Just got back from a screening of "The Queen," a brilliant, Oscar-worthy film by director Stephen Frears starring the divine Helen Mirren.
What I love about the film, a chilling yet endearing dissection of the mechanisms of the English monarchy at the time of Princess Diana's death, is the lesson it provides today's leaders on how to manage the hearts of the little people.
The film builds Tony Blair, the then-just-elected Prime Minister, as the hero of the monarchy. Toward the end of the movie, when one expects a humbled Queen Elizabeth to thank Blair for helping her court navigate the nation's mourning for Diana, she in turn reminds Blair that soon enough, unexpectedly, the people will turn on him, too.
How telling of the predicament Blair and his pal in DC, W, find themselves in now as they wage a "war on terror."
**Added fun: James and I were sitting behind Elvis Costello and his wife, the lovely and pregnant Diana Krall at the Angelika on Houston Street.
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