S A N TA M O N I C A
REFLECTING THE CONCERNS OF THE COMMUNITY
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INSIDE SANTA MONICA POLICE MAKE LOOTING ARRESTS
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October 02 – October 08, 2020 Volume XLXVI, Issue 61
Santa Monica City Council Approves Miramar Expansion Project moves forward by 4-2 vote By Sam Catanzaro
Santa Monica City Council has approved plans that have been in the works for a decade to redevelop the Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows, despite opposition from the mayor and a councilmember. In a meeting that began Tuesday night and ended in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, Santa Monica City Council approved the proposed redevelopment of the Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows with a 4-2 vote. The hotel, located at Wilshire Boulevard and Ocean Avenue, has been around since the 1920s. Under plans from the Athens Group, the hotel will double in size, retaining the existing Palisades Building and Moreton Bay Fig Tree. The 502,157-square-foot redevelopment proposal, which has been drastically altered three times during a decade-long planning process, calls for 312 guest rooms 60 condominiums and around 18,000 square feet of commercial space. In addition, land will be set aside on 2nd Street for a 100 percent affordable housing complex with 42 units. The project is expected to provide a boost to Santa Monica’s economy hit hard by the COVID-19 shutdown. “The revenues that will flow from this project are something we really need to take into consideration, particularly in the dire fiscal straits we are in,” said Councilmember Ted Winterer, who voted in favor of the proposal. “This project is important right now, more than anything else to show that the City is open to people who want to come in and reinvest in our City.” Mayor Kevin McKeown and Councilmember Sue Himmelrich were the
Photo: : Courtesy Miramar Santa Monica
A rendering of the Miramar redevelopment.
two dissenting votes and both took issue with the inclusion of luxury condos in the proposal. “I do not believe that this, with the inclusion of luxury condos, is a project that we should be going forward with,” McKeown said. “The alleged connection to the very welcome affordable housing was a red herring. Our laws require a percentage of affordable when housing is built, but in a Development Agreement we can demand affordable housing as a community benefit without having to tie it to any other housing
production, especially top-dollar oversized condos.” “My no vote was also because of the 60 luxury condos which I have been opposed to for quite a long time. I don’t believe they are a requirement to make this project feasible. I also object to the lack of a viewpoint at the top of the project, but I think the two go together to show why this project is not a good Santa Monica project,” Himmelrich said. “In my experience these are not great community partners, they will do whatever they need to do to maximize their profit.
This is a private capital company made up of very few holders.” Councilmember Gleam Davis recused herself from the debate and vote on the project. Davis is married to John Prindle, a high ranking employee with Dell Technologies and Dell’s CEO Michael Dell owns the Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows through his investment firm MSD Capital. According to Davis, her family would not benefit financially from the Council’s approval of the Miramar
Miramar Expansion, see page 7
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October 02 – October 08, 2020
Lawsuit Filed Against Plaza Development Slow-growth group says City is violating Surplus Land Act By Sam Catanzaro
A slow-growth group has filed a lawsuit to halt the development of an 11-story, 240room luxury hotel proposed on publiclyowned land in downtown Santa Monica. The proposed development, known as The Plaza at Santa Monica, is an 11-story, 240-room luxury hotel, with 106,800 square feet of creative office space, approximately 40,000 square feet of open public space and 48 units of affordable housing at 4th Street and Arizona Avenue in Downtown Santa Monica. Negotiations were put on hold in July after slow-growth group Santa Monica Coalition for a Livable City (SMCLC) filed a complaint arguing the property should be reserved for public use under the California surplus land act. In August, however, Santa Monica City Council voted to continue negotiations with developer Clarett West, deciding the job, housing and revenue it would generate outweigh the risks of pending litigation. On Friday, September 25 SMCLC filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court
alleging the City of Santa Monica is failing to abide by the Surplus Land Act, which requires the City to offer publicly owned land for affordable housing, park and recreational or open-space purposes. “Residents have been forced to sue because the City refused to follow the law. This is the only remaining major parcel of publicly-owned, undeveloped land in our downtown and the City is negotiating to privatize it. Public land should be used for a public purpose,” said Diana Gordon, SMCLC’s co-chair. “This is unacceptable: Our city needs affordable housing and needs more open space. SMCLC’s lawsuit seeks to compel the City to pursue these community priorities on our public land.” The lawsuit asks the court to issue a peremptory writ of mandate, requiring the City to stop its negotiations with the developer of the 4th and Arizona project and comply with the Surplus Land Act. “The City’s conduct demonstrates the abiding hold that developers and those special interests that benefit from their projects have over our city government; a hold so strong that the City Council has put aside its professed support for affordable housing and open space,” SMCLC said in a press release. The City of Santa Monica and Clarett West were not immediately available for comment.
