I’m so EXCITED! 

sp-a-m:

Soderbergh’s Liberace, ‘Behind The Candelabra’

Director Steven Soderbergh had been looking for a way to frame a film about the extravagant entertainer Liberace for years when a friend recommended the book Behind the Candelabra: My Life with Liberace.

The book — a memoir — is by Scott Thorson, who for five years was Liberace’s lover, though that wasn’t publicly disclosed at the time.

Thorson was 40 years younger than Liberace and still in his teens when they met in 1977. Liberace was a huge star, famous for his showy piano playing, his flashy outfits — bejeweled jackets, feathered capes, fur coats — and the candelabra that was almost always on his piano.

“When I read that book, it sort of solved all my problems,” Soderbergh tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross. “It gave me a specific time period to deal with; there was the arc of the relationship between the two of them to give me a structure. And that’s when things really started to move.”

The resulting film, starring Michael Douglas as Liberace and Matt Damon as Thorson, premieres on HBO on May 26. It’s being released in theaters abroad, and is competing for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival this week.

Listen to the interview (44 minutes) at NPR

Children’s Illustrators: Edmund Dulac

Edumund Dulac was born in Toulouse, France, in 1882; he was inspired by Eastern culture as well as English illustrators, and brought many famous works of literature to life such as Arabian Nights and Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tales