Shove the “Mary Queen of Scots” brogue and inbred accent, Saoirse Ronan may have Irish roots, but she was born here.
The Bronx. And she wants back. Manhattan. And she wants more Broadway.
Says the three-time Oscar nominee: “When I did ‘The Crucible’ onstage in New York [in 2016], I loved it. I got to live here but left when I was young. On a movie set, there’s no feedback from the audience. A live show is great. I relish coming back to the city. Being here, performing live theater is wonderful.”
His & hers dancing
No family movie, violent “Vox Lux” is a family affair. Natalie Portman’s dance moves were choreographed by her ballet specialist husband, Benjamin Millepied.
“He’s very generous with his time for dancers so I wasn’t sure how he would be with me, but it went well.”
The husband was not hired because he was her husband. Director Brady Corbet says: “In that world, there are only two or three people you want for choreographer. We were lucky to get him.”
Ralph’s producer son Andrew Lauren: “Despite a tight budget and shooting schedule for Portman, who replaced the originally cast Rooney Mara in just 10 days, she showed up knowing the part. We got all we needed in the time we had.”
In case you’re light on Latin, “Vox Lux” means voice of light.
Looking into a crystal ball
Psychic Paula Roberts — whose predictions are being readied for an archive — on the coming year:
International: The queen finally hands it over to Prince Charles. Macron remains French leader. Angela Merkel sustains leg injury. Tsunami overtakes remote South Pacific islands. Harry and Meghan produce one daughter then two more daughters.
National: Supreme Court denies Roe v. Wade reversal. Two large banks merge. Chicago suffers record-breaking blizzard. Transcontinental train derails.
NYC: We’ll get snow Easter morning. The L line subway route’s property price collapses then rebounds in big buyouts.
Lip unsealed
“Green Book” has Viggo Mortensen playing Copacabana staffer Tony Lip, whose old-time various jobs were very various. Like playing gangsters in more movies than cops have nightsticks. And when a fellow worker couldn’t collect a debt, Tony paid the delinquent a visit. Who knows what Tony’s various jobs were. An old-time Copa worker says this guy’s check arrived next day.
Pay attention
“The Illusionists: Magic of the Holidays,” B’way’s 2-plus hours of wizardry’s jamming the Marquis. A-1 entertainment . . . If you have kids, see “Frozen” . . . If you eat Italian, do Trattoria Dell’Arte. Spike Lee did . . . If you’re desperate, Bernie Sanders has a new book. Soon, so will ex-FBI guy Andrew McCabe . . . From Paris: “The yellow vest people — we could look right down on them — wrapped cobblestones with cloth soaked in gasoline and threw them into our windows. Fortunately, we have metal shutters” . . . More: Alan Dershowitz denies meeting that woman who claims they had sex. In addition to defending them, years ago, he wrote a Penthouse magazine column. Publicist Sy Presten, who arranged his photo with its ladies, strongly states Dershowitz made no pass, requested no phone numbers.
I’m resting my quill pen, rotary dial phone, fax machine, Brownie camera and roadster’s rumble seat — so until Jan. 2, I won’t be reporting on Rudolph Valentino’s newest movie.
Have a happy holiday — and thanks for reading what’s happening only in New York, kids, only in New York.