Creative gender swapping is how Hollywood has always worked, right on back to His Girl Friday, Howard Hawks' rat-a-tat romantic remake of The Front Page. A sensible fellow, Hawks understood that star Cary Grant — in the role of Chicago newspaper editor Walter Burns — glimmered brighter with a lady around. So he subjected a key male role from The Front Page to the ol' snip-snip — the transgender kind, as opposed to the editorial kind — giving the world, forever after, one of those rare chances to swoon. Rosalind Russell, batting quips with Grant, is so thunderingly right that it forgives all future cinematic sex substitutions, such as Katee Sackhoff for Dirk Benedict in Battlestar Galactica. Come on out to Lawrence's Java Break (17 East Seventh Street) tonight at 8 and catch Grant, Russell, His Girl Friday and maybe even the lady-making fever. Bring on Marv Poppins. And for the upcoming Smokey and the Bandit remake, how about changing the Snowman to the Ice Queen?
