America’s fantasy villain

By Joanna Weiss As a New Orleans-based reporter in the 1990s, I sometimes found myself driving along backroads of west Louisiana, chasing some story near the Texas border. I’d always make a point of driving into Texas, if only for a mile and back. To an East Coast kid like me, Texas felt like a mythical place, full of 10-gallon hats and 50-gallon personalities, and I think that had a lot to do with “Dallas.” I was a kid when the CBS soap first aired — in a pre-cable era when one prime-time TV show could capture the attention of the world — and despite the booze and the adultery, it was always a family event. (This is a paradox of modern entertainment: Today, we let kids stew in cartoon violence, but we shield them from the everyday havoc that grownups can wreak.) In 1980, everyone I knew was obsessed with “Who Shot J.R.” — so much so that the day after the answer was revealed, a girl named Kristen walked into our elementary school with a sign that said, “I didn’t do it!” J.R. Ewing was a powerful force, which is why so many people were so saddened when Larry Hagman died last week. He was 81, and hadn’t yet finished filming the second season of TNT’s “Dallas” reboot, his return to the perfect marriage of actor and character. Hagman wouldn’t have been such an icon if his career had peaked with “I Dream of Jeannie.” And if anyone else had played J.R., “Dallas” might have shriveled. According to the Dallas Morning News, J.R. was first conceived as a side character. Hagman’s performance, informed by his Texas upbringing, consumed the show. The TNT series reminds us why: No one else is nearly as watchable. The good guys are handsome, but wimpy and dull (especially poor Bobby, still getting steamrolled by the meanies who are always three steps ahead). The young villain, J.R.’s son, needs a moustache to signify his sleaziness. And then there’s Hagman, with eyebrows that seem to spread from Lubbock to San Antonio, and a glint in his eye that conveys the sheer joy of a nice guy playing bad. The TNT series has made some adjustments for modern times — acknowledging the 21st-century tension between oil and renewable energy — but wisely doesn’t try to change the character. When he’s first introduced, J.R. is catatonic in a nursing home, possibly gone soft. By episode two, he’s up and about and scheming against his own son. A big television trend, in recent years, has been the rise of the antihero: complex, damaged characters who invite us to explore the world of gray. Tony Soprano did dastardly things, but he lived by a code and went to therapy. Vic Mackey, of “The Shield,” walked both sides of the law, largely for his family’s sake. Showtime’s Dexter is a serial killer who’s meant to be understood. No one was ever supposed to understand J.R; he’s an unambiguous, all-American fantasy villain. Yet as destructive as he was, he never seemed to pose a threat to the world outside of Southfork, to spill over the border and wreak havoc outside his overprivileged circle. This was where the myth of Texas came in. The ’80s-era “Dallas” was a show about a grab for resources, with the knowledge that there would always be more — more oil, more money, more power, more land. Texas looms large on the map — Massachusetts is a thimble in its ocean — but it has to be inconceivably big, to spawn a villain as safe as J.R. That’s why it was always a little disappointing, in my brief East Texas sojourns, to find that the trehttp://bostonglobe.comes and roads looked the same as they did across the border. Reality never quite lives up to memory, especially when memory is filtered through TV. So it is with the new “Dallas”; it’s good for a nostalgia fix, and especially a Hagman fix, but it will never be what it was. Last season, it averaged 5.3 million viewers — terrific for a cable TV drama, but nothing compared to the 300 million worldwide who watched the show in its heyday. Especially now that J.R. is gone, Texas doesn’t seem quite so grand. Source hbostonglobe.com"

Roll out the red carpet: Kate Middleton in bright red at Wales rugby international

Kate and Wills meet seriously injured rugby players before game at Millennium Stadium
porting a bright red coat, there may have been a danger of Kate Middletonblending into the background at this evening’s rugby international between Wales and New Zealand.
But there was no mistaking that huge smile after the Duchess of Cambridge was presented with a bouquet of flowers by nine-year-old Isabella House at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

Kate, who was wearing an LK Bennett coat, and Wills joined tens of thousands of patriotic Welsh rugby fans in their red jerseys for the game.
Before the 5.15pm kick-off the royal couple had pledged their support for the Welsh Rugby Charitable Trust which helps people who have been seriously injured playing the sport.
Paul Davies MBE, who has been involved with the charity for nearly three decades after being paralysed during a match as a 21-year-old, was among the guests who met the royal visitors. He said the duchess took a genuine interest in the plight of the injured rugby players.
He added: “I got the impression that William and Kate were here for the trust, not just the match.
“It was a real pleasure for us to talk with them, and I think they felt it was a pleasure for them to talk with us too.”
Paul said: “I think people now see the person and not the chair, and that is down to the brilliant work of the small, dedicated team of supporters with the trust.
“It is truly humbling how they have helped me throughout my life since the accident. I cannot explain enough how they have been a lifeline to me and others.”
Philip Harris, 59, of Brynamman near the Brecon Beacons, was partially paralysed down his left side after being injured in a game. After meeting the royals he said Wills, who became a patron of the charity this summer, “was very inquisitive, caring and interested in all of us here today”.
Philip added: “He is dedicated to this great cause, he’s shown that today. To get somebody of his stature to support us is incredible.
“This is a great charity, it has brought us comradeship and friendship as well as emotional and physical support. We would have been lost without it, so to have Prince William here has meant a lot to us.”

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