Irish Eye on Hollywood: Eve Hewston and Tom Hanks to Star in "Bridge of Spies"

In October, which is when Oscar-buzzed movies really start to hit the screens, two-time Best Actor winner Tom Hanks plays Irish American lawyer James Joseph Donovan in the Steven Spielberg movie Bridge of Spies. (The name of this flick has also changed; it was originally known as St. James Place.) Irish American Amy Ryan and Irish actress (and Bono’s daughter) Eve Hewson also star in Bridge of Spies. It centers on Donovan, the Cold War diplomat and New York City native with roots in Clonakilty, Cork, according to Donovan’s biographer Phillip J. Bigger. Donovan, Bigger writes, “was reared in a conservative Catