The Steeple Times

Tag: theatre

  • Haaz Sleiman – What’s on your mantelpiece?

    Haaz Sleiman – What’s on your mantelpiece?

    A 20-question interview with Lebanese-American actor Haaz Sleiman; he has starred in ‘24’, ‘ER’, ‘Killing Jesus’, ‘NCIS’, ‘Nurse Jackie’ and ‘Person of Interest’

     

    The Steeple Times shares “wit and wisdom”. What’s your guiding force?

    Love.

     

    “Don’t get even, get medieval” is, in our humble opinion, a great motto. What’s yours?

    “If you can’t love yourself, how the hell are you going to love somebody else?”

     

    Kerry Katona was considered unacceptable in 2007. Who or what is unacceptable in 2018?

    Who is she?

     

    Tony Blair misses being Prime Minister. What do you miss most in your life?

    Definitely not him. I hate politics. I’d say: My future husband. Where is he?

     

    What might you swap all your wealth for?

    To be adopted by Madonna.

     

    Donald Trump was once a case of: “If you owe the bank a thousand, they close you down; but if you owe the bank a billion, you own the bank”. What’s your view on the state of the financial system?

    It is terrible. We have a vanishing middle class.

     

    What phrase or word do you most loathe?

    ‘Retard’.

     

    In the UK, some people consider charity to “begin at home”. What’s your view and what causes do you personally support?

    I support anything to do with homeless LGBTQ youth and animals.

     

    The judge in Law Abiding Citizen states: “I can pretty much do whatever I want” before being blown up whilst answering her mobile phone. What’s your view on the appropriate use of such devices?

    I’m sorry but I don’t understand the question.

     

    If you could fill a carriage on The Orient Express, who would be your fellow passengers?

    My parents and all my siblings with their families.

     

    Lebanese-American actor Haaz Sleiman – What’s on your mantelpiece? He has starred in ‘24’, ‘ER’, ‘Killing Jesus’, ‘NCIS’ and ‘Nurse Jackie’
    Haaz Sleiman as Jesus in the 2015 television film ‘Killing Jesus’

     

    If you were unfortunate enough to end up on death row, what would be your last meal and where would you eat it?

    In the most lush and exotic natural habitat with tonnes of trees and waterfalls or by the ocean. I’d have the best steak and fries with the most expensive bottle of red wine possible.

     

    What time is it acceptable to consume the first drink of the day?

    I don’t drink much really.

     

    A Negroni, a martini or a cup of tea?

    Tea.

     

    Whose parties do you enjoy the most and why?

    I enjoy concerts because I love seeing how music makes the people come together. Thank you Madonna.

     

    Who is the most positive person you know?

    E-Jay Randolph, my mentor.

     

    What’s your most guilty pleasure?

    RuPual’s Drag Race.

     

    If a tattoo were to sum you up, what would it be of?

    A cross with a naked Jesus hanging on it wearing a Star of David pendant around his neck. Jesus would have a tattoo in Arabic on his left pec of the most important line in the Quran, the line that you would need to say to become Muslim. I am interested in inclusion.

     

    If you were a car, what marque would you be?

    A Tesla.

     

    Cilla Black presented Surprise, Surprise. Tell us the most surprising thing about you.

    I’m a baby in a grown ass man’s body. It’s a good thing.

     

    What’s currently sitting on your mantelpiece?

    A framed picture of my beautiful mother.

     

    Haaz Sleiman is a Lebanese-American television and film actor. He starred as Jesus in the TV series ‘Killing Jesus’ and has also appeared in series such as ‘24’, ‘CSI: Miami’, ‘ER’, ‘NCIS’, ‘Nurse Jackie’ and ‘Person of Interest’. He describes himself as: “A lost soul finding its way back home.”

     

    Follow Haaz Sleiman on Twitter at @haazsleiman, on Facebook at @haazsleiman and on Instagram at @haazsleiman

     

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  • A Sloane Home

    A Sloane Home

    Belgravia apartment for sale for £27.5 million in spite of being a 1980s timewarp; the Sloaney home forms part of a building at one-time home the residence of one half of Gilbert and Sullivan

     

    A penthouse on the “favoured northern side” of Belgravia’s Eaton Square is on sale for £27.5 million ($36.6 million, €31 million or درهم134.5 million) in spite of not been refurbished or updated since the 1980s.

