The Dinner Guest Connundrum.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Sorry, Herlock, I meant to provide links.  Dave Barry is pretty well known here in the US (there was even a sitcom based on his writings), but Jonah Goldberg is best  known in certain political circles.

I can't offhand think of anyone else named Roland (other than the famous guy), but I'm pretty sure there are some, even though it's not a common name by any means. What country do you associate it with?

[HerlockSholmes]

5 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

Sorry, Herlock, I meant to provide links.  Dave Barry is pretty well known here in the US (there was even a sitcom based on his writings), but Jonah Goldberg is best  known in certain political circles.

I can't offhand think of anyone else named Roland (other than the famous guy), but I'm pretty sure there are some, even though it's not a common name by any means. What country do you associate it with?

I suppose that I’d always associated it with the UK and mainly England. There was a guy in my class at school called Roland (but he was considered a bit posh) but that really doesn’t make much of a point does it😃

[Van Buren Supernova]

Interesting question. Like some of the rest, it's terrifying for me to deal with 6 guests, but I try to think of nice combo so that I could leave the dinner early without being too obvious, or maybe finding that most of us try to pull the same thing.

Can't say I share any of your choices, except Hannibal. I wouldn't touch the food, but I'd love to talk to him, and someone has to bring a match to Jack the Ripper, at the very least, we wouldn't be their first target when both are present.

Here are my list, sadly, most of them are dead. In no particular order.

1. Nikola Tesla
Always fascinated with his inventions and ideas ahead of time. I probably could spend hours throwing ridiculous idea and ask for his opinion about the feasibility and maybe something would stick and I could find new purpose in life even if I'm only qualified as his tea maker.

2. Jacques Cousteau
Would love to talk about my sport passion with one of the legend. Certainly would be interested to know about the early history and of course, his idea that one day we would have gills. Not literally I think, and not so far from reality from the things I read around, hopefully.

3. Rob Stewart
Someone who is my inspiration. Very sad to find out about his death just last year, at least he died doing what he loved. For those who don't know, he was a biologist and environmentalist, he created Sharkwater, one of my favorite documentary of all times. Something very efficient to spread around to increase awareness about misunderstood sharks and shark's fin cruelty. Love his passion and determination at such young age.
He would find interesting things to talk about with Jacques Cousteau.

4. Bill Gates
Although I had rough time with Microsoft and had cursed it way too many times during my final paper, he is someone I respect with brain I want to pick and admiration for his low key and amazing generosity. There is at least one topic I'd be very very interested to discuss with him that I know he'd love too, A.I in the future. Although I wouldn't mind talking about his Doomsday seed vault. He'd also get along splendidly with Nikola.

5. I don't care for food, dislike fancy restaurant and can't name a dish to save my life, but next one that come to mind is Gordon Ramsay. I have soft spot for people who are good in what they are doing, but most of all, I find him genuine, smart and actually kind. I need someone to yell at us when the dinner get too boring or pretentious. Also, I read somewhere that if he wasn't a cook, he wants to be a navy diver. So there, he would have something to talk about with number 2, 3.

6. Now I'm struggling for 6. Can I say Hannibal? He would be perfect for Gordon as they both love sophisticated dishes and culinary. What a perfect dinner would be when everyone would find something in common with at least one person. This guy would be able to hold his ground for any other discussions, and he is a perfect gentleman.
And since fictional is not 'proper', I'd name another fictional character to make number 6 proper. Khan! I don't imagine Khan liking culinary but everything else, he would be on board, as he is also a proper genius and a gentleman too. And I need him in case I can't follow along with all the brains and need something pretty to look at.  

 

[Arcadia]

5 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

I can't offhand think of anyone else named Roland (other than the famous guy), but I'm pretty sure there are some, even though it's not a common name by any means. What country do you associate it with?

Famous People Named Roland.

I admit I've only heard of four of them. It seems to be more Germanic than anything. 

[Arcadia]

23 minutes ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

And since fictional is not 'proper', I'd name another fictional character to make number 6 proper. Khan! I don't imagine Khan liking culinary but everything else, he would be on board, as he is also a proper genius and a gentleman too. And I need him in case I can't follow along with all the brains and need something pretty to look at.  

Why am I not surprised......

[Sheerluck]

1 hour ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

Interesting question. Like some of the rest, it's terrifying for me to deal with 6 guests, but I try to think of nice combo so that I could leave the dinner early without being too obvious, or maybe finding that most of us try to pull the same thing.

