A Laughing Matter
Critics have given Woody Allen’s latest movie, Hollywood Ending, a mixed reception. Some say the Woodman has whittled away his shtick. Others call the film his best work in years. But there’s consensus that actor Barney Cheng, ’93, is hilarious. The New York Times calls his performance “surgically precise.” Slant Magazine enthuses, “Note to Hollywood: someone hire scene-stealer Barney Cheng quick!”
Cheng plays the translator for a washed-up movie director (Allen) and his Chinese cameraman. When the director suddenly goes blind (psychosomatically, of course), he enlists the translator to help keep his affliction a secret on the set. Cheng, who has appeared in a variety of film, television, theater and advertising productions, recently told an interviewer that he’d never considered himself funny but comic roles kept coming. His latest one caps a résumé that includes playing Shakespeare’s Puck, Bill Clinton’s adviser on Saturday Night Live and George W. Bush’s voice on the Letterman show.
Faithful to Yellowstone
Imagine Yellowstone Park as your backyard. It was like that for Janet Chapple as a child, when her parents worked at Old Faithful Inn. She still fondly recalls summer days playing hide-and-seek while “waiting for geysers to erupt.” Later, Chapple, ’57, became a professional cellist and moved to Providence, R.I., but she kept going back to Yellowstone. Now she shares an insider’s expertise in Yellowstone Treasures (Granite Peak Publications, 2002). The 384-page guidebook offers more than maps and sightseeing tips. It also includes information on flora and fauna, historical tidbits and a chapter on geology by Chapple’s husband, Bruno Giletti, a professor emeritus of geological sciences at Brown University. Beth Chapple, ’87, was the editor and Alice Merrill, ’68, designed the book.
