Entertainment
Standing by your man
By ALLISON MILLS
Assistant editor
MXA932@psu.edu
Eliot Spitzer, Ted Haggardy and
of course, Bill Clinton represent
a only few of the biggest sex
scandals from the past few
years. Even kindergartners
could recognize these infamous,
scandal-plagued men. These
men’s sexual selfishness left
their wives in a wake of flashing
bulbs, unflattering pictures and
appalling news stories. But
the “good wives” of Spitzer,
Haggard and Clinton stood by
their men and weathered the
media frenzy that was their
husbands’ infidelities.
And so CBS created “The
Good Wife,” a drama series
that follows a disgraced wife
returning to work as a defense
attorney. While “The Good
Wife” falls under the category of
a standard courtroom drama, the
show was fortunately conceived
Everything must go! Lehman Bros, art auctioned off
By JOANN LOVIGLIO
Associated Press Writer
Even in these trying financial
times, you’re not going to see
many going-out-of-business
sales like this one.
On Sunday, hundreds of works
from the art collection of failed
banking giant Lehman Brothers
will go on the auction block
at Freeman’s auction house in
Philadelphia.
The 200-plus pieces of modem
and contemporary art up for
bid once lined the corridors
and graced the board rooms
of Lehman’s offices in New
York, Boston and Wilmington,
Del. Highlights of Sunday’s
sale include prints by Claes
Oldenburg, David Hockney,
Robert Indiana, Frank Stella
and Roy Lichtenstein.
Anne Henry, vice president
of the 204-year-old auction
house, valued the collection at
$500,000 to $750,000. There is
no reserve price on most of the
November 4.2009
before Bravo had a chance to
add “The Real Housewives of
Sex Scandals” to their collection.
The result is a pretty good series
with real, genuine characters as
opposed to the money-hungry
fame mongers the “Housewives”
series would have produced.
Julianna Margulies stars as
Alicia Florrick, a heartbroken
woman trying to keep herself
together while re-assembling the
art, save for about a dozen pieces
estimated at $lO,OOO and up.
“Our phones have been ringing
off the hook,” she said. “The
pieces are interesting, in great
condition and appeal to all kinds
of collectors.”
The group is largely comprised of
American artists from the 1930 s
to the present. Some pieces were
purchased mere months before
iAPITAL TIMES
fallen pieces of her life. Chris
Noth is a perfect fit for Alicia’s
husband, Peter Florrick. Noth is
well known for his role as the
infamous Mr. Big on “Sex and
the City.”
“The Good Wife’s” pilot opens
with a disorienting scene where
Peter Florrick is resigning his
post as State Attorney due to
the discovery of his sex and
corruption scandal. Bright lights,
Lehman’s spectacular collapse
in September 2008 under $6OO
billion of debt, the biggest
bankruptcy in U.S. history and
the harbinger of the worst U.S.
financial crisis since the Great
Depression.
Now, everything must go.
The Philadelphia auctioneers
will hold two more sales from
the Lehman collection: paintings
close-ups, flashing and whirring
cameras and quick montages
establish Alicia Florrick as
a very hurt, very conflicted
person. The framing in this scene
isolates Alicia from her husband,
expressing her loneliness.
Sometimes Margulies delivers
a monotonous performance,
but mostly she portrays Alicia
Florrick as a strong, if wounded,
and sympathetic woman.
Matt Czuchry, best known for
his role as Logan on “Gilmore
Girls,” plays Cary, the recent
Harvard graduate who Alicia
must compete with for her job.
Cary is a young, career-driven
lawyer who handles workplace
competition with a healthy dose
of passive aggression. Czuchry
performs with a devilish slyness
and an angelic smile.
The obvious motif of “The
Good Wife” is the success
story of underdogs. Florrick is
the shamed wife of a scorned
politician who must prove
herself when she re-enters the
and sculpture on Dec. 6th and a
no-reserve auction of 450 more
prints on Feb. 12.
“Freeman’s is giving us national
exposure for our better works as
well as the moderate items that
would be overlooked by larger
houses,” said Kimberly Macleod,
spokeswoman for Lehman
Brothers Holdings Inc.
The auction does not include
any of the personal
collection of Richard
Fuld, Lehman’s
vilified former
chief executive and
(formerly) avid art
collector. A year ago,
16 works owned by
Fuld and his wife
were auctioned by
Christie’s for $13.5
million, far below the
$2O million estimate.
The market
for
postwar
contemporary art has
fallen precipitously,
along with the
fortunes of high-end
art collectors, since
courtroom for the first time in 13
years. To intensify the underdog
sentiment, Florrick’s cases share
the recurring theme. For example,
she exonerates a woman accused
of killing her ex-husband in
the pilot episode. Florrick’s
complicated cases include
jury tampering and a wrongly
accusation of minder, but some
cases are both complicated and
complex, like the stripper who
accused a young, wealthy man
of rape or a company’s cover
up of a train crash that blamed
the overworked engineers
whose widows demanded
compensation.
“The Good Wife” handles
drama well but often ignores the
equally as important light-hearted
moments. Without a few more
smiles or a little subtle humor,
the show’s plot seems more like
a commute than an adventure.
The only question that remains is
who will get a reality television
show first: Silda Wall Spitzer or
Gayle Haggard?
the world economic free fall. But
Henry believes that applies more
to the big-ticket art market.
“Things priced reasonably, in
good condition and with good
provenance will continue to
do very well,” she said. “There
hasn’t been the same kind of
impact at this level than might be
true for the multimillion-dollar
Damien Hirsts.”
The Freeman’s auction includes
an Alexander Calder print with an
estimated price of $BOO-$ 1,200
and a set of nine Walker Evans
photographs estimated to fetch
$l,OOO-$1,500: not exactly fire
sale prices, but within reach of
those beyond the super wealthy.
At the upper end of the price
spectrum is a print of the Statue
of Liberty by pop art master Roy
Lichtenstein, expected to sell for
$15,000 to $25,000.
“Alot of long-standing collectors
who had been priced out of the
market are able to come back in,”
Henry said. “We’re also seeing
new clients too, people who’ve
never bought art before, who are
really interested.”