A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams

Thus spake John Barrymore, American actor, early part of the twentieth century.

But today, I'm thinking about David Seidler who wrote the screenplay for 'The King's Speech." Here's me, bitching inside about having to rewrite ANYTHING...EVER and how many drafts did Seidler complete for "The King's Speech"? FIFTY.

Not only that, but he started researching the screenplay about thirty years ago. When requesting permission to write it from the Queen Mother, she said "Please, not in my lifetime. The memory of those events is still too painful."So he waited - for twenty eight years.

It's a magnificent film. A magnificent screenplay - at times laugh-aloud funny, at times seat-squirmingly excrutiating. Most evocative of all for me was the reminder that members of the royal family are human beings who might not actually WANT to fulfil their destiny, but some of them do. That takes courage of a different sort to guns and glory, to triumphing in battle, but it takes courage nonetheless.Oh how we love to scoff at their life of privilege...I wouldn't want that life. Not for a single heartbeat.

And David Seidler had the same sort of quiet determination and courage. He's 73 now and just been signed by United Talent Agency.

You don't HAVE to be out there hustling and attention-seeking and headline-grabbing.

You just have to keep going.