"Jane Eyre is the ultimate poisoned chalice"

Do you remember Andrea Galer's (the costume designer of Jane Eyre 2006) The Power of Hands initiative? The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka) devotes an interesting article to the project:

Andrea established the Power of Hands Foundation (POHF) to help the women survive and show people their wonderful skill while helping them earn fair prices for their work. In 2008 Power of Hands became a UK registered charity. It also provides marketing expertise and operational support to help the women to create craft products of a type and quality which can help provide them with a sustainable future, while reviving the craft.
At present the POHF has established a workshop in the Galle Fort that provides a clean and safe environment where seven lace makers make lace on a full-time basis. This is also the base for a co-operative society of over eighty lace makers who produce lace in their own homes and visit the workshop regularly to be paid and collect new orders. The foundation is currently being managed by Anusha Liyanage, who has a passion for the craft.
Parallel to the Power of Hands Foundation, Power of Hands Limited has also been established to create a market for the lace in the UK, with the development of ethical fair trade which is the main focus of the project.
“These women have to earn fair trade prices for their work or they have to stop,” emphasises Andrea. Initially Power of Hands Limited targeted costume designers, fashion designers and theatres resulting in Galle lace appearing in productions at the Royal Opera House and on costumes of award winning British films.
Andrea has used Beeralu lace in her costumes for award winning film such as Persuasion, Jane Eyre and Miss Austen Regrets and organized the production of some of the lace and tatting for the major Oscar winning film Golden Age by costume designer Alexandra Byrne.
The POHF lends these lace-makers a much needed hand, but even the foundation is now bringing in fewer orders. Right now they have no orders to give the women, but hopefully the situation will improve soon. As Andrea sees it, “A great deal more needs to be done in design and marketing to hit the global market and provide the women with a safe future”.
POHF also hopes to set up three new craft workshops and training centres, together with a co-operative of at least 100 women for each, in different locations throughout southern Sri Lanka. They seek assistance and support of individuals and organizations willing to lend a hand to make the lives of the craft makers a little easier.
“Power of Hands is not about buying and selling lace,” says Andrea, “but about how the women can utilize their skills.” For more information: www.powerofhandsfoundation.org (Aysha Asseef)

Australian Stage Online presents the new show of the burlesque artist Imogen Kelly, The Undressing Room at the Factory Theatre (Marrickville, Australia):

In a show with a killer soundtrack that moves from the Muppet’s “Mahna Mahna” into “Moon River” and Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights” she transforms her body into an expressive canvas through which hilarious narratives take shape. (Helen Barry)

English newspapers seem particularly happy finding Heathcliff lookalikes among their local VIPs. The latest addition is Martin Johnson, England's rugby team manager:

So much for the England manager’s winning theory. Johnson’s favoured mode of dress is the dark, Gordon Brown overcoat and it says much about the man. Both Johnson and Brown are brooding presences in the sense that Heathcliff was, but not many lights seem to be on inside. (Mark Reason in The Telegraph)

The New Zealand Herald reviews the novelette by You're Not a Man Until You've Had a Man (sic) by Bernard Cummings. The reviewer thinks that Charlotte Brontë can be an influence:

Based loosely on a true story and written very much in the style of Charlotte Bronte, the story tells of five intersecting love triangles made up of love-deprived prisoners and overweight but under-sexed guards. (That Guy)

Britmovie Forum asks Zelah Clarke (Jane Eyre in the 1983 BBC miniseries) what happened to her promising career:

Zelah Clarke, 29, starred in the 1983 BBC series opposite Timothy Dalton. He went on to become James Bond - and Zelah, now 55, disappeared without trace. She is married to Francis Ash, an executive BBC producer, and has a 14 year old daughter, Lamorna. They live in West London. She says: Jane Eyre is the ultimate poisoned chalice. Everyone remembers the Mr. Rochesters but no one recalls the Janes. I hoped the role might be a springboard - I got great reviews - but I never thought it would force me to retire.
I had trained as a ballet dancer with Jenny Agutter and Fiona Fullerton, but I discovered I enjoyed acting more. Before Jane Eyre, I had done lots of TV costume dramas, but no lead roles. My first TV role was in the first episode of "Poldark". I spoke the first line - the only one I had! I had also been in the West End musicals, including "Godspell" with Jeremy Irons, and lots of theatre.
I was thrilled when I got the part of Jane.
Tim Dalton was not a superstar then - in fact, I had more TV experience. Tim was lovely - extremely sexy and great fun. He even brought his fishing rod when we filmed in Derbyshire. He wasn't the type to lose his temper, but he got close to it during our marriage scene. The poor actor who rushed in to protest kept fluffing his line. After the seventh take, Tim became cross and started squeezing my hand harder and harder. Eventually, the actor got it right - and Tim fluffed his line. I just fell on the floor laughing.
It was depressing when things suddenly stopped after "Jane Eyre", especially as I couldn't work out why. But then I got married and my life changed. There is something rather undignified about old actors scraping around for work. I would never go back into the theatre. It ruins your social life and breaks up families. When I was younger, it was exciting. I didn't mind going on the road, but not now. I wouldn't mind a part in a TV comedy - I have a secret desire to dress up like Suzi Quatro and sing rock'n'roll - but I am happy being out of it all. If I had not done "Jane Eyre" perhaps I would not have felt I had proved myself. But I did and I have. I saw the series again on video several years ago. It seemed curiously old-fashioned but I was pleased with my performance.
I still keep an agent for voice work and do some things for radio, which fits in well with taking care of my daughter. During my resting periods I became really interested in art. I was in the middle of a course when I fell pregnant, so perhaps I didn't have such a desire to be a famous actress after all. (Arthur Askey)

Berliner Lesezeichen reviews Jane Eyre (in German) (the one with the sheep cover, by the way), Andrewjshields posts a fragment of Anne Carson's The Glass Essay, Una chica chiflada reviews briefly Jennifer Vandever's The Brontë Project, Happy Hour... Somewhere is going to read Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea. Movie Moron includes Wuthering Heights 1939 in their Top 20 Romance Movies. Book:Blog discusses Jane Eyre, Passion for Cinema devotes a post to Madhubala, who was a sort of Jane Eyre (Kamal in the film) in the Bollywood 1952 version Sangdil. Abigail709b has uploaded several pictures of Victorian costumes in Brontë country's snowy landscapes. Finally, Eline Marie Renee's Blog has read and loved Wuthering Heights.

EDIT:
The Brontë Parsonage Blog has just posted a very interesting report of the Genius exhibition and the official opening (last Friday, February 13). Richard Wilcocks says:

The Genius exhibition is very impressive, a great improvement on what was there before, and the newly-uncovered window makes a significant difference. There are brief quotes on the walls, displays at appropriate eye-levels, intelligent selection and labelling, increased colour and a sense of airiness. There is also a section for younger children, who are invited to lift little blue lids to see illustrations of what it was like in the mid-nineteenth century. (...)
Bonnie Greer was the guest at the official opening on Friday evening. She said all the right things, wonderfully, after an introduction from Director Andrew McCarthy. She was genuinely overwhelmed by simply standing inside the Parsonage, the place where so much of global literary significance had happened. She mentioned the influence of Patrick, the loving and unusually liberal paterfamilias who had allowed his daughters to read and write so much, and the continuing power of the Sisters: “I read Wuthering Heights at a young age, and if Emily Brontë can have such an effect on a little black girl in Chicago, she can have a big effect on anyone.” (Read more)

Categories: Books, Brontë Parsonage Museum, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Music, References, Wide Sargasso Sea, Wuthering Heights