James Bond

James Bond likes his martinis shaken but not stirred, but if you prefer your 007 movies neat and full strength, From Russia With Love is just the right potion. Filmed in 1963, From Russia with Love was the second in an incredibly durable series that has survived the end of the Cold War and even the calamitous casting of George Lazenby for one outing (On Her Majesty's Secret Service). For my money it remains the best ever. Bonds ranging from Roger Moore to Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan have all contributed something to the myth, but Sean Connery will own this part forever.

Based on the novel by John LeCarre, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (1965) sneaks up on you as the antidote to James Bond, a Cold War espionage saga sans glamorous trappings or hardware. As the British agent retaliating against his East German counterpart, Richard Burton gives one of his finest screen performances in this uncompromising Martin Ritt film costarring Claire Bloom and Oskar Werner. Showing Saturday 7 p.m. at Film Forum Philadelphia.

James Bond, world famous ornithologist, author and a former curator of the ornithology department of the Academy of Natural Sciences, died Tuesday. He was 89 and lived in Chestnut Hill. A widely published and respected authority on birds of the Caribbean, Bond had devoted his life to the study of birds there since 1926. He was also known beyond ornithological circles as the man after whom author Ian Fleming named his 007 spy, James Bond. In the past six decades Bond visited more than 100 islands.

You may be shaken but certainly not stirred at the Bearded Ladies' newest show, Beards Are for Shaving: A 007 Cabaret. This ... group? company? collective? team? of terrifically clever performers takes on the iconic with great voices and irreverent glee: Last time it was Scarlett O'Hara, next time it will be Marie Antoinette (just in time for Bastille Day). This time it's James Bond. Where better to interrogate gender roles than with bearded ladies and the world's infatuation with the man "who took the hu out of humanity.

In stories marking the 25th anniversary of the James Bond films, you will find the names of the four actors - Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton - who have played Bond in the "official" series and occasional mentions of David Niven's 007 in the weak spoof Casino Royale. But on Oct. 21, 1954, another James Bond made his first screen appearance. Admittedly, it was on the little screen, on CBS's Climax Mystery Theater. The one-hour show was a highly abridged version of Casino Royale, the first 007 novel by Ian Fleming, and concentrated on the baccarat game between Bond and that card-carrying villain Le Chiffre.

He never served on Her Majesty's Secret Service. He never transported sensitive government files or saved the free world from destruction. But his name was Bond. James Bond. And for most of his life, the Philadelphia ornithologist who grew up in Gwynedd would be compared - for better or worse - to Agent 007, the character novelist Ian Fleming named after him. The man who will forever be known as the real-life James Bond is the subject of a new book, to be released this week, by David R. Contosta of Plymouth.

THE DISTINGUISHING feature of Dan Craig's new Bond is that he's angry, maybe because he's the only guy in England who knows how to shoot something. Movies included. About 30 seconds into "Quantum of Solace," the action fan in me was thinking: Only three more weeks until "Transporter 3. " "QOS" drops you immediately into a car chase so blurred and confusing, it tells you right away that director Marc Forster (whose bona fides include "Finding Neverland") is not competent to handle a big-screen action movie.

James Bond permitted himself a smile of satisfaction as the last rays of the afternoon sun streamed through the windows of the rec room at the Assisted Living Daylights Retirement Community outside Boca Raton. He had just won the ferociously competitive gin-rummy tournament - even though one of his rivals, a sweet-faced great-grandmother, could have taught Goldfinger a thing or two about cheating at cards. At least she wasn't wearing an orange bikini, Bond thought ruefully. It was no mean victory for a man of 87 struggling against the grim realities of much-reduced circumstances.

The name is Revlon. James Revlon. No, wait. It's Ford. James Ford. James Ford Thunderbird. Still not right. How about James Samsonite? In the business of attracting film product tie-ins, there's no name more valuable than Bond, James Bond. Everybody wants a piece of him. Die Another Day, the 20th movie to star suave Agent 007, will open nationwide on Friday. And on screen and off, Die licensees, including Ford, Revlon and Samsonite luggage, are lined up like starlets at a casting call, helping to make the film what experts believe is the most product-aligned title in history.

When she was 87 years old and no longer capable of scientific expeditions to the ends of the earth, Mary Wickham Bond began to awaken in the middle of the night and journey through time. "Wish me luck!" she wrote on one of those nights, looking ahead. "For I'm off on a voyage from 1988 to 1898!" And, like Alice through the looking glass, off she would go. As she lay in bed, Mary Bond's mind would flood with images as clear as the wintertime ice on the Wissahickon: hearing a neighbor cry, "The President's been assassinated," meaning McKinley in 1901; spinning through Philadelphia society balls in the Roaring '20s; trotting the globe with her second husband, James Bond - the real James Bond; watching a flock of bluejays light on a birch tree one August morning in 1944.

You may be shaken but certainly not stirred at the Bearded Ladies' newest show, Beards Are for Shaving: A 007 Cabaret. This ... group? company? collective? team? of terrifically clever performers takes on the iconic with great voices and irreverent glee: Last time it was Scarlett O'Hara, next time it will be Marie Antoinette (just in time for Bastille Day). This time it's James Bond. Where better to interrogate gender roles than with bearded ladies and the world's infatuation with the man "who took the hu out of humanity.

