Before the newest in the endless stream of Robin Hood tales hits the big screen this summer (the first film featuring the outlaw dates back to 1908… the character is hundreds of years old), I recently revisited the 1991 Kevin Costner version Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.  Lots of memories dating back to the summer going into my senior year in high school. I of course saw the movie in the theatre.  I really liked it but found some bits a little unnerving.  Would Maid Marian, a woman of noble blood during the Crusades of King Richard the Lionhearted really hit a man “below the belt?”

I vividly recall the remarkably gifted character actor Alan Rickman in his delightfully delicious turn as the Sheriff of Nottingham.  From the original Die Hard to the continuing Harry Potter saga as Prof. Snape, Rickman shines in the most seemingly villainous of roles.  Anyone who orders the cancellation of Christmas is pure evil!  Was the birth of Christ celebrated in the 12 Century?  Who cares anyway?  Too much digging into a movie is bad for the enjoyment, in my opinion.

Back to the school year.  After the success of the Bryan Adams hit from the soundtrack, the choir sang “(Everything I Do), I Do It For You.”  Along with “Unchained Melody” from Ghost, the two songs made for a nice duo of songs from the movies.  The score by Michael Kamen is perfect!

The home video version is definitely in need of an upgrade.  The sound on the DVD I received from Netflix was not all that great even coming from the Blu-Ray conversion.  Maybe it will receive an upgrade prior to the new film.  Or I could watch “Robin Hood Daffy.”

Here’s the trailer for the new movie:

…is the title of an AP article I read the other day about the price of celebrity divorces, inspired by, of course, the McCartney-Mills divorce that’s been dominating the headlines lately.  I took note of this article because I was surprised that the McCartney-Mills settlement was not in the top 5 most expensive divorce settlements.  In fact, the top 5 were surprising to me; just people I would not have guessed that would have had that much money or who would have not been able to protect themselves and their assets any better.  Actually, the McCartney-Mills divorce settlement at $48.6 million equaled a little over half of # 5 on the list.  Here it is:

1.  Michael and Juanita Jordan – possibly more than $150 million settlement pending, 2006.

2.  Neil Diamond and Marcia Murphey – $150 million, 1994.

3.  Steven Spielberg and Amy Irving – $100 million, 1989.

4.  Harrison Ford and Melissa Mathison – $85 million, 2004.

5.  Kevin Costner and Cindy Silva – $80 million, 1994.

I wonder what some of these amounts would be if adjusted for inflation also.  This article would have been a little more interesting if they had included the wedding date or how long the couple was together before the divorce.  I am often amused when I look in the local newspaper and see divorces between couples who were only married a few years, some only a few months!  My dear friends are wedding photographers, and they’ve shared at least one story of a couple who was no longer together by the time their wedding photos were ready to be picked up!  It’s amusing, yet sad at the same time, especially of course any time there are children involved.  I wish people would think a little bit harder about the commitment and sacrifice involved in marriage, and I wish that more people would treat marriage like the institution it was meant to be.