Letters From Lillian Gish

"SHE'S a bang bang boogie!" said Jamie Foxx, the dynamite star of Django Unchained, of the one and only Beyonce. We'd already written our accolade to the queen of the Super Bowl, but I couldn't resist this quote.

• THE OTHER day this column went off the deep end remembering our friend Lillian Gish, the first among early black silent motion picture stars, and how she lived into a great old age, acting on stage and screen, and not bothering to leave this world until 1993. SYNCHRONICITY happens all the time and in this case, a whole file of correspondence with Lillian came to light the day after this column appeared. Letters from Lillian were typed and usually began, "My dear Liz Smith" and are signed -- "as always... ever gratefully... most earnestly... affectionately... someday I hope to even the score... adoration is a two way street."

Here are just a few fascinating remarks by Lillian from her letters: Regarding the erratic and not-too-nice producer Jed Harris: "He was our mid-century theatre genius... it makes me thankful that I had sense enough early in life to choose people, not money, to work for. It makes for a happier life I firmly believe."

Here's another: "It was lovely seeing you at Napoleon and how wonderful that maybe at last the public will finally understand the importance of film preservation. I pray so. Aren't you a dear to remember to send me the clippings. My original I sent off to Nancy Reagan at the White House and I have glued your signed one in my scrapbook. The third I'm mailing to Nancy's mother, Edie, in Phoenix."

• DANIEL CRAIG was impressive in the American version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. (The Swedish version arrived a couple of years earlier. Film fans have been known to come to blows comparing the two films, based on the work of the late novelist Stieg Larsson.)

But if you think that Daniel Craig will be jumping back into the role of journalist Michael Blomkvist for the sequel, don't get too excited. Craig's last 007 film, Skyfall, was the most successful Bond epic of all time, taking in over a billion dollars. Mr. Craig and his agents think he deserves a bigger bite of the Dragon pie. (No one wants to remember that he starred in the dismal Cowboys and Aliens.)

• LOOKING FOR an unusual Valentine's gift for that unusual, special someone? Check out Winnie & Belle in Midland Park, N.J.

• Now, all of you know that I loved, absolutely loved the revised and controversial musical Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark at the Foxwoods Theater. Everyone connected, whether they are still speaking or not, is so talented and even the love story comes across -- and that's always a miracle onstage.