It's been a while but a lot has happened.
Firstly and most importantly, I now live in a state where I am treated as an equal citizen! Yes! Marriage Equality was signed into law in New York and don't we just love our Governor Cuomo for getting those corrupt and out of touch senators off their fat asses and bringing New York back to the forefront of the civil rights battle? Hooray! Now of course, I await the onslaught of weddings. As does, I am sure, the hospitality industry of this great state. Drinks all round. Ka-ching.
I found out about the marriage eqaulity vote when I was on a cruise across the Atlantic with my Mum on the Queen Mary 2. It made the front page of the little news pamphlet you get in your room each day. I had a great time on the cruise. I have always wanted to do one and have always been a little frightened of it. The idea of being completely away and just looking out the window at the sea for a week is so alluring to me, but there was also the worrying flipside of being stuck on a boat with a lot of people I didn't know but who knew me. However, I have to say that people were very respectful and I had such a lovely stateroom with a little balcony that if I did feel in need of some alone time it was a lovely place to be. I went to lectures on Hillary Clinton, Benjamin Britten and Atlantic maritime history! I saw Hamlet and theCantebury Tales! I saw shows in the Planetarium! I had a lot of massages and I ate like a pig every night and best of all... I went back on the booze!
Yes, I have been off the hooch all year, just a little break to give my body a rest and remind myself that fun can be had without martinis. Of course much fun can be had with them, but it is nice to know you can have fun regardless.
I was staying off the hooch also because I was doing a really intense film in Los Angeles calledFamlee, in which I played a man in the 1970s, and as we know everyone was skinnier in the 70s. I think it's because they all smoked and also because processed foods hadn't utterly taken over and made us all unhealthy fatties. I did a bit of drag in this film, and it occured to me that there must be something in the fact that in the two hiatuses I have had from playing Eli Gold on The Good Wife, I have done jobs that require me to slip on a ladies' garment. Obviously Eli' s repression and tailored suits had more of an affect on me than I imagined.
The very exciting thing that is about to happen is the unveiling of The Smurfs movie at the end of the month. I am about to go to LA and do a bit of press for it and then when I come back it will be Smurf Week in NYC. Can you imagine?
Also I just finished doing the audiobook of the last instalment of Scott Westerfield'sLevathan Trilogy entitled Goliath. It comes out in September. Here I am yesterday with Scott, proudly holding the Shania Twain autobiography audiobook which I was delighted to discover was also a Simon and Schuster release. Out now is the novel version ofMacbeth that I did for Audible. I really like it, and just as well as Macbeth is going to be featuring heavily in my life over the next year or so.
If you are a Kate Bush fan you may be excited to know that I will be soon able to tell you about a show I am going to do involving her music. Actually her very early music. Oh yes, I'll be giving it all in a moment or two. Stay tuned. And now some things you might enjoy or be piqued by...