Julia On The TV

The final episode of "Mad Men" (S7.E14 - "Person to Person") not only brought fans of the popular long-running series a satisfying conclusion to the show, but if you tuned in, you would also have seen Julia Ormond in her Emmy-nominated role of Marie Calvet for one last time. It was great to see. For those not yet ready to say goodbye to Julia on the TV - not to worry. "Witches of East End," Season 2, is finally being released on DVD on 7/7 as a 3 disc set. It will also become available on NetFlix on the same day. In additional news -

Julia was part of a lengthy panel discussion entitled "Transforming Global Supply Chains to Be Humane and Ethical" organized by the Milken Institute.



Julia Ormond was also a speaker at an event held in celebration of the 80th birthday of the Dalai Lama - the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize recipient - this past weekend at the Anaheim Honda Center in California.

Julia Is Back On "Mad Men"!

Those of us who had been hoping to see Julia back as Marie Calvet for the final half-season of "Mad Men" had a lot to be happy about this past week. With five more episodes of the series to go here's hoping this won't be the last we see of her on the show. Her Emmy-nominated performance has become one of the highlights of the show for us. Vulture.com has an interesting article on the French spoken between Julia Ormond and the Canadian actress playing her daughter, Jessica Pare:

http://www.vulture.com/2015/04/mad-men-french-megan-calvet.html

II. Julia appears energized and informed during an interview at the Los Angeles premiere of the documentary "Food Chains." The documentary is currently streaming on NetFlix.

"The Dreaming Child" - Unproduced Julia Ormond/Harold Pinter Project Now a BBC Radio Drama

Last year Julia was on The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson where she briefly discussed an unproduced film project she had worked on with the late Nobel Prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter. That 1997 screenplay, based on Karen Blixen's (also known by her pseudonym Isak Dinesen) short story The Dreaming Child is now a BBC radio drama starring Game of Throne's Leslie Rose (where she played Ygritte, the red-haired wilding). Julia does not appear to have any connection with this current adaptation. It will premiere on Saturday, March 7th on BBC Radio 4 (link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b054gxpb )

I. According to the Daily Mail (link:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2963444/Now-aPinter-pause-New-plays-broadcast-seven-years-died.html ):

"Pinter’s adaptation of The Dreaming Child is set in Bristol in 1868 and tells the story of childless couple Emily and Tom Carter and their decision to adopt a boy from the slums. But happiness eludes the couple because Emily continues to be haunted by her passionate fling with a young soldier who was killed at sea.

It will be narrated by Anne Reid, who plays Celia in the Bafta-winning Last Tango In Halifax, and stars Rose Leslie.

Pinter was originally commissioned to write the screenplay by Hollywood star Julia Ormond, who at the time had signed a production deal with 20th Century Fox. She was delighted with Pinter’s work but the project collapsed when she insisted on directing the film as well as producing it. Pinter later commented: ‘It was this that brought the project to its knees. The money-men simply wouldn’t give her the chance.’

In his official biography of the playwright, critic Michael Billington said the screenplay for The Dreaming Child compared favourably with Pinter’s very best work."

Harold Pinter's original screenplay was published in the third volume of his "Collected Screenplays" (Farber & Farber, 2000). HaroldPinter.org has a quote from Julia in the Evening Standard from October 1997, "Working with him is the highlight of my career. I think he has done a brilliant script and I hope we will get the green light soon." (Link: http://www.haroldpinter.org/films/films_dreamingchild.shtml )

II. On January 16th Julia posted a link on her verified twitter account to Instagram page. Here's hoping we'll see more posts from her soon. (Link: https://instagram.com/julia.ormond/ )

'Witches' Comes to An End; A New Year Begins...

A very happy birthday to Julia Ormond who celebrated a very special birthday on January 4th. And a Happy New Year to all the readers of the Undefinitive Blog and best wishes for 2015!

I. Julia Ormond has an official Twitter account with - at the moment - over 15k followers @  https://twitter.com/JuliaOrmond.

II. Witches of East End was unfortunately cancelled at the end of its second season. On a major cliff-hanger no less. Apparently the ratings simply plummeted after the first season despite its very loyal fan-base. More information on the cancellation can be found below:

http://tvline.com/2014/11/04/witches-of-east-end-cancelled-lifetime/

There has also been a petition organized to renew the series or take it to another network as described here:

http://www.ibtimes.com/witches-east-end-canceled-fans-campaign-save-lifetime-series-find-out-how-get-1727000

The Petition:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/renew-witches-of-east-end

III. VARIETY magazine recently published an interview with Julia discussing her work over 20 years ago along with Robert Duvall on the 1992 HBO television film Stalin.

http://variety.com/2014/film/features/julia-ormond-first-variety-mention-1201325006/

IV. The final half-season of AMC's hit show Mad Men now has a premiere date of Sunday, April 5th. As far as I know there has been no confirmation as to whether Julia will appear in the final seven episodes in the role that won her her second Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actress (she had won previously for Temple Grandin).

The Ormondaissance

The Undefinitive Julia Ormond Page blog is back after a temporary hiatus of nearly a year. If only time grew on trees! In the meantime there has been a big jump in Julia's presence in the cultural mainstream - perhaps her largest since 2008 - much of it having to do with the success of the Lifetime TV series "The Witches of East End" (now in its second season) and, of course, her Emmy-nominated supporting role in the popular "Mad Men." 

Here are some new Julia Ormond related finds, all very much worth-watching: 

I. Craig Ferguson's third interview with Julia. Interview begins at 21 mins in. She makes a number of jocular references to jokes from the opening monologue in case you're wondering what the deal is with "easing out organically." Unfortunately, Ferguson will be ending his late night talk show (in its current incarnation, at least) by the end of the year. I'm a big fan of his show and truly bizarre style of comedy.

II. A pretty lengthy interview with J.O. concerning both "Witches" and "Mad Men"... and "popping a few buttons."

III. Brand new lengthy interview with Julia on her more serious activist work (probably one of the more interesting interviews I've seen with her on the topic of human trafficking). A week ago or so I also caught a glimpse of her as part of a panel discussion on CNN where she was discussing the trafficking issue with former President Bill Clinton. Yes, it felt a bit like a 90's time warp. 

Julia also had a big presence (relatively speaking) at the San Diego ComicCon this year (!!!) where she and the rest of the cast were promoting the second season of "Witches of "East End."

(Jack will continue to run, post and oversee this blog but on occasion I will help with additional posts. - Rudy L. [contributor])

Witches of East End article

Los Angeles Times article -- http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-witches-of-east-end-julia-ormond-and-madchen-amick-talk-scifi-20131002,0,6255180.story

The Guardian article

An article in "The Guardian" about Julia on anti-trafficking legislation. www.theguardian.com