Grey Gardens

By all laws of art and nature, "Grey Gardens" should be dead by now, a dried-up husk leeched of all creative possibility. The story of Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter, Edie, a pair of former society fixtures found living in nonpicturesque yet strangely joyful squalor in the 1970s, began as a cover story in New York magazine. It went on to become a cult-worshiped documentary, a Broadway musical, a documentary of the making of that Broadway musical and now a movie on HBO.

A pair of award winners -- recent Golden Globe recipient Drew Barrymore ( "Grey Gardens") and comedian Wanda Sykes, who took home an Emmy as a writer for "The Chris Rock Show" -- will add new honors to their respective mantles courtesy of the Los Angeles presentation of the 21st Annual GLAAD Media Awards on April 17 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza. Barrymore will be presented with the Vanguard Award, which is given to media professionals who have increased the visibility and understanding of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)

In the 1970s, Bob Garrett performed at Reno Sweeney, the same New York cabaret where Jackie Kennedy's eccentric cousin "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale sang. More than three decades later, Garrett gave Drew Barrymore vocal training needed to simulate one of Little Edie's performances for "Grey Gardens," the HBO film based on the 1975 documentary of the same name.

Most nominations FILM "Up in the Air" ... 6 "Nine" ... 5 "Avatar" ... 4 "Inglourious Basterds" ... 4 "The Hurt Locker" ... 3 "Invictus" ... 3 "It's Complicated" ... 3 "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" ... 3 "A Single Man" ... 3 TELEVISION "Glee" ... 4 "30 Rock" ... 3 "Big Love" ... 3 "Damages" ... ...

Drew Barrymore, facing a window onto Central Park, held up a mirror. She took a long time reapplying her lipstick. "Most of my best friends are gay and they all act like her, talk like her, dress like her at certain moments -- they all quote her all the time," she said, in her somewhat spooky way.

"Grey Gardens: From East Hampton to Broadway" is a documentary about a Broadway musical that is based on a documentary. If that has a certain snake-eating-tail improbability to it, well, the Grey Gardens story of two eccentric former socialites is, in any medium, all about improbability. In 1976, Albert and David Maysles' film "Grey Gardens," introduced increasingly cultish audiences to Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale and her daughter, Edith Bouvier Beale.

One of the strangest documentaries ever, "Grey Gardens" if anything looks stranger today than when it was originally released in 1976. Filmed by Albert and David Maysles, "Grey Gardens" is a prime example of what the brothers called their "direct cinema" technique, a cinema verite approach that had the Maysleses turn the camera on and then, at least in theory, retreat to the status of indifferent flies on the wall.

Anyone who sees "Grey Gardens" isn't likely to forget it. The 1976 documentary, directed by Albert and David Maysles, takes us into the strange world of aging debutante Little Edie Beale, who lives with her mother, Big Edie, in a squalid 28-room mansion, the Grey Gardens of the title, in East Hampton, N.Y.

While one can easily imagine Little Edie Beale's breathless excitement at being portrayed, in HBO's recent update of "Grey Gardens," by Drew Barrymore -- a Barrymore, by God! -- it is harder to imagine a time when the original version of "Grey Gardens" was, in a jarring word, demonized.

Most nominations FILM "Up in the Air" ... 6 "Nine" ... 5 "Avatar" ... 4 "Inglourious Basterds" ... 4 "The Hurt Locker" ... 3 "Invictus" ... 3 "It's Complicated" ... 3 "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" ... 3 "A Single Man" ... 3 TELEVISION "Glee" ... 4 "30 Rock" ... 3 "Big Love" ... 3 "Damages" ... ...

The surprises came in the form of new and old at the 61st Primetime Emmys on Sunday as dark horses such as Toni Collette and Kristin Chenoweth beat out the favored winners while veteran actors took home nearly every other acting award. And though it was hardly a shock that AMC's "Mad Men" won for the second year in a row for drama series and "30 Rock" won for the third consecutive year for comedy series, repeat wins in drama categories by Glenn Close for lead actress for FX's "Damages" and Bryan Cranston for AMC's "Breaking Bad" were not entirely expected.

Like every other award show on Earth, the Emmys, whose 61st edition became history Sunday night, is a staged event masquerading as news, or rather a staged event that contains nuggets of something that might be called news. It poses two intertwined but separate questions: Who will win? And will the show that delivers the answers be any good? Because it is unpredictable, the first question belongs to the real world; the second concerns something scripted, choreographed and scored, a show about show business.

Hope Davis was just nominated for an Emmy for her work on "In Treatment." She is on her way to England to play Hillary Clinton in "The Special Relationship," written by Peter Morgan ("The Queen") for HBO. Most of this year, she has appeared on Broadway in "God of Carnage," for which she was nominated for a Tony; we met in her adorable dressing room, with a little hot plate and some terrific drawings by her kids. -- You are giving up the life of the F train, or what have you, for the Tube!

In the 1970s, Bob Garrett performed at Reno Sweeney, the same New York cabaret where Jackie Kennedy's eccentric cousin "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale sang. More than three decades later, Garrett gave Drew Barrymore vocal training needed to simulate one of Little Edie's performances for "Grey Gardens," the HBO film based on the 1975 documentary of the same name.

HBO recaptured its Emmy preeminence Thursday, racking up the most nominations of any television network for the ninth year in a row as the polygamous family saga "Big Love" broke into the best drama category for the first time. But it was the premium cable channel's movies and miniseries that really delivered. "Grey Gardens," the tale of Jacqueline Kennedy's reclusive aunt and cousin, garnered 17 nominations, including nods for stars Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange.

The Haunting in Connecticut Lionsgate, $29.95/$34.98; Blu-ray, $39.99 "The Haunting in Connecticut" features strong performances from a top-notch cast that includes Virginia Madsen, Elias Koteas, Martin Donovan and Kyle Gallner, but then director Peter Cornwell strands those actors in a hallucinatory haunted house plot that's so stock in its shock and so outlandish in its gory imagery that all potential plausibility dissipates.

FOR much of the summer, behind the manicured lawns and privets of the privileged, gossip insatiably centered on the distinguished Astor family as the grandson of Brooke Astor, the 104-year-old doyenne of American society, sued his father over his grandmother's alleged mistreatment.

Only one thing is certain at the Emmys: surprise. Just because most pundits bet on "Grey Gardens" to win best TV movie and actress, watch out for "Prayers for Bobby," starring Sigourney Weaver as an intolerant Christian who seeks redemption after her gay son commits suicide. Voters adore those kinds of message movies mixed with tears. And a variety of upsets may be lurking in the variety races.

Jessica Lange, who has won two Oscars and lives in New York City, visited Los Angeles last month to discuss the HBO movie "Grey Gardens." In it, she plays Edith "Big Edie" Bouvier Beale, the performative, fashionable, destitute mother of Little Edie (Drew Barrymore). The mother-daughter symbiosis was first captured in a 1975 documentary about their lives in a falling-down house in East Hampton, N.Y. In the wrong hands, "Grey Gardens" could have been very campy. We're talking "Mommie Dearest."

While one can easily imagine Little Edie Beale's breathless excitement at being portrayed, in HBO's recent update of "Grey Gardens," by Drew Barrymore -- a Barrymore, by God! -- it is harder to imagine a time when the original version of "Grey Gardens" was, in a jarring word, demonized.