wednesday, september 1, 2010 “


THE WALLS: The Clintons left the walls monochrome. But Michael Smith’s choice was to wallpaper the space and accent it with “low-voc” (environmentally friendly) Benjamin Moore paint in a Donald Kaufman color tint.


CHARLES DHARAPAK/ASSOCIATED PRESS RON EDMONDS/ASSOCIATED PRESS


THE ART: Each president chooses paintings, sculpture and other artworks to inspire them. George W. Bush chose a bronze by Frederic Remington, “The Bronco Buster.” President Obama selected Childe Hassam’s painting “The Avenue in the Rain,” which returns to the space where the Clintons featured it. Obama also added a bust of Martin Luther King Jr.


BILL O’LEARY/THE WASHINGTON POST


THE DESK:George H.W. Bush sat at the walnut partners desk he used as vice president. But most recent presidents and now Obama, too, have chosen the Resolute Desk, constructed of oak timbers from the HMS Resolute given by Queen Victoria to Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880.


Style ABCDE C S


“Keep a smile on my face, look admiringly at my father, and clap at the appropriate times.” — Meghan McCain, writing in “Dirty Sexy Politics” about


her job in her father’s campaign. The Reliable Source, C2 THE TV COLUMN


Bristol Palin’s reasoning Her “Dancing With the Stars” gig will get her out of Alaska and in shape, she says. C8


BOOK WORLD


‘My Life as a Russian Novel’ Emmanuel Carrère’s memoir offers jarring truths and a deep appreciation for life. C6


DANCE White House


honors for Jamison The longtime artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will be feted at a White House performance. C3


3LIVE TODAY @ washingtonpost.com/discussions The Reliable Source’s Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts Noon • The Web Hostess with Monica Hesse 2 p.m.


THE CURTAINS: Gone are the


Clintons’ lush golden swags. Although the Obama look is still formal, it’s more streamlined and puts the focus on the view outside.


SUSAN BIDDLE/ASSOCIATED PRESS LEN SPODEN FOR THE WASHINGTON POST


THE SHELVES: George W. Bush showcased green and white antique plates from the White House collection; Obama nixed the delicate porcelain display early on.


J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/ASSOCIATED PRESS


THE RUG:George and Laura Bush were fond of the Edward Fields rug, which had a blue seal and gold eagle in the middle and golden rays emanating outward. The Obama rug has historical quotes woven into its border from Franklin D. Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Theodore Roosevelt and Martin Luther King Jr.


JONATHAN ERNST/REUTERS


Margaret Russell, editor in chief of Architectural Digest: “It feels very American and very appropriate.”


New seats of power W


A neutral tone is set for the Oval Office’s new look by Jura Koncius


hile the Obamas were bicycling and book-buy- ing last week in Mar- tha’s Vineyard, they were having some work done back home. A re- decorated Oval Office —


with cushy sofas, striped wallpaper and a beige palette — was revealed to the press Tuesday, just before its national debut as backdrop to the president’s address to the nation on Iraq. The design was the work of Michael S. Smith, the Los Angeles decorator who did


the private quarters of the White House for the Obamas. Reached on a plane yesterday, Smith said, “I just can’t talk about my cli- ents.” Okay, fine. But although his name was


not officially uttered by White House offi- cials, lots of people were tweeting and blog- ging and buzzing about it all, including the Scott Group in Grand Rapids, Mich., maker of the new environmentally friendly Oval Office rug, whose design, ringed with weighty quotations, is credited to Smith. And Elizabeth Dow’s Amagansett, N.Y., stu- dio hand-painted the cafe-au-lait-and-buff wallpaper, complete with three-inch-wide stripes. Said Dow, “It was specified by Mi- chael Smith, who is the interior design vi-


