Elizabeth Kerri Mahon

Title:           At The King's Pleasure Author:       Kate Emerson Publisher:   Simon & Schuster Pub Date:   January 3, 2012 From the back cover: Married to one man. Desiring another. Beautiful Lady Anne Stafford, lady-in-waiting to Queen Catherine of Aragon, is torn between her love for her husband, George, Lord Hastings . . . and the king’s boon companion, the attentive Sir William Compton. But when King Henry VIII, amorous as always, joins the men clustering around her, Anne realizes she has become perilously enmeshed in the intrigues of the court. Will she be forced to decide between the two men she desires—and the one she doesn’t? My thoughts:   At The King's Pleasure was my first encounter with The Secrets of The Tudor Court series by Kate Emerson, and there were many things that I really liked about this book, and as well as several things that just didn't work for me. Emerson has a real feel for the period, not just the historical background but the smal

A Dangerous Method (2011) Directed by David Cronenberg Produced by Jeremy Thomas Screenplay by Christopher Hampton Based on his play The Talking Cure (which was based on A Most Dangerous Method: the story of Jung, Freud and Sabina Spielrein by John Kerr published in 1993) Distributed by Universal/Lionsgate/Sony Pictures Classics Cast: Viggo Mortensen as Sigmund Freud Michael Fassbender as Carl Jung Keira Knightley as Sabina Spielrein Vincent Cassel as Otto Gross Sarah Gadon as Emma Jung André Hennicke as Eugen Bleuler My thoughts:  I saw this film over a week ago at Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, a small art house theatre here in New York, on Martin Luther King day.  Instead of writing my review immediately, I decided to let the movie simmer awhile. I'd also been going through some personal stuff which took my focus away from writing for a bit. I have to admit that my views on the film are somewhat colored by the fact that I have always leaned more towards Jung's theo

Today is a particularly sad day for me, not only is it Friday the 13th, but it is brings the final episode of One Life to Live after 42 years on the air. One Life to Live was created by Agnes Nixon in 1968, and from the beginning of its run, it featured strong women who were not afraid to go after what they wanted, no matter who or what got in their way. I started watching the show in junior high, and was fascinated by the wide array of female characters from the ridiculous to the sublime. While there have been some fascinating male characters on daytime and on One Life to Live in particular (Marco Dane, Todd Manning, David Vickers), soaps have always been a more female centric medium. These ten women are just the tip of the iceberg and my personal favorites during the past 43 years. Carla Gray – the story of Carla Gray was a ground-breaking and controversial storyline for daytime in the late 60’s, and put OLTL on the map as a soap that wasn’t afraid to be different. The audience wa

I'm pleased to announce that I will be speaking at the We Move Forward conference on the beautiful Isla Mujeres in Mexico which takes place March 8-10, 2012.  I will be speaking on Scandalous Women of the Past including Frida Kahlo as well as some others.  I'm speaking early in the morning on Thursday so I'll be drinking lots of coffee! The other speakers , including actress Wendy Crewson and Bal Arneson, the "SPICE GODDESS", sound fabulous and I've never been to Mexico before so I can't wait.  Of course, I will be bringing my laptop and probably blogging poolside from the conference. There is a contest entitled Wave to Win  (wish I could enter) where you can win a trip to the conference.  Check it out, and I hope to see a few of you there!

Directed b y Phyllida Lloyd Produced by Damian Jones Written by Abi Morgan Cast Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher Alexandra Roach as Margaret Thatcher (as a teenager) Jim Broadbent as Denis Thatcher Harry Lloyd as Young Denis Thatcher Olivia Colman as Carol Thatcher Anthony Head as Geoffrey Howe Nicholas Farrell as Airey Neave Richard E. Grant as Michael Heseltine Paul Bentley as Douglas Hurd Robin Kermode as John Major John Sessions as Edward Heath Roger Allam as Gordon Reece Michael Pennington as Michael Foot Angus Wright as John Nott Julian Wadham as Francis Pym Ronald Reagan as Himself (archive footage) Reginald Green as Ronald Reagan My thoughts:   One of the most famous actresses in the world (two-time Academy Award winner, record 16 nominations) playing one of the most famous female politicians in the world should be a win-win situation.  Well yes and no. While I thoroughly enjoyed both Meryl Streep (and newcomer Alexandra Roach as the young Margaret T

Since it's a brand new year, we have 2 books of the month, instead of one.  The first book is Searching for Beauty: The life of Millicent Rogers by Cherie Burns. I'd read about Millicent Rogers before in a book on fashion but I knew very little about her as a person. From the back cover:  A fascinating portrait of the Standard Oil heirerss and legendary American trendsetter Millicent Rogers. Nobody knew how to live the high life like Millicent Rogers. Born into luxury, she lived in a whirl of beautiful homes, European vacations, exquisite clothing and handsome men. In Searching for Beauty, Cherie Burns chronicles Rogers's glittering life from her days as a young girl afflicted with rheumatic fever to her debutante debut and her Taos finale. A rebellious icon of the age, she eloped with a penniless baron, danced tangos in European nightclubs, divorced, remarried and romanced, among others, Clark Gable. Her romantic conquests, though, paled in comparison to her triumph in

Last week, I was privileged to be a participant as part of a brand new project by Chick History called #Herstory.  I'm not sure when my podcast will air yet, but I will let everyone know as soon as I get a date. I spoke about one of my favorite women from Scandalous Women, Anne Hutchinson. From the website: "How many women in history can you name? 20? 10? Who are your favorites? Who has inspired you? How would you tell her story? In 2012, Chick History will tell the stories of 52 women, not through names and dates of textbooks, but through the voices of contemporary women. Chick History is inviting 52 diverse women to take ownership of the historical women who have inspired them - from the headliners to the lesser-known gems - and is asking each one to share her story with us. Hear elected officials, academics, mothers, filmmakers, authors, activists, CEO’s, and more offer snapshots of these women’s lives. You may know some of these stories. Others, you may not know.