Can't say I share any of your choices, except Hannibal. I wouldn't touch the food, but I'd love to talk to him, and someone has to bring a match to Jack the Ripper, at the very least, we wouldn't be their first target when both are present.

Here are my list, sadly, most of them are dead. In no particular order.

1. Nikola Tesla
Always fascinated with his inventions and ideas ahead of time. I probably could spend hours throwing ridiculous idea and ask for his opinion about the feasibility and maybe something would stick and I could find new purpose in life even if I'm only qualified as his tea maker.

2. Jacques Cousteau
Would love to talk about my sport passion with one of the legend. Certainly would be interested to know about the early history and of course, his idea that one day we would have gills. Not literally I think, and not so far from reality from the things I read around, hopefully.

3. Rob Stewart
Someone who is my inspiration. Very sad to find out about his death just last year, at least he died doing what he loved. For those who don't know, he was a biologist and environmentalist, he created Sharkwater, one of my favorite documentary of all times. Something very efficient to spread around to increase awareness about misunderstood sharks and shark's fin cruelty. Love his passion and determination at such young age.
He would find interesting things to talk about with Jacques Cousteau.

4. Bill Gates
Although I had rough time with Microsoft and had cursed it way too many times during my final paper, he is someone I respect with brain I want to pick and admiration for his low key and amazing generosity. There is at least one topic I'd be very very interested to discuss with him that I know he'd love too, A.I in the future. Although I wouldn't mind talking about his Doomsday seed vault. He'd also get along splendidly with Nikola.

5. I don't care for food, dislike fancy restaurant and can't name a dish to save my life, but next one that come to mind is Gordon Ramsay. I have soft spot for people who are good in what they are doing, but most of all, I find him genuine, smart and actually kind. I need someone to yell at us when the dinner get too boring or pretentious. Also, I read somewhere that if he wasn't a cook, he wants to be a navy diver. So there, he would have something to talk about with number 2, 3.

6. Now I'm struggling for 6. Can I say Hannibal? He would be perfect for Gordon as they both love sophisticated dishes and culinary. What a perfect dinner would be when everyone would find something in common with at least one person. This guy would be able to hold his ground for any other discussions, and he is a perfect gentleman.
And since fictional is not 'proper', I'd name another fictional character to make number 6 proper. Khan! I don't imagine Khan liking culinary but everything else, he would be on board, as he is also a proper genius and a gentleman too. And I need him in case I can't follow along with all the brains and need something pretty to look at.  

 

Tesla and Cousteau are great invites! Ramsay is off putting to me. I would have chosen Marco Pierre-White instead.

[Hikari]

9 hours ago, HerlockSholmes said:

For some reason Roland is not a name that I associate with the States?

Roland is my uncle's name . . but he goes by 'Ron'.  He's married to my mother's younger sister, whose name is Bonnie.  That's not short for anything; that is what's on her birth certificate.

It is very easy to mix up 'Bonnie and Ron' when you are talking about them or trying to page them together in a public place.  Try it ten times fast . . comes out 'Ronnie & Bon'. 

[Hikari]

3 hours ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

Can I say Hannibal? He would be perfect for Gordon as they both love sophisticated dishes and culinary. What a perfect dinner would be when everyone would find something in common with at least one person. This guy would be able to hold his ground for any other discussions, and he is a perfect gentleman

And if one of the dinner guests turns out to be a real donkey's arse and annoys everyone else, Dr. Lechter & Gordon can just whisk him/her off to the kitchen and come up with a really amazing sweetbreads course!

All cannibalistic levity aside, I do very much want to meet the brothers Mikkelsen, Mads and Lars, and observe them interacting together and with other people.  I will have to devise a dinner party for them to join--or maybe I will keep them to myself.

[Hikari]

2 hours ago, Arcadia said:

It (Roland) seems to be more Germanic than anything. 

I'd have pegged it for Norman French.  'The Song of Roland' . . ?

[HerlockSholmes]

1 hour ago, Hikari said:

And if one of the dinner guests turns out to be a real donkey's arse and annoys everyone else, Dr. Lechter & Gordon can just whisk him/her off to the kitchen and come up with a really amazing sweetbreads course!

All cannibalistic levity aside, I do very much want to meet the brothers Mikkelsen, Mads and Lars, and observe them interacting together and with other people.  I will have to devise a dinner party for them to join--or maybe I will keep them to myself.

