Fifteen-year-old actor Aaron Wolff of the movie "A Serious Man".
Names
Break-out actor can’t break the rules
Fifteen-year-old actor Aaron Wolff of the movie "A Serious Man".
Fifteen-year-old Aaron Wolff is old enough to star in “A Serious Man’’ - but he isn’t old enough to see the movie at the West Newton Cinema. Wolff, a Newton actor who has a break-out role in the latest Coen brothers film, tried to take a pack of friends to see the movie Tuesday night but wasn’t allowed in. The movie is rated R, and Wolff and some of his friends aren’t old enough to buy a ticket without a parent. Wolff wound up calling his mom, Judy Kogan, who tried to escort the group into the theater. But Kogan said that West Newton Cinema staffers wanted proof that she was Wolff’s guardian, and said that she could only accompany her own child, not the whole group. Kogan was surprised the theater was so strict. “All of these kids’ parents knew where they were going,’’ Kogan said. Cinema co-owner David Bramante told us yesterday that the theater follows a strict policy about R-rated films, which, under Motion Picture Association of America guidelines, requires anyone under 17 to be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Bramante said it’s not often that the theater has an underage film star show up to see his own movie. If it ever happens again, it’s something Bramante might consider waiving the rules for. “It’s something we’d have to take a look at for the future.’’
Lahiri at White House
Rhode Island-bred Boston University grad Jhumpa Lahiri was one of the notables at the White House state dinner to honor India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh earlier this week. Joining the Pulitzer-winning author was her husband, editor Alberto Vourvoulias-Bush.Radio silence for Friday BSO?
After more than 50 years on local radio, the live Friday broadcasts of the Boston Symphony Orchestra performances from Symphony Hall now face an uncertain fate. As WGBH takes over programming of the classical station WCRB-FM 99.5 on Dec. 1, the parent station is considering eliminating the longstanding Friday matinee broadcast. “We will air the December 4th concert, but plans beyond that broadcast are still in discussion,’’ wrote Lucy Sholley, a WGBH spokeswoman, in an e-mail. In a phone interview, Sholley declined to expand on the reasons for the potential cancellation but stated that “no decision has been made.’’ She also added that the Saturday evening live BSO broadcast on WCRB will continue. The BSO, which does not charge WGBH for the broadcast rights, declined to comment. WGBH’s plans to purchase WCRB were announced in late-September. Around that time, WGBH president and CEO Jon Abbott wrote in a letter sent to the press and posted on the station’s website that WGBH intended to “build on our ongoing partnerships’’ with the BSO and other local musical institutions.Writing the book on celebrating
Portland, Maine, author Phillip Hoose says that writers know how to party. After winning the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature for his nonfiction work “Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice,’’ Hoose watched as his publishing industry peers took to the Cipriani Wall Street mezzanine for a late-night dance party. “It was just a pounding dance floor. I went up with my wife and daughters and you just couldn’t even move.’’ Hoose said he escaped as soon as he could to celebrate in peace. “We just ordered some champagne and pounded it down until we got some headaches,’’ Hoose said, laughing. Hoose, 62, said the best part about winning the prestigious award is that he gets to share it with the subject of his book, the now 70-year-old Colvin, who in 1955 declined to give up her seat for a white person on a Montgomery, Ala., bus months before Rosa Parks made the same refusal. Colvin accompanied Hoose to last week’s awards ceremony. “As we passed tables, there were just ripples of awareness.’’ Hoose admitted that the other perk of winning the book award is the attention that comes with it. “The tide of e-mail messages and calls that have come winging in from people all throughout my life,’’ Hoose said, “the old friends and old girlfriends crawling out of the woodwork.’’At home, with Mr. Bartley
Mr. Bartley’s owner Billy Bartley had trouble deciding where to watch himself on television earlier this week. His famous Harvard Square burger spot was to be featured on Monday’s episode of Guy Fieri’s “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives’’ on the Food Network, and Bartley wanted the screening to be a party. He thought about hosting a viewing at the burger place, even though it would mean extending the restaurant’s hours (Fieri’s show airs at 10 p.m., an hour past closing). But Bartley realized soon enough that while the burger cottage does have patties and toppings of all kinds, it doesn’t have cable. Bartley wound up gathering his entire family to watch the show on the rather enormous television at his home in Reading.A helping of service
Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck and TD Garden president John Wentzell were among a number of high-profile Bostonians who helped serve Thanksgiving dinner to locals in need on Tuesday. The meal, which was served at the Garden, included 600 pounds of turkey, 700 pounds of stuffing, and 25 gallons of gravy. . . . The giving continues today when Bruins defenseman Dennis Wideman kicks off a daylong journey to shelters around Boston, where he’ll be dropping off 200 pies from Mike’s Pastry that he purchased himself. His first stop is the New England Center for Homeless Veterans.Jeremy Eichler of the Globe staff contributed. 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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