Tony Kushner, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright for “Angels in America,” Spielberg’s screenwriter for “Lincoln,” is now adapting Mimi Baird’s book “He Wanted the Moon” for Plan B, Brad Pitt’s production company.
“It’s about institutionalizing then lobotomizing Baird’s bipolar doctor father. This brilliant medical star studying manic depression began a memoir until he himself descended into madness.
“In the ’20s and ’30s, mental illness was in the closet. Not spoken about. It was psychiatric hospitals, electric shock and never coming out.
“Brad liked my writing, and we’ve talked of a few things. So he asked if I’d read this and would I consider adapting it. The tragic story moved me.
“My problem is a bad habit of researching for years. Like I took seven to investigate Lincoln. I can’t do that again.
“Researching mental illness now I have seen awful, haunting, disturbing mental hospitals with iron bars. During WWII, 50 percent of all hospital beds were these cases.
“My first draft is due mid-May. Once I start, I write fast. My best energy’s in the morning. Depending how late I’ve been out, I can wake up, start writing and go around the clock. At the end when characters come to life, you can go and go.
“Jack Kerouac pasted together long scrolls of paper. My writing’s terrible. My first draft’s with a fountain pen — old ones with the gold nib. They’re flexible and make big strokes. But that’s just for me. Then it gets to the computer.”
LiLo’s all groan-up
Lindsay Lohan: “The word ‘kid’ made me feel like a child. Some date called me ‘kid.’ I hated it.” Yeah, well, at 29, she no longer has to worry . . .
Nobody’s rushing to Europe this summer. The rental push is on for the Hamptons. Asking $200,000 for a nice — not special, just nice — place . . .
A heavily bearded Mandy Patinkin’s in concert May 23, National Yiddish Theater. Tickets $150. Listen, it’s cheaper than the Hamptons . . .
Also coming, Black Lab Theatre’s bleak comedy “Crude.” Stars Nico Tortorella.
Odds & ends
Marc Jacobs, whose jazzy clothes hang on every celeb’s bones: “I’m really shy” . . .
Pro pols now rate Trump’s nomination at 45 percent . . .
“Nothing Left Unsaid,” Anderson Cooper’s story of mama Gloria Vanderbilt, the nonagenarian who tried love everywhere with every limb, shows April 4 to a classy group at Time Warner. It airs the 9th, HBO.
Runaround
Know why our Department of Education is effed up? Chancellor Fariña burbles she’s eager for an interview and oh-what-a-wonderful-idea-and-let’s-do-it then takes no phone calls and ducks reporters so she has more time to junk up schools. Says yes yes yes then her p.r. or deputy or whoever apparently makes up excuses and says they’re Ohboyohboy doing it. Try to ask them something?
You cannot. Do not trust her. Do not trust them. Home-school. I’m telling you what I know.
Bits & pieces
Ruth La Ferla’s Sunday NY Times piece. Great Sally Field interview despite trashing me just a teeny bit . . . NYC designers: “Lead time’s needed to produce couture. Sizes differ. But before our clothes leave the runway, China’s knocking us off. Bloggers, buyers, take selfies. Copy every design. Even China’s popcorn is made fast — months in advance.”
Cop killers, apprehended after escape from a Texas penal institution, were called the Texas Seven. So which is scarier? The Texas Seven on the loose? Or Texas Sen. Cruz, who hates NYC, in the White House?
Muttered not only in New York, kids, not only in New York.