By Susan Granger

“Terminator: Dark Fate” is the sixth film in the franchise and a direct sequel to “T2: Judgment Day” (1991), returning Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor, the role she originated almost 30 years ago, and reuniting her with Arnold Schwarzenegger as the T-800 cyborg.

To recap: Sarah Connor trained her son John to become a warrior to prevent a sentient computer called Skynet from igniting a nuclear holocaust, referred to as Judgment Day; in that endeavor, young John was killed by the T-800. (Forget the other three intervening sequels.)

So after a brief, digitally de-aged flashback, “Dark Fate” introduces Grace (willowy Mackenzie Davis), an “augmented, enhanced human,” who arrives from 2042 to protect Daniella “Dani” Ramos (Natalia Reyes), the young Hispanic woman who holds the key to humanity’s survival against a new technological threat.

Dani is the target of another time traveler, a menacing Rev-9 Terminator (Gabriel Luna), whose liquid-metal body is capable of shape-shifting. Dani works on an auto factory assembly line in Mexico City, and this mean machine shows no hesitation killing her brother, father and co-workers while relentlessly tracking her down.

There was full house tonight at the Westport Library for acclaimed best-selling author Elizabeth Strout in conversation with author Nina Sankovitch. Strout is the author of Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “Olive Kitteredge” and was at the Library discussing her new sequel, “Olive, Again.” (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo

The owners of the house at 86 Cross Highway are the newest recipients of an historical plaque by the Westport Museum for History and Culture, formerly the Westport Historical Society. Bob Weingarten (r), house historian and plaque coordinator, presented the plaque, identified as the Eva Sturges Hills House, c. 1909, to William and Sarah Dransfield.  According to Weingarten, the plaque honors the heritage of the house, “the property having been inherited by Eva Sturges Hills from the estate of  Samuel L. Sturges in 1903.” The property was eventually sold to Jacob K. Javits (Trustee) in 1942 and held until 1955. Javits owned several other properties in Westport and may not have lived at this property.  Javits served as U.S. senator from New York from 1957 to 1981. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

James Naughton performing “Westport” Monday night.  (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Stephen Sorokoff photo

‘Cause he caught her in the kitchen playing Westport,
A game indigenous to suburban life,
Where you take a wife of whom you’re not the husband,
While someone else’s husband takes your wife.

You have to be a certain age to recall the “Westport” song that memorializes the supposed key-swapping party days of yore. Or the cabaret version about it.

Tony Award-winning actor James Naughton delighted a Lincoln Center audience Monday night as he performed the cabaret version on opening night of the four-night  2019 Cabaret Convention at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater. 

“I first sang ‘Westport’ in 2007 or 2008 at the 92nd Y in a show about Carolyn Leigh, I think,” Naughton told WestportNow today in an email. “And the show was curated by Deborah Grace Winer.

“I came upon it six months ago once again in a pile of music at home, and when Deb Winer asked what I’d like to do for last night’s show, that was maybe my first choice. I think it’s a lot of fun and maybe a little subversive, and that’s an appealing combination.”

By Susan Granger

Pedro Almodovar’s bittersweet, thinly veiled, semi-autobiographical dram a “Pain and Glory” revolves around a fictional Spanish filmmaker, Salvador Mello (Antonio Bandaras), who contemplates how much fire he still has in his belly while awaiting the re-release of one of his older films.

“Without filming, my life is meaningless,” he declares.

Living alone in a tastefully appointed house in Madrid, melancholic Mallo suffers from an assortment of ailments (asthma, sciatica, tinnitus), primarily headaches, stemming from fused vertebrae and coupled with depression.  A multitude of memories appear through a variety of flashbacks.

There’s poverty-plagued young Salvador (Asier Flores) accompanying his mother Jacinta (Penelope Cruz) to the stream, where she and her friends sing as they do laundry in a bucolic scene near the caves of Paterna.

Artists Ann Chernow and Noah Fox in conversation today at the Westport Arts Advisory Committee annual TEA Talk — ’Thinkers, Educators, Artists.” This year’s program at Town Hall focused on “Breaking Barriers”Through The Arts.” Fox was presented with the Horizon Award at the event, recognizing the accomplishments of a young artist from Westport. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo

Participants and honored guests in today’s Westport Arts Adisory Committee’s annual TEA Talk pose for a group photo. The Town Hall event included three conversations on the topic “Breaking Barriers Through the Arts.”  Staples graduate Noah Fox (2nd r) received the group’s Horizon Award, presented to a young artist of note from Westport. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo

The poster for Sunday’s TEA Talk. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed graphic

The acronym stands for thinkers, educators and artists, and on Sunday Westport’s annual TEA Talk is scheduled for 2 p.m. at Town Hall.

Sponsored by the Westport Arts Advisory Committee (WAAC), this year’s discussions will focus on “Breaking Barriers through the Arts,” event planners said.

According to an announcement, the moderated discussions will feature musical, visual and performance artists, as well as Westport Poet Laureate Diane Lowman.

The event will include three 20-minute conversations and performances followed by an audience question-and-answer period.

The Westport Library today announced the return of its annual Holiday Book and Gift Sale starting Friday, Nov. 22 running through Sunday, Nov. 24.

The sale will take place in the Forum on the main level of the newly renovated Library at 20 Jesup Road.

This year’s sale offers something for virtually everyone with quality, gift-worthy, and affordable books, an announcement said.  A wide selection of CDs, audio books, and DVDs will also be available.

Gift items include bookends, some new, some old and all different, and from a single donor, four sets (10-12 pieces in each set) of new, still-in-the-box Orrefors stemware, as well as a pair of boxed Baccarat martini glasses.

The Westport Country Playhouse will present a Script in Hand playreading of the comedy/drama, “Visiting Mr. Green” by Jeff Baron, on Monday, Nov. 18, at 7 p.m.

An announcement today said the cast includes Tim Jerome as Mr. Green and Charles Socarides as Ross Gardiner.

The reading will be directed by Anne Keefe, Playhouse associate artist and curator of the playreading series. Tickets are $20 each.

“In a contentious world, what better balm for the soul than a play with real heart, strong life lessons, and a few laughs,” said Keefe.