Saoirse In Venice Brings Out the Soapbox In Me

I can plead ignorance or busyness as much as anyone else, but honestly when I read that Saoirse Ronan was at the Venice Film Festival for Orrizonti, I assumed it was an Italian film and went on to obsess over her outfit. But as usual with Saoirse, the truth is way more interesting, and I feel bad for accidentally almost not investigating further.

Orrizonti, which I am betting to myself means ‘Horizons’, is the colloquial short nickname for “Orrizonti Corti Fuori Concorso E Concorso”, AKA  “Short Horizons Out of Competition and In Competition”, per Google Translate. Saoirse isn’t here as a performer, but as the writer and director of Paper Plane, a 15-minute short about “a defiant young girl staging a silent protest and running away from home until her disruptive father has gone, forcing her mother to decide whether to follow her or let her go.”

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Why am I getting emotional??

Partly because the logline for the film is basically the most Irish thing I’ve ever heard for a dozen reasons. Labelling a young girl character as both “defiant” and “silent”? That’s mega-Irish, and in case there was any doubt, Saoirse wrote in her directors’ statement that Paper Plane is “a love letter to a younger version of myself, and a younger version of my mother."  SOB.

But partly, too, I’m emotional because – and it’s late on a Friday, so forgive the vulnerability here – Saoirse believed a story like this was important enough to be told, as it was, the way she imagined it. A lot of us, when dreaming of writing or directing, were told a young person’s story wasn’t significant enough – or we let someone’s dismissive reaction to a story like this become a solid truth, instead of one person’s unimaginative, same old same old dismissive opinion. I’m thrilled that this is Saoirse’s entree to directing and writing (publicly) and I’m so excited about what a feature from her, with a young woman as a protagonist, could look like. Do you think she and Greta have a text thread where they trade riffs on these ideas, or do they have proper Zoom work sessions, just because?

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This is Louis Vuitton and is predictably understated, but it’s making me excited for Saoirse’s next red carpet run, whenever that may be.

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What else happened today…

I know Tahj Mowry was Smart Guy, and he’s Tia & Tamera’s brother, but he’ll always be Michelle’s friend Teddy to me. Yet this mall-based thirst shoot  …also somehow works? (PopSugar)

We were talking in the Squawk Mailbag today about celebrity press obligations, and, well – interpret these shots of Meryl Streep as you will. (Go Fug Yourself)

When you are a dark-haired woman of a certain age, people encourage you to go blonde as a way to ‘grey blend’. Problem is, it always looks odd, because I was never meant to be blonde and neither was Princess Kate. (Celebitchy)

How many Emmys do The Muppets have to win to get a series pickup already? (Deadline)