A rending of The Plaza at Santa Monica development.
Photo: theplazaatsantamonica.com
October 02 – October 08, 2020
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October 02 – October 08, 2020
Santa Monica Police Make Additional Arrests in Looting of REI
Misty Jones
Marques Miles and Misty Jones arrested by Santa Monica Police Department By Sam Catanzaro
Marques Miles
Security camera footage captures the May 31 looting of REI
Santa Monica police recently made additional arrests of two suspects in the looting of REI on May 31. According to the Santa Monica Police Department (SMPD), in Thursday September 17 officers served search warrants at two locations within the City of Los Angeles. The search warrants were related to looting activity during the civil unrest in Santa Monica on May 31,
2020, the police say. Officers monitored video footage from REI, located at 402 Santa Monica, and observed two individuals stealing items from the store and were able to identify two subjects, Marques Miles and Misty Jones, both Los Angeles residents, during the investigation. The SMPD obtained warrants to search the residences of both subjects and recovered
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approximately $2,500 worth of property stolen from REI. Both Milers and Jones were arrested and booked for Burglary (459 PC) and Burglary
during State of Emergency (463 (a) PC). Bail was set at $50,000 each.
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October 02 – October 08, 2020
The Future of Our City Is At Stake
OPINION
“We need a clean slate of candidates who are not beholden to the development community. Just as we can’t afford four more years of existing Washington politics, we can ill-afford this Council,” writes SMart in their latest column.
SMa.r.t. Santa Monica Architects for a Responsible Tomorrow
On 2003, we embarked on the LUCE (Land Use Circulation Element) – a planning process outlining the future of our city. It took time and a lot of residential input before completing in 2010. Quoting the LUCE: “The LUCE is a conservation plan.” “Santa Monica has sought to maintain and perpetuate its small beachfront town character.” “The intent is for the City to be generally a low scale community.” “Concern is with the loss of characterdefining buildings, particularly courtyard buildings” – which are representative of Santa Monica’s DNA! “High density housing in the LUCE is 3-4 story multi-family with 30 ft and 40 ft height limits.” “New boulevard use will emphasize mixed local serving ground floor commercial uses with 2-3 floors of residential above.”
