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The Good Wife star and Broadway luminary Alan Cumming has written a “suspenseful, deeply moving, and wickedly funny” memoir, Not My Father’s Son. The book is the #1 pick for November on ABA’s Indie Next list.

Cumming recently told People magazine, “People think of me as sort of a cheery chappy,” and from all indications he is, while now revealing his struggle and the darkness he has overcome to emerge as a dazzling and mesmerizing actor, nominated for Emmy and Drama League Awards. “This book is the most personal, intimate thing I’ve ever done.”

Plagued by a father who beat and verbally abused him during his childhood in rural Scotland, he was shocked to his core when this same man let him know in 2010 that they were not related.

Cumming recounted his turmoil to the New York Times:

“Mr. Cumming’s identity had gone through multiple cataclysms. ‘I couldn’t stop talking about it,’ he said. ‘I couldn’t stop telling the story. I couldn’t stop thinking about it.’ Now, when he plays Two Truths and a Lie, his two truths are ‘My grandfather died in Malaysia playing Russian roulette’ and ‘My father recently told me I wasn’t his son.’

‘My truths are so crazy,’ he said, sounding half amused. ‘I struggle to make up an equally nutty false one.’ Eventually, he put his thoughts in writing, and the result is Not My Father’s Son, which weaves the ‘great yarn’ of 2010 with a harrowing reminiscence of his father’s violence.”

Not My Father’s Son (Day Street Books) is available now in bookstores, and you can get a free sneak peek at an excerpt in Buzz Books 2014 Fall/Winter ebook from Publishers Lunch.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Had enough of those new-fangled, three dimensional, CGI Smurfs? Well, Sony Pictures Animation probably had you in mind when they made a new Smurf “mini-movie” that mixes a few minutes of CG with a whole bunch of hand-drawn animation.

The Smurfs: The Legend of Smurfy Hollow is a Halloween tale directed by Stephan Franck (Iron Giant, Despicable Me) and produced by Mary Ellen Bauder (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Hotel Transylvania).

Selected into official competition this year at the Annecy Film Festival, the story centers around Gutsy and Brainy Smurf:

When Brainy Smurf is favored to win the annual Smurfberry Hunt for the ninth year in a row, Gutsy Smurf sets out to discover how Brainy wins every year. Gutsy’s investigation takes him into spooky Smurfy Hollow-and right into Gargamel’s trap! Can Brainy and Gutsy, with the help of Smurfette, put aside their rivalry before Gargamel captures them-or worse, they come face-to-face with the legendary ghost, the Headless Horseman?

The Smurfs: The Legend of Smurfy Hollow, will feature the voice talents of Alan Cumming, Fred Armisen, Anton Yelchin and Hank Azaria, all of whom reprise their roles from The Smurfs 2. It will be available on DVD on September 10.

The mark of a good parody is when you don’t need to have seen the original.  A billion thanks to 100 Scope Notes for this one.  Never would have found it myself.

Well, it’s a beautiful Sunday morning here in New York City.  Daylight savings just granted me an extra hour to sleep and the New York Marathon appears to be ending, virtually, just outside my front door.  You should hear the happy music.  It’s kind of enchanting.

On that cheery note, let us watch a different kind of parody, only this time with cute kids.

Thanks to @khazelrigg for the link.

Before I show this next one, I should explain that the Robin Hood Foundation here in New York City has created what they call the Library Initiative where public schools can get beautifully designed library spaces.  Maira Kalman created a mural for one such school.

Thanks to Children’s Illustration for the link.

I heard about this video at a recent Simon & Schuster librarian preview, and then saw it on Bookmoot not long thereafter.  It’s Scott Westerfeld interviewing Alan Cumming about doing the audio versions of his books.  Pretty much any excuse to show Alan Cumming, I will take advantage of.

Thanks to Bookmoot for the link.

Author Kathi Appelt is very good about letting me know when she’s interviewed her fellow author friends.  Ms. Appelt noticed that I recently reviewed Ms. Kimberly Willis Holt’s book The Water Seeker on the Katie Davis podcast Brain Burps About Books.  With that in mind, she let me know that she’d spoken to Ms. Holt with her Flipcam.  If you’ve ever been curious to see what Ms. Holt looks like, here ya go!

Thanks to 1 Comments on Video Sunday: She once created a pathfinder . . . to a woman’s heart, last added: 11/9/2010