Entertainment for Grownups
The Kennedys
White House,
Dark Shadows
DVD
Harry Connick Jr. In the Key of Sea
Movie
If something seems
too good to be true,
Harry Connick Jr. says,
it might just be a thing
that’s really, really good.
Take the script for his new movie,
Dolphin Tale. It’s the story of an
Atlantic bottlenose dolphin that
loses her tail after getting entangled
in a blue crab trap. Thanks to the
compassion of ordinary people and
medical experts, she gets a new, prosthetic tail and becomes an inspiration
to disabled people everywhere.
“I read it and I thought, ‘ These
people have a pretty good imagina-
tion,’ ” Connick recalls. “I was blown
away when I found out it was true.”
So true, in fact, that Connick
costars with the actual dolphin,
named Winter—along with Morgan
Freeman, Ashley Judd, and Kris
FOR GROWNUPS
Kristofferson—in the new family film.
Winter, the prime attraction at
Florida’s Clearwater Marine Aquarium, is also a medical pioneer: The gel
sleeve used to attach her tail has been
adapted to help human amputees.
Grammy winner Connick, who’s
been cutting jazzy vocal albums since
1977 (he was 10), adds, “This was
incredible, man. You throw on a
bathing suit and flip-flops every day
and go play with a dolphin. I couldn’t
believe this was work.” —Bill Newcott
The Kennedys—an epic
eight episodes retelling the
rise of America’s royal family—plays like a soap opera,
and why not? Power, sex, and
ambition are the core values
of any self-respecting soap,
and there’s plenty of each in
the Kennedy saga. Caroline
Kennedy herself reportedly
tried to block the release of
this cable miniseries, now on
DVD. True, who really knows
what JFK (Greg Kinnear)
and Jackie (Katie Holmes)
said in their bedroom? Still,
Tom Wilkinson is riveting
as obsessive, ambitious Joe
Kennedy Sr.—and as tragic
hero JFK, Kinnear perfectly
captures that irresistible
Kennedy charm. —B.N.
CLOCKWISE, FROM TOP: COLLAGE BY ANA HIMES (PHO TO CREDITS ON PAGE 94); COURTESY OF MUSE
ENTERTAINMENT; COURTESY OF WEST POINT MUSEUM COLLECTION, UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY
HIGHEST
HONORS
View a gallery of beautiful patriotic jewelry and
military decorations at aarp.org/lestweforget.
