Second Loving vs. Virginia Giveaway – Thanksgiving

Loving, the movie, is spectacular. The actors were cast to look just like the characters they portray. What’s more, the essence of each character is true, with few exceptions, to my mind.

Joel Edgerton looks so much like Richard Loving I don’t mind that he looked more 40+ than 24, as Richard Loving was at the onset of the story, and when the couple married in 1958. Edgerton’s acting is superb. Ruth Negga is the essence of Mildred. Sharon Blackwood, playing Lola, Richard’s mother looks just like Lola. From my research, I saw Lola as more supportive of the relationship than the movie depicts, but Hollywood is working to make a dramatic movie, so I can accept that.

I saw the movie at the Art Theater in Champaign, IL, on Wednesday–yesterday–the day before Thanksgiving. It seemed like most viewers were in tears by the end. I was. On Tuesday, (November 29) after the 6:30 pm showing, I’ll talk about my book Loving vs. Virginia. My book, the documentary novel, is different in that it starts in 1952 and shows Mildred and Richard when they meet in their highly integrated neighborhood, their dating as they venture out into the grossly segregated state of Virginia, and follows them, as the movie does, to the 1967 Supreme Court decision. My books is closer to the facts. The movie took liberties with the timeline and a major relationship–I’ll talk about that Tuesday.

About the lawyers: The young ACLU lawyer, Bernie Cohen (portrayed by Nick Kroll) is depicted to be less intelligent than Phil Hirschkop, but maybe that’s because Phil Hirschkop was slighted in the last (and highly inferior) movie, Mr. and Mrs. Loving (1996) and they wanted to make it up to the real Phil Hirschkop. Both lawyers are men in their 80s now, but

during the case were so new to the bar only Cohen was qualified to present a case to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1966.

So ask questions. Watch Nancy Buirski’s The Loving Story documentary http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/the-loving-story (which also misses that big relationship).

And for the second Loving vs. Virginia giveaway . . . Goes to Nancy. Congratulations, Nancy. If you signed up as Nancy, please email me at phpowell@talesforallages, give me your address, and I’ll send you a copy of Loving vs. Virginia. And, Everyone, Have a Wonderful Thanksgiving.

Sign up for the blog and leave a comment to be eligible for the final drawing of Loving vs. Virginia in December, a month before it officially releases January 31, 2017. Everyone who has left a comment and signed the blog is still eligible for the final drawing.  http://www.chroniclebooks.com/titles/loving-vs-virginia.html