I think that I might have mentioned this before (how many times have I said that?) but when I went on a Sherlock Holmes TV and Movie Tour last year the guide to us that she had gone to school with Lars (I think.) She said that he was a really nice guy and that he and his wife were quite the ‘bohemians.’ A little hippy-ish maybe. I don’t think that I’ve seen Lars in anything else or Mads in anything.

[Hikari]

27 minutes ago, HerlockSholmes said:

I think that I might have mentioned this before (how many times have I said that?) but when I went on a Sherlock Holmes TV and Movie Tour last year the guide to us that she had gone to school with Lars (I think.) She said that he was a really nice guy and that he and his wife were quite the ‘bohemians.’ A little hippy-ish maybe. I don’t think that I’ve seen Lars in anything else or Mads in anything.

Well, I think the Danes might qualify as the bohemians of Scandinavia.  Their immediate neighbors, the more strait-laced Swedes, seem to think so.

I have a Bros. Mikkelsen watch list for you:

Mads first came to international attention as 'Le Chiffre', the star villain of Daniel Craig's debut as 007, Casino Royale.  Mads got to weep blood and whip Bond in the nads, so that's well worth a look-see.

Mads went on to play Richelieu's henchman the Comte de Rochefort in the 2011 Three Musketeers.  He showed off his training as a dancer with some impressive sword choreography.  Apart from Le Chiffre, he is best known in the States for his four seasons starring as Hannibal Lechter in NBC's Hannibal.  His Doctor is urbane, chilling, often funny, and really makes some very impressive food.  He sources only the freshest ingredients too, but none you'd be likely to find at a typical butcher's.  The show was so graphic and horrifying in parts that I was very surprised it aired on a regular commercial network and not cable, but kudos to NBC for having the stones to broadcast it.  After you see Mads in the role, Anthony Hopkins's Lechter seems almost unbearably hammy.  Mads's version is, I think, closer to the vision of Thomas Harris, with Mads' native accent convincing as a stand-in for 'Lithuanian'.  Mads is by no means conventionally handsome but he imbues Hannibal with charisma and a disturbing sensuality. 

Elder brother Lars was a big star in Denmark prior to being tapped for CAM.  He chased that role with a multiseason, 10-episode recurring role as 'The Russian President' on Netflix's House of Cards.  I'd say his character is loosely based on Vladimir Putin, only about a million times better looking.  Lars is a sexy beast.

House of Cards borrows its title and its core premise from the 1990 British series of the same name starring Sir Ian Richardson.  If you want insight into American politics (and what a seamy ride it is!) this makes for some compelling TV.  Lars's role is not huge but he plays a pivotal role in the last couple of seasons, and he's spellbinding.

[HerlockSholmes]

I’ve seen Casino Royale and i recall cringing at that scene but I didn’t connect the actor. I’ve heard of the Hannibal series but haven’t seen it. I don’t even know if it’s available on the tv package that we have here. I never even watched the uk House Of Cards! Ian Richardson is great of course. I was glad to get the signed photo of him.

im currently bidding for a signed photo of David Burke by the way. It ends tomorrow and is ridiculously low at the moment so I expect someone to step in at the last moment and thwart my evil plans😃

[Carol the Dabbler]

21 hours ago, HerlockSholmes said:

I suppose that I’d always associated it with the UK and mainly England. There was a guy in my class at school called Roland (but he was considered a bit posh) but that really doesn’t make much of a point does it😃

Must admit I've known men with all sorts of trademark-British names (Nigel, Simon, Neville, and so on), but never a Roland.

How is the name pronounced over there?  Here it can be pronounced with either a long O (rhymes with Poland), which is the most common, or with a short O (rhymes with Holland).  My uncle used the short O.

21 hours ago, Arcadia said:

Famous People Named Roland.

I admit I've only heard of four of them. It seems to be more Germanic than anything. 

Thanks for the list -- though I can't say for certain that I'd ever heard of any of them.

18 hours ago, Hikari said:

I'd have pegged it for Norman French.  'The Song of Roland' . . ?

Yeah, that's why I thought it was French.

18 hours ago, Hikari said:

Roland is my uncle's name . . but he goes by 'Ron'.  He's married to my mother's younger sister ....

My brother met someone who had worked with our uncle, and said that his nickname there was Rollo.

[HerlockSholmes]

20 hours ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

Interesting question. Like some of the rest, it's terrifying for me to deal with 6 guests, but I try to think of nice combo so that I could leave the dinner early without being too obvious, or maybe finding that most of us try to pull the same thing.

