Greetings. A Monday afternoon roundup of arts-oriented developments, plus one FBI-sponsored board game–oriented development:
UVA graduate Michael Phillip snapped the first photo of actor Daniel Day-Lewis in full Abraham Lincoln makeup last week (the beard is real though), made up for Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln biopic, Lincoln, which is currently being filmed in Richmond and Petersburg. According to Variety’s Jeff Sneider, Day-Lewis hasn’t broken character since March, and his real name doesn’t even appear on the call sheet. And while Day-Lewis’s is well-known for his dedication to roles, the first allegation sounds pretty dubious. I want to believe!
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Lincoln in blue jeans contemplating dessert. Photo by Michael Phillip.
The town of Culpeper has passed the second selection round for Lovetown, USA, and is still in the running to host the upcoming reality T.V. dating show by Oprah Winfrey’s own OWN network. The producers of the show visited Culpeper last month, and must have liked what they saw, because they plan on returning before the year is up. To help bring Lovetown, USA to Culpeper, and for a chance to be on the show, head to the Buffalo Wild Wings in the Kohl’s shopping center on Bus. 29 tonight between 5:30 and 7:30pm to mingle with your prospects/competition and fill out an application. Or forego the trip and visit Culpeper’s Facebook page, where you can download a copy of the lengthy application. Questions include What magazines do you read?, Do you have a crush on anyone in your hometown?, and Do you have any pending litigation? Feel free to answer all three in the comments below. In other reality T.V. news, a father and son from Pittsylvania County are the stars of a Discovery Channel show called Moonshiners, which airs tomorrow night at 10pm.
The cast of The Waltons, the T.V. show that Earl Hamner created in 1971, reunited on The Today Show last Friday. The wholesome family drama, which ran for nine seasons, followed a seven-child family situated in the Blue Ridge Mountains through the Great Depression and World War II. Things to thank Earl Hamner for this holiday season: 1. Giving his surname to our very own Hamner Theater. 2. Coming up with the ever-parodied “Goodnight, Jim Bob” scene. 3. Leaving us with seasonally relevant sentiments like the following, narrated by a grown-up Walton child: “When we were living through them we called them bad times, and thought that we were poor. Only after we all grew up did we realize what good times they had been, and how very rich we were.”
The National Nuclear Security Organization and the FBI recently announced that they completed a tabletop counterterrorism game at UVA called “Cavalier Thunder,” the latest set piece in some kind of nuclear-event themed Dungeons and Dragons campaign codenamed “Silent Thunder.” The board game—yes, that’s actually what it is—is played in select U.S. locations with access to radioactive materials, and runs through scenarios involving nuclear sabotage by terrorist cells. “The University of Virginia’s expertise in both radiation technology and security were valuable contributions to the exercise, which also involved first responders from the city and state levels," the NNSA said in a press release. Looks like we missed an opportunity to see what our fourth-graders can really do.
