From left: actress Ashley Judd, documentarian Libby Spears, and Alicia Foley Winn, executive director of the Boston Initiative to Advance Human Rights, at the ICA last night.
(Bill Brett for The Boston Globe)
Names
Star power for ‘Playground’
From left: actress Ashley Judd, documentarian Libby Spears, and Alicia Foley Winn, executive director of the Boston Initiative to Advance Human Rights, at the ICA last night.
(Bill Brett for The Boston Globe)
Documentarian Libby Spears had some A-list guests at a Boston screening of her film “Playground’’ last night. New Harvard graduate student Ashley Judd and renowned feminist attorney Catharine MacKinnon were at the Institute of Contemporary Art to see “Playground,’’ which is about the trafficking of children in the US. Spears has had a good deal of celebrity support for her film from the start - it was coproduced by Steven Soderbergh, Grant Heslov, and George Clooney.
Albee allows 'Woolf ' production
After a few days of desperate last-minute negotiations, playwright Edward Albee has changed course and decided to allow the Publick Theatre to stage his play “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’’ Just over a week ago, the 81-year-old Albee had rejected the Publick’s licensing request, even though the theater was already rehearsing the show and planned to start performances tomorrow night. Upon hearing that Albee had denied permission to stage the work, Publick artistic director Diego Arciniegas sent an e-mail pleading that Albee change his mind. Arciniegas also began scrambling for a Plan B: a run of Tina Packer’s play “Women of Will,’’ about female characters in Shakespeare. Packer, one of the stars of “Virginia Woolf,’’ had offered quickly to write her three castmates into the new production.But yesterday, Arciniegas got word that the playwright relented. Albee, a three-time Pulitzer winner, told the company it could stage “Woolf’’ - with one stipulation: “We have to put a full-page announcement in our program that Mr. Albee didn’t approve the production,’’ Arciniegas said yesterday.
Albee is known for being very picky when it comes to who stages his plays and how. He demanded that Arciniegas send him headshots of the cast, for example, before he would consider granting the license. That meant the Publick had to have casting and other details in place before it had permission to stage the play. Albee hasn’t commented on why he denied the Publick’s request, but Arciniegas said Albee’s reps told him it was because Albee was in negotiations with another theater for “Virginia Woolf.’’
David Miller, artistic director at Zeitgeist Stage Company, wasn’t surprised to hear that the Publick has had a tough time of it with Albee. Miller staged the American premiere of the three-act version of Albee’s “Seascape’’ last October. “We had to submit rehearsal schedules, head shots, resumes, costume designs of the lizards - all for his approval. The process was rather nerve-racking,’’ Miller said. Then he added: “If you’re America’s greatest living playwright . . . maybe you get to be that way.’’ The Publick Theatre performances of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’’ will go on as planned, starting tomorrow night.
Affleck moving to Somerville
Is there a neighborhood where Ben Affleck isn’t filming? The director of “The Town’’ has already been in Charlestown, the Fenway, the North End, and Dorchester, and he’s headed to Somerville Saturday. We’re told Affleck will be shooting at Somerville Hospital this weekend. (The hospital will remain open while the cast and crew are working.) News of the shoot surprised a receptionist yesterday, who quipped, “I’ll come in as an injured patient.’’Geidt honored at ART
Actress Cherry Jones, who just scored an Emmy for her role on “24,’’ was in Boston the other night, joining her friends and former colleagues at the American Repertory Theater in feting Jan Geidt. The wife of ART senior actor Jeremy Geidt, Jan has been at the ART for close to 40 years, and nurtured Jones since her earliest days with the company.A bang-up fund-raiser
Matt Light fired away yesterday at his celebrity shoot-out, held at Addieville East Farm in Mapleville, R.I. The annual fund-raiser for the lineman’s charity, The Light Foundation, let guests match shooting skills against Light, his teammates, and celebs, including comedian Lenny Clarke and skier Bode Miller.Most valuable advice
Kids on a Dunkin’ Donuts-sponsored tour of Fenway Park got a surprise batting lesson from Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia yesterday. Pedroia hung out with the youngsters in the batting cages and offered tips while they took swings. The Dunkin’ Donuts Perks Most Valuable Tour also included a Q&A with Pedroia, during which the reigning AL MVP disclosed that his pal Mike Lowell switches bathrooms whenever he’s in a slump. Apparently, Lowell thinks it’s good luck.Reporter role in Cruise movie was news to Wahle
After 30 years on television, Scott Wahle knows what to do when the camera rolls. That’s probably why Boston Casting called the former WBZ-TV anchor when they needed someone to play a TV newsman in the Tom Cruise/Cameron Diaz movie. “It all happened in about 48 hours,’’ said Wahle. “I got the call, I auditioned, and then they called me and said I had the part.’’ Wahle plays an MSNBC newsman reporting on the spectacular crash of a jetliner. (The scene was shot last week in Bridgewater, Mass., but it’ll be Bridgewater, Ind., on the big screen.) Wahle, who’s done some stage work with the Reagle Players but never been in a movie, was told he’d have one line, but when he got to the set discovered he had a whole paragraph. “And then they said, ‘We’re shooting in five minutes,’ ’’ he said, laughing. “I had to learn it as fast I could.’’Read the Names blog at www.boston.com/namesblog. Names can be reached at names@globe.com or at 617-929-8253. 
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