Happy Memorial Day Weekend!
ICYMI: “The Content Corner Guide to…Sean Connery as James Bond” went live this week. To mark the publication of this four-month long mini project, get ready for a 007-themed edition of “Sunday Snippets.”
Let’s get into it:
Story
“The Sean Connery Art-Heist Movie — Starring Dolly Parton! — That Never Was” — This Air Mail piece — penned by writer, actor, and director Michael Elias — recounts a run-in with Sean Connery at Spago’s original Los Angeles location. Elias enters the Wolfgang Puck restaurant alongside Eve Babitz sometime after its 1982 opening, struck with the sight of Connery at a nearby table. The narrative then loops backward as Elias recounts a shelved Creative Artists Agency (CAA) collaboration.
In the 1970s, at the height of New Hollywood, CAA became one of Hollywood’s biggest power players thanks to its head, Michael Ovitz. Ovitz coupled stars with his slate of writers, encouraging co-creation at a time when actors largely waited for studio scripts. One such pairing? Elias and his writing partner, Rich Eustis, with Connery circa 1977 (Ovitz: “I positioned you guys to meet Sean Connery. He wants to make a movie about the art world. I want you guys to write that screenplay. MGM put him in a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel while Micheline [his wife] redecorates their condo. Be sure to park on Crescent.”).
In the piece, Elias recalls the waning intimidation of writing alongside 007, earning an endearing ending (“As Eve and I approached Sean’s table, he stood up, threw his arms around me in a mighty hug, and lifted me off the floor. ‘Michael, laddie, it’s so lovely to see you.’ I introduced him to Eve. She stared.”).
Screener
Goldfinger (1964, dir. Guy Hamilton) — The third James Bond movie, to me, marks the crucial moment when the spy series finds its stride. Where the first two films — Dr. No (1962) and From Russia with Love (1963) — adopt a more serious tone and tenor, Goldfinger (1964) introduces the critical element of camp. (These movies are best approached as deeply unserious.) As Roger Ebert writes in a 1999 review: “Of all the Bonds, Goldfinger is the best, and can stand as a surrogate for the others. If it is not a great film, it is a great entertainment, and contains all the elements of the Bond formula that would work again and again.”
Snack
Vesper Martini — Ian Fleming, the author behind the books spurred the film series, introduces this cocktail recipe in Casino Royale (1953). In the novel, James Bond “invents” the drink by telling a bartender: “Three measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it’s ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel. Got it?”
That’s all for now!
xo,
Najet