The shirt off his back (we wish): Mr. Darcy’s singular garment is coming to America

March 10, 2016

At a time when the news – foreign and domestic – seems so terrible, here’s something to gladden the heart of many a lady (and more than a few gentleman):

Mr. Darcy’s shirt is coming to America.

Yes, the shirt that is for women what the wet T-shirt contest is for men will be part of “Will & Jane: Shakespeare, Austen, and the Cult of Celebrity,” an exhibit opening in August at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C. (And, I need not add, we are so there.) The show will feature the shirt – one of several used, given the need for a fresh one for each take – that Colin Firth wore as Mr. Darcy in a key scene in the 1995 smash BBC miniseries of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice.” ...

Of deflated balls, exposed appendages and concealed identities

March 6, 2016

It’s been a great week for news – sporting and otherwise – of the games men play.

First, it’s ba-aaack – Deflategate that is. You will recall that last September, federal court Judge Richard M. Berman ruled that the NFL had overstepped its bounds in its arbitration of Tom Brady’s four-game suspension for allegedly masterminding the deflation of footballs in the New England Patriots’ 2015 A.F.C. Championship win over the Indianapolis Colts.

Now a three-judge panel for the United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, has said, Not so fast. Taking a view similar to my own from the start of this delicious story, the panel seems less interested in the NFL’s triple role as judge, enforcer of punishments and arbitrator of appeals – a strange trifecta that would automatically make the league vulnerable to the charge of overstepping by the Players’ Union – than it is in the cover-up that always trips you up. To wit: What of Brady’s destroyed cell phone that might’ve contained incriminating information about his altered balls? ...

Whither Colin Kaepernick?

March 3, 2016

Can Colin Kaepernick and the San Francisco 49ers go on, or is it a case of irreconcilable differences, as has been widely reported?

The Niners ill-used their star QB by trying to turn a brilliant running quarterback into the traditional pocket passer that he will probably never be. You didn’t see the Carolina Panthers doing this to Cam Newton and the result was a Super Bowl appearance. Maybe the Niners figured Colin only had one Super Bowl appearance in him, and they’ve already gotten that out of him. ...

Gods among us: Male beauty and ‘Dieux du Stade’

February 17, 2016

What would Abigail Solomon-Godeau make of “Dieux du Stade,” the new book by photographer Fred Goudon, inspired by the “Dieux du Stade” calendars featuring members of the Stade Français Paris rugby club and athletes from other disciplines?

In her 1997 book “Male Trouble: A Crisis in Representation” (Thames and Hudson), the feminist art historian suggests that the nude male has been the primary sex symbol throughout art history, reaching an apotheosis in Neoclassical (turn-of-the-19th-century) Paris in the work of such artists as David, Ingres and especially Girodet, who often portrayed their subjects in the languid pose of women offered up for the male gaze. ...

Rafanole back in action

January 12, 2016

Kicked footballs may have gone awry this past weekend, but at Doha it was business as usual as Novak Djokovic defeated Rafael Nadal 6-1, 6-2 to take the lead in their Rafanole rivalry 24 to 23.

This has always been the best rivalry in tennis – a battle of passionate baseline gladiators – but I fear at the moment it’s a long way from their marathon Australian Open slugfest of 2012. Here’s hoping Rafanole can return to form for this year’s Open, Jan. 18-31.

Meanwhile, an ailing Roger Federer lost to Milos Raonic in Brisbane, Stan Wawrinka was triumphant in India and saucy Aussie Nick Kyrgios – whom Andy Murray has challenged to break into the top 15 – secured the Hopman Cup for Australia in Perth.

So the stage, as they say, is set. ...

Seems like old times – or not – at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals

November 23, 2015

Well, there was no Rafael Nadal appendectomy this year or contretemps between Stan Wawrinka and Roger Federer’s wife, Mirka, or controversy over whether or not Feddy bailed in the final to lead Switzerland to the Davis Cup.

But the result was the same: Novak Djokovic was the last man standing, winning the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals Sunday, Nov. 22, for the fourth time, capping a year in which he became the first player to win $20 million in prize money. Nole and tennis have come a long way.

Of course, given the lack of drama in this year’s tournament… or was there? Methinks I detected just a whiff of passive-aggressive gamesmanship in the press conferences. ...

American Pharoah, Novak Djokovic: What defines greatness?

October 28, 2015

American Pharoah has arrived at Keeneland in Lexington for the Breeders’ Cup Classic Saturday, the final race of his career. He’s going to face an older woman, Beholder; older guys like Tonalist and Honor Code; and old rivals like Frosted and Keen Ice.

But hey, is that any worse than the naysayers, the ones who remark that he’s good but not great – certainly not as great as the greats of the 1970s, Secretariat, Seattle Slew and my beloved Affirmed; and, that if he doesn’t win the Breeders’ Cup, he really won’t be considered great.

This is the same conversation about Novak Djokovic, who will lead the field at the BNP Paribas Masters Paris, which begins also on Saturday and runs through Nov. 8. If he doesn’t repeat in Paris and at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London the following week, he won’t have had a great season.

Let’s review, shall we? ...