“Paramount is the need to enhance pedestrian, bike, and small shuttle connections from the neighborhoods to retail services and the boulevards.” “Throughout the City, open space will increase in size and quality?” The desire of the community as noted above was to “achieve a balance between the human and the natural community” – a beachfront city, not an urban city, one that preserves its human scale and family life. Were these principles followed? Why are we going through a planning process that creates enormous negative impacts in our city? Unfortunately toward the end of the LUCE process, the development community along with a few of Santa Monica’s development friendly legal practitioners inserted the concept of Development Agreements which allows significant height increases, reduced parking, and increased density most often resulting in banal design, etc. - all in exchange for marginal contributions to the city budget or housing affordability. The Planning Commission and City Council have allowed developers to push beyond the limits of the LUCE with D.A.’s
(Development Agreements) providing them and their corporate backers with substantially greater economic returns. This has resulted in our beachfront community rapidly losing its human scale and our quality of life! To underline the inherent hypocrisy imbedded in the process, in March, 2008 Ted Winterer, then president of the Ocean Park Association and now a two-time City Councilmember, wrote an article in a local paper entitled “It’s hard to trust City Hall on development” - opining on how to “slow down the continuing over-development of our city!” Was he successful – hardly?! Today we face an uncertain future with a build to the max City Council including Mr. Winterer who has done a 180 degree about face regarding development. (With full disclosure, I am an architect who can speak from both sides, having developed 20 residential and commercial projects.) So are we on a road to “nowhere”? How will this fast changing and diminishing quality of life affect our city? What will its future be? Just another piece of a larger metropolis. Recently the City Council finished constructing a 50,000 sq ft city hall annex at twice the cost of
Photo: Sam Catanzaro
comparable municipal buildings. It then spent over $25 million fighting district elections and residents’ effort combatting the enormous benefit of development contributions to “friendly” incumbent re-election campaigns! In the time of Covid-19 shutdowns the City Council has pushed us to financial chaos with its “build more, tax more” approach. These unnecessary expenditures are coupled with huge pension obligations, crushing traffic, rising crime, homelessness and a reduced quality of life. Why would anyone even consider voting for these 5 incumbents?? And consider that four were actually appointed, not elected, to their first terms! Santa Monica is currently built on a system of who you know and the greatest return on investment. But why does our City Council want a dense beachfront city? Have we lost our humanity? The council overspends on construction projects and pension obligations, and then becomes dependent on sales and property taxes and hotels and tourism. And increasing density has put an enormous strain
SMART, see page 7
October 02 – October 08, 2020
Miramar Expansion, from page 1 expansion but still opted to recuse herself. Nearly 100 members of the public phoned into the virtual meeting expressing their opinions of the project. According to a tally compiled by the Santa Monica Mirror, 65 percent of speakers expressed support. “The project may not be perfect in some people’s eyes, but you can’t let the perfect stand-in and stop the good, or even the great, because I think it is a great design, and I also think the Miramar folks have been a great partner in the community to non-profits, to the community as a whole, and I think they will continue that,” said Chris Baca, a longtime Santa Monica resident. 30 percent expressed opposition to the project. “It’s simply too big. It’s gigantism gone wild. It’s bigger in square footage than the Santa Monica Place, it’s this huge monolithic wall around 2nd Street, and there is no compensatory replacement for the
SMART, from page 6 on our infrastructure – from roads and water to police and fire personnel and equipment, and more. A philosophy of “more, more, more” instead of living within our means. Do we really want a city of elevators, narrow corridors and hand sanitizers instead of sunlight and blue skies. A city where everything looks similar – banal block apartment and office buildings with narrow or non-existent balconies. We need a new vision for our city instead of building more projects with still more staff all based on an addiction to tourism. Why are we pushing for more density – it’s idiotic, especially with an economic fallout that’s likely to last for five years or more. We need to be a city of “adaptive reuse” replacing our current mantra of “demolish and higher” - a beachfront town, not a downtown urban city. We are currently in chaos – and not just financially. The rioting of May 30 represented a failure of leadership – indicative of the past eight years. Peaceful protesters were overtaken by looters and arsonists. We proved to be a soft target that day. We weren’t ready for war, it was just another sunny afternoon in Santa Monica. And once again our city management was missing in action. That day was indicative of our city’s increasing crime rate, with Santa Monica statistics putting us down as the 257th safest city in California. But the real tragedy is the process that allows this to happen. Developers are first and foremost about themselves and council members need to understand this. They need to stop approving significant changes which are presented as minor ones – and then are approved because developers are their biggest source of election funds. We need to live within the environment we found and not continue to manipulate it. With the wheels of the City starting to come off, what can we do to not only maintain, but regain our beachfront environment. Instead of following, the LUCE, we have a piecemeal planning process, with piecemeal D.A.’s, with all their piecemeal, pervasive problems.
