Looks like Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman had much more fun at the inauguration than my post Wednesday suggested. Take a look at the missive Waldman e-mailed 5,000 people yesterday, and later posted online by Gawker with a little teasing.
After raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for President Obama’s campaign last year, Ayelet Waldman and Michael Chabon hit Washington, D.C. this week to party and watch the inauguration parade.
The couple had a busy weekend. Chabon was expected on Saturday to attend a performance by Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble hosted by The New Republic, The New York Times reports. Then on Monday, Chabon participated in a reading of the Constitution at the Newseum on Monday, according to The Legal Times. Later, the two were expected to attend a $500-a-person dinner that Waldman helped organize called “Art.Food.Hope.” (The dinner, which featured famous chefs, helped raise fund for the D.C. Central Kitchen.)
And Tuesday, the big day? Chabon, Waldman, and their four children watched the parade. After several hours in the cold, though, Waldman told The San Francisco Chronicle that her kids began to get white and shake, and “we were ushered from the parade site by the Secret Service.” Luckily, their son Zeke “shared a glance with the new president,” Waldman said.
(Side note: When did Waldman and Chabon break the $200,000 mark for Obama? Wow.)
The film adaptation of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh will hit theaters this spring after finally securing a distributor, Variety reports.
Peace Arch Entertainment announced it secured the rights to the film, directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber (Dodgeball). The film had struggled to find a home since it premiered at last year’s Sundance Film Festival.
At the festival, the film got mixed reviews. It stars Jon Foster, Sienna Miller, and Peter Sarsgaard.
Michael Chabon has won the 2009 Scripter Literary Achievement Award.
The prize, established in 2007, honors writers “who have made a significant and lasting impact on the art of cinematic adaptation,” according to a press release released Tuesday. At the ceremony Jan. 30, the Friends of USC Libraries will also award the prize for best film adaptation of a book or novella, which has been awarded since 1988.
“I am delighted to have been singled out for this honor,” Chabon said in a statement. “I consider myself fortunate to be able to share in the great tradition that the Scripter Award both recognizes and exemplifies.”
Steven Zaillian, screenwriter of Gangs of New York and Schindler’s List, won the first achievement award last year. Chabon previously won the 2001 Scripter Award for the screen adaptation of Wonder Boys.
More details about Michael Chabon’s next novel leaked out during a talk he gave Monday in San Francisco.
During the Q&A session, Chabon said he was writing a “naturalistic” novel about two families in Berkeley, author Frances Dinkelspiel wrote on her blog. Dinelspiel speculates that Chabon’s previous writings on Berkeley may suggest what themes may appear in the book, including suburban homogenization.
Chabon previously has said the novel would be set in and around the contemporary Bay Area. “I would like to get a new novel going,” Chabon said during a chat hosted by The Washington Post in 2007. “I would like it to be set in the present day and feel right now the urge to do something more mainstream than my recent work has been.”
The novel has been reported to be tentatively scheduled for 2011.
Chabon also gave an update on the film adaptations of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and The Mysteries of Pittsburgh. The latter has finally found a distributer and should hit theaters sometime in the future, Dinelspiel says. Kavalier & Clay, on the other hand, “is not going anywhere,” she reports.