Club Jade

A couple months ago, the LIFE photo archive went up in Google, fully searchable. Plenty has been done with them since then, but it didn’t occur to me to look for Star Wars until today. There isn’t a ton there – the bulk of images that come up are from The Phantom Menace premiere – but there are a few things of interest, like Time covers, some vintage toy pics and this shot of Carrie Fisher, Alec Guinness and Mark Hamill at a party celebrating the tenth anniversary of A New Hope. You get about the same amount of shots searching for just George Lucas, and even more for Harrison Ford, but clearly Sir Alec wins. (Wait! Was it really a party for ANH? Now I doubt.) But perhaps most amusingly: Jar-Jar and Madeline Albright? Or Peter Cushing in Hamlet?

Off the fannish track, two of the more interesting uses I’ve seen around the web have been Jezebel’s The Way We Were features and Typophile’s book cover meme.

I’m not sure if it’s a coincidence or what, but all the Celebration Europe press I ran across today is so… sensationalist.

First, Daily Mail reporter Tanya Gold doesn’t even get a paragraph into her CE experience before breaking out the requisite ‘Get a life’ comment. Keeping reading – it’s full of such classy gems. Although I do like the description of Steve Sansweet as George Lucas’ “representative on Earth.”

As for the real stars of the CE experience, we have comments from Anthony Daniels, admonishing Sir Alec Guinness and a trifecta of Mark Hamill comments that the blurb artists are trying their damnedest on: ‘wanting’ to be Vader; the Luke warehouse; and the one with the legs, Portman’s a babe.

That comes out to more than $100,000 American. The cloak, worn by Sir Alec Guinness in Star Wars, was estimated at £40,000.

Have you been saving your pounds? The time is rapidly approaching for the auction of notable British film costumes on March 6th.

Sir Alec Guinness’ Jedi robe, previously humiliated by being offered up as a monk’s robe rental, is expected to fetch £60,000.

That’s a lot of action figures!

George Lucas will be the 50th Toy Hall of Fame inductee next year. (via NerfHerdersAnonymous)

In other Lucas news, card collectors have a chance to get a one-of-a-kind card with a ‘cut signature’ from Alec Guinness, Peter Cushing, or George himself.

It’s the dream of Ewan worshippers everywhere! No, Obi-Wan hasn’t fallen victim to the Kaminoans. But there will be four roles for Ewan McGregor in his upcoming film.

Empire Online notes a couple of links to Star Wars in this:

Sir Alec Guinness (who was old Obi-Wan to Ewan’s Young Obi-Wan, of course) played multiple roles in some of his Ealing comedies.

And the screenwriter is the same one who wrote Local Hero starring Denis Lawson who is, of course, the uncle of Ewan McGregor and who also played Wedge (Wedge!) in the Classic Trilogy.

Star Wars causes all sorts of incestuousness, doesn’t it?

Sir Alec Guinness did not seem terribly fond of pop culture in his day; bashing the very pop culture icon that gave him a comfortable retirement on more than one occasion.

So imagine his horror if he should look down and discover that his movie Last Holiday is being remade…

…starring LL Cool J and Queen Latifah.

Now will be the time we find out if the dead really can come back to haunt.