“The Last Movie Stars — Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward”
Being beset by migraines and vertigo the past few days I haven’t felt like doing a lot, so when I happened to notice this recent documentary by Ethan Hawke on HBO, I decided to settle in and binge watch all six episodes in one go.
It’s absolutely stellar, but maybe not for the reasons that one might think.
Before I write my review of this wonderful work I wanted to share a sweet story from years ago. An acquaintance of mine had recently visited the part of Connecticut where Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward lived. This person had apparently gone into a local ice cream shop, and noticed that only one other patron was there -which happened to be Paul Newman, seated in a corner reading the newspaper. What occurred next is both tender and funny.
She ordered an ice cream cone and looked at Paul Newman — he glanced up from his reading, and she became flustered because, according to her, “His eyes really were THAT blue” and as she headed back to her car, she then realized that she did not have her ice cream cone…confused, she walked back to the ice cream shop, thinking that perhaps in her agitated state, she had left the ice cream cone somewhere in the shop; she was looking all around, trying to figure out “where” her cone could be, and noticed that Paul Newman was staring at her, smiling, and then she…