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views, light and air that are being lost. There should be a rooftop deck open to the public, free open to the public, so that the City itself and the residents could get something back,” said Mario Fonda-Bonardi, a member of the Planning Commission who was the sole dissenting vote when the project went before the commission on September 9. Roughly five percent of the speakers were supportive of the project but with some reservations. “Our city can have a beautiful, redeveloped Miramar hotel, but it also can protect the scale and neighborliness of the city,” said Kay Ward, a nearby resident. “Do not permit an entrance on California Avenue or an exit. As you know the Planning Commission recommended against any driveway on California Avenue…I see all the time kids up and down on California Avenue, usually on their skateboards or e-scooters and bikes, and they are going to Palisades Park and the beach, it will be terrible. There will be too many injuries. Do not put that there.”
This Council has created a financial nightmare, and Covid-19, with its economic and social unrest has shed light on our city’s internal failures. And then there’s Terry O’Day who shamefully suggests suspending long established community oversight regulations to “immediately stem the Covid losses.” The way our Council acquiesces to the development community resulting in the demise of our beachfront city is unbelievable. We don’t need Miramar Hotels that look like cruise ships or a Hampton Inn that resembles the plain rectangular boxes delivered from Amazon or Walmart. We have a Council that has the unique ability of demonstrating financial irresponsibility combined with a lack of transparency. We cannot continue to rely on development and taxes! We need to stop manipulating our environment and instead just living with it and in it? This is all to say we need a clean slate of candidates who are not beholden to the development community. Just as we can’t afford four more years of existing Washington politics, we can ill-afford this Council. There are answers, but not by renewing this Council! We need to remember the people who got us into this mess are not the ones to get us out!! We need a Council willing to honor the LUCE which we, the residents, spent seven years drafting, but which very little is adhered to. We need a new City Council who will maintain the soul and beauty of our community. BOTTOM LINE – WE NEED BROCK, FONDA-BONARDI, DE LA TORRE, AND PARRA FOR OUR CITY COUNCIL!!!! Ron Goldman for SMa.r.t. (Santa Monica Architects for a Responsible Tomorrow) Thane Roberts, Architect, Robert H. Taylor AIA, Ron Goldman FAIA, Architect, Dan Jansenson, Architect, Building and Fire-Life Safety Commission, Samuel Tolkin Architect, Mario Fonda-Bonardi, AIA, Planning Commissioner, Marc Verville, CPA (inactive), Phil Brock, Santa Monica Arts Commission. For previous articles see www.santamonicaarch.wordpress.com/ writings.
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October 02 – October 08, 2020
Cafe Closes Its Doors at Santa Monica Place Serving Area since 1996 Locally Owned Business
Italian cafe in Santa Monica Place appears to have closed, though signage remains By Toi Creel
Ugo Café in Santa Monica Place appears to have closed its doors for good. Though the restaurant did not announce an official closure on its social media channels, the doors inside of the café has remained closed
during business hours. Signage is still up, but the Santa Monica location has been taken off the restaurant’s website. The Downtown Los Angeles and Culver City locations remain open. The Santa Monica Mirror did reach out to the restaurant for comment, but have not received a comment. As described by the restaurant’s website, “Ugo Cafe is an authentic and charming Italian Restaurant serving Award Winning Pizza, Classic and Filled fresh Pasta, delicious Homemade Artisan Gelato, impeccable Wine, tasty Cocktails and traditional Italian Dishes and Desserts All made with an irresistible Passion. The Santa Monica location was on the first floor of Santa Monica Place.
