Profile: Cornelia Funke

When German author Cornelia Funke sat down to write the main character for the book that would become “Inkheart,” she had someone in mind: Brendan Fraser. Looking for inspiration, she noticed her young son watching “the Mummy” over and over and was impressed with Fraser’s range. “He is very funny sometimes and very melancholy,” she says.

But casting Fraser in the eventual adaptation, Funke learned quickly, was not so easy. “When I said to the studio, ‘I know who the leading man is,’ they didn’t like that,” she jokes. Even Fraser, who had become a close friend since the publication of “Inkheart,” cautioned her to be more flexible, warning that the project could collapse if she continued to insist on casting him. But Funke wouldn’t be deterred. “Of course I had to do it. I’m old-fashioned in that. Then the movie doesn’t happen, so what?”

That cavalier attitude comes from a very successful career — Time magazine dubbed her the “German J.K. Rowling” in 2005 — with many adaptations of her work under her belt. “[‘Inkheart’] is the sixth movie they’ve done from my books,” Funke admits. “I’ve had hundreds of theater productions, children playing them in schools. I’ve seen puppets do my work. A movie cannot be worse.”

Funke came late to writing, starting her career as a social worker. And as a child, she wanted to be an astronaut. “I would never have thought I could do such a magical thing as write a book,” she says. And “Inkheart” was in part created for book lovers like her. “I wrote it as a love song to book-ophiles like me. I wrote them for that rare breed that can’t live without piles of books next to their bed.”

When it comes to these kids today losing interest in books, Funke doesn’t understand the concern, pointing out that when she was a young girl, she stood out for being a book lover. “There were maybe two other children who were passionate about books. The others thought books were boring and want to touch them,” she recounts. “There weren’t these ferocious readers that everybody now says we lost.”

Funke insists that kids have always needed to be encouraged to read, just like today. “You have to show them that a book can be a beautiful thing,” she says, but is quick to add that there are other media through which children express themselves.

“Our children tell their stories in movies or through TV, in games and in videos,” she says. “That is their way of storytelling.” The important thing is to encourage creativity, wherever it pops up. “We have to teach them to do it actively. If they then find their way back to books, that solitary place where they can create their own worlds, wonderful. But we can’t keep saying books are good thing and all other things are bad, because they will always go for the bad things.”

Sad Klaus: Episode 4

So while doing my morning gossip-scouring rounds, I noticed some pap snapped pictures of Lisa Kudrow in a bikini on vacation, and it just didn't seem right. I mean, she's never really been pitched as that sort of celebrity. But I guess with everyone either in D.C. or Utah, they're looking for anything. Anyway, I just thought that I mention that. And here's my interview with Lisa Kudrow.



There’s that old adage about showbiz, often attributed to W.C. Fields: “Never work with children or animals.” Sage advice, it would seem. But Lisa Kudrow begs to differ. And it’s a good thing, too, as her new film, “Hotel for Dogs,” features both children and animals quite heavily.

“I don’t agree with that adage at all,” Kudrow says. “The kids are more professional than me, that’s for sure. They just don’t have a minute off. If there’s a break, it’s, ‘OK, you guys, back to the classroom.’”

In the movie, Kudrow stars as the less-than-desirable foster mother to siblings played by Emma Roberts (Julia’s neice) and Jake T. Austin (of Disney’s “Wizards of Waverly Place”). In a more serious film, Kudrow’s washed-up, failed musician character would be a monster, but in this, her meanness is comic relief. “To me, it’s funny mean,” Kudrow says. “If they were dead serious, then that would be harsh. I had to redo a couple of lines to soften it because I got too mean.”

Best known for her work as airhead Phoebe on “Friends,” Kudrow has spent most of her time since the show ended five years ago doing “independent films that a lot of people don’t see,” such as “The Opposite of Sex” and “Happy Endings,” both directed by her friend, Don Roos, with whom she is also producing a Web series. “We have a similar sense of humor,” she says of their frequent collaborations. “The same things crack us up — not that everything he does is funny.”

She also produced, wrote and starred in the critically acclaimed HBO series “The Comeback.” And while she’s most famous for her work on the small screen, Kudrow doesn’t see herself returning to television anytime soon. “Fans of ‘Friends’ like me as Phoebe,” she explains. “So unless I’m going to do that character on TV, then I think it’s an adjustment they have to make, and I don’t know that any network has time for an audience to make that kind of adjustment.”

So instead, Kudrow will stay on the big screen, even though movies weren’t a part of her life growing up. “I never went to the movies when I was little,” she says. “I never saw ‘Bambi.’ No one took me.” She hasn’t even seen that other big dog movie out now starring that other former “Friend” — Jennifer Aniston’s “Marley and Me.” “I hear it’s really sad,” Kudrow admits. “I’m afraid to take my son to see it.”

NOTE: Sometimes in my quest to make a living off the written word, I am tasked with the truly amazing, like pitting the editors of "Cat Fancy" and "Dog Fancy" against each other. Enjoy.

First “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” stunned critics by taking in almost $30 million in its opening weekend. Then “Marley and Me” took the holidays by storm, earning more than $125 million since its Christmas Day opening. And this weekend, “Hotel for Dogs” joins the fray, hoping to cash in on the latest canine craze. Hollywood has gone to the dogs, as it were.

“Dogs are hot right now,” says Susan Chaney, editor of Dog Fancy magazine. “Even people who don’t like dogs aren’t likely to say so for fear of being uncool or something.”

But what about the cats? “There are many heartwarming stories about cats and how they touch people’s lives, too,” says Susan Logan, the editor of Cat Fancy magazine. Logan points to the film adaptation of the book “Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World,” currently in development and set to star Meryl Streep, as evidence that cats will have their cinematic day in the sun as well.

And it’s no accident that “Dewey” was a book first. “Reading and books lend themselves to having a cat on your lap,” Logan says. “Book-lovers and cat-lovers tend to go together.”

As for the rivalry? Logan says there is none. “I loved ‘Marley and Me,’” she says. “Whether dog people or cat people, we both appreciate how important pets are to us.”