Diane Lane

Local Briefs

NORWICH --U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, has been appointed to the House Committee on
Education and Labor, his second committee assignment since being elected to the House of
Representatives.
Courtney was appointed to the House Armed Services Committee in December.
The Committee on Education and Labor will be important as Congress considers the reauthorization of
No Child Left Behind, the Higher Education Act and Head Start early education laws this year.
"I believe this will benefit the working families and college students throughout Connecticut's 2nd
Congressional District," Courtney said in a release announcing the assignment.

Griswold man hospitalized in Plainfield accident

PLAINFIELD — A Griswold man was hospitalized Monday evening for injuries sustained in a head-on collision in Plainfield, police said. At 8:07 p.m. Monday, Plainfield police responded to the a two-car accident on Norwich Road near Baker’s Dozen. A Nissan Ultima driven by Craig W Berard, 28, of 358 East Main St., Griswold, was traveling south on Norwich Road when a pick-up truck driven by Ryan F. Dore, 18, of 14 Diane Lane in Moosup, tried to make a left turn into the coffee shop. The Berard was transported by ambulance to The William W. Backus Hospital in Norwich. Dore was issued an infraction for making a restricted turn.

'Dog' star has quite a list of credits

At a mere 17 years old, "Alpha Dog's" breakout star, Anton Yelchin, is already a veteran of Hollywood features and TV roles. Born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to a mother who is a figure-skating choreographer and a father who is a skating coach, the family moved to the United States in 1989, when Anton was 6 months old. Raised and educated in Tarzana and Sherman Oaks, Yelchin, a thoughtful and serious actor, made his film debut in 1999 at age 9 in the indie film "A Man is Mostly Water," and he has worked continuously since then in films such as "Hearts in Atlantis" with Anthony Hopkins and "Delivering Milo" opposite Albert Finney and Bridget Fonda. He also appeared in "15 Minutes" with Robert DeNiro and Ed Burns, "A Time for Dancing" with Peter Coyote, and "Along Came a Spider" with Morgan Freeman. He starred in David Duchovny's "House of D" with Robin Williams. On TV, Yelchin has been in Showtime's drama "Huff," and he has a number of prominent guest-starring roles on shows such as "ER," "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "Without a Trace." In "Alpha Dog," Yelchin plays teen Zack Muzursky, the "stolen boy" who is kidnapped and murdered. "I felt so much pain for what happened to him," the actor said. "He couldn't really escape what was going on. He trusted those people. He thought they were his friends." Director Nick Cassavetes said Yelchin was able to bring a series of conflicting emotions to the part. "Zack is confused with no longer being a kid but not yet a man," Cassavetes said. "Anton conveys all that beautifully." During the summer, Yelchin filmed "Charlie Bartlett," in which he plays the title role of a wealthy teenager in a public high school, opposite actors Robert Downey Jr., Hope Davis and Kat Dennings. The film is set for release in April. He also completed a role in "Fierce People," a drama starring Diane Lane and Donald Sutherland. At home, Yelchin enjoys playing guitar and has an impressive knowledge of his favorite music genre -pre-World War II acoustic blues.

Learn to ski by day, take shuttle by night

If your New Year's resolution is to learn to ski, classes and camps and clinics all around Lake Tahoe stand ready to serve. But if you're not quite ready to commit to regular episodes of hurling at alarming speed down steep slopes through icy air, Diamond Peak's Learn to Ski and Ride Week, Jan. 22-26, might be a good starting point. Beginners can book a $25 package that covers gear rentals, a beginner lesson and lift ticket for $25 --barely more than one-third the normal rate. Call (775) 832-1177 or visit www.diamondpeak.com. No matter their skill level (on the slopes or at the tables), visitors will find more means of getting around Tahoe than ever this winter . Officials boast that people can easily move around the North Shore without a car for the first time this winter. North Lake Tahoe and the town of Truckee have introduced free nighttime transit services (866216-5222, www.laketahoetransit.com), scheduled to run through April 8. Truckee routes run 6 p.m. to midnight; North Tahoe service is 7 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., connecting Squaw Valley, Tahoe City, Northstar and the state line. The new North Lake Tahoe Express (866-216-5222, www.northlaketahoeexpress.com) is a daily airport shuttle connecting Truckee and the North Tahoe area with the Reno-Tahoe airport; cost is $35 one way, $60 round trip. The Sierra-at-Tahoe Resort (530-541-7548, sierraattahoe.com) operates a free South Shore shuttle, stopping at more than 40 hotels and casinos daily, and the Sierra Shuttle, which makes a trip from Sacramento to the resort each Saturday morning and returns in late afternoon. Fare is $35.

Film editing is explored in Pratt program

"Jump Cuts," a series of short films that spotlights the art of film editing, will be shown tomorrow at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, 400 Cathedral St. The program, put together by Pratt sight and sound librarian Tom Warner, includes the famous "Odessa Steps" sequence from Sergei Eisenstein's groundbreaking 1925 Battleship Potemkin, an exercise in cinematic rabble-rousing that's a staple in film schools, along with such short films as Jim Henson's Oscar-nominated Time Piece (1965); Frank Mogubgub's kinetic The Pop Show (1966) and Susan Franzel's Flight of the Stone (1999), the story of a trans-world stone throw. Showtime is 2:30 p.m. in the library's Wheeler Auditorium, and admission is free. Information: 410-396-5430.

Girl power A new year of works by local filmmakers kicks off at the Creative Alliance next Friday with Geewiz, Fil Sibley's documentary visit with a female drag racer from Laurel whose professional moniker is the same as the movie (her real name is Geneva Williams, which doesn't sound nearly as boffo). The film is paired with a short animation from Frank Ziegler about another risk-loving female, this one a crime fighter known as Kimmy, Danger Agent. The fun begins at 8 p.m. Jan. 12 at the old Patterson Theatre, 3134 Eastern Ave. Tickets are $8, $6 for CA members. Information: 410-276-1651.

Wrapping at the AFI Three film series wrap next week at the American Film Institute's Silver Theatre, 8633 Colesville Road in Silver Spring. "Judy Garland Sings!" concludes with 1948's delightful Easter Parade, her only on-screen pairing with the great Fred Astaire (today, Sunday, Monday and Wednesday). The retrospective on British director Carol Reed ends with his 1959 collaboration with novelist Graham Greene, Our Man In Havana, starring Alec Guinness, Noel Coward, Ralph Richardson and Maureen O'Hara (today, tomorrow and Wednesday), and 1968's Oscar-winning Oliver!, a musical version of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist starring Oliver Reed, Ron Moody and Mark Lester (tomorrow and Monday). Also ending is "Francis Ford Coppola Redux," which wraps with three films: The Cotton Club (1984), with Richard Gere and Diane Lane (today, tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday); Matt Dillon in 1983's Rumble Fish, an adaptation of the S.E. Hinton novel (today, tomorrow, Monday and Thursday); and Jeff Bridges as a car manufacturer who thinks tragically big in 1988's Tucker: A Man and His Dream (tomorrow, Sunday and Wednesday). Showtimes, ticket prices and more information: 301-495-6720 or afi.com.

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