hosts Woody Allen, Alec Balwdin, and Emily Mortimer, all of whom were in the audience with Schoonmaker, Scorsese stumped for his Film Foundation that restores classic films.  |  indieWIRE

10/30/09 Congratulations on making it to the end of another week!  |  The A.V. Club

10/26/09 Woody Allen will reunite with the Spanish production company Mediapro for his next film, "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger," set for release next fall with a cast that includes Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins and Naomi Watts.  |  Rotten Tomatoes

10/25/09 "You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger" is the name of Woody Allen's new film, starring Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins and Naomi Watts, the Spanish producer Mediapro announced Monday.  |  The Hollywood Reporter

10/23/09 Ronan Farrow , offspring of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen has been appointed as a liaison to non-governmental organizations working in Pakistan.  |  Perez Hilton

10/15/09 But which of the hundreds of movies set in the New York have done the best job of capturing the city's unique spirit?  |  Popeater Movies

10/13/09 Brazilian film officials have launched a new campaign to lure Woody Allen to Rio de Janeiro.  |  The Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

10/10/09 Two strangers get in a cab at the same time and happily opt to share it.  |  New York Post - New York NY

10/04/09 As promised, I held off on posting this interview with the stars of ZOMBIELAND until after its first weekend.  |  Ain't It Cool News