319 lines
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Plaintext
Executable File
319 lines
10 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
culture
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tvandradio
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8144047
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# Gillian Anderson: 'People are pigeonholed too much'
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## The actress best known for playing Scully in The X Files tells Ceri
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Radford why she was drawn to the ambiguous role of Wallis Simpson in Any Human
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Heart.
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![Gillian Anderson as Wallis Simpson][1]
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Gillian Anderson as Wallis Simpson in Any Human Heart Photo: Channel 4
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[<][2] [>][2]
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* Video
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['Any Human Heart': clip 1][3]
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* Video
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['Any Human Heart': clip 2][4]
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* Article
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[Today's TV highlights][5]
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10:30AM GMT 19 Nov 2010
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[Comments][6]
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If Any Human Heart, William Boyd's classic novel, which the author himself has
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now adapted for Channel 4, can be said to have a theme, it is that a person's
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identity is complex and changeable.
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"I am all of these different people. All these different people are me," says
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Logan Mountstuart, the protagonist, looking back at younger versions of
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himself in the dramatisation.
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As I sit opposite Gillian Anderson, who is part of the programme's strong and
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starry cast, the observation seems particularly pertinent. The 42-year-old
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actress is difficult to pin down. She has posed in her underwear for FHM
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magazine and acted Ibsen, she has personified the feisty, post-feminist woman
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as Agent Scully in The X-Files, and been a model of brittle, aristocratic
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restraint in the acclaimed BBC adaptation of Dickens's Bleak House.
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In person, she is warm, self-assured and evidently happy with her
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unconventional career path. "People are pigeonholed too much, it's too easy to
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put people in their little boxes," she tells me when we meet in the distinctly
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unglamorous offices of a PR company, above a fish market in Soho. "If I
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identify with a character on a gut level then I feel like I can play it. It's
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about imagining the character, whether it stays two-dimensional or if it
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becomes three-dimensional and you think - I recognise you."
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This, she says, is precisely what happened when she saw Boyd's script for Any
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Human Heart. She plays Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor - just one of
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the many historical figures who crop up in a fictionalised context in the
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novel.
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## Related Articles
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* [Any Human Heart in pictures][7]
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19 Nov 2010
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* [William Boyd on filming Any Human Heart][8]
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05 Nov 2010
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* [Gillian Anderson: 'Producer tried to seduce me'][9]
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19 Nov 2010
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* [Any Human Heart, Channel 4, review][10]
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22 Nov 2010
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Boyd's aim, in his own words, was "to write the complete story of one life
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that covered most of the 20th century", and the inclusion of an implausible
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array of real people - from Ian Fleming to Pablo Picasso - adds a layer of
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irreverent wit to the work.
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"I'd been asked to do Wallis Simpson a couple of times before, but for
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whatever reason, it didn't appeal to me. This time, though, it was different.
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I'm a big fan of William Boyd's work and the script speaks for itself," she
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says.
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As she speaks, her accent veers curiously between English head girl and
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Hollywood star, reflecting her mixed upbringing in both the United States and
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London, where she now lives. This may have helped her to play the part of a
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woman with a dainty foot on each side of the Atlantic; a stylish American
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divorcee whom Edward VIII gave up the throne to marry.
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"The dynamic between them was just fascinating," Anderson reflects. "Watching
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the old footage, Edward looked like a five-year-old boy when he was made king.
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It appears as if she (Simpson) very much has the upper hand; she's the wit,
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the talker and the personality. He stays very quiet."
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Anderson's Wallis certainly comes across as forceful, charismatic and just
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slightly unsettling, with her harsh black hair and piercing stare. She is an
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ambiguous figure in the book: Mountstuart is sent to spy on the Duke and
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Duchess during the Second World War; they charm him but then turn against him
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when he refuses to co-operate with them in rigging a murder trial. The
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question of how far the Duchess takes her revenge is never quite answered.
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This plotline - though dramatic enough - is just one small strand in the
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almost farcically tumultuous story of Mountstuart's life. Sam Claflin plays
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the young hero in his Oxford years, Matthew Macfadyen takes him into middle
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age, through love, fatherhood, war, the New York art scene and scandal, while
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Jim Broadbent is the same character as an old man, who gets tangled up in
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Left-wing terrorism before retiring in France.
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The love of his life, Freya Deverell, is played to sultry perfection by Hayley
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Atwell, while Kim Cattrall is Gloria Scabius, just one of his many lovers.
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As in any adaptation, a certain compression of the story is necessary -
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something that Anderson vigorously defends.