James Bond is alive and well! Producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli on Tuesday laid to rest reports of the franchise's demise, telling Variety that helmer Sam Mendes plans to start production on the 23d Bond film later this year. Daniel Craig will be back as the unscrupulous, uncaped crusader. That's great news, since Craig helped inject a thrilling dose of reality into an otherwise flabby, moribund, gadget-stuffed series. Andrew Garfield: Fame is lame He's far more articulate than that, but that's the gist of the philosophy of new Spider-Man star Andrew Garfield . "I hope I never blow up," AG, 27, tells Details.

Clinching is one way wrestlers are bound together. Bear-hugs bind Willingboro's Tyler Scotton and James Green. Friendly rivals since elementary school, the sensational sophomore duo at 119 and 125 pounds, respectively, last season established themselves as stars when they led the Chimeras to a 22-6 record. The 5-foot-4 Scotton, as a freshman at 119, won the District 26 and Region 7 titles, as well as the region's outstanding wrestler award. His record was 37-3. Now he wrestles at 125. The 5-foot-6 Green, now at 130, won the district crown at 125, placed third in the region and set a new Burlington County single-season record for victories by a freshman when he won his 35th consecutive bout, 13-6, over Cinnaminson's John Kearn in the regional quarterfinal.

The twists and turns on road to splitsville Many are the reasons to break up with someone. Your squeeze won't do the dishes. Or is bad with money. Or votes for the wrong people. Or sleeps with the wrong people. Or etcetera. But how about this one?: "I'm breaking up with you because my ex-hubby says I'm a bad parent because I want our son to get Botox treatments for his stinky feet. " "Oh, that old chestnut," you say. "Hear it all the time. " Well, it's a new one on us. We don't even understand it. Yet this is the reason, if the Web site Mail Online is to be believed, that Sharon Stone, 50 if she's a day, is splitting with 24-year-old babykins Chase Dreyfous.

THE DISTINGUISHING feature of Dan Craig's new Bond is that he's angry, maybe because he's the only guy in England who knows how to shoot something. Movies included. About 30 seconds into "Quantum of Solace," the action fan in me was thinking: Only three more weeks until "Transporter 3. " "QOS" drops you immediately into a car chase so blurred and confusing, it tells you right away that director Marc Forster (whose bona fides include "Finding Neverland") is not competent to handle a big-screen action movie.

In a body blow to American Public Life, Paris Hilton has disclosed that in two years she will retire from the public arena she's so helped enrich in order to raise a family with fiance Paris Latsis. Speaking to Newsweek, Ms. Hilton says, "I don't enjoy going out anymore. It's such a pain. It's everyone saying, 'Let's do a deal!' . . . I'm just, like, 'These people are such losers.' " "I consider myself a businesswoman and a brand," she says. Destined to perish Beyonc?, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams, who have played together in the record-industry sandbox since they were 9 years old, have decided to pursue their separate destinies.

We still don't know who will pick up Pierce Brosnan's license to kill in the next James Bond movie, due next year, but think young and tipsy. Director Martin Campbell is going back to the beginning for "Casino Royale," based on the first Bond adventure written by Ian Fleming in 1953 - a novel that has nothing to do with the 1967 spoof starring David Niven and Woody Allen. "There are things that will have to be changed from the original novel," said Campbell. "The Cold War elements will have to be reconfigured, for example, but 'Casino Royale' will be a grittier, tougher and more realistic Bond movie.

LADIES, ARE YOU ready to swoon? Just take a look at the new 007. Scottish actor Dougray Scott has reportedly been picked as the next portrayer of seductive spy James Bond. Scott, 38, will appear in the 23rd Bond film, set for release next year. According to the London Mirror, executives wanted someone like the aging (but still very doable) Sir Sean Connery, who originated the part of the sexy, brooding Bond. Connery, of course, is also Scottish. So is the delectable Scott, perhaps best known as Prince Charming in the Drew Barrymore Cinderella flick, "Ever After," up to the challenge?

Once upon a time in Hollywood, there was a difference between studio movies and indie films. But in 2002 - when the edgy romance Punch-Drunk Love (U.S. gross, $18 million) carried a corporate imprimatur and the mainstream comedy My Big Fat Greek Wedding ($218 million) was an independent - such distinctions no longer applied. This year, the operative difference was between the big-event movie (think The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers) and the small, personal film (Real Women Have Curves)

James Bond permitted himself a smile of satisfaction as the last rays of the afternoon sun streamed through the windows of the rec room at the Assisted Living Daylights Retirement Community outside Boca Raton. He had just won the ferociously competitive gin-rummy tournament - even though one of his rivals, a sweet-faced great-grandmother, could have taught Goldfinger a thing or two about cheating at cards. At least she wasn't wearing an orange bikini, Bond thought ruefully. It was no mean victory for a man of 87 struggling against the grim realities of much-reduced circumstances.