The Nanny Diaries (2007)

UPDATED 12-8-07

My dear friend and colleague Evelyn Gibbons showed me this week's Electric City and, in the movie section, a review for the recently released The Nanny Diaries. The first paragraph of the review is devoted to a reference to Scranton in the film.


The Nanny Diaries is based on the bestselling novel by Nicola Kraus and Emma McLaughlin and stars Scarlett Johansson, Laura Linney, Paul Giamatti, and songstress Alicia Keys. The Nanny Diaries tells the story of Annie (Scarlett Johansson), a recent college grad living in New York City who gets a job as a nanny for snooty socialites Mr. & Mrs. X (Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney).


The Scranton reference is said to take place early in the film when a woman from New Jersey describes her ex-husband as taking up "in a double wide in Scranton." Not exactly a picturesque reference, but a Scranton reference nonetheless.

DVD copies of The Nanny Diaries are available from the Lackawanna County Library System; to place a hold, click here.


Thanks again to Evelyn Gibbons for the scoop.


UPDATED 12-8-07 I purchased a copy of The Nanny Diaries DVD this past week and thought it a pretty good flick (plus I'm a HUGE fan of Laura Linney and she was great as Mrs. X). The Scranton mention takes place within the first four minutes of the film, where the recent college grad Annie is having lunch with her mother, who presents Annie was a business suit as a graduation present:

Annie

Mom. Gosh. C'mon. It's one meeting at Goldman Saks. It's highly competitive. I'm probably not going to get the job.

Mom

All right. Stop with the negativity. Your father was always negative and look what it got him...a double-wide trailer in Scranton.

On a side note, when Annie first takes a train to NYC for her interview, she leaves from the Lackawanna RR (but from New Jersey).

Coincidentally, in a later scene, one of the characters is reading a copy of The Devil Wears Prada by Scranton native Lauren Weisberger.

The Office Convention, October 26th-28th, 2007 in Scranton, PA; Seven Cast Members Confirmed (9/25/07)

UPDATED 9/25/07, 10/1/07, 10/3/07, 10/11/07 & 10/22/07

Click on the image above for more details. Also, for a sneek peak at some of the convention events, read this article from Electric City for some tasty morsels.

Don't miss The Office's one-hour season premiere

Thursday, September 27th at 9 PM on NBC

www.theofficeconvention.com

UPDATE 9/25/07 According to this morning's Citizens' Voice, seven cast members of The Office have been confirmed thus far to attend The Office Convention. They are: Kate Flannery (Meredith), Brian Baumgartner (Kevin--making his second appearance in Scranton this year), Creed Bratton (Creed), Mindy Kaling (Kelly), Phyllis Lapin (Phyllis), Leslie David Baker (Stanley) and Oscar Nunez (Oscar).

The article also states that ADDITIONAL cast members are also expected to attend; they will be announced in the next few days.

In addition, Al Roker from NBC's Today will be in Scranton Friday, October 26th, broadcasting LIVE from the University of Scranton.

UPDATE 10/1/07 It has been confirmed that Angela Kinsey (Angela) will be returning to Scranton to attend the convention. Also attending will be Bobby Ray Shafer (Bob Vance - Vance Refrigeration).

UPDATED 10/3/07 It has been confirmed that Melora Hardin (Jan) will also be attending the Office Convention! Also attending will be Andy Buckley (David Wallace from Corporate).

UPDATED 10/11/07 Paul Lieberstein (Toby) and Craig Robinson (Darryl from the warehouse) will be attending The Office Convention. In addition, Executive producer Greg Daniels will also be coming to Scranton!

UPDATED 10/22/07 Ed Helms (Andy) will be attending!

The Mod Squad (1968-1973)

Barb Williams from Memphis, Tennessee emailed me this past week with the following Scranton reference:

"Can't provide anything to substantiate this, but I recall an episode of The Mod Squad where Capt. Adam Greer (Tige Andrews) says he is for Scranton."

The Mod Squad was a popular TV series about three young, hip, crime fighters who were offered work fighting crime as an alternative to being incarcerated themselves. It ran for five seasons on ABC.

The Scranton reference appeared in the show's third season in Episode #84, The Poisoned Mind, which originally aired November 2, 1971. In the episode, Capt. Adam Greer takes time off from the force to recover from depression after shooting a young man during a robbery. In this episode, Greer mentions for the first time that he is from Scranton.

