Elaine Showalter and Christopher Benfey
Dear Chris,
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StumbleUponYes, brilliant; Janet Street-Porter is sort of a female Austin Powers. But the movie, here delicately called Austin Powers II, hasn't opened in England yet. I can't figure out the schedule by which movies are released in Europe. For example, the new Star Wars won't open in Paris until October (something to do with those long French summer holidays), and French kids are so frantic to see it that at least one doting Parisian papa we know is bringing his daughters to London for the premiere next week. On the other hand, the erotic new Kubrick movie, Eyes Wide Shut, which was filmed in London for years, so that half the city got at least one good look at Nicole and Tom (we spotted her at a performance of Othello), won't open here until September. Doesn't seem fair, and probably the Brits will be popping over to Paris to see it sooner.
July 4th was much noted here, first because of our great tennis victory and also because the designer Paco Rabanne predicted, based on his reading of Nostradamus, that the world would end. It didn't. There was a party at the American Embassy which we didn't attend, but the papers said the burgers were charred, the beer was warm, and the ambassador arrived late. The sports reporters loved Agassi, Sampras, and Lindsay Davenport; one called her "an all-American long-legged smiler whom Gatsby would have been delighted to invite to one of his garden parties." They were also intrigued by the daughter of Dr. J. And I'm sure I did read something here about the Women's World Cup.
After a report in the Lancet describing the recent Belgian health scare about Coke as an instance of mass hysteria, there have been lots of newspaper stories here about MSI ("mass sociogenic illness"). Small consolation. We were in Paris in June, and first all the museums and national archives were closed because of a strike, so my husband, who teaches French at Rutgers, couldn't do the research we'd come for. But we were patient and philosophical. Then the Metro, buses, and trains went on strike, so that the only way to get around the city was by Rollerblade. But Paris is relatively flat. Then the French government followed the Belgians and banned Diet Coke along with all Coca-Cola products. The last straw.
Although I could still get Diet Coke on the black market, so to speak, I don't think a country that bans Diet Coke is the place for an American woman of the '90s. London is much more civilized.
Good luck with your remodeling. We would like to buy a flat in London, but the housing market is spiraling (an uninspiring one-bedroom place across the street is going for 460,000 pounds--that's 736,000 bucks, give or take a few), and we're too old to renovate.
London theater is still affordable and great--more on that tomorrow.
Best,
Elaine
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