New Malkovich Film Will Be Previewed At 2003 Yaddo Benefit

Yaddo's Retiring Chairman To Be Honored At February 26 Event

New York, NY (January 31, 2003) — The new film Ripley's Game will be previewed at the 2003 Yaddo New York City Benefit, an annual Manhattan event celebrating the accomplishments of the artists who have worked at Yaddo, the distinguished artists' community in Saratoga Springs, New York.

Ripley's Game, starring John Malkovich and based on a novel by Yaddo writer Patricia Highsmith, is a thriller set in Italy. Malkovich plays Tom Ripley, a career criminal who has amassed his wealth through various illicit activities, including murder. He is married and living in France when the necessity arises to silence two foes who could reveal his dark past. Concocting an assassination plan, he makes a deal with a terminally ill English aristocrat who's desperate enough for money to rid him of his two enemies. The film - also starring Dougray Scott, Ray Winstone, Lena Headey and Chiara Caselli - will be shown in its entirely at the February 26 benefit. Ripley's Game is set for a spring release.

The film will be shown at 6 p.m. at the Angelika Film Center, courtesy of Fine Line Features. Cocktails and dinner will follow in the Skylight Ballroom of the nearby Puck Building. The evening program, where Malkovich will be a special guest, is in honor of Donald S. Rice, who is stepping down at the end of the year as Yaddo's Chairman.

Highsmith, once called "the poet of apprehension," draws the reader into uneasy complicity with the often dubious protagonists of her novels and short stories, focusing on ordinary people who come, through small acts, to commit evil, and to tease and torment their adversaries. Tom Ripley, the lead character in a series of five novels, is a perfect example of Highsmith's creative deception. Highsmith was a guest artist at Yaddo only once - for two months in 1948 - but when she died in 1995 she made Yaddo the sole heir to her $3.5 million estate. At Yaddo, she finished her first published novel, Strangers on a Train, and she considered her time at Yaddo a sustaining force in her life and work.

Writer Patricia Volk is the chair of the 2003 Yaddo New York City Benefit. Honorary committee members include Arthur Carter, Patricia Clarkson, Nancy Friday and Norman Pearlstine, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Isaac Mizrahi, Paul Newman, Parker Posey, Eric Stoltz, James Truman, and Joanne Woodward.

Spencer Trask & Co. Exclusive Event Sponsor

Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. Program Sponsor

The benefit sponsors (in formation) are Spencer Trask & Co., Exclusive Event Sponsor; Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., Program Sponsor; Peter C. Gould and Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation, Lead Sponsors; and Random House and Ripplewood Holdings Foundation, Supporting Sponsors.

Proceeds from the event support the artists' residency program at Yaddo, which annually offers 200 creative professional artists working visits of two weeks to two months, continuing the tradition of offering uninterrupted time and space to artists from around the world.

Tickets for the 2003 Yaddo New York City Benefit are $1,000 (guarantor), $600 (benefactor), or $350 (patron). For information or tickets, please contact Lynn Farenell at 518.584.0746 or lfarenell@yaddo.org.