     

    Part of a building that was the London home of Sir William Gilbert (1836 – 1911) – one half of the Victorian theatrical partnership Gilbert and Sullivan – from 1907 until his death, 90 Eaton Square now spans four buildings and is some 117-foot wide. Its penthouse sits on the fourth floor and extends to some 5,570 square foot.

     

    Featuring 3 reception rooms, a study, 5 bedroom suites, a wine cellar, a terrace and 2 balconies, the vast property is described as having “unusually large picture windows at the front to take advantage of the superior southerly aspect, and a low front parapet wall, allowing superb views of the expansive Eaton Square communal gardens.” Images shown in a sales brochure for it show not only some rather serious works of modern art, but also 1980s ‘Sloane Ranger essentials’ including shagpile rugs, marble bathrooms and chrome-steel cantilever dining chairs.

     

    Previously offered for £30 million ($39.9 million, €33.8 million or درهم146.6 million) by agents Savills, the penthouse at 90 Eaton Square is now currently being marketed by Strutt & Parker. It comes with a surprisingly long lease that expires in 2256.

     

    A Sloane Home – Fourth floor penthouse, 90 Eaton Square, Belgravia, London, SW1W 9AG – For sale through Strutt & Parker for £27.5 million ($36.6 million, €31 million or درهم134.5 million) – Part of building that home of Sir William Gilbert (1836 – 1911) from 1907 until 1911 and presented as a 1980s timewarp A Sloane Home – Fourth floor penthouse, 90 Eaton Square, Belgravia, London, SW1W 9AG – For sale through Strutt & Parker for £27.5 million ($36.6 million, €31 million or درهم134.5 million) – Part of building that home of Sir William Gilbert (1836 – 1911) from 1907 until 1911 and presented as a 1980s timewarp A Sloane Home – Fourth floor penthouse, 90 Eaton Square, Belgravia, London, SW1W 9AG – For sale through Strutt & Parker for £27.5 million ($36.6 million, €31 million or درهم134.5 million) – Part of building that home of Sir William Gilbert (1836 – 1911) from 1907 until 1911 and presented as a 1980s timewarpA Sloane Home – Fourth floor penthouse, 90 Eaton Square, Belgravia, London, SW1W 9AG – For sale through Strutt & Parker for £27.5 million ($36.6 million, €31 million or درهم134.5 million) – Part of building that home of Sir William Gilbert (1836 – 1911) from 1907 until 1911 and presented as a 1980s timewarp A Sloane Home – Fourth floor penthouse, 90 Eaton Square, Belgravia, London, SW1W 9AG – For sale through Strutt & Parker for £27.5 million ($36.6 million, €31 million or درهم134.5 million) – Part of building that home of Sir William Gilbert (1836 – 1911) from 1907 until 1911 and presented as a 1980s timewarpA Sloane Home – Fourth floor penthouse, 90 Eaton Square, Belgravia, London, SW1W 9AG – For sale through Strutt & Parker for £27.5 million ($36.6 million, €31 million or درهم134.5 million) – Part of building that home of Sir William Gilbert (1836 – 1911) from 1907 until 1911 and presented as a 1980s timewarp

  • Miriam Margolyes OBE

    Miriam Margolyes OBE

    In April 2017, esteemed actress Miriam Margolyes described Theresa May as “that awful woman” and hinted that she had little-to-any enthusiasm for Jeremy Corbyn’s “hell of a mess” also. In the same interview, in her “distinctive voice”, she added: “It is the job of the arts to engage in life… That’s what I care about”. She is best known for having won a BAFTA for her role in Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence in 1993 but is famous to younger audiences for having appeared in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows. A dual British-Australian citizen and humanitarian advocate, Oxford born Margolyes also played the self-made cosmetics billionairess Helena Rubinstein in 2017 and lives with her partner, Heather Sutherland, in London, Tuscany and New South Wales.

  • Wally of the Week – Sir Michael Caine

    Wally of the Week – Sir Michael Caine

    Actor Michael Caine claims to be “a socialist” in spite of having been involved in a tax avoidance scheme and previously leaving Britain to avoid the top rate of tax in the 1970s

     

    Sir Michael Caine, CBE is a man who flip-flops like no other and whose political views are best described as “chaotic”. Though a man known for fleeing Britain for America to avoid high taxes in the 1970s and a man named as an investor in a tax avoidance scheme named Liberty in 2014, the pro-Brexit actor has this week called himself a “socialist” and went as far to say: “I wouldn’t live in a country that didn’t pay income tax”.