Can't say I share any of your choices, except Hannibal. I wouldn't touch the food, but I'd love to talk to him, and someone has to bring a match to Jack the Ripper, at the very least, we wouldn't be their first target when both are present.

Here are my list, sadly, most of them are dead. In no particular order.

1. Nikola Tesla
Always fascinated with his inventions and ideas ahead of time. I probably could spend hours throwing ridiculous idea and ask for his opinion about the feasibility and maybe something would stick and I could find new purpose in life even if I'm only qualified as his tea maker.

2. Jacques Cousteau
Would love to talk about my sport passion with one of the legend. Certainly would be interested to know about the early history and of course, his idea that one day we would have gills. Not literally I think, and not so far from reality from the things I read around, hopefully.

3. Rob Stewart
Someone who is my inspiration. Very sad to find out about his death just last year, at least he died doing what he loved. For those who don't know, he was a biologist and environmentalist, he created Sharkwater, one of my favorite documentary of all times. Something very efficient to spread around to increase awareness about misunderstood sharks and shark's fin cruelty. Love his passion and determination at such young age.
He would find interesting things to talk about with Jacques Cousteau.

4. Bill Gates
Although I had rough time with Microsoft and had cursed it way too many times during my final paper, he is someone I respect with brain I want to pick and admiration for his low key and amazing generosity. There is at least one topic I'd be very very interested to discuss with him that I know he'd love too, A.I in the future. Although I wouldn't mind talking about his Doomsday seed vault. He'd also get along splendidly with Nikola.

5. I don't care for food, dislike fancy restaurant and can't name a dish to save my life, but next one that come to mind is Gordon Ramsay. I have soft spot for people who are good in what they are doing, but most of all, I find him genuine, smart and actually kind. I need someone to yell at us when the dinner get too boring or pretentious. Also, I read somewhere that if he wasn't a cook, he wants to be a navy diver. So there, he would have something to talk about with number 2, 3.

6. Now I'm struggling for 6. Can I say Hannibal? He would be perfect for Gordon as they both love sophisticated dishes and culinary. What a perfect dinner would be when everyone would find something in common with at least one person. This guy would be able to hold his ground for any other discussions, and he is a perfect gentleman.
And since fictional is not 'proper', I'd name another fictional character to make number 6 proper. Khan! I don't imagine Khan liking culinary but everything else, he would be on board, as he is also a proper genius and a gentleman too. And I need him in case I can't follow along with all the brains and need something pretty to look at.  

 

I apologise for missing this post VBS. Some interesting choices there. I can imagine them sitting in pairs. Tesla and Gates, Cousteau and Stewart and then, most surreal of all, Gordon Ramsey and Hannibal Lector. Ramsey might not thank you for the seating arrangements though😃

[Hikari]

On ‎5‎/‎12‎/‎2018 at 5:56 PM, HerlockSholmes said:

im currently bidding for a signed photo of David Burke by the way. It ends tomorrow and is ridiculously low at the moment so I expect someone to step in at the last moment and thwart my evil plans😃

Just for your information, my birthday is in October  . . . 

[Sheerluck]

And mine is in August. Just saying.

[HerlockSholmes]

Hikari and Sheerluck it’s very kind of you to pass on those snippets of information😃

[J.P.]

On 12.5.2018 at 9:53 PM, Hikari said:

His Doctor is urbane, chilling, often funny, and really makes some very impressive food.  He sources only the freshest ingredients too, but none you'd be likely to find at a typical butcher's. 

Hmmmm… wonder if he has any connections with Hilary Briss' special stuff (TLOG)
I did watch the series but as a background for my DIY project, othewise it would be a terrible downer. It is very well made, but I found the celebrating of perversities very problematic.

Honestly, I cannot recall seeing Mads for the first time, but I know him for a while. And as for Lars being bohemian - in his youth he travelled with a bunch of friend through East European countries making street music and almost started a revolution in Moscow.

[Hikari]

22 minutes ago, J.P. said:

It is very well made, but I found the celebrating of perversities very problematic.

I agree . . .  that's why I was only able to watch it once.  It's one thing to read about what Hannibal does to his victims but another to watch it visually represented in excruciating detail.  I'm not prone to nightmares but that was not the thing to watch right before sleep.

I would gladly watch the final season again many times though on account of the Special Guest Star who plays the Red Dragon.  I think the show was able to wrap up on a strong note and go out having maintained its high quality to the end, unlike other 'cult' shows we could mention (LOST . . .)

