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Film Notes: Jimmy Stewart Museum to be first to sell star's stamp

Film Notes: Jimmy Stewart Museum to be first to sell star's stamp

Like Elvis Presley, Ella Fitzgerald and Superman, Jimmy Stewart is about to get a stamp with his likeness.

It will be issued next month as part of a "Legends of Hollywood" series, and the Jimmy Stewart Museum will be the first place where you can buy the stamp and have it specially canceled.

The stamp's image was inspired by a publicity photo for "The Stratton Story" starring Stewart as Major League pitcher Monty Stratton, who persevered despite the loss of a leg. June Allyson played his wife in the 1949 release.

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The Jimmy Stewart Museum in the late star's birthplace of Indiana, Pa., will hold first day of sale ceremonies Aug. 17. "We've put together a nice affair here, a hometown kind of celebration," Timothy Harley, museum executive director, said yesterday.

A post office station will be located at the museum, 835 Philadelphia St., and stamps, stamp products, commemorative envelopes and a special cancellation will be available from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The cancellation will say "First day of sale" while a similar ceremony being held at Universal Studios in Los Angeles will say "First day of issue."

Stewart's daughters, Judy and Kelly Stewart, and his son, Michael McLean, will participate in ceremonies on the West Coast, starting at 10 a.m.

In Indiana, the Indiana High School Band, Eisenhower Elementary Swing Dancers, Indiana County Singers, Boy Scouts, Indiana VFW Honor Guard, IUP ROTC and magician Joe Kelly will appear. Food vendors also will be on hand.

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Stewart died on July 2, 1997, at the age of 89, and there is usually a 10-year waiting period between someone's death and the issuance of a special stamp.

"We're thrilled, and it's something that we have looked forward to and worked with the family on seeing it happen," Harley said. The stamp is a much-deserved honor that celebrates Stewart's iconic status as an actor, military hero, family man and well-mannered star who mailed thank-you notes to fans who sent him gifts.

A "Dear Mr. Stewart ..." exhibition, at the museum through October, celebrates those gifts, which range from poems written in pencil on three-ring notebook paper to an ostrich egg done in Faberge style that opens to reveal a scene from "Harvey."

"They're just very touching. Poems, drawings, objects that were made by people who, for the most part, never met him and just by their love of his work and his career made these gifts and mailed them to him," Harley said.

"I asked his daughter Kelly to write a statement for us about this exhibit, and it is really interesting how she says he kept every single one -- that they were displayed around the house and that he answered each one with a thank-you note, so it really speaks volumes about Mr. Stewart."

Next year will bring the 100th anniversary of Stewart's birth on May 20, 1908. The museum will work with Stewart's family and the community of Indiana to mark the occasion.

Go to www.jimmy.org for more information on the museum. If you plan on driving to the museum from Pittsburgh, consider taking Route 286 rather than Route 22, clogged by construction.

'Sicko'

Forget free popcorn. What about a free trip to Paris, London or Toronto?

If you see "Sicko" this weekend, you can enter a drawing to win a trip to one of those cities, courtesy of filmmaker Michael Moore. The contest is part of "Sicko Night in America," marking the expansion of the movie and its movement into the top five grossing documentaries of all time.

To enter, send a "Sicko" ticket stub from today, tomorrow or Sunday with a sheet of paper bearing your name, address, phone number and e-mail to: "Sicko" Night in America, 888c 8th Avenue, Suite 443, New York, NY 10019. It must be postmarked on or by Tuesday.

For details, go to the Web site www.michaelmoore.com.

In brief:

"The Nanny Diaries" keeps changing pages or, to be accurate, release dates. Once scheduled to open April 20, it was moved to Sept. 7 and now is slated for Aug. 24, not exactly prime real estate for summer movies. The adaptation stars Scarlett Johansson as the nanny and Laura Linney and Paul Giamatti as the wealthy couple who hire her to care for their precocious son.

John Leguizamo, who spent part of the spring and early summer in Pittsburgh, will move to Philadelphia for the change of seasons. Variety reports that director M. Night Shyamalan has cast him in "The Happening" as star Mark Wahlberg's best friend. Shooting starts in August, with a June 13, 2008 release.

Michael Tolkin, Oscar-nominated for "The Player" based on his novel, will write the adaptation of "Nine," being directed by former Pittsburgher Rob Marshall, Variety also reports. Like "Hairspray," the project started as a movie (Fellini's "8 1/2"), went to Broadway as a musical and now will return to the big screen in 2008 or 2009.

Tom Cruise's new film "Valkyrie," the MGM/United Artists historical thriller that kicked up dust last month in Germany, has a tentative release date of Aug. 8, 2008, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Cruise, who is also one of the film's producers, stars as Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, the leader of a July 1944 attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler with a briefcase bomb. Valkyrie was the code name for Stauffenberg's plot.

First Published: July 20, 2007, 12:45 a.m.

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