Can you feel it? That bit of cool in the air, reminiscent of raking leaves on golden afternoons, drinking hot cider in the back yard while listening to the trees rustle, and finding a favorite brown sweater tucked away with the winter clothes? That’s autumn. And it’s here!

The big news this Fall is the ground-breaking for the Irish Arts Center’s new home in New York City. Gabriel and his friend Liam Neeson are co-chairs for the annual Spirit of Ireland Gala this month, as always, but this year’s event is extra special!

In film and TV news, Maniac is the hottest thing on Netflix at the moment and Hereditary is out on digital and DVD, so there’s lots of Gabriel to be relished on screen this month.

In the pipeline is ZeroZeroZero, reportedly still in production. According to co-star Brian Gleeson, Death of a Ladie’s Man is on the backburner while its funding is completed. Hamlet Revenant is patiently waiting for Ian McKellen to finish his terrific run in King Lear on stage in the UK. So, lot’s of projects percolating, but not much coffee yet. Be patient. It will be delicious soon.

Enjoy all of the Gabriel news and best wishes to you for a lovely Autumn, full of color and light and the joy of a new season. Happy Byrne-ing October! And for those of you in the Southern Hemisphere, Happy Spring! smile

IAC Gala Tickets Raffle

A very special email about a very special event! Here’s a short version of it:

Win tickets to the Groundbreaking Gala celebration of the year!

This is your chance to be with us for one of the most exciting evenings of the year – a very special Spirit of Ireland Groundbreaking Gala.

On Friday, October 19, hundreds of friends of Irish Arts Center will gather in celebration at Cipriani 42nd Street with co-chairs Kate and Bob Devlin, Jim Donaghy, Julia and Declan Kelly, and Eileen K. Murray to celebrate breaking ground on the New Irish Arts Center.

We are thrilled to be honoring Grammy Award-nominated songwriter, producer, and musician with renowned Northern Irish band Snow Patrol, Johnny McDaid; and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of First Data Corporation, Frank Bisignano.

The evening will include cocktails, dinner, performances by Loah, Utsav Lal, and Colm Mac Con Iomaire, with special guests and Honorary Chairs Liam Neeson, Gabriel Byrne, and more. Our Gala helps underwrite more than 200 nights each year of the dynamic, innovative programming and education you have come to know and love.

We want to give everyone a chance to join us for this extraordinary event, so we are holding a giveaway to win a pair of tickets! Each entry is $25, and you can enter up to 10 times between now and 4pm on October 16 by clicking here.

Good luck to you if you participate in this raffle and congratulations to the Irish Arts Center on the ground-breaking for their new building!

Maniac

This review from The Hollywood Reporter is a good way to get started with the new Netflix series, starring Jonah Hill, Emma Stone, Sally Field, Justin Theroux, and our very own Gabriel. Directed by Cary Fukunaga, Maniac has received glowing reviews so far and you should put it at the top of your list for Fall TV Viewing!

Tim Goodman/The Hollywood Reporter

Excerpt:

There’s a battle of style against substance in Netflix’s new series, but director Cary Fukunaga makes it a visual joy ride and gets winning performances from Emma Stone, Justin Theroux and Jonah Hill.

There are core existential themes in Netflix’s new star-studded limited-series Maniac — mental illness, unhappiness, loneliness, the constraints of family and the notion of the pursuit of happiness as an illusion — that, depending on your response, are either adequately and entertainingly mined or get a little lost under the impressive visual mayhem on the surface…

Jonah Hill plays Owen Milgrim, whose mental illness has alienated him from his extremely wealthy Manhattan family (headed by patriarch Gabriel Byrne): The four other sons seem perfect and untroubled, and Owen’s belief that he can see other people and is part of a larger plot to save the world is an issue the clan wants swept under the carpet. Annie, played by Emma Stone (magnificent at every turn here), is running away from a deep family tragedy that drives her, like Owen, to participate in a sketchy pharmaceutical study where the end goal is to erase things like mental illness and unhappy memories, and rewire patients’ brains with three pills (labeled “A,” “B” and “C”).

