THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL
BY CYNDI GREENING, PHOENIX, USA — I've been enjoying the Showtime series, THE TUDORS. Jonathan Rhys Meyers has been the "rock star" version of Henry VIII with Natalie Dormer playing the object of his affection, Anne Boleyn. Since it is, obviously, a period piece, there is a considerable amount of the budget committed to costumes and sets and stunning exteriors. The attention to the cast has been equally detailed. While there are a number of great performances, I am quite interested in 24-year-old Henry Cavill in the role of the Duke of Suffolk. He dominates nearly every scene he is in. I'm anticipating that we'll see a lot of him in the future.
As often happens when I'm watching something, I'll go looking on IMDb Pro for more information on the performers and production crew of a particular piece. In the case of historical dramas, I'll start looking for details on how things turned out historically. I'm getting to be quite knowledgeable about The Tudor period and the reign of Henry VIII. While looking into what happened to Catherine of Aragon (the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabelle of Spain), I found there is a film that will release in December of 2007 called THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL.
Based on a best-selling novel by Philippa Gregory, it's about the ambitious Boleyn girls, Anne and Mary. 
The film stars Natalie Portman as Anne and Scarlett Johansson as Mary with Eric Bana playing the young Henry. Spanish actress Ana Torrent will appear as Queen Catherine. I'm anticipating an excellent script. The orginal material was adapted by Peter Morgan, the screenwriter who wrote THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND (which helped Forest Whitaker earn the Best Actor Academy Award) and THE QUEEN (which helped Helen Mirren earn the Best Actress Academy Award). According to IMDb, the film was shot on the Panavision Genesis HD Camera in numerous locations in England (including Kent, Dover, Cornwall and Wiltshire).
While I took quite a few history classes in high school and college, my memory of Anne Boleyn was limited to the fact that she was beheaded. I've been reading up on her and recalled the book written about her reign (ANNE OF A THOUSAND DAYS). Amazingly, it took Henry seven (7!) years to get a divorce from Catherine of Aragon. He married Anne immediately; yet, she spent less than half that time as the Queen. She gave Henry one daughter (the woman who would become Elizabeth I, also brilliantly played by Helen Mirren) and miscarried a son and another daughter Current theory is that she was falsely accused of adultery, treason and witchcraft to elminate her for political expediency. The rhyme to help you remember the fate of Henry's six wives: divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived. Ultimately, it was far safer to be Henry's mistress than it was to be his wife.
