Wilde referenced The Leopard last night on Letterman which was cool. She's also casually sex positive which is nice, telling David how the Italians are more comfortable with nudity. They were discussing her nude scene in her upcoming film which was shot in Italy. Talk about a plug!
Whenever I see her I always think of her uncle Alexander Cockburn. As a clueless American from the suburbs I didn't know much about the European left (or even the American left) so it was interesting to discover that England had class traitors like Cockburn and his father who was Communist royalty. Claude Cockburn was also literary, being the second cousin, once removed, of novelists Alec Waugh and Evelyn Waugh.
Cockburn moved to Northern California early on, and was prescient about environmentalism (climate change) and marijuana legalization. In person I found him to be extremely courteous, polite and hyper-articulate if a little strange and alien (it might have just been how his manners and accent struck a provincial Mid-westerner). His encyclopedic knowledge was insane but he always appeared to be wanting to be a regular guy and sympathized with conservative, members of the lower classes like gun nuts. Obviously many people knew him better and have more accurate impressions them me.
Also, I once gave Rick Perlstein a ride in my car.
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