Welcome to Admiring Susan Sarandon, a fansite dedicated to Academy Award winning actress and activist Susan Sarandon. Susan is best known for her roles in 'Thelma and Louise', 'Dead Man Walking', and the upcoming 'The Lovely Bones'. Admiring Susan currently provides fans with the latest news on Susan's career and activism, and, with a bit of work, will one day develop into a full archive in tribute to Susan's extensive career.
On Friday, September 3 at 8 p.m., the Topanga Peace Alliance will screen “On the Line,” which documents a group of activists and celebrities who risk arrest when they demand that the School of the Americas/WHINSEC, which trains Latin American soldiers, be closed down. Many of the School of the Americas’ graduates have been found to violate human rights after returning to their countries.
The film features actors Susan Sarandon and Martin Sheen, author John Perkins, and Fr. Roy Bourgeois, who founded School of the Americas Watch, one of the largest non-violent movements in the United States today, as well as students who were willing to engage in civil disobedience.
Inspiring in its depiction of the courage shown by people continuing to protest, even in the stifling atmosphere for First Amendment rights since 9/11, “On the Line” is filmmaker Ron Schmidt’s fifth film. Winner of the Silver Telly for two of his films, Schmidt will be present at the screening to introduce the film and to answer questions afterward.
There will be a wine/cheese/veggie potluck at 7:45 p.m. The movie screens at 8 p.m. followed by a Q&A session. A $10 donation is requested, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds. Yoga Desa Dance Studio, is located at 120 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd.
Susan Sarandon, who’s known to make men of all ages swoon, is bemused by the fact that she has become strongly associated with a seriously unsexy sport.
“It’s so weird,” says the 63-year-old Oscar winner. “I’ve become an entrepreneur through ping-pong.” Last fall, Sarandon, more famous for her, uh, skills around the baseball diamond (Bull Durham) than the ping-pong table, helped launch Spin, a New York temple to table tennis where pints are as popular as paddles. The sports club-cum-nightclub opens its second outpost Wednesday, at L.A.’s Mondrian Hotel. Milwaukee is on the way, as are spinoffs from Austin to Dubai.
The game of Forrest Gump is “completely dorky,” Sarandon concedes. But much in the way that bowling got a hipster makeover in recent years, “we’re kind of embracing the dorkiness with a sense of humor. Dorky can also be cool.” And, yes, she’s an investor, but she’s also a fan of the rec-room staple. “It’s a great sport: You don’t get hurt, it’s fabulous for the mind.”
Nowadays, the pimped-out ping-pong industry occupies a “huge chunk” of her time, so much so that she spins rumors that she’s dating her thirtysomething Spin business partner, Jonathan Bricklin, thusly: “I’m just so busy at my club that I really haven’t had time for romance.”
She is, of course, taking time out to head to the Emmys, where she’s up for the supporting-actress award in a miniseries or movie for You Don’t Know Jack. Sarandon marvels that the biopic, about assisted-suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian, is still playing. “That’s the beauty of HBO. It just goes on forever.” (The 82-year-old Kevorkian, incidentally, stopped by Spin the other day and played “pretty well … until they dragged him away,” Sarandon reports.)
The metamorphosis has happened with dizzying speed. Table tennis, a sport that has traditionally suffered from an image of parochialism and downright geekiness is, for the moment at least, the sexiest sport on the planet. Well, almost.
The revolution started in central Manhattan. Table tennis has long commanded a fringe following of hip media types and fashionistas in Greenwich Village, but the sport was thrust into the epicentre of New York’s high life last summer with the opening of the world’s first ping-pong nightclub on the corner of Park Avenue and East 23rd.
SPiN, as it is aptly called, is cool, mellifluous and swanky. The idea is to hold a fizzing Bellini in one hand and to whack a ball with the other. The dance floor is taken up with ping-pong tables, with a long bar at one end and a VIP room with a mirrored table and abstract paintings at the other.
The first time that I entered SPiN I thought I had arrived in Heaven. The women whacking balls were from the pages of Vogue; the chaps — many wearing sunglasses, despite the dim lighting — were young, talented and preposterously handsome. I played an exhibition match with the local hot-shot and shared cocktails with the actress Susan Sarandon, who is a co-owner of the club and a self-confessed addict of the game. “Tell me about that forehand,” she said, brown eyes earnest. “The way you scoop it from off the floor is something else.”
The ping-pong buzz has not been limited to the Big Apple. A number of clubs have sprouted in fashionable bars in Shoreditch and Camden. Karmarama, a London advertising agency, has a section of its website devoted to the sport. Rockstar Games — inventor of Grand Theft Auto — has a table in the middle of its office on Kings Road in Chelsea, across which staff conduct brainstorming meetings, bats in hand.
Back in 2001 Susan narrated a documentary feature called The Shaman’s Apprentice, about plants of the Amazon. Whilst browsing YouTube for Susan today I found a short clip, and thought I’d post it here for you. Below are a synopsis, links to official sites for the documentary, and a clip.
