Friday, “The Kindergarten Teacher” opens. Maggie Gyllenhaal is the star. Maggie Gyllenhaal is also the producer. So what’s Maggie Gyllenhaal know about producing?
“Doing enough independent, private, low-budget films you automatically learn about producing. You’re forced to. You have to understand what the movie’s saying. You need to help find people, ask for funding, write to who might help, start conversations about it. Have lunch with a distributor, think of merging, consider a maybe co-production, attend meetings.
“After learning so much and having done all that, I thought I’d like to also have the credit.
“This film is based on an Israeli story. It’s about a teacher obsessed with a gifted 5-year-old student. After a poetry reading, the plot goes deeper, wilder. It’s a roller coaster and there’s conflicting feelings about the character I play.
“I’m also into year three of HBO’s series ‘The Deuce,’ with James Franco. Next, I move into directing. I’m already working on filming Elena Ferrante’s ‘The Lost Daughter.’ I’m adapting it now. I won’t be in this one. I’m already working with an incredible actress.”
Wearing skintight, floor-length, white silk, pristine, perfect, spotless, wrinkleless Prada, her bending to sit down was a triumph.
So I asked: Maggie, so this new directing thing — so you really feel 100 percent qualified to direct this?
“I’m scared.”
That time of year
Halloween’s not even here. Thanksgiving’s not up, but already comes “Christmas Ain’t a Drag,” a holly jolly rock, jazz musical show. Four people in a nightclub on Dec. 24. One found love, one lost love, one wants love and one’s itchy for love. Plus, a saloonkeeper doing something. In the end, love conquers all. At Santa time it’ll be conquering it at the Cutting Room.
Bits and pieces
Here’s what they’re doing: Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley’s kid, Alexa Ray, ended 10 days at Cafe Carlyle singing “New York State of Mind.” A hat-tip to dad . . . Gary Cohn, exNational Economic Council director, instantly followed a meeting by playing 18 holes at Bridgehampton’s Atlantic Golf Club . . . Evan a prince of the Church pays attention to his mother. Come December, Cardinal Dolan will be in attendance at mom’s 90th birthday.
Book series is killing it
Bill O’Reilly’s newest killing book — his 15thousandth — is a real killer. It’s “Killing the SS.” He says: “In 1959, a refugee from communism, Elfriede (Huth) Rinkel, arrived in San Francisco from East Germany. Her visa application lists her as a factory worker. She settles into America. Neighbors think her very nice.” In reality, Rinkel was a former SS guard at the brutal Ravensbrück concentration camp for women. In 2006, 47 years later, US authorities finally track down Rinkel, and send her back to Germany. According to the book, she’s alive, and, up until 20 minutes ago, she was receiving a US Social Security check every month.
Unlucky ‘Charm’
Alyssa Milano and co-stars Holly Marie Combs and Shannen Doherty, of once-upon-a-time TV series “Charmed,” were excluded from its planned reboot. Oldies-cum-newbies often pick original cast members to draw viewers. Today’s demon broadcasters don’t see that magic? What’s with these sons of witches?
Seeing “First Man,” about Neil Armstrong’s flight to the moon, one smartass to another: “At Kitty Hawk, that first flight, you think Orville Wright told his brother Wilbur: ‘I distinctly ordered a kosher meal!’ ”
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.
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