The Hollywood Reporter - 12.02.2020

About Town

People, Places,

Preoccupations

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 30 FEBRUA RY 12, 2020

EMMA

: COURTESY OF FOCUS FEATURES.

CROWN

: DES WILLIE/NETFLIX.

CACTUS, DIVE, LEVY: COURTESY OF SUBJECT. ROLY: JAKOB N. LAYMAN. DRACULA

: COURTESY OF UNIVERSAL STUDIOS LICENSING LLC AND

MARGARET HERRICK LIBRARY. DOUGLAS: COURTESY OF MOCA+. RAMAN: JANE NGUYEN. RYU: TIMOTHY NORRIS/GETTY IMAGES.

After Awards Season,

a Palm Springs Pick-Me-Up

Y

es, the shortened Oscars season has left

film folks exhausted, but now that it’s

over, industry execs and talent alike can

finally enjoy February’s three-day President’s Day

weekend (four days if you’re throwing in Friday’s

Valentine’s Day). And what better place to rest

and relax than Palm Springs as it showcases the

best of its modernist art, design and architecture

during Modernism Week (Feb. 13-23)?

The annual gathering offers about 350 events,

including a tour of the former estate of Kirk

and Anne Douglas; Oscar-nominated produc-

tion designer Jeannine Oppewall discussing

how she’s brought worlds alive in films such as

L.A. Confidential; and Paula Benson, founder

of the website Film and Furniture, joining

KCRW radio host Frances Anderton to pick

their favorite furnishings in movies. (Tickets at

modernismweek.com.)

For Palm Springs residents P. D av i d E b e r s o l e

and To d d H u g h e s — directors of the fashion

documentary House of Cardin, which opens

From Left:

O’Connor,

with Tanya

Reynolds,

as Mr. Elton

in Emma; as

Prince Charles

in The Crown

season three.

A

pair of

progressive

women — with

ties to the entertain-

ment industry — are

gunning to unseat L.A.

City Council member

David Ryu in a big-

money council race

that’s shaping up as a

potential referendum

on the homeless crisis.

Screenwriter and

activist Sarah Kate

Levy and Nithya

Raman, former execu-

tive director of Time’s

Up Entertainment, have

both amassed sizable

war chests to compete

in the March 3 election

for Council District 4,

which stretches from

the Miracle Mile to

Silver Lake and all

the way over the hill

to Sherman Oaks

and Toluca Lake. As

of Jan. 18, Levy had

raised nearly $237,000,

with Raman generat-

ing $221,000. Ryu,

though, has amassed

$947,635 — the most

ever recorded by the

City Ethics Commission

for a council race. Ryu’s

donors include Ron

Burkle, WarnerMedia’s

Robert Greenblatt and

producer Lynn Harris.

To help bridge her

financing gap, Raman

held a sold-out comedy

show at the El Rey

Theatre on Jan. 29 with

performances by Joel

Kim Booster, Kristen

Schaal and Adam

Conover, raising more

than $20,000. “We

have a campaign that’s

HOLLYWOOD TAKES SIDES IN L.A. CITY RACE

The fight to lead District 4 (stretching from Silver Lake to Sherman Oaks)

breaks a record for most expensive ever and draws an unusual amount of

industry interest, with homelessness a top issue By Peter Kiefer

PRESIDENT’S

DAY WEEKEND

1

3

Instead, O’Connor got a flat
in London with 10 roommates,
a job in a pub and his first agent
(whom he is still with today).
One of his first professional
auditions was for Universal’s
2012 hit Les Misérables, mak-
ing it to the final round for the
coveted role of Marius (which
went to Redmayne). And while
he would later play Marius in a
splashy BBC miniseries opposite
David Oyelowo and Lily Collins,
O’Connor’s breakout came from
the 2017 gay love story God’s Own
Country. A little more than a year
later, when he was approached
about Netflix’s The Crown, he
admits to being generally indif-
ferent toward the royal family
and thinking, “What’s interest-
ing about Prince Charles?” After
taking the role, he prepared for
months, with the aid of the show’s
dedicated research team. “Now, I
think he is incredible.”
In the few short months
between work on the drama’s
season three and the upcoming
season four (which will focus on
Charles’ marriage to Princess
Diana), O’Connor filmed a Focus
Features adaptation of Jane
Austen’s Emma (out Feb. 21) from
director Autumn de Wilde. “I had
never done comedy,” explains
O’Connor, who plays the movie’s
vicar, Mr. Elton. “He is a messed-
up sexy priest, so it was kind of
a no-brainer.”
With an older actor likely to
play Prince Charles on the time-
hopped season five of The Crown,
O’Connor is thinking about
what’s next. “Ultimately, I want a
career where I get to try as many
things out as I can,” he says. There
is also a contingency plan in
place: “I can always get a van. I’ve
got the van to fall back on.”

With Modernism Week set to take over for 11 days, Hollywood insiders

including Kelly Lynch and manager Will Ward give their faves for best tours

and talks along with new hotels and restaurants to seek out By Piya Sinha-Roy