For more than twenty years Dr. Mark Plotkin has searched the Amazon for plants that heal. He is an ethnobotanist, a scientist who studies the relationship between indigenous people and plants. He set out on a mission to find a cure for diabetes, a disease that killed both of his grandmothers. THE SHAMAN’S APPRENTICE charts the story of Mark’s discoveries, and looks at the astonishing ability of native people to manage their environment.
People of the forest have become sophisticated chemists by necessity, utilizing plants for every aspect of their lives. Often, the entire knowledge of a tribe resides in the mind of the shaman – the tribe’s doctor and spiritual leader. But the shamans are also the most endangered species in the Amazon. Marooned in time by the loss of traditional ways, many of the native healers have no apprentices. Most are old, and each shaman’s death is a kind of extinction. It is these shamans that Mark seeks out, hoping to save their precious knowledge, for it may be vital to the world’s future.
THE SHAMAN’S APPRENTICE is a story of survival against the odds. It interweaves the luminous rain forest world of phenomena and legends with western science and the grim realities of extinction. In the story of one man’s quest to preserve the ancient wisdom of our species, we find intelligence, cooperation and hope that could save one of the most glorious places on Earth.
As previously reported, Susan is currently in Peru to help with a campaign to increase tourism in the area of Cusco. In the past few days she has taken part in a number of activities and visits in the area:
Susan Sarandon impressed with Cusco archaeological legacy
Peru’s Trade Minister Martin Perez told the press that American Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon “was delighted” after her visit to Machu Picchu and other places surrounding Cusco City.
The actress was toured to Sacsayhuaman fortress, attended an exhibition of Peruvian Paso horses and met local weavers in Chinchero.
She also had a private dinner with Minister Perez and his wife: “She has really enjoyed Peruvian gastronomy,” said the Minister.
Reportedly, Sarandon was pleasantly surprised by the great agricultural diversity she has seen in Peru, especially by the different kinds of Peruvian potatoes.
The actress is currently in Peru as a part of the program “Celebrities” that Peru has launched to reactivate tourism in Cusco, and she will visit Puno today (March 29th).
Franck Raharinosy (the prince of Madagascar) and Jonathan Bricklin, partners in SPiN New York, the Ping-Pong social club on East 23rd Street, have been taking meetings with TV networks to shop a reality show about their club.
“It will focus on some of the interesting personalities in table tennis and the growing of our business,” said Mr. Bricklin by phone the other day. “It will be a quirky, funny show.” A reality show? “We don’t think the word ‘reality’ really represents what we want to do. We’re calling it a documentary series.”
“It will be the renaissance of Ping-Pong,” said Mr. Raharinosy, who was also on the line.
“We want it to be smart,” continued Mr. Bricklin. “We don’t want it to be degrading like a reality show and because Susan [Sarandon, an investor] is involved, a lot of open doors have presented themselves.” The pair is working with International Creative Management to package the show, but they haven’t signed with a network yet. Mr. Bricklin said he’s hoping for someone like MTV or HBO. “Or like the Sundance channel or Discovery,” interjected Mr. Raharinosy.
Susan will be featured on the new series of NBC’s Who Do You Think You Are. Thanks to Laura for this information and the videos.
Viewers are invited to take an up-close and personal look inside the family history of some of today’s most beloved and iconic celebrities with NBC’s “Who Do You Think You Are?” Starring in the new alternative series are Matthew Broderick, Lisa Kudrow, Spike Lee, Sarah Jessica Parker, Susan Sarandon, Brooke Shields and Emmitt Smith. Ancestry.com is NBC’s official partner on the series.
From Executive Producer Lisa Kudrow (“Friends,” “The Comeback”) — in conjunction with her production company Is or Isn’t Entertainment and the U.K.’s Wall to Wall productions, “Who Do You Think You Are?” is an adaptation of the award-winning hit British television documentary series. The seven-episode program will lead celebrities on a journey of self-discovery as they unearth their family trees that reveal surprising, inspiring and even tragic stories that are often linked to crucial events in American history.
From the California Gold Rush to the Salem witch trials, from European aristocracy to the beaches of Africa, and from the Civil War to the Holocaust, “Who Do You Think You Are?” will reveal the fabric of humanity through everyone’s place in history. Each week, a different celebrity takes a journey into their family’s past, traveling all over the world. Viewers are given an in-depth look into their favorite stars’ family trees, and each episode will expose surprising facts and emotional encounters that will unlock people’s emotions — showing just how connected everyone is not only to the past, but to one another.
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Admiring Susan Sarandon is an unofficial fansite dedicted to supporting and promoting the career of Susan Sarandon. We have no contact with Ms Sarandon or her family or management. No copyright infringement is intended through the use of content within this website.
Susan will be featured on the new series of NBC’s Who Do You Think You Are. Thanks to Laura for this information and the videos.
The Lovely Bones (2009) 
The Greatest (2010) 
Peacock (2010) 
Solitary Man (2010) 
Leaves of Grass (2009) 
You Don't Know Jack (2010) (HBO TV movie) 
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