Red Shoes

Red is for passion, for blood, for danger - and for those slippers craved by the doomed heroine of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale about the young woman who gets the shoes she wants and promptly dances herself to death. Based on that primal tale, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's The Red Shoes - a 1948 classic recently restored - places the woman's desire in the context of the postwar ballet world. Where, for Andersen, the story framed a conflict between Christian duty and personal vanity, for the filmmakers it is a double allegory.

The Red Shoes, the legendary 1948 movie that made a star of Moira Shearer, impelled millions of little girls to aspire to careers in the romantic, glamorous, beautiful world of ballet. Of course, the film didn't have much to say about throbbing calves, punishing diets and unemployment lines, but such things are about waking up. The Red Shoes was about dreams. It's hard to imagine that the long-awaited stage musical of The Red Shoes, which opened Thursday at the Gershwin Theatre, will have a similar effect.

Matt Miller, Central Bucks West's number-one player, may be using the golf season to make a fashion statement. "It's a mystery when he shows up on the first tee what he'll have on for footwear," said coach Dale Lenox. Miller has a pair of red shoes that are, to say the least, not typical golf attire. "I call them boat shoes," Lenox said. "They're not boat shoes; they're red Keds sneakers, or something that looks like red Keds sneakers. He won two or three tournaments wearing those red shoes this summer on the (American Junior Golf Association)

The Hollywood paparazzi and tabloid TV shows missed a big one in Bucks County yesterday. So here's the dirt: A real live celebrity trial was quietly held at the courthouse in Doylestown. Comedian Phyllis Diller - the 76-year-old queen of self-deprecating humor and cosmetic surgery - slipped in a back way and appeared in a nearly empty Courtroom 5 to defend a breach-of-contract lawsuit. But there was no joking, and, as it turned out, no testimony from Diller. Rats.

Like all the top high school teams in the area, Coatesville has its traditions. Its most dangerous offensive players always wear No. 1 and No. 2. This year, that means seniors Eric Towles and Walt Washington, both 1,000-yard rushers as juniors. And on slippery days, the Red Raiders' running backs always don red shoes. Red with black striping, a line that Nike probably has long since discontinued. But at Coatesville, every player wants a chance to wear the low-digit jerseys and the shoes.

Hello there Eight years had passed since he was the cool senior at the back of Mrs. Brook's art class at Archbishop Ryan, and Maureen hadn't thought about him since. But seeing Vince in the stadium parking lot brought on the old fluttery feelings. "Oh my gosh!" Maureen said to her friend Angela, who had invited her to the Eagles tailgate. "There's my high school crush!" Back in 1999, Vince barely knew then-sophomore Maureen existed. But at the September 2007 tailgate, he walked right up to her. "I think I know you," he said.

In too many lanes and landing pits throughout Ullevi Stadium, the world track and field championships proved a humbling experience yesterday for some of the sport's most accomplished athletes. Before a packed house of disbelieving but appreciative fans who filled the Swedish sky with rousing cheers and rhythmic applause for every event, the second day of the championships produced these uncustomary developments: A victory-stand ceremony for men's 100-meter medal winners that included neither an American nor Britain's Linford Christie, the reigning world and Olympic champion.

The man who pitched and moaned for nearly nine seasons in a Phillies uniform was nowhere to be found yesterday. Never one to shy away from an invitation to give a state-of-the-team address, Curt Schilling often wondered aloud about the direction in which the Phillies were headed. Management almost always was repulsed by his opinions. Now, Schilling has a happy new baseball home with the Arizona Diamondbacks. His vacated corner locker already has been filled by veteran reliever Jeff Brantley, who moved two stalls down to take advantage of more storage space.

Maybe it was just an accident, a little oversight by the folks in Nike's shipping department. Maybe. Or maybe the red shoes that showed up in the Eagles' locker room were a cryptic message, the football equivalent of the fish wrapped in Luca Brasi's bulletproof vest in The Godfather. Ricky Watters wasn't sure. "I couldn't believe it," Watters said yesterday, displaying a pair of white shoes with the trim and Nike swoosh in blazing San Francisco 49ers red. "At first, I thought it was some kind of joke.

When she packed for her trip to the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials, Gail Devers spent a long time picking out shoes. Black shoes. Red shoes. Gold shoes with open toes and big buckles. Blue shoes with one-inch heels. And track shoes, of course - sneakers, spikes, the works. She's vain about her feet, Gail Devers. She painted her toenails shocking red for a Thursday press conference, and wore open-toed sandals to better show them off. She packed 12 pairs of shoes for 12 days.

