Today's Entertainment

Many a young American woman goes through a Paris phase. For Emmy-winning actress Kathy Baker, that came in the late 1970s after she'd graduated from the University of California-Berkeley with a degree in French. Although acting was her first love, she decided she needed a fallback, so she attended Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in the French capital with the ultimate goal of becoming a pastry chef. "I was going to stay in Paris for six weeks and I stayed for two years," recalls Baker, laughing. "And I ended up getting Le Grande Diplome at the Cordon Bleu and I did a play there and I catered and I made wedding cakes. And I just, you know, fooled around trying to find myself but I always wanted to be an actress." "As soon as I came home from Paris with a Grande Diplome in my hand," she continues, "I go straight to an audition at the Magic Theatre (in San Francisco) and I just did 10 plays in a row, Sam Shepard plays. I go to New York with a play. I mean, I didn't last very long as a culinary person." These days, the co-star of Comedy Central's Wednesday sitcom "Big Time in Hollywood, FL" is content to cook only for family and friends, though she says she did take one useful skill from her time in Paris. "I think the best thing I took from that is I can read a recipe and decide if it's a good one," says the actress, who stars with Blake Lively and Harrison Ford in "The Age of Adaline," due for release later this month, "and I can make it and then I just also adjust the recipe to whatever I want to do. But I am in no way a professional cook. I'm a home cook and I'm competent in the kitchen but there's no way that you would hire me professionally." BY GEORGE DICKIE Baker was nearly a baker before acting came calling What is your favorite book? "I have my all-time favorite book, which is 'How Green Was My Valley.' And then I have, of course, 'To Kill a Mockingbird.' Everybody says that these days. But right now, I read a couple of wonderful books. 'The Paying Guests' is a wonderful new book I read. I love 'The Gold Finch.' I loved 'The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace.' ... I just have a million favorites." What is your favorite movie? " 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off.' " What is your favorite musical artist? "(Laughs) I'm not very educated in music. ... My favorite musical artist is like whatever someone else is listening to right now and I go, 'Oh, what's that? I love that.' ... If I'm having a dinner party, we put on '60s dance music or something in the background. And then we did a sort of Latin jazz kind of thing. Yeah, I'm not a popular music girl." One thing has to be said about Disney's live-action revamps of some of its animated classics: The studio sure gets the casting of the villainesses right. Glenn Close proved it as Cruella de Vil in "101 Dalmatians," then it was Angelina Jolie's turn last year in "Maleficent." Now, Cate Blanchett is the wicked stepmother in the latest version of "Cinderella" ... and if her typically superb acting alone doesn't guarantee the two-time Oscar winner will excel in the role, the way the film showcases her fortifies her memorable work. You know the story – and, clearly, so do director Kenneth Branagh and screenwriter Chris Weitz (who has done much good screen work in tandem with his brother Paul). That's apparently why they do a bit of expansion, with Blanchett's character a particular beneficiary, explaining the psyche and reasoning involved much as Jolie's Maleficent did. While it's the flashier performance by nature, the movie does have a notable Cinderella in Lily James ("Downton Abbey"). Her natural appeal makes it all the easier to root for the heroine to overcome her grim circumstances and – with the help of a Fairy Godmother (Helena Bonham Carter) – be in the right place at the right time to catch the eye of a prince (Richard Madden, of "Game of Thrones"). With the visual sheen that Branagh and company put on the story, this is pretty much the "Cinderella" that anyone would hope for, very stately and quite entertaining. This having been one of Disney's top properties for so long, one has to expect it would get the same sort of care as Tim Burton's tackling of "Alice in Wonderland" several years ago. It does, and such other fine talents as Hayley Atwell (recently seen as TV's "Marvel's Agent Carter"), S tellan Skarsgard and the great Derek Jacobi lend their acting touches as well. The result nearly makes one jealous of youngsters whose first taste of "Cinderella" this will be, and their elders can rest assured that it's faithful enough to be acceptable as the definitive edition for them. The picture also has an ace that all other versions haven't, and her name is Blanchett. And happily, she's a "card" that this "Cinderella" knows exactly how to play. BY JAY BOBBIN Cate Blanchett adds spark to Disney's live-action 'Cinderella' Page 8 April 13 - 19, 2015

• Cover