     

    In an interview with the Catholic newspaper The Universe, Sir Michael remarked:

     

    “I’m a socialist, basically. I want as much money as possible for poor people, to help whoever’s in trouble. I wouldn’t live in a country that didn’t pay income tax”.

     

    “What you have to do is keep emotion out of it. You can’t say: ‘We hate these rich people, we’re going to tax them to smithereens’. You’ve got to have them stay in your country and pay the tax”.

     

    A public supporter of Margaret Thatcher, David Cameron and even Tony Blair, Sir Michael was forced to pay a significant sum to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs after being exposed as part of the Liberty scheme and also made a fool of himself in another regard. The actor also told The Universe:

     

    “In order to do something good, I don’t just do work which is no good. I don’t do commercials’.

     

    In 2013, he was paid a six-figure sum to film a commercial for Sky television. How conveniently the man forgets.

     

  • Limehouse

    Limehouse

    Matthew Steeples extols the relevance of the Donmar Warehouse’s ‘Limehouse’ to Britain’s contemporary political climate

     

    At a time when Brexit has divided Britain and Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour continues to provide little-to-no opposition to Theresa May’s somewhat unfocused, unelected government, the relevance of a play named Limehouse is especially poignant.

     

    Based around the formation of the ill-fated Social Democratic Party by the ‘Gang of Four’ – Bill Rodgers, Shirley Williams, Roy Jenkins and David Owen – in 1981, what The Telegraph calls a “domestic sitcom” takes place entirely in a “bourgeois” kitchen. It occurs during a period when moderates – driven to try to find an alternative to the rise of Thatcherism on one side and the loony left on the other – despaired at a nation divided and sought out a new way forward. Limehouse – named after the area where Owen lived at the time – effectively examines what this quartet believed the UK needed then and what many believe the UK again needs today: A credible centrist party.

     

    Played out as a kitchen table coup by four ultimately flawed politicians over two bottles of Château Lafite, the plot is cleverly guided by a fifth member, the American born literary agent wife of David Owen. She concludes the play by asking: “What if?” in the context of what might have happened had a sensible centrist political movement been successful back in the 1980s. It’s the very question that will be on the lips of so many as we head towards Theresa May triggering Article 50 on the 29th March.

     

    ‘Limehouse’ is at the Donmar Warehouse until 15th April.

     

  • Jan Harvey

    Jan Harvey

    Penzance born actress Jan Harvey is married to her Howards’ Way co-star Stephen Yardley. She played Jan Howard in the popular series that depicted Thatcherite, nouveau riche excess from 1985 to 1990, has also appeared in Inspector Morse and Lovejoy and was pushed off a balcony to her death in Eastenders in 2016. In 2013, she suggested the wealthy yachting drama should be remade as “it could show all the problems of the young rich”.

     

    Jan Harvey – Actress and star of Howards’ Way with her husband Steven Yardley

  • Patricia Routledge CBE (born Katherine Patricia Routledge)

    Patricia Routledge CBE (born Katherine Patricia Routledge)

    British actress and singer Patricia Routledge CBE (born Katherine Patricia Routledge)Born in Tranmere, Merseyside, veteran actress Patricia Routledge is best known as Alan Bennett’s Irene Ruddock in Talking Heads: Lady of Letters and as Hyacinth Bucket in Keeping Up Appearances. (more…)

  • Edward Akrout: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

    Edward Akrout: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

    ‘The Steeple Times’ asks the actor and star of ‘Mr Selfridge’ and ‘The Borgias’ Edward Akrout: “What’s on your mantelpiece?” (more…)

  • David Hallberg

    David Hallberg

    David HallbergThe first ever American invited to be a premier dancer in Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet, David Hallberg was born in Rapid City, South Dakota and “found inspiration through the films of Fred Astaire”. (more…)

  • Dominic Minghella: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

    Dominic Minghella: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

    The Steeple Times asks Isle of Wight born producer and scriptwriter Dominic Minghella: “What’s on your mantelpiece?” (more…)