Thanks again to Barb Williams for this reference.

Reunion In France (1942)

UPDATED 8/29/07

Don McKeon from Scranton, who has submitted several wonderful local references in entertainment to this blog, emailed me on Saturday to tell me about a classic film in which not one, but two silver screen legends say Wilkes-Barre in their dialogue.

MGM's 1942 wartime melodrama Reunion in France stars Joan Crawford and John Wayne. It was produced by Wilkes-Barre native Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who added references to Wilkes-Barre to almost every film he was a part of---from A Letter To Three Wives to All About Eve.

Crawford portrays Michele de la Becque, a born-into-wealth Frenchwoman who could care less about the impending German invasion of Paris. After vacationing in the South of France, Michele returns home to discover Paris (and even her own home) has been occupied by the Nazis. Witnessing the Nazi occupation firsthand and upon discovering her fiance, a French manufacturer, has sold out to the Germans, Michele becomes a true French patriot and opponent of the Nazis.

One evening, Michele encounters downed American flyer Patrick Talbot (John Wayne) and decides to let him hide in her apartment as she attempts to get him safely out of the country.

In one scene, about 46 minutes into the film, Patrick and Michele are sitting in her apartment as an exhausted Patrick lays on Michele's bed:


Michele: When did you eat last?

Patrick: Eat? A couple of years ago in Wilkes-Barre. Leg of lamb, mashed potatoes, apple pie, three cups of coffee. Ever been to Wilkes-Barre?

Michele: Wilkes-Barre?

Patrick: Pennsylvania. Ever see the Susquehanna? Ever see Pittsburgh play Carnegie Tech? (gets up to leave) I'll get out in just a minute.

Michele: No, I think you better try to get some sleep.

Patrick: (dozing off) I don't need to try. Lady, here I go again.

After Patrick falls asleep, Michele examines his tag (which she finds hidden in the soul of his shoe) and reads it aloud: "RAF, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania."



In the next scene, Michele and Patrick are having breakfast in her apartment:

Patrick: I told you all there is to tell.

Michele: Except for one detail. How did you get from Wilkes-Barre to the RAF?


A few scenes later, before they share their first kiss, Patrick says to Michele:



Patrick: Imagine what your eyes will do to Wilkes-Barre.


Later, when the Nazis are catching onto Patrick, a screen shot compares his U.S. military ID with his fake French student ID. The screen reads:

Name: Lieutenant Patrick Talbot

American Eagle Eagle Squadron, R.A.F.

Nationality: American

Address: Wilkes-Barre, Penn., USA

Patrick's final reference to Wilkes-Barre appears nears the poignant conclusion of the film:

Patrick: (to Michele) London isn't as far from Wilkes-Barre as...Lisbon.

In 1942, the public reaction to the then-topical Reunion in France was mostly negative--critics trashed the film and audiences ignored it.

Although I had Reunion in France on VHS a long time ago (and kept it in my collection for several years), I had never seen the film. Jim O'Neil, a colleague of mine who works in the Readers Service Department at Albright Memorial Library, asked me a few months ago if I had seen the film; when I told him no, he told me the film was atrocious and hysterically overdone and must be seen to be believed.

However, I borrowed the library's recently acquired DVD of Reunion in France and really liked it. I thought Crawford and Wayne both gave solid performances and had great onscreen chemistry.

Joan Crawford would make only one more film, 1943's Above Suspicion, before ending her longstanding MGM contract and signing with Warner Bros. Three years later, she won her first and only Oscar for 1945's Mildred Pierce; she continued starring in films (including Sudden Fear, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? and Straight Jacket) and appearing on television until her death in 1977. However, after the publication of her adopted daughter Christina's scathing memoir Mommie Dearest in 1978, Joan's image became forever blemished with accusations of child abuse and, of course, with this memorable line.

John Wayne became a huge box office draw in Westerns such as Red River, The Searchers, and 1969's True Grit, for which he won an Oscar for Best Actor. He passed away from stomach cancer in 1979.

Reunion in France has recently been released on DVD, and a copy is now available to borrow from Albright Memorial Library. To place a hold on Reunion in France, click here.

Much thanks again to Don McKeon of Scranton. Keep em' comin'!