Will Waspe
I must congratulate the publicists working for film writer-producerdirector John Boorman. They seem to have a rare way with the media. Even granted that they have an almost embarrassingly co-operative subject, it is a remarkable achievement to have built into something of a cult figure for cineastes a man whose visible work for the screen is negligible. Prior to the recently arrived Zardoz — science fiction with drearily intellectual pretensions — Boorman had given us Point Blank (which probably wasn't quite as awful as most of us thought it at the time), Leo the Last (which no one remembers) and the mildly acclaimed Deliverance. There was nothing in this humdrum record to make Boorman an Cavious subject for BBC-tv's arts show, Omnibus, which devoted itself a couple of Sundays ago to a protracted 'blurb' for Zardoz — the sort of advertising boost that the Omnibus chaps tend tO reserve only for their old friend and fellowworker Ken Russell. And this even though the Beeb's film previewer Barry Norman had already devoted most of his show to interviewing Boorman. Norman is clearly a useful lad to have on your side in this sort of operation. Just in case anyone missed his television promotion, he followed it up with a written interview piece on Boorman in the Times. Any day now I expect the announcement of a retrospective season at the National Film Theatre.
Demotion
Frank Finlay, who has just completed a distinguished stint with the National Theatre at the Old Vic, was not very much amused, I'm told, when he picked up the London Evening Standard last week and found an ancient' photograph of himself being used, mysteriously to illustrate a story. about the exploits of the Young Vic in New York.
Priorities
Waspe is having a fun-with-thepress week and cannot resist Jumping the gun on Pseuds' Corner with this straight-faced extract from Pauline Peters's feature about Tom and Fay Maschler in the Sunday Times Magazine:
"There is no need to ask which side of the fence they are on. Despite their comparative richness, when their younger daughter was near to death they stuck with the Health Service for three months, querying treatment with the consultant and finally moving her from one hospital to another to get a correct diagnosis."
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