sionary on the project.” A spokeswoman for the Scott Group would not give out the rug’s price, but she confirmed that the company donated it to the project. (The past four administrations’ Oval Office rugs have cost between $28,550 and $61,000 apiece.) The White House ex- plained that the rest of the makeover was paid for by a contribution from the Presi- dential Inaugural Committee to the non- profit White House Historical Association. The new look has less red, white and blue, and a decidedly more casual mojo. Still, many features salute the room’s past. The 1880 Resolute Desk, a favorite of many


oval office continued on C11 TV REVIEW


Obama’s Oval Office address: Closure, without a real close


by Hank Stuever


Closure is both a concept and an emo- tion and something we talk about so much in life that the word became its own cliche. And closure, it seems, is an unspoken reason why we channel-surf so much in the first place — TV is the place where things work out, where crimes are easily solved, where weight comes off and where roses are bestowed in quasi-real stagings of love. In his live televised Oval Office ad-


dress Tuesday night, President Obama dealt out a therapeutic, paternal sense of closure: The war in Iraq is over, in the sense that America is no longer officially fighting it. Our sacrifices have been made and honored. Atrillion-dollar investment, on which we are now closing the books. Which is not the same as closure, so much as transferring the balance. As Obama not-


ed near the end of his 18-minute address (only his second from that location since taking office in 2009), the whole con- cept of war now is that it doesn’t end per se, at least not in a final scene: “In an age without surrender ceremonies, we must earn victory through the success of our partners and the strength of our own nation,” Obama said. That’s a difficult conclusion to swal-


low, in an age so obsessed with images and symbols and Internet footage, but it’s true: When you pull down a statue of Saddam Hussein, you’ve got great video but the show’s not over. When you stride across an aircraft carrier under “Mis- sion Accomplished” signage, you have the stuff of closure without real closure, as we painfully know. But Oval Office addresses, in their


stiff but reassuring formality, are really the best and most sober format for the


speech continued on C12 GILES KEYTE/FOCUS FEATURES


DULLED: Thekla Reuten and George Clooney aren’t put to good use in Anton Corbijn’s “The American.”


MOVIE REVIEW ‘American’ takes aim but misses the heart by Ann Hornaday


In “The American,” George Clooney brings his most somber, furrowed game face to the role of a hit man named Jack, who as the movie opens finds himself ambushed on an isolated, ice- covered Swedish lake. The odd gunshot notwithstanding, the scene transpires in almost complete silence. It turns out that both the setting and the soundtrack adequately antici- pate the chilly study in soli- tude and emptiness that pro- ceeds to unfold. Directed by Anton Corbijn from a book by Martin Booth, “The American” is an action thriller that adamantly re- fuses to deliver action or thrills, instead engaging in a brand of arty, self-con- scious formalism rarely seen outside repertory theaters or cinema-studies classrooms. On that basis alone, “The American” presents a fascinating, even welcome experiment in whether movie audienc-


THEAMERICAN rr


es gorged on a steady diet of Apatow and “Avatar” can slow their metabo- lisms down enough for Antonioni. It’s the work of that 1970s Italian auteur — famous for his meticulously composed frames but maddeningly opaque ap- proach to narrative — that this film’s meditative pacing, wide-open land- scapes and isolated, resolutely enig- matic protagonist most readily evoke. Still, while cinema-lovers can cheer a director willing to buck the fashion for sensory overload and overwhelming stimula- tion, “The American” can’t


be called a success. Booth’s story, adapted for the screen by Rowan Joffe, ultimately can’t bear the weight of such an overworked film, one that, despite its sleek lines and a seductive polish, sags under a fatally ponderous tone. As for Clooney, he’s been stripped of the self-deprecating character tics that made even his dramatic roles in “Mi- chael Clayton” and “Up in the Air” such


movie review continued on C4


PETE SOUZA/WHITE HOUSE


THE COUCHES:Bold red and white sofas sported red and gold pillows when Little Rock designer Kaki Hockersmith redecorated for the Clintons in 1993. The pair of sofas chosen for the Obamas in light brown cotton have a more casual look.


Celerie Kemble, New York and Palm Beach interior designer: “The new design strikes me as tasteful and played very safe.”


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