Carolyn Hart; Hitchcock-Disney; Palin

My friend Carolyn Hart has launched a brand new series and pretty obviously it's going to be a big hit. It sounds like a lot of fun.

From Publishers Weekly
Starred review
Ghost at Work: A Bailey Ruth Mystery
Carolyn Hart, Morrow, $24.95 (304p)
ISBN 978-0-06-087436-0

A ghost turns sleuth in the intriguing first of a new series from Hart (Death on Demand), who’s won Agatha, Anthony and Macavity awards. When Bailey Ruth Raeburn and her husband die on their cabin cruiser during a storm, Bailey joins the heavenly host. Later, she returns to earth via the Rescue Express to her hometown of Adelaide, Okla., to help the rector’s wife, Kathleen Abbott. After finding the body of a dead man on her back porch, Kathleen fears either she or her husband might be accused of the crime. Bailey Ruth helps her to move the body, inaugurating a search for the killer that proves difficult as the victim was despised by many. As Bailey Ruth uncovers more than one crime, she must contend with her own violations of the Precepts for Earthly Visitation and adjust to her powers on earth. Hart blends an enjoyable fantasy with realistic characters and an engrossing plot that’s sure to charm even ardent materialists.


------Hitch & Walt

Johnathan Coe writes an intriguing piece in the London Sunday Times about how Alfred Hitchcock and Walt Disney, men who knew and admired each other, showed a sadistic streak in their films.

Coe notes that Hitchcock always "tortured the heroine" in his films, both early and late, but for many decades Hitchcock used this approach carefully. But then:

"Eventually, this instinct got the better of him. You can trace a line from the brutal staging of Janet Leigh’s death in Psycho, through the real-life brutalisation of Tippi Hedren on the set of The Birds, to the showdown Hitchcock had with the screenwriter Evan Hunter over the rape scene in Marnie. Hunter argued passionately that the Sean Connery character should not rape his wife on their wedding night in that film, and in his memoir, Hitch and Me, gives a chilling account of Hitchcock’s response: “Hitch held up his hands the way directors do when they’re framing a shot. Palms out, fingers together, forming a perfect square. Moving his hands towards my face, like a camera coming in for a close shot, he said, ‘Evan, when he sticks it in her, I want that camera right on her face!’ ” A few years later, when he was making Frenzy, censorship relaxations finally allowed Hitchcock to film a rape in all its protracted glory; and very nasty viewing it makes, too. "

(more)

"... I still shudder whenever I read Disney’s reported expression of delight as he imagined the effect the death of Bambi’s mother would have on all those youngsters: “You know she’s dead, but the little guy just comes back to that thing and the snow begins to pick up and he’s crying, MOTHER!, and it would just tear their hearts out if you could get that little guy crying MOTHER.”

for the rest go here:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article4669171.ece

-----Sarah Palin

A friend of mine insists that the entire Palin family will someday end up io the Jerry Sprnger show throwing punches and having to be restrained from killing each other. My question is--will this be after she loses the election or (if she and Two Gun win) will this be after she's impeached for making Creationism rallies mandatory?