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The Window Opens on Ocean Front Walk Popular burger joint expanding Venice footprint By Kerry Slater
Popular Venice burger joint The Window at American Beauty has opened a new location on Ocean Front Walk with a new addition to the no-frills menu. The restaurant announced that the new location, 1827 Ocean Front Walk, opened Wednesday of this week to compliment the stand located on Rosen Avenue. While the restaurant noted that the Ocean Front Walk location will not be offering the weekend breakfast menu available at the Rose location, beachside diners can enjoy a new item: ice cream (shakes and dipped cones). In addition, patrons to the Ocean Front Walk The Window can expect the same burgers at the same price point: $3.95 for a single, $5.95 for a double and $7.95 for a vegetarian beyond meat burger. Recently Eater LA named these burgers as among the
best in all of the Los Angeles-area. “It’s hard to believe the burger at the Window at American Beauty is as inexpensive, or as popular, as it is. The takeaway-only walk-up window was serving hundreds of burgers a day before the pandemic, and now the group is set to expand with new locations around the city,” wrote Eater‘s Farley Elliott on The Window. The Ocean Front Walk menu also includes the fries, chicken sandwich and salads found on Rose Avenue.
Photo: American Beauty (Facebook)
October 02 – October 08, 2020
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Santa Monica Walk to End Alzheimer’s Alzheimer’s Association encouraging residents to walk in small groups amid COVID-19
The Alzheimer’s Association is inviting Santa Monica residents to join the fight to end Alzheimer’s by participating in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s on October 25. The Santa Monica Walk to End Alzheimer’s continues, but instead of hosting a large gathering, the Alzheimer’s Association is encouraging participants to walk as individuals or in small groups on sidewalks, tracks and trails across Santa Monica. “This year’s Walk to End Alzheimer’s will be everywhere,” said Wendy Vizek, vice president, constituent events at the Alzheimer’s Association. “The pandemic is changing how we walk, but it doesn’t change the need to walk. This year, more than ever, we need to come together to support all those affected by Alzheimer’s and other dementia. With the dollars raised, the Alzheimer’s Association can continue to provide care and support to families during these difficult times while also advancing critical research toward methods of treatment and prevention.” Time-honored components of the Walk to End Alzheimer’s are being replicated. On Walk day, an Opening Ceremony will feature local speakers and a presentation of Promise Flowers to honor the personal reasons participants join together to fight Alzheimer’s and all other dementia, all delivered to participants’ smartphones, tablets and computers. A small group of Alzheimer’s Association staff and volunteers will create the iconic Promise Garden in a “view only”
format on Walk day to honor all those impacted by Alzheimer’s. To enhance the participant experience leading up to the event and on Walk day, new features are being added to the Walk to End Alzheimer’s mobile app to create an opportunity for the community to connect. Participants can use the app and new “Walk Mainstage” to track their steps and distance, follow a virtual Walk path, manage their Facebook fundraisers, and access information and resources from the Association and Walk sponsors to help individuals and families affected by the disease. A new audio track is available to encourage participants along the way and to congratulate them upon completion of their Walk. “Alzheimer’s is not taking a hiatus during COVID-19 and neither are we,” said Alzheimer’s Association California Southland Chapter Executive Director Meg Barron. “We must continue Walk to End Alzheimer’s, and we are working with all participants to ensure they have a powerful and moving experience that is felt when we are together. Many of our constituents are at higher risk when it comes to COVID-19 and we know that our volunteers and participants appreciate our commitment to keeping all involved healthy and safe.” More than 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease – the sixthleading cause of death in the United States. Additionally, more than 16 million family members and friends provide care to people living with Alzheimer’s and other dementias. In California alone, there are more than 690,000 people living with the disease and 1.6 million caregivers. To register and receive the latest updates on this year’s Walk to End Alzheimer’s, visit: alz.org/walk.