[Arcadia]

Oh, Lost. Don't get me started on Lost..... 

I assume you folks are talking about Hannibal? Never dared to watch it. Who played the Red Dragon?

[cavaradossi]

At long last love! I've searched seemingly forever to find this particular thread. Hikari put me onto it, as indeed she did this forum, and I believe I may have a party list to share. IIRC! Herlodk said six guests, though it looks as though it's been extended to eight. I'll go with six, though.

1. Pharaoh Khufu, the builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza. - Khufu is a mysterious figure despite having built history's most amazing and mysterious structure, one that has fascinated mankind for nearly five thousand years. I would want him to regale us with tales about the inspiration for and actual building of this monumental pile that still strikes awe in the hearts and minds of all observers. I would also ask him the burning question: "Just where the heck are you buried, man? All of that labor and you weren't even laid to rest in it - at least as far as archeologists have been able to determine." 

2. Maria Callas, La Divina, as the Italians named her. I fell immediately in love with and under the spell of this thrilling singer and her unique voice at first hearing when I was fifteen. The spell has never faded, only grown over the following decades as I quickly collected every recorded scrap of her singing, both in studio and in live performances. Yet the source of her almost instinctive ability to bring her various operatic characters to life through seemingly millions of shadings of words and musical lines in her voice remains mysterious to this day to those who study her voice and art. Combine this with a charisma that most movie stars would kill for, one that reached across the stage lights and enthralled her audiences, an acting ability that was hers alone, and her physical beauty and one has, well, La Divina! The question I would want to ask her is simple: "Yes, I know you used to answer that question by crediting hard work and intense study of the words and the music, but, Miss Callas, how did you really do it?"

3. Homer. Enough said, but one of the questions I would like to ask this author of two of the greatest "books" ever written is what he thinks of the the multitude of English translations that have flooded out from publishers over the last several centuries, and which ones he considers to be the most successful. Since he died nearly three thousand years ago, one assumes he has had plenty of time to follow these translations and form opinions about them. And, of course, I would want to ask him how much of what he wrote was based on history and how much did he invent. 

4. Greta Garbo - the most beautiful and mysterious woman to ever step in front of a movie camera. The old saying that they don't make them like they used to applies in spades to Garbo. I wouldn't have any questions for Garbo, really; it would be enough to sit across from her and drink in all that beauty. Of course, from reports of her few social interactions, she would be unlikely to want to talk anyway, though I suspect Pharaoh Khufu might intrigue her somewhat. You know, two mysterious historical figures, legends in their own times and ever after...

5. Johnny Carson. I couldn't resist inviting this unequaled television comedy talent, who kept me in stitches ever since his debut on NBC's The Tonight Show back in the early sixties. Even comic legends were in awe of Carson's talent, not least his ability to instantly turn any little unexpected happening or comment by someone into a moment of unrivaled hilarity. There was only one Johnny Carson, and no one knows that better than all the nighttime comics who have tried to follow in his footsteps. It is a constitutional impossibility that my dinner party could be a dud with Carson at the table.

6. Jane Austen. I am ashamed to admit that, despite may many decades of reading, I only began reading Jane Austen about fifteen years ago. Inhad come to know the stories of her books through movies and tv adaptations and enjoyed them, but I never considered actually getting into the books themselves because I was under the impression that she was a woman's author. Then one day I came across a male coworker who was reading Pride and Prejudice on his smartphone. I thought: "Well, if he can read Austen, why not me, too?" I went to the bookstore, took down from a wolf a copy of P&P and read the immortal first sentence: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." I chuckled, of course, but it was what followed that induced instantaneous Love-at-Second-Sentence: "However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighborhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of surrounding familes, that he is considered as the rightful property of someone or other of their daughters."  I instantly said aloud: "I've got to READ this woman!" I  bought a volume containing all the books, and thus began a great adventure in reading. Such a master of the word was this lady that she keeps me enthralled sentence by sentence. There's no question in my mind but that the two greatest writers in the English language are Shakespeare and Austen.  I've read the books three times, and I know I'll be reading Jane Austen the rest of my life. 

There you have my guest list: one mysterious and powerful historical figure who has left an architectural treasure for the world, two giant literary geniuses, and three performing luminaries of the highest order. I think I'm going to be royally entertained.

[Hikari]

12 minutes ago, cavaradossi said:

Herlodk said six guests, though it looks as though it's been extended to eight. I'll go with six, though.

