The Hoax

Our lovely robins have returned to the garden. Two of them have reappeared, after several months, at the end of last week and we're so happy to see them again.

They couldn't be more friendly and always keep an eye on us and keep us company when we're in the garden. They have a lovely chirruping whistle that carries through the house, when the windows are open. Ibs saw one of them feeding a small blackbird the other day.

Ibs made her fantastic stir-fry again last night, probably even better than her last.

We're trying to get better value of out our Lovefilm.com subscription so trying to watch more, sooner. Last night we watched a film I've been wanting to see for ages, 'The Hoax' by Lasse Hallstrom. It's the true story of Clifford Irving's fake Howard Hughes autobiography, with an exceptional cast; Richard Gere, in the title role (probably his best ever performance), Alfred Molina, who I've loved ever since 'Prick Up Your Ears', Hope Davies, the brilliant Marcia Gay Harden and the very beautiful, Julie Delpy.



I've been very interested by Irving's story since 1st seeing Orson Welles' 'F for Fake' which uses some of Irving's story and leads Welles to remunerate on his own relationship with Hughes and how he was close to using him as the model for Kane. Hughes has always fascinated me since being aware of his death in 1976 and all the scary stories about his bizarre life that filled the front pages of the Mirror and Mail at the time.

It wasn't long after that I watched and adored Tommy Lee Jones, in the made for TV movie, 'The Amazing Howard Hughes', giving me a long admiration of the actor and interest in Hughes' remarkable life.
'The Hoax' joins a sub-genre of terrific films that feature the Hughes enigma, including: 'The Aviator' and the very brilliant 'Melvin and Howard'. I just need Martin Scorsese to do 'The Aviator 2' and focus on the last, more interesting, half of Hughes' life.