Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher

I am quite a newcomer to the world of Jack Reacher. Having recently acquiring a dozen or so ebook versions of Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels, I am currently reading Killing Floor and my Kindle tells me I am 30% of the way through it, the first installment in this series of suspense thrillers.

I am gradually building up a mental picture of Reacher, what he looks like, how he behaves, how he reacts to different situations and so on. For me, forming impressions of characters is one of the great pleasures of reading. According to Wikipedia (so it must be true - ha ha), Jack Reacher's physical appearance is described as follows:

Reacher is 6' 5" tall (1.96 m) with a 50-inch chest, and weighing between 210 and 250 pounds (100-115 kg). He has ice-blue eyes and dirty blond hair. He has very little body fat, and his muscular physique is completely natural (he reveals in Persuader, he has never been an exercise enthusiast.) He is exceptionally strong but is not a good runner. Reacher's strength is combined with his savant intellect and military training, analyzing his environment and opponents at extremely high processing speeds.

I learned via Mashable this morning that Tom Cruise is to play Jack Reacher in a cinematic adaptation of the ninth novel in the series, One Shot. The movie will simply be called Jack Reacher and is due for release later this year.

I'm sorry to say that no part of Reacher's physical description or psychological picture reminds in any way of Tom Cruise - absolutely none at all. For one thing, Cruise is almost a foot shorter than Reacher. But it goes further than his size (which is an integral part of this character). Reacher is  imposing in almost every way and hardened by life; there is nothing suave about him. According to the official Twitter feed for the movie, Lee Child himself is thrilled with the choice and goes to great lengths to assure readers that he was never worried about it. At all. Never ever. Not one bit.

I'm not convinced and it seems I'm not the only one. The trailer hasn't done much to change my mind, either.



What do you think about Tom Cruise playing Jack Reacher? Does your imagination stretch far enough to make it believable, or will you be struggling, like me, to make the character work on the big screen?

Bea Arthur's Sex and the City parody

With the passing of Bea Arthur (aged 86) this week, there has been plenty of mention in the media about her lengthy career on stage and television. While I can never confess to have been a fan of The Golden Girls, for which she was best known in New Zealand, it has been interesting to learn more about this talented actor and hear about some other examples of her work.

And then a friend of mine posted a link to this video on Facebook. Bea Arthur and friends parody Sex and the City, one of my favourite tv shows ever. See what happens to Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte in years to come; you'll see that they've still got 'it' but, after watching this video, 'it' can never really be the same again.

Bea Arthur's Sex and the City Parody - watch more funny videos

Hilarious!

Dear Fatty - Dawn French

I have spent the past couple of weeks getting to know Dawn French (of French and Saunders and The Vicar of Dibley fame, among others). She is the sort of character we all think we know in real life, so endearing are her on-screen persona. As I read through her memoirs, Dear Fatty (2008), I'm sure I could hear her voice narrating each story. Dear Fatty is a series of letters written to family, friends, and celebrities recalling and retelling events, situations, incidents, or snippets from Dawn's life. Often humorous, always warm, it's easy to be drawn in each story. It wasn't until part-way through that we discover who 'Fatty' is (spoiler alert - it's actually her comedy partner, the stick-thin Jennifer Saunders). Great title, though.

Some points touched a nerve; I cried as I read the letter to her dad about his suicide when she was just 19. (I was 18 when my high-school boyfriend committed suicide.) The chain of events she described, and the endless questions she threw at him, were astonishingly accurate for me.

Determined to keep on making every moment in her life count, even in the face of challenges, I came away from reading this book feeling inspired to 'do stuff' ... I'm not entirely sure what, but it certainly leaves the reader with the impression that anything is possible. (And I hope so - I need to find a job this month!)

Six degrees of separation

Apparently there are six degrees of separation in the world. That means that, in theory, anyone on the planet can be connected to any other person on the planet through a chain of acquaintances that has no more than five intermediaries. There is a Facebook application dedicated to it although, to be honest, I've never really figured out how it works.

Microsoft studied more than 30 billion electronic conversations among 180 million people and found that on average 6.6 "hops" were needed to link two apparently unconnected people. A commentator said that people in New Zealand were often said to have only two degrees of separation. Well, it's frequently said that Wellington is a village, and everyone knows everyone here (practically). Again, I'm not entirely sure how that's possible but it seems to be true.

A couple of years ago, friends held a six degrees of separation party. They were worried that their guests, who came from very different interest/work groups would not find anything in common at their party and stick to themselves, so they engineered a little experiment to get people to mix and match. I ended up meeting up with a former neighbour, who now lived in their neighbourhood, and a couple of others who knew my father through musical circles. I think they worked out that everyone at their party were separated by four degrees.

But here's my two degrees of separation ... this morning, New Zealand woke to the news that Jemaine Clement, Wellington's own celebrity from Flight of the Conchords fame, has married his long-time girlfriend, Miranda Manasiadis. Miranda and I used to go to school (primary and secondary) together. We'd sit together on the bus into town each morning and, through sleep-encrusted eyes, talk about trivial teenage stuff. I remember when she first started acting (we were Iris and Ceres, mythical gods in the school production of The Tempest, wearing the most ridiculous costumes you've ever seen). I was really pleased to see that she pursued a career in theatre, and now she has bagged one of Wellington's most eligible bachelors.