It’s come to my attention that Mr. George Knightley of Jane Austen’s Emma fame is now authoring his own advice blog, titled Letters to Mr. Knightley! With help from colleagues and friends, he’ll be dispensing his wit and wisdom on life and love to the denizens of Highbury, the Internet, and beyond. Here’s a man I’d trust with any problem!
There’s been a ton of local Emma productions hitting the stage this spring, from Folsom, CA to Salt Lake City to Fort Wayne, IN, to Windsor, Ontario! Some of them involve the Michael Bloom adaptation.
I’m posting the latest news on my Twitter feed, but here’s a roundup from the last month or so…
Gwyneth Paltrow as Emma, costumed by Academy Award nominee Ruth Myers.
Fashionable Emma Woodhouse: Costuming Austen’s Emma Adapted
Before the 2009-2010 BBC Emma miniseries came out – and before I’d even started this blog – my friends Vic and Laurel Ann of Jane Austen Today kindly asked me to do a quick piece about costuming in the three previous major adaptations of the novel: the 1971 BBC tv miniseries starring Dorin Godwin, the 1996 Miramax theatrical release starring Gwyneth Paltrow, and the 1996-1997 A&E/ITV movie starring Kate Beckinsale.
It’s based on a previous article on Emma costuming I prepared for Ellie Farrell’s excellent Celluloid Wrappers site, which is dedicated to film costume. Eventually, I’ll be adding a section on the Romola Garai Emma to that article.
I tend to tweet most of my minor updates these days, but here’s a roundup for the sake of completeness. 
Emma comes to the Old Globe in San Diego.
Paul Gordon’s Emma – A Musical Romantic Comedy is now running at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre! The show – which has already enjoyed successful runs in the Bay Area, Cincinnati, and St. Louis – previewed earlier this month and officially premiers this weekend. The run will continue through February 27 (with an extension to March 6).
Emma is directed by Jeff Calhoun and stars Patti Murin as the eponymous heroine and Adam Monley as Mr. Knightley. For more…
In other Emma adaptation news, Romola Garai’s Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-series or Motion Picture Made for Television did not result in a win. Still, it was nice to see her nominated for her starring role in the 2009-2010 BBC Emma miniseries.
In non-adaptation Emma news, Maria Edgeworth’s presentation copy of Emma was sold last month at auction. According to Sotheby’s auction house, it fetched 79,250 pounds sterling. Edgeworth was a bit of a novelist idol of Austen’s and an acquaintance of the James Leigh Perrots, Jane Austen’s aunt and uncle. You can learn about Edgeworth’s opinions on Emma in this roundup of period responses to the book.
Happy new year, everyone!
In other Emma news, a new Jane Austen horror mashup novel hit Kindles last week. Emma and the Vampires, written by Wayne Josephson, takes another stab at the novel of manners-meets-horror movie literary genre.