The experiment is essentially run by an emotional supercomputer called “GRTA,” known as “Gerty” by her creators (one of whom is played by Sonoya Mizuno of Crazy Rich Asians). The mind-altering pharmacological/computer plan was conceived by Dr. James Mantleray (Justin Theroux in a thrill ride of a performance that makes his mental traumas on The Leftovers seem tame). Also contributing to the experiment is Dr. Muramoto (Rome Kanda, scene-stealing wonderfully). Viewers learn early not to trust the skills of either doctor…

More reviews and pics for Maniac will be available soon, so stay tuned!

The Man in the Iron Mask 20th Anniversary Blu-ray Release

Shout Factory is making d’Artagnan fans in the US and Canada swoon with this new blu-ray release, coming to us October 9!

What a great way to celebrate Gabriel’s d’Artagnan on his 20th birthday!

Of course, the rest of the cast is not chopped liver, as they say in New York City: John Malkovich, Jeremy Irons, Gerard Depardieu, and Leonardo Di Caprio are all splendid in this rousing tale of chivalrous derring-do. But it’s this guy that keeps us awake at night, right ladies? heart

Screencap from Blu-ray edition

Halloween Already?

Yes, Autumn has snuck up on us. The traditional Gabriel Halloween Movie Marathon (with drink recommendations!) posting is on the way, but in the meantime, Screen Crush provides us with a scary list of 20 horror movies to stream on Amazon to get in the right macabre mood, with Hereditary clocking in at Number 9.

And now that I think of it, perhaps this year’s Halloween movies posting will just be all about Hereditary! LOL! It is definitely the scariest film Gabriel has ever made.

Yikes!

Recognition

It is always nice when someone notices you’ve been working your butt off lately. wink

Chris Barton, in a recent LA Times article examining over-rated and under-rated people and movies and whatnot, singles out Gabriel in the Under-rated section:

Gabriel Byrne: The Dublin-born character actor has been enjoying a welcome resurgence of late, lending his occasionally grave presence to a “Succession”-esque patriarch in Netflix’s twisty new series “Maniac” and a beleaguered husband in recent Halloween essential “Hereditary.” He’ll next be appearing in the European crime drama “ZeroZeroZero,” an eight-episode series from the same team behind the grim mob stories of “Gomorrah.” And while Byrne has kept busy for a career that broke out with the Coen Brothers’ quiet masterpiece “Miller’s Crossing,” it remains a pleasure to see him among the usual suspects for strong performances.

And we could not agree more!

Gabriel, both grave AND twisty, in Maniac

Saying Goodbye to Marin Mazzie

She enjoyed a long and successful career on Broadway. Her performances spanned three decades and included roles in musicals from Kiss Me Kate to The King and I. And we will remember her Guenevere to Gabriel’s Arthur in Camelot, from 2008.

But now we say goodbye to Marin Mazzie, who has died at 57, in New York City, on September 13.

Read her lovely obituary in the New York Times, which includes reminiscences from her friends and colleagues and several videos of her singing.

In 2008 she sang with the New York Philharmonic in its production of “Camelot” at Avery Fisher Hall.

“Ms. Mazzie’s singing was luminous,” Anthony Tommasini wrote in his review in The Times, “and she makes a lovely Guenevere. Her portrayal grew stronger as the story turned darker, and the winsome queen, who dearly loves her husband, finds herself hopelessly drawn to the noble Lancelot.”

She was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame last year.

Time flies by. We say adieu to another friend of Gabriel, one who sang and danced and laughed with him on stage in a show so unlike anything else he has done. heart

Last and Best

Gabriel’s agent in Ireland has made his show reel available on Vimeo. It cannot be embedded, so you must click on the link to watch it.

A show reel is a representative selection of an actor’s work on screen. It showcases various roles and genres and gives prospective directors and others an idea of an actor’s range and experience. You will see scenes from Just A Sigh, Miller’s Crossing, Mad Dog Time (singing!), Buffalo Girls, and many other Gabriel films, all jumbled up and from different decades. He is, of course, wonderful in all of them.

I think the availability of this show reel is probably a mistake, so watch it now. It may disappear. Enjoy it while you can!

Up next: Postings about Maniac, pics from the Gala (we hope!), the traditional Gabriel Halloween Movie Marathon, and a new Mega Movie Page (in the works for a long time, but now almost ready). Happy October and here’s some autumnal eye-candy from the past for your desktop.

And something newer, too . . . heart