Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Names and faces
• With the holiday shopping season upon us, actor and Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda is encouraging people to take part in Small Business Saturday, an effort to shop at local, independent stores on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Growing up in the neighborhood of Washington Heights, the award-winning actor said small businesses were a staple in the neighborhood. “I think New
York City is better when it’s full of small businesses. I think the world is better. I grew up in a neighborhood that was dotted with small businesses,” Miranda said at a recent pop-up shop put on by American Express, creator of Small Business Saturday. “That’s a part of what makes New York special and makes the world special, is those places you can’t find anywhere else in the world,” he said. This year, he also became a small business owner by teaming up with a group that includes theater owner James Nederlander to buy the Drama Book Shop, a century-old store in the theater district that was in danger of closing due to high rent prices. The new location nearby will open in March.
• Jane Seymour was in her mid-60s when her husband of 20 years decided it was over. The actress was floored. “I had a long marriage and never thought it was going to end,” the 68-year-old said recently while promoting the second season of Netflix’s The Kominsky Method, co-starring Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin. “I’m going, ‘I what? I date? What? Are you crazy? How does this work?’” Seymour said. “And then my kids would say, ‘Mom, there’s this thing called Tinder.’ And I’m like, ‘No, that’s not going to happen.’” But similar to her character in The Kominsky Method who runs into an old flame, fate intervened, and Seymour, an Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning actress who has four children and two stepchildren from her four marriages, stumbled upon new romance. She has been with boyfriend and British film director David Green since 2014, about a year after her divorce from filmmaker James Keach, who directed Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, Seymour’s iconic role. Seymour said she and Green “met accidentally 38 years later and realized we were free, and we’ve been together ever since.” The experience drew Seymour to The Kominsky Method, in which she plays Madelyn, who reconnects with Arkin’s character (Norman) at a funeral following the deaths of their spouses. “I do get this whole thing of having a relationship with someone that’s a contemporary, you know?” Seymour said. “We’re both dealing with older children, exes and our future … how long will we live? How can we stay healthy? How can we tick off our bucket list? Do we still want to work or do we feel like we’ve only just started, which is the case with me and David.”