Talk:Shakespeare in Love

message: Can anyone explain or know the reason why Rupert Everett is not credited for his portrayal of the role of KIT MARLOW???
I'd been wondering about that too. Why WASN't Rupert Everett credited for his performance????  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.218.236.93 (talk) 18:23, 27 December 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: No heading

message: Is Mercutio's Queen Mab speech regarded the longest speech in Shakespeare? It's only 43 lines whereas Berowne's speech from Love's Labours Lost, Act Four, Scene iii l. 285, is 76 lines long. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 142.167.43.204 (talk) 15:22, 11 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Queen Mab's speech 

message: A summary does not exist. If somebody has seen the movie or is knowledgeable about it, can you please include one Canking 21:26, 26 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Summary 

message: A bit of trivia about that title that I wonder if should be included:
The title of the movie is originally the title of a play by Dion Boucicault (the play which I believe is not extant), but is also referenced in the play Two Shakespearean Gentlemen by Richard Nelson, which premiered at The Royal Shakespeare Company, London (in the play the context is that Boucicault is writing Shakespeare in love over the course of the play). While Boucicault's play has no relation to the movie, Stoppard, knowing this, surely lifted the title. Liontamarin 20:38, 19 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Stoppard didn't invent the title. The film was knocking around Hollywood for many years before he began work on it. Cop 663 11:23, 18 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Title 

message: In my opinion the plot summary, currently 500 words, isn't excessively long.  I've removed the  tag. --Tony Sidaway 05:15, 23 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Actually seems that it was shortened a week or so ago in this edit. --Tony Sidaway 05:17, 23 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Plot summary

message: I added 'drama' to its classification, if only because classifying it as only a "romantic comedy" brings about the stereotypes along with it.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.177.120.179 (talk) 08:45, 10 May 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Classification?

message: "Shakespeare In love" is based on an original 5 act stageplay written in 1984 entitled "As You Might Like It" by Michael M. Peters and also a 60 page treatment entitled "The Dark Lady" by Don Ethan Miller and Peter Hassinger.  A copy of "As You Might Like It" is in the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. and the legal briefs are filed under Peters vs. Disney, Miramax et al. in United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, in Sacramento, No. CIV S-01-2362 MCE JFM PS.  Miller's copyright infringement case was filed in United States District Court in Los Angeles.  These legal papers are a matter of public record.  TO EXPLAIN:  There is virtually no copyright protection.  The FBI has not been given a budget to go after script thieves--and Federal Court judges refuse to uphold what little copyright law there is because of a body of law passed by a Justice Field in the latter part of the 1800's which says that THE INTERESTS OF CORPORATIONS ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE RIGHTS OF INDIVIDUALS. (Writers don't stand a chance against big movie companies.)  Currently all a script thief has to do is make cosmetic changes in the script to evade copyright infringement.  Note:  Peters' stageplay was written based on his own experiences in the theatre and film world (he has two degrees in theatre, has taught at Cal Arts in Valencia, Calif. and has acted in an Equity production of "Romeo and Juliet" in Santa Barbara in 1977). His script was written in Red Bluff, Calif., where he also built a theatre at his old high school, causing the dropout rate there to plunge 15%.  He wrote the stageplay one act at a time, without a plot, as a Moliere type of farce.  He has had several scripts stolen from him and is actually owed TWO Oscars.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.130.68.12 (talk) 12:42, 18 October 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: So, did Peters in turn pinch it from No Bed for Bacon, written 1948, or is this coincidence? --Old Moonraker (talk) 12:51, 18 October 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Who says writers don't stand a chance? Didn't Art Buchwald successfully sue Paramount over "Coming To America"? 99.228.255.154 (talk) 08:25, 1 January 2010 (UTC)

text: Peters had not read "No Bed For Bacon" (1941, not 1948) when he wrote "As You Might Like It" in 1984 but has read "No Bed For Bacon" since the movie came out and agrees that material from "No Bed For Bacon" was used in "Shakespeare In Love".  Script thieves will not just steal from one source, but from many sources.  Peters based his script solely on his personal experiences in the theatre.  He is a disabled Vietnam Veteran and finds it abhorrent that people would steal from disabled American veterans.  He was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation, the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award with Combat "V" for Valour and four Vietnam Cross of Gallantry Unit Citations and considers any one of them more important than his Oscar which he has not yet  received (it took 27 years for Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson to posthumously receive their Oscars for "Bridge On The River Kwai"--Pierre Boulle had never written anything in English in his life, that's how absurd the Academy is).  Peters is currently living in poverty on his military pension and is 62 years old.71.154.158.137 (talk) 05:52, 8 August 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: You are right: it was 1941: sorry. So, if Peters agrees that the theft was from NBFB, what's his beef?--Old Moonraker (talk) 06:02, 8 August 2010 (UTC)

