Monday’s weather in Prague was abundantly warm. I wore a black shirt over a T-shirt and after a half-hour of running around I was wishing I’d left the shirt home. And then it turned cloudy, and when it started thunderstorming around 5:30 pm it was hailing for a bit. Where did I get the obviously wrong idea that it had to be at least cool if not cold for hail to happen? I’m doing the research as we speak.

Those uber-industrious Disney guys are looking to milk the Beauty and the Beast cow once more, this time as a live-action musical with Emma Watson as Belle and Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey) as the Beast. Bill Condon is directing from a script by Stephen Chbosky (The Perks of Being a Wallfower). The costars are Ewan McGregor, Kevin Kline, Josh Gad, Stanley Tucci, Ian McKellen, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Audra McDonald, Emma Thompson. Not many remember that the dreaded Robby Benson voiced the Beast in Disney’s 1991 animated version, which made $425 million worldwide. (I took Jett and Dylan to see it when they were three and two years old.) This new Beast will make…oh, much more! But why is the teaser such a tease? A huge empty mansion, sunlight streaming, candles, paintings, a red rose. The design reminds me just a bit of Guillermo del Toro‘s Crimson Peak. Condon’s Beast opens in March 2017.