Throwback Thursday to Damian Lewis at the New Yorker Festival

I’ve been reading The New Yorker quite religiously for more than a decade now. I don’t remember how many subscriptions I gave to friends as gifts over the years and it is still one of the few subscriptions that I receive in the mail every week. And, the New Yorker Festival feels like the pages of the magazine literally coming to life for a weekend throughout the city with talks, conversations, readings, performances, panels with individuals that are at the top of their game in their respective fields — including arts, sciences, politics, sports, theater, music, literature, film, TV, food and more… As someone that attended quite a few events at the festival over the years, I can confidently say that, independent of the context, all events share one characteristic: intelligence. The festival participants are without exception endowed with some real brainpower. They are, in The New Yorker‘s own words, “some of the most talented and influential thinkers about topics ranging from politics to pop music, science to cinema, and so much more.”

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Well, it is the New Yorker Festival time of the year again! And I cannot help go back to my most favorite New Yorker Festival moment ever. It was exactly seven (whaaaaaaaa??????)  years ago that JaniaJania and I were extremely lucky to attend the fabulous conversation New Yorker staff writer Lauren Collins had with Damian Lewis at the festival.

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Throwback Thursday to Damian Lewis & Helen McCrory at the White House

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Being a famous star comes with incredible perks from eating at the most exquisite restaurants to vacationing at most exotic places to getting  invited to most exclusive parties. But how many stars can say the President of the United States is a fan of their work and had them over at the White House for a state dinner? Well, our favorite actor and his better-half certainly can! Damian and Helen were the guests of Barack and Michelle Obama at the UK State Dinner back in 2012.  I am quite sure most of you read or heard bits and pieces of the story since Damian talked about it in several interviews and talk shows. But why not bring all bits and pieces together today and make our own Fan Fun version of that wonderful evening?

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Top Damian Lewis Moments 2016: “Blue Blood, Blue Collar” in The New Yorker

Continuing with Top Moments of 2016, I’m going to take us back to the start of this year, to an article published in The New Yorker. It’s a portrait of Damian Lewis, titled “Blue Blood, Blue Collar“, by Lauren Collins, the same writer we had seen in conversation with Damian at the New Yorker Festival late in 2015. Now, in case you haven’t figured it out from the sometimes pretentiously highbrow way I try to write, I’ve been a fan of The New Yorker for a really long time. I actually started reading as a 16 year old, finding my first copies in the community college library, getting that picture of all the great things to do and see in New York and feeding my imagination of one day living the life of a New York intellectual. (ICYMI, that didn’t happen. For me, at least.:))

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