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October 02 – October 08, 2020
Director/Writer Merawi Gerima’s Captivating RESIDUE – Streaming on Netflix
R-L: Obinna Nwachukwu as Jay chats with a resident from his old neighborhood
CENTER STAGE
With Beverly Cohn, Editor-At-Large
From the very first opening shot, one knew immediately that RESIDUE* was going to be a brilliant, cinematic work of art. Graduate of USC School of Cinematic Arts, first-time film director Merawi Gerima took his time in shooting the establishing shots - a series of slightly veiled, sometimes muffled sounds ranging from a protest evolving in slow motion and a police presence, to a street performer entertaining a crowd of spectators. Fulfilling the directorial vision, cinematographer Mark Jeevaratnam captured every nuanced moment in this 90-minute film, sometimes employing the shaky look associated with a handheld camera. The low lighting used in parts of the film was entrancing, creating shadows, which augmented the occasional disembodied, muffled voices. Those moments are skillfully supported by assistance from Alex J. Bledsoe on sound and Cam Poles, who co-supervised the music. These kinetic cinematic elements could perhaps be symbolic of the lead character of Jay’s ongoing disappointing discoveries. At first, the connective tissue was not immediately clear, but became so as we move further and further into the film. The story line revolves around a young filmmaker named Jay, brilliantly portrayed by Obinna Nwachukwu, who,
after many years in Los Angeles, returns to his old neighborhood in Washington, D.C. to gather up research for a film he plans to make about growing up on “Q Street.” His first order of business in returning is to visit his parents who still live in the same home in which he grew up. They are not happy with what’s happening to their neighborhood, which is becoming gentrified, with long-time African-American residents selling their properties to white developers. Despite receiving lucrative offers, they stand tight and refuse to sell. Jay is greeted warmly by his parents and says, “It’s good to be home.” In a symbolically telling moment, a white couple allows their dog to poop on his parents’ front lawn. Jay’s mother scolds them and they reply, “We’ll clean it up” but mom says, “But it always leaves a residue.” Jay’s overriding desire is to reconnect with Demetrius, his best childhood friend. He asks a number of people who knew him from the past, but no one seems to know what became of him. Director Gerima’s script seamlessly moves back and forth in time delicately blending the protagonist’s present experience as compared to his past. Jay continues to meet with residents of Q Street meticulously taking notes that he will turn into a screenplay. In one of the tender flashback scenes, Jay is in the woods with his friend Demetrius and they talk about how relaxing it is to hear the birds chirp and savor the sweet smell of the woods. The two young boys playfully wrestle and the bond between them is quite
Photos: Courtesy of Ava DuVernay’s ARRAY Releasing
(L to R) JaCari Dye as “Young Jay” rehearses a scene with filmmaker Merawi Gerima.
evident. It also becomes quite evident that Jay’s childhood memories of what it was like growing up in his neighborhood do not connect to what he is seeing today. In addition to the gentrification, he is basically unable to reconnect with his childhood friends who seem to be scattered in different directions. This is a heartfelt story of someone who finds that the childhood he knew has virtually disappeared and the emptiness that his discoveries engender. Director Gerima has meticulously assembled a sterling cast starting with Obinna Nwachukwu in the lead role. He gives an Oscar-worthy performance mining through the myriad emotions the character experiences as he discovers the changes to his childhood neighborhood. His understated, but searing performance, is reminiscent of the characterizations delivered by such Hollywood giants as Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman or Robert DeNiro. Other cast members include, JaCari Dye, Jamal Graham, Dennis Lindsey, Derron Scott, Julian Selman, Taline Stewart, Melody A. Tally, and Ramon Thompson - all of whom deliver pitch perfect performances – so perfect and so fully actuated that it almost feels as though they are improvising – a tribute to great direction. It took a small village to create RESIDUE, starting with the superb writer/ director/editor, a gifted production team, and a talented cast. This outstanding cinematic journey is now streaming on
Obinna Nwachukwu as the lead character of Jay in Merawi Gerima’s RESIDUE.
Netflix. *RESIDUE made it’s world premiere at the Slamdance Film Festival, receiving the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature and the Acting Award for star Obinna Nwachukwu. The film is also an official selection of the 77th Venice International Film Festival’s Giornate degli Autori. Gerima is the son of Haile Gerima, a famous Ethiopian filmmaker noted for the L.S. Rebellion film movement.
