The Sylvia Plath Effect

I have nothing against Sylvia Plath, but I'd much rather see an interesting biopic about Anne Sexton or Assia Wevill than yet another take on The Bell Jar. I suppose there's room for everything -- but who then will have the courage to take on Anne Sexton? Even a documentary would be worthwhile. It's how I feel about Shakespeare -- how many godforsaken new versions do we need of that dude's works? No joke, though -- a new movie version of The Bell Jar is in the works.

Plath, Wevill and Sexton all took their own lives, or "checked out early" as Alan Arkin might say a la Little Miss Sunshine. Wevill replicated Plath and both did it in response to Ted Hughes, whose birthday is today. As for me, I'm staying out of it in the department of blame games. It's just that as with Shakespeare's Ophelia, I've read or heard enough versions of Plath; show me something new about Assia Wevill, about Anne Sexton; do a new version of Anne Kaufman's Diary of a Mad Housewife or at least re-release the old version in digital format; or someone try a straight-up take on Diane Arbus without it being too weird for words -- something with a new slant on things with people that resemble the real deal.

Korean actress-singer-etc. Uhm Jung-hwa.

Today's Rune: Inititiation.

Birthdays: Davy Crockett, Samuel Goldwyn (b. Schmuel Gelbfisz), Marcus Garvey, Mae West, Maureen O'Hara (Fitzsimons), Ted Hughes, V. S. Naipaul, Robert De Niro, Belinda Carlisle, David Koresh (b. Vernon Wayne Howell), Jonathan Franzen, Sean Penn, Uhm Jung-hwa.