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Vampires have bared their fangs for centuries on the printed page, long before Stephenie Meyer struck bestseller gold with her novels of Edward Cullen and Bella Swan’s vampire love.  Her books have sold more than 5.5 million copies, with Twilight translated in 20 languages.  A third movie, Eclipse, follows after Twilight, and now The Twilight Saga: New Moon is setting advance box-office records, opening as it is this weekend.  Twilight grossed a phenomenal $383-plus million, a bonanza for Rob Friedman’s Summit Entertainment.  With unknown actors barreling in this kind of monster cash for the studios, the above-the-title stars, talented though they are, appear to be whimpering at the box-office.   Isn’t this disturbing, considering their rewarding experience and training?  

Today’s hot-ticket idols, Robert Pattinson, 23, and Kristen Stewart,19, are starring in all three movies of Stephenie’s tales.  Joining them in New Moon is the hunky, bare-chested werewolf, Taylor Lautner, 17, who beefed up 30 pounds for the role of Jacob Black, to spark a romantic triangle in New Moon.  He claims he doesn’t ever want to take off his shirt for a movie again.  Tom Cruise, Gary Oldman, Gerard Butler, Rose McGowan, Kate Beckinsale, James Masters, and dozens more have pounced their blood-thirsty vampire-lust on the big screen.  Nor should we overlook Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie and Susan Sarandon in their ménage a trois in 1983’s The Hunger, which Roger Ebert described as “agonizingly bad.”

Stephenie’s followed in the fang-biting tradition of authors Stephen King, Anne Rice, Ireland’s Bram Stoker, who created Dracula in 1897 after researching European folklore, with the lost manuscript surfacing during the 1920s in, of all places, a Pennsylvania barn (!).  The very first word about a vampire was written in 1047.  Soon “upir” became vampire, and “Upir Licky” then became wicked vampire.  Centuries later, poets and novelists including Lord Byron, Goethe and Samuel Taylor Coleridge found writing about the “underworld of the undead” irresistible.  Judging from the mega-success of Stephenie’s novels, and the humungous audiences the films that these young new stars attract, vampires are not overstaying their welcome.

“Once he’s passionate, as he is about Shakespeare, he’s unstoppable.  His passion remains contagious, and sent me back to re-reading my high school Shakespeare texts,” says ophthalmologist Dr. Gary Holland, speaking about Al Pacino, who had dropped out of high school.  Dr. Holland heads the Cornea and Uveitis Division of the Department of Ophthalmology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and is a member of the Jules Stein Eye Institute.  Both were honored by the Arthritis Foundation’s Southern California Chapter at the Beverly Wilshire with its 22nd Commitment to a Cure dinner for 540 guests that raised $650,000.   Al and Dr. Gary were presented with the Jane Wyman Humanitarian Award that’s also acknowledged Dodgers manager Joe Torre, Chick Hearn, Victoria  Principal, Billy Friedkin, Susan Sullivan in past years, along with Beverly Hills’ highly recommended rheumatoid arthritis specialist Dr. Rodney Bluestone.  Arthritis or chronic joint symptoms affect 46 million (1 in 5 adults), the leading cause of disability among Americans over 15.

Curiously, among the evening’s six auction items were two packages for this week’s New Moon premiere in Westwood, with the package including hotel and dinner accommodations, and two Twilight posters signed by the cast, described as “a vampire’s dream come true.”  Each package fetched $4,500 (!), and we spotted Nu Image and Millenium Pictures founder and co-owner Avi Lerner as one of the winning bidders.   Highlights of the Foundation’s evening included film clips of Dr. Holland’s breakthrough work, and young Caitlin Ryan’s brave soldiering from an early age after being diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.

“I guess I’m now a celebrity,” smiled Al, in receiving his award from the Foundation’s first honoree, Stanford Rubin, and then explained that being a celebrity does have its perks.  While driving late one night in a secluded area, Al’s car broke down.  “This was before cell phones, I didn’t know what to do … I tracked down the nearest house, and at two in the morning, I steeled myself and knocked on the door.   When the owner opened the door, he exclaimed, ‘My God, it’s Al Pacino!   I’m waking up my wife!’  He invited me inside, and we sat on the edge of their bed while I asked for help.  That’s when a being a celebrity has its perks.”

A devoted supporter of the Arthritis Foundation, Al was surrounded by his ICM agents Jeff Berg and John Burnham, and the agency’s team that included Lisa Gallant, Carol Goll, Nigel Meiojas, Hildy Gottlieb and husband Walter Hill, Denny Luria, the wife of Jeff Berg, Al’s public relations adviser Pat Kingsley, and Kimberly Ovitz, the designing daughter of Michael Ovitz.

The Ahmanson Theatre quaked the following night when Dick Van Dyke strutted on stage during the standing ovations for Mary Poppins – Dick having starred as the chimney sweep in Disney’s 1964 movie with Julie Andrews, who won an Oscar portraying everybody’s favorite nanny.   Performing through February 7, 2010, this road company is as good as it gets, a marvel of perennial entertainment with song and dance.   Ashley Brown, who originated the starring role on Broadway, exudes pure joy, even flies over the audience in the theater. Gavin Lee as Bert, having originated the role in London and on Broadway, stops the show when he tap dances upside-down on the ceiling.   Hats off to Karl Kenzler and Megan Osterhaus, who play the parents, Ellen Harvey as the wicked “brimstone and treacle” nanny, and would that we had space to mention all who play their colorful characters.  Director Richard Eyre and co-director/choreographer Matthew Bourne keep the high jinks hopping in Julian Fellowes’ book.  The music by brothers Richard and Robert Sherman won  Oscars for Best Music, with the crowd clapping loud and long with their familiar tunes.  Plenty of properly dressed youngsters, with moms and dads,  dazzled by the acting and Bob Crowley’s sets and costumes.

Composer Robert Sherman notes that when his son came home after receiving a polio vaccine, he imagined the vaccine was administered as a shot.  “Did it hurt?” Richard asked, with the son replying, “No, they just gave it to me on a cube of sugar, and I swallowed it down.”  Thus the musical’s song, A Spoonful of Sugar, was born.

The Mary Poppins musical, adapted from the P. L. Travers children’s books, was released by Disney in 1964, nominated for 12 Oscar nominations and winning five.  Bravo to Thomas Schumacher, who presides over Disney’s Theatrical Group, for being the consigliere who envisioned it for the theater in 2004, as he did with Julie Taymor’s The Lion King, also with Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida.   Mary Poppins ranks as Number 6 on the American Film Institute’s Top 25 Movie Musicals of All Time, a lifetime legacy for producer Cameron Mackintosh, the creators and the Disney folks, who’ll never need worry about paying their plumbing bills.