GREEN & GLOVER: Open book

If there’s one person who most certainly is not mysterious, it’s celebrity blogger and provocateur Perez Hilton, whom we exclusively hear is publishing a book in December in which he addresses his very public spats with conservative former beauty queen Carrie Prejean and musician Will.i.am.

Titled “Perez Hilton’s True Bloggywood Stories: The Glamorous Life of Beating, Cheating, and Overdosing,” the book is “a year in review about all the scandals that happened in Hollywood,” according to a source close to Mr. Hilton.

When we asked if “the queen of all media” takes a remorseful and apologetic bent toward Miss Prejean in the book, the source told us emphatically “no. [Miss Prejean] would not be where she is without Perez.”

Look for a release date of Dec. 2, just in time for the holidays, and for the always snarky Mr. Hilton to rehash his clashes on a media tour.

Opera is work

Famed mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne — a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts 2009 Opera Honors — admitted she fell asleep during her first time at an opera. It was Wagner’s “Tristan and Isolde.” It’s almost 4 hours of orchestra and voice with little action.

“I fell asleep in the first act!” she said with a laugh, then added, “Well, I’d been all day at school. I didn’t get a nap, and I know now when you see ‘Tristan and Isolde,’ you nap!”

Miss Horne joined the other honorees at Sidney Harman Hall — composer John Adams, stage director and librettist Frank Corsaro, general director Lotfi Mansouri and conductor Julius Rudel — in a discussion about the challenges of marketing opera today, especially to younger people.

Mr. Mansouri later said, “I want people to stop this nonsense about opera being elitist. That’s awful and I won’t buy it.”

“And there are so many intersections with theater, more and more. It’s great!” added NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman, who was one of the speakers at the event.

“It’s music theater,” Mr. Mansouri added.

“It’s hard to tell where musical theater stops and opera begins.” Mr. Landesman said.

Mr. Mansouri concluded, “Our problem has always been because our profession is called opera and opera sounds rather exotic, and that’s nonsense. Opera means work — simply work.”

Mystery lady

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