October 02 – October 08, 2020
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Rated PG-13 123 Minutes Released September 23rd on Netflix
FILM REVIEW: “ENOLA HOLMES”
BEHIND THE SCREEN By Kathryn Whitney Boole Enola Holmes is based on The Missing Marquess, author Nancy Springer’s imaginative first book in her series (written 2006-2010) of YA novels featuring the little sister of “Sherlock Holmes.” Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s storied private detective from the pages of his 56 classic short stories written in the late 1800’s, first appeared in literature in 1887. This movie is set in London in 1884, a country just beginning to embrace the second industrial revolution – an age of science and mass production. One of the main drivers of Doyle’s stories was Sherlock’s exceptional power of deduction. “Enola,” his sister, seems to have inherited these skills. Sherlock and Enola analyze a subject’s appearance and habits in the same way an actor would in doing character research. The film was shot at estates in the English countryside in 2019, and was intended for theatrical release before the pandemic struck. “Eudoria,” the mother of Sherlock, his brother “Mycroft” and Enola, is whimsically brought to life by Helena Bonham Carter. She’s a firebrand who raises her daughter completely outside-the-box. She’s a Women’s Rights revolutionary at a time when such an undertaking was very dangerous. The scenes that set up the relationship between Enola and her Mother are special, very skillfully shot and edited. Millie Bobby Brown makes a wonderful heroine, impulsive, full of energy and smarts. She also serves as a “host” of sorts, often breaking the “fourth wall” by speaking directly to the audience. This was Brown’s idea – she discussed it with screenwriter Jack Thorne. This device makes you feel like you’re reading the book. The subject of the case in this story is “Lord Tewkesbury” played by relatively unknown Louis Partridge. The young actor does a great job of being real and getting out of his own way as the handsome centerpiece of the story, functioning in the role usually inhabited by the
Photos: Courtesy
Millie Bobby Brown and Louis Partridge
innocent female ingénue. Don’t miss a brilliant monologue by British TV actress/writer Susie Wokoma, as “Edith,” a Tea Server. I’m sure Wokoma is destined for worldwide notoriety. This movie is creative and beautifully made. The backdrop, both interior and exterior, is intricately fashioned, recreating the London of the late 1800s with both real and CGI enhanced sets that are completely believable. The sound track is exceptional, meticulously engineered. It becomes almost a secondary dialogue at times. Flowers are symbols – pay attention to them. So one of the producers of this movie is 16-year-old Millie Bobby Brown. Another producer is her 26-year-old sister Paige. It was Paige who brought Springer’s novels to her little sister. Obviously the Brown family is extraordinary, and they support their exceptional kids more than most of us could imagine. The parents are British, though Millie was born in Andalusia in Spain. She grew up
in England and the family moved again, to Orlando FL when she was 8. She began taking acting classes for fun, and when an agent reported that she had instincts more highly developed than most adults, her parents moved the family to LA so that she could audition for major film and TV roles. She was subsequently awarded an Emmy for her role of “Eleven” in the hit series Stranger Things. The Brown family has its own production arm, PCMA. It seems to me that we are watching the birth of a great theatrical family destined to become the “Barrymore’s” of the 21st Century. Enola Holmes plays to the current world political climate even though it’s set over a century ago. It also plays to anyone who grew up in a dysfunctional family. Incidentally, Millie Bobby Brown is the youngest person to have ever been appointed a Goodwill Ambassador to UNICEF and the youngest to ever be included in Time Magazine’s list of the World’s 100
Millie Bobby Brown as Enola Holmes
Most Influential People. Kathryn Whitney Boole has spent most of her life in the entertainment industry, which has been the backdrop for remarkable adventures with extraordinary people. She is a Talent Manager with Studio Talent Group in Santa Monica. kboole@gmail.com.
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