Hello there Eight years had passed since he was the cool senior at the back of Mrs. Brook's art class at Archbishop Ryan, and Maureen hadn't thought about him since. But seeing Vince in the stadium parking lot brought on the old fluttery feelings. "Oh my gosh!" Maureen said to her friend Angela, who had invited her to the Eagles tailgate. "There's my high school crush!" Back in 1999, Vince barely knew then-sophomore Maureen existed. But at the September 2007 tailgate, he walked right up to her. "I think I know you," he said.

The bright-red lacquered sole of a Christian Louboutin shoe serves a lofty purpose. The flash of the red sole, on a runway or daintily emerging from a limousine, broadcasts "chic" to every fashion hound within eyeshot. Devotees include actor Sarah Jessica Parker, Gossip Girl 's Blake Lively, and Jennifer Lopez, who released a song in 2009 titled "Louboutins. " It is simply impossible to be unfashionable while wearing a pair of Louboutins. This exclusiveness - and the desire to hold onto it - is at the heart of the million-dollar lawsuit that Louboutin brought in April 2011 against rival fashion house Yves Saint Laurent.

If you want to make a wood-paneled room glow, follow the advice of British decorator Nina Campbell and use red. And if you need proof that her theory works, have a drink at Campbell Apartment, the bar in New York's Grand Central Terminal that coincidentally bears her name. The so-called apartment began as an office in 1923, decorated with elaborately beamed ceilings by American financier John Campbell. After his death, it suffered various dropped-ceiling fates until it was revived as a chic watering hole in 1999.

The man who pitched and moaned for nearly nine seasons in a Phillies uniform was nowhere to be found yesterday. Never one to shy away from an invitation to give a state-of-the-team address, Curt Schilling often wondered aloud about the direction in which the Phillies were headed. Management almost always was repulsed by his opinions. Now, Schilling has a happy new baseball home with the Arizona Diamondbacks. His vacated corner locker already has been filled by veteran reliever Jeff Brantley, who moved two stalls down to take advantage of more storage space.

It was either an omen or an expensive practical joke. When the Eagles opened their shoe orders from Nike this week, they shuddered at the sight: Right make. Right models. In San Francisco 49ers red, instead of the Eagles' normal black-and-white. The Eagles spent the week concentrating on ignoring the mystique that accompanies the 49ers - five Super Bowls in the '80s and '90s, the magic of the one-time Candlestick Park, the legend and shadow of former coach and current Niners adviser Bill Walsh.

Maybe it was just an accident, a little oversight by the folks in Nike's shipping department. Maybe. Or maybe the red shoes that showed up in the Eagles' locker room were a cryptic message, the football equivalent of the fish wrapped in Luca Brasi's bulletproof vest in The Godfather. Ricky Watters wasn't sure. "I couldn't believe it," Watters said yesterday, displaying a pair of white shoes with the trim and Nike swoosh in blazing San Francisco 49ers red. "At first, I thought it was some kind of joke.

In too many lanes and landing pits throughout Ullevi Stadium, the world track and field championships proved a humbling experience yesterday for some of the sport's most accomplished athletes. Before a packed house of disbelieving but appreciative fans who filled the Swedish sky with rousing cheers and rhythmic applause for every event, the second day of the championships produced these uncustomary developments: A victory-stand ceremony for men's 100-meter medal winners that included neither an American nor Britain's Linford Christie, the reigning world and Olympic champion.

One of the major recent disasters of Broadway history, The Red Shoes, is now gracing American Ballet Theatre's season at the Metroplitan Opera so that rubberneckers can get a second look at the accident. So hot is the ticket that management has added performances of it over Memorial Day weekend. This transplant is not the whole musical, obviously. It is the musical's show within the show - the 20-minute Red Shoes ballet choreographed by Lar Lubovitch. When the musical opened on Broadway in December, Lubovitch's choreography was praised as the best aspect of the multimillion-dollar enterprise.

Red is for passion, for blood, for danger - and for those slippers craved by the doomed heroine of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale about the young woman who gets the shoes she wants and promptly dances herself to death. Based on that primal tale, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's The Red Shoes - a 1948 classic recently restored - places the woman's desire in the context of the postwar ballet world. Where, for Andersen, the story framed a conflict between Christian duty and personal vanity, for the filmmakers it is a double allegory.

The Red Shoes, the legendary 1948 movie that made a star of Moira Shearer, impelled millions of little girls to aspire to careers in the romantic, glamorous, beautiful world of ballet. Of course, the film didn't have much to say about throbbing calves, punishing diets and unemployment lines, but such things are about waking up. The Red Shoes was about dreams. It's hard to imagine that the long-awaited stage musical of The Red Shoes, which opened Thursday at the Gershwin Theatre, will have a similar effect.