text: Here's a site with a newspaper story about Peters and "Shakespeare In Love" http://www.newsreview.com/chico/content?oid=9432 under Shakespeare in court, Backbeat, May 23, 2002.  Hope this provides some illumination in the darkness.  71.154.158.137 (talk) 07:35, 8 August 2010 (UTC)

text: It's pretty obvious that the movie was derived from the play but in Hollywood if you make enough changes then there is assumably no copyright claim.  What that amount of change is and who decides it is all very hazy.  The practice itself is open to question:  if someone stole your wedding ring and had the stone reset in something else would you still own your diamond?    According to Hollywood, the thief would now own your diamond.63.198.19.93 (talk) 22:14, 24 October 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Script Theft 

message: Is there any connection to the French play Shakespeare Amoureux, ou la Piéce a L'Etude (Shakespeare in Love) by Alexandre-Vincent Pineux Duval published in 1801 [or 1804]? Ecphora (talk) 08:37, 12 May 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Mercedes Salvador Bello, in  Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard 1999: Shakespeare in Love (the screenplay), Atlantis XXI (1999), states that "... Norman and/or Stoppard may have had access to the French source [Duval's Shakespeare Amoureux], either in the original version or in an English translation; at least they seem to have borrowed the title." Ecphora (talk) 08:47, 12 May 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: And this play is so significant that French WP makes no mention of it? Varlaam (talk) 23:55, 19 April 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  ''Shakespeare Amoureux''? 

message: GOM of the movies Roger Ebert agrees that Straight's screen time was less than Dench's, but he accepts a timing of 7½ minutes. (Roger Ebert's The Great Movies  quoted at ). May we have a good, strong source for the the recent addition of 5½ minutes?
--Old Moonraker (talk) 16:57, 22 July 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Beatrice Straight 

message: Why no discussion in the article about critical reception of the film? I find this quite odd considering the multiple times I have seen critics place this film on their "worst Best Picture-winners" lists. This oversight is especially odd considering there is a section covering critical review on other of the year's Best Picture nominees, but not this one, the winner of the award.
97.127.68.87 (talk) 10:21, 2 August 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: To answer your question, Hollywood loves movies about the theatre world--just look at "All About Eve", which was about the theatre and took home a ton of Academy Awards (it garnered 14 Oscar nominations).  So while critics might disparage "Shakespeare In Love", those actually in the industry find well-made films about the theatrical world to be fascinating.  Then there were the lawsuits over script theft about "Shakespeare In Love", which complicates things.  Who are you going to critique when the movie script is stolen?  --The original authors, the script thieves, who?  It gets to be a sensitive area in Hollywood, especially when script theft in Hollywood is so rampant and a tight lid is maintained on the practice.  It's a tinderbox that could erupt into flames.  It's all hush-hush.  You can't get anybody involved with the film to talk about it.  Also, when a script theft occurence is settled, the ripped off writer typically agrees not to talk about the theft as part of the settlement.  For more info on this subject, see "Wild Realm Film Reviews:  Hollywood Plagiarism" on the Internet at http://www.weirdwildrealm.com/hollywoodplagiarism.html and other such sites.71.154.158.137 (talk) 05:12, 8 August 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: The plagiarism lawsuit mentioned in the article came to nothing, according to Ned Sherrin, and I haven't been able to find any record of its ever reaching court. However there is no reference here to Fidelis Morgan, who had already sent the producer a script based on No Bed for Bacon, but had it rejected; whether or not there was a later, secret payment Sherrin doesn't say. --Old Moonraker (talk) 05:50, 8 August 2010 (UTC)