You are better at following rules than I am.

In my defense, dinner service is typically sold in sets of 4--4, 8, 12.  If we have only 6 that leaves two plates going spare. 

The host/ess makes 9, I suppose (or 7 if you are more self-controlled than me).  I figure I can use paper if there isn't enough china to go 'round.  Plus, will the dead people actually be eating . .? 

You fell for an opera diva irrevocably when you were 15, igniting a lifelong passion---are you sure your name isn't Endeavour? lol

Good list--thanks for playing!

[Hikari]

On ‎5‎/‎16‎/‎2018 at 8:45 PM, Arcadia said:

I assume you folks are talking about Hannibal? Never dared to watch it. Who played the Red Dragon?

That, Arcadia, would constitute a Spoiler Majeure.  I don't think I want to say.  It is an almost completely non-verbal part . . and it's nothing at all like any other role this actor had done previously.  Deformed he certainly isn't.  He has absolutely gorgeous teeth.

And that's all the clues you are getting from me!

[cavaradossi]

Hikari, just call me Morse!

One thing I neglected to mention about Maria Callas is that all her musical and dramamtic genius, as well as her charisma, come through on all her recordings, both studio and live performance. Even the multitudes of Callas lovers who never saw her live, like me, feel as though they have so vivid is her singing and persona sight unseen.

 

 

 

[Hikari]

Itn honor of Herlock Sholmes, who is on his holy pilgrimage to the Big Smoke, I am resurrecting this thread.

The Bromance Edition

1.  Jeremy Brett & Robert Stephens:  these two 'luvvie' lions of the British stage were journeyman young actors together in the 1950s, working for, among others, Sir Laurence Olivier, at the National.  They roomed together and stood up for each other at at least one wedding apiece.  Both were married for a time to fellow future luminaries of the stage--JB to Anna Massey and RS to Maggie Smith.  Neither marriage was happy nor lasted.  Jeremy was bipolar & bisexual and struggled all his life with these conditions.  Robert was made of sturdier stuff and doesn't seem to have been interested in boys.  There were so many women; when would have found the time for boys too?  Both played Sherlock Holmes and both had emotional turmoil as a result.  Their friendship was lifelong, and they both sadly left us far too soon, within a month of each other in 1995.   I'd like the young, healthy and handsome JB & RS to regale fellow dinner guests with a re-enactment of the time when during a performance of Othello, while waiting for the young Welsh and completely overwhelmed Othello to remember his line, Cassio (Brett) offered Iago (Stephens), "Have a cigarette. Don't mind if I do, thanks."  The audience loved it. 

2.   Stephen Fry & Hugh Laurie:  These two Cantab classmates could be said to be the heirs apparent to Jeremy Brett & Robert Stephens. There are similarities.  Collectively and separately they are national treasures of England.  Together they conquered British television as 'Fry & Laurie' and then as 'Jeeves & Wooster'.  One of them  has rocketed to international prominence playing a variant of Sherlock Holmes on television for a worldwide audience, while the other has stayed more of a classic homegrown product, though Sherlock Holmes has been a big part of his life, too.  He was the youngest-ever member inducted into the Sherlock Holmes Society of London & more recently delighted legions of fans with his inspired turn as Mycroft Holmes for Guy Ritchie.  The conversation would be sparkling, and  Hugh could entertain the company with some of the many instruments he plays.

3.  Benedict Cumberbatch & Tom Hiddleston:  I envision this third spot as sort of a rotating honor as we convene this group every week, with another Bromance pair here as they occur to me.  I have selected the Batch and Hiddles for inaugural honors because they are two of the leading classically-trained actors of their generation, and both have acquitted themselves very well in their efforts at Shakespeare.  (Hamlet/Richard III and Prince Hal/Henry V respectively).  Both are massive cinema heartthrobs for their popular box office stuff, which have made them both very wealthy and sought-after, but which does not require their deepest reserves of talent, or even into the middle depth of their talent.  I would like them to get re-invested in Serious Acting and give the superhero capes and Internet memes and ComiCon visits a rest for a while.  Time is ticking and they've got to make some serious tracks if they are going to make Sirs before they are sixty.  Tom in particular needs more diversity in his career choices.

And me, as the Hostess will just sit back and be dazzled by the impromptu Shakespeare dialogues as they arise, and keep everyone's glasses full.  Might have to fend off some handsiness from RS.  I'll deal with it.