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"Boyd was faithful to himself. The series is a very different entity from the
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book - they're incomparable," she says, slowly but decisively.
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As befits a lad's mag pin-up, Anderson is extremely feminine in person: long,
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tousled hair, petite figure, huge eyes. But she sits like a man, with her legs
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apart and her hands clasped in her lap.
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Although she has read Any Human Heart, she says that sometimes she
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deliberately avoids the book that an adaptation is based on, because she
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doesn't want to be "that pedantic person who's pointing out all the
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discrepancies. I can be very opinionated as it stands." She is, but not
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intimidatingly so, at least as an interview subject. She is quick to laugh and
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faultlessly polite.
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Having attended a screening with Boyd, she says that he was "ecstatic" with
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the result - and, unsurprisingly, she shares his enthusiasm.
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"It captures the passage of time. It's got a slowness to it that I don't think
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people are used to on TV but I hope they get the point of it. There's a poetry
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there."
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Having said that she no longer wanted to do television, after spending most of
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the Nineties playing a hugely famous, small-screen UFO-spotter, Anderson now
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embraces the medium. She feels that it has lost "a certain stigma" for actors,
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who can range freely between film, television and the stage.
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Not that she seems particularly bothered by the idea of stigma. As a serious
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actress with an Olivier nomination for her West End role as Nora in The Doll's
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House behind her, you might expect her to shudder at the mention of being
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voted FHM's Sexiest Woman in the World in 1996, following a racy photo shoot.
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Instead, she hoots with laughter.
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"I did the interview for that over the phone and I was in flannel pyjamas. I
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thought it was the funniest thing. It had no relevance or reality in my life
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whatsoever."
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Male attention, though, is something that she was inevitably already
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accustomed to. Many actresses - most famously Gwyneth Paltrow - have spoken
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out about a "casting couch moment", when it becomes clear that more is
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expected of them than their acting.
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Anderson remembers shooting a commercial when she was "17 or 18" with a
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producer who offered to introduce her to an agency, on a certain condition.
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"He gave me a piece of paper that had his room number on it - it was very,
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very clear that if I wanted that connection, I had to come to his room."
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Again, the memory makes her giggle rather than grimace. I ask her if she ever
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doles out worldly wisdom to Piper Maru, her 16-year-old daughter from her
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first marriage to art director Clyde Klotz. (She also has two young sons with
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current partner, businessman Mark Griffiths). "The advice I would give my
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daughter is that she should celebrate her youth and take advantage of all the
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choices she has - they're a gift and a blessing."
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This seems typical of her world view: upbeat and unabashed. She says that she
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feels as if her career is "just getting started" and that she isn't daunted by
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the idea that the sort of strong female roles she is drawn to may dry up.
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Besides, she has already imagined a life without acting.
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"A couple of times I've felt like quitting. If I get the feeling that
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something I've done is a crock of s---, some role that I've done is really
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crap" - she declines to elaborate - "sometimes that propels me to think I
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might as well just throw the towel in and be a farmer or something."
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If Any Human Heart is anything to go by, she won't be feeding chickens any
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time soon.
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Any Human Heart is out on DVD and Blu-ray from 27th December, Universal
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Playback
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[X][2] Share & bookmark
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Digg Fark LinkedIn Google Buzz StumbleUpon Y! Buzz
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[What are these?][11]
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* Share: [Share][2] [ ][12] [ ][13]
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[Tweet][14]
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8144047/Gillian-Anderson-People-
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are-pigeonholed-too-much.html
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Telegraph
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## [TV and Radio][15]
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* ### [Celebrity news »][16]
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* ### [Culture »][17]
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* ### [Books »][18]
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* ### [Ceri Radford »][19]
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[![TV Guide][20]][21]
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### [TV Guide UK: searchable TV listings][21]
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[![Paul Merton presents the Birth of Hollywood][22] ][5]
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### [Today's TV highlights][5]
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[![][23] ][24]
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### [Britain's Got Talent: where are they now?][24]
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[![][25] ][26]
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### [Doctor Who - the top ten best Doctors][26]
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[X][2] Share & bookmark
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Delicious Facebook Google Messenger Reddit Twitter
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Digg Fark LinkedIn Google Buzz StumbleUpon Y! Buzz
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[What are these?][11]
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Share:
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* [ ][2]
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* [ ][12]
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* [ ][13]
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* [Tweet][14]
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* Advertisement
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![][27]
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telegraphuk
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Please enable JavaScript to view the [comments powered by Disqus.][28] [blog
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comments powered by Disqus][29]
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