text: I'm currently looking at a news report from Oct. 19, 2001 in The Vineyard Gazette which describes the Don Ethan Miller "The Dark Lady" copyright lawsuit at http://www.mvgazette.com/news/2001/10/19/shakespeare_in_love.php in which the judge wrote in his ruling that "a reasonable jury could find that Shakespeare In Love is substantially similar to protected elements of The Dark Lady."  I remember reading that an out of court settlement had been reached some years ago but am vague on the particulars.  Out of court settlements are hushed up (see above).  Peters had his case bumped up to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court was next after that.  Rather than have his case ping-ponged between the courts for the next 10 years he decided to concentrate on getting Michael Eisner fired.  Then Peters' father died of Alzheimer's and he had to take care of his 90 year old mother (who recently passed away) and he's been struggling with his own medical concerns since.  He also has an invalid sister who lives in a wheelchair.  Yes, I know it sounds like a Hollywood movie, but it's true.  Peters was with the 561st Tactical Fighter Squadron during the Vietnam War and one of his squadron's planes was the last F-105 shot down in the Vietnam War.  He's stopped writing because everything he writes gets stolen, and now he watches Alissa Czisny (the U.S. 2009 National Figure Skating Champion) ice skate.  I don't have any info on the "No Bed For Bacon" case, but if anyone has info I'd like to read it.  And I don't have any info on how the Faye Kellerman case wound up.  71.154.158.137 (talk) 06:26, 8 August 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Here is archiveURL of the news article you cite: http://web.archive.org/web/20120306030159/http://www.mvgazette.com/news/2001/10/19/shakespeare_in_love.php  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.236.50.229 (talk) 21:55, 10 August 2014 (UTC)

text: I see from OCLC that Michael Peters has published a book entitled Legal brief prooving  incontestably striking similarity between the original stage play "As you might like it" and the motion picture "Shakespeare in love" along with line of acquisition (), giving his side of the story. Did you say he was a teacher of English?--Old Moonraker (talk) 14:08, 8 August 2010 (UTC)

text: Here's another site about "The Dark Lady" copyright infringement suit at http://www.playbackmag.com/articles/magazine/20020401/shake.html?print=yes  If Don Ethan Miller (and Peter Hassinger) reached an out of court settlement, part of the settlement agreement typically is not to talk about the script theft, so it may be difficult to obtain further information.  The comedy elements in the movie seem to come from Peters' stageplay since "The Dark Lady" was more sombre in tone.  Peters, since he had worked professionally in the industry, opted to keep his case open rather than being bought off.  He wants the U.S. Congress to pass total copyright reform in order to prevent further script theft.  Peters sent a copy of his stageplay to the Queen of England, but I haven't heard anything further about that!  --The actual derivation of Romeo and Juliet, by the way, seems to be that Shakespeare got it from a poem by Arthur Brooke ("Romeus and Juliet", 1562), who got it from Pierre Boaistuau, who got it from Mateo Bandello, who got it from Luigi da Porto, who got it from Dante's "Purgatorio", who got it from real life.  Apparently there were four feuding families, not just two.  Many of the young boys who played women in the Elizabethan theatre died of lead poisoning from the heavy makeup they applied.  And apparently the Globe had 24 sides, not 8, since they were able to extrapolate the parts of the foundation that were uncovered.  And I've read where the custom at that time was that the "best bed" stayed with the house, like the doors and windows, and that's why Shakespeare's wife got the second best bed.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.154.158.137 (talk) 19:22, 8 August 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Critical reception? 

message: Here are two sources for starters:
http://www.college.columbia.edu/cct_archive/spr99/24a_fr.html
http://home.messiah.edu/~ssmith/Critical%20Essay%20Docs/Introduction%20to%20Shakespeare%20in%20Love.pdf
--Espoo (talk) 21:00, 22 May 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Shapiro's undoubtedly a reliable source, and probably Smith as well, if there's anything that needs to go in. --Old Moonraker (talk) 21:06, 22 May 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  veracity 

message: I've always thought that the ship that Viola and her husband sailed on really did sink, and that her survival magically (in the way that only happens in fiction) inspired Shakespeare to write Twelfth Night without knowing about it. About a year ago Stile4aly edited the plot section to state that the shipwreck was purely of Shakespeare's imagination as he wrote the new play. Are there any sources that clarify which was the director and screenwriters' intention? Does the DVD commentary help? Ylee (talk) 07:02, 31 March 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: One of the works that "Shakespeare In Love" was stolen from (see above), "As You Might Like It", ended with a mock Shakespearean sonnet about a sea voyage.  The filmmakers chose to keep this ending for the movie.  They have a copy of "As you Might Like It" at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which you can reference.  Their phone number is 202-675-0384.  They're quite friendly and love to talk about Shakespeare.  108.237.241.88 (talk) 23:50, 10 April 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: This seems like a case of WP:SYNTH unless a stronger source is available. Doniago (talk) 06:12, 11 April 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Did Shakespeare imagine Viola's shipwreck? 

message: It happens that Shakespeares manager gets caught up by some men that are rather mafiose. They are grilling the boots he is wearing. Is that not the scene before he places his feet with boots on in a minitub of water?  If so, why is the grilling-scene edited away? --Stat-ist-ikk (talk) 14:36, 31 May 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Is a scene missing...? 

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