Today I’d like to post a witty blog about the writer’s life, something thought-provoking and, hopefully, enlightening, but I don’t have time for any of that on account of my tight reading schedule. No, I’m not, ah, reading my stack of books for the RITA contest. I’m re-reading (for the dozenth time, I think) The Other Boleyn Girl in preparation for the movie adaptation, which comes out on February 29^th.

I love this book. LOVE it. I remember the first time I saw that cover and that title in a bookstore and stopped dead in my tracks. A novel about the Boleyns and Henry VIII? He of the six wives, two of them beheaded? My fascination with them is a leftover from my elementary-school-days obsession with all things royal and violent. In one history lesson you get love, hate, betrayal, violent death, and beautiful costumes. What could be better?

So I bought the book and disappeared into the world so brilliantly created by Philippa Gregory. For hours at a time I would immerse myself in the life of the book’s heroine, Mary Boleyn, and the intrigues, hypocrisies and betrayals of court life. The book is so powerful, so interesting, so evocative that I would look up and blink at my living room, or wherever I happened to be reading at the time, surprised that I was not, in fact, at the palace with the court.

Needless to say, I have high hopes for this movie. Natalie Portman is Anne, and since I loved her as another Queen—Padme Amidala in the second Star Wars trilogy, of course—I feel confident she can handle this role. Scarlett Johansson seems plausible as Mary Boleyn, and, as for Eric Bana as Henry VIII, well, let’s just say I think that was a brilliant casting move. I can’t wait to see the visual re-creation of these characters that I’ve spent so much time with. What will the castles look like? The gowns? The block? I’m counting the days…

So the producers of this movie had better not mess it up. That’s all I’m saying.

Anyone else out there anxious to see this movie?