“I feel very fortunate, because I’ve a career now where I can work in movies [but] I’m certainly, in the short term, not leaving my theatre, the Donmar Warehouse,” he said, adding “So much of what was in this film came out of my work at the Donmar and I intend to keep that going.”
To those who know him, it is no surprise that the director with Hollywood at his feet should think first of a theatre in London which had been temporarily dark. The Donmar was where Mendes cut his directorial teeth and the venue that brought him to the attention of Steven Spielberg.Mendes’s career as artistic director at the Donmar began in 1992, after he noticed that it had closed. He suggested to the leaseholders that he should take it over and turn it into a producing theatre that could transfer its successes to bigger premises. He also persuaded Equity and the Musicians’ Union to let him employ performers at provincial rates. He has been artistic director at the 250-seat theatre ever since and presided over a string of successes, directing works by Shakespeare, Stoppard and Sondheim.It was there that he caught Spielberg’s eye with a 1995 version of the musical Oliver! and, more famously, persuaded Nicole Kidman to abandon her clothes and her megastar salary to appear in David Hare’s The Blue Room.When Mendes’s version of Cabaret transferred to Broadway, Spielberg was again in the audience. His DreamWorks company had just bought the script of American Beauty and the rest is Oscars’ history.Despite his American success, Mendes remains devoted to the Donmar, which he has called a “substitute family”. He insists he will stay there rather than moving to Hollywood, although his film career is likely to be in its infancy.Mendes, accepting his award, thanked DreamWorks “for having the courage to hire a bloke from English theatre to make a movie about American suburbia” but in the same breath thanked his Donmar co-workers: “To all my friends at home watching in my flat at Primrose Hill, have a drink for me.”.

It was quite the fashion statement. There it was, the breathtakingly revealing green Versace dress that, just barely, adorned Jennifer Lopez at the Grammys last month. Only this time it was being worn by Trey Parker, the malicious genius behind the South Park movie and television series, whose copious male body hair gave the outfit a different feel altogether

It was quite the fashion statement. There it was, the breathtakingly revealing green Versace dress that, just barely, adorned Jennifer Lopez at the Grammys last month.

Only this time it was being worn by Trey Parker, the malicious genius behind the South Park movie and television series, whose copious male body hair gave the outfit a different feel altogether.
Next to him was his partner in filthy humour, Matt Stone, sporting a piece of pink chiffon that looked distinctly like the dress Gwyneth Paltrow won her best actress Oscar in last year.Together, the pair led this year’s fashion parade – into which so much thought and preparation, so many hours of consultations with stylists, jewellers, make-up artists and hairdressers had gone. The sea of dinner jackets and evening gowns, many of them sporting plunging backlines this year, flowed into the Shrine Auditorium in the late afternoon sunshine, and flowed back out again, more than five hours later, for the real fun and games, the post-Oscars parties.From downtown Los Angeles, to the modish restaurants of Beverly Hills and West Hollywood, the stretch limos crawled in convoy. They came to a complete halt several blocks south of the corner of Robertson Boulevard and Melrose Avenue, the very epicentre of Oscar partydom where Vanity Fair and Elton John were holding their bashes on opposite sides of the street.But it was at the celebration being thrown by DreamWorks, the producers of American Beauty, at Spago restaurant in Beverly Hills that things were most civilised. Delicate appetisers were passed around tables adorned with hundreds of “American Beauty” roses. It took several hours for the big stars – Kevin Spacey, Sam Mendes, Steven Spielberg – to arrive, by which time the champagne had been flowing pleasantly and the place hummed with the exuberance of a victory sweetly tasted..

Americans werE yesterday given their first close look at Elian Gonzalez, the six-year- old Cuban whose disputed stay in the United States appears now to be reaching its end. Americans werE yesterday given their first close look at Elian Gonzalez, the six-year- old Cuban whose disputed stay in the United States appears now to be reaching its end.
ABC television sent a star presenter, Dianne Sawyer, to Miami to “interview” Elian, who said he did not believe his mother died with her boyfriend in the wreck of a boat carrying them to the US in November.The “interview” was shown as Elian’s relatives in Miami agonised about appealing against a ruling that denied him an asylum hearing. Just before the deadline their lawyers said they would accept the accelerated timetable for an appeal and had lodged their appeal.The Elian feature was followed by an interview with the Washington-based lawyer for the boy’s father, who wants him returned to Cuba. Gordon Craig reiterated that Juan Gonzalez was ready to come to the US at once if he could be sure he could take Elian home with him immediately.Ms Sawyer said Elian came over as “well-mannered and thoughtful”. She rough-housed with him on the floor of a schoolroom and cajoled him into drawing pictures of his experience. She elicited from him his belief that dolphins had helped to keep him afloat in the inner tube that saved him and that his mother was not dead “and just doesn’t know I’m here”.Ms Sawyer said ABC had agonised about the relatives’ invitation to meet Elian, understanding “they have their own agenda”. The ABC team took a psychiatrist with them and the child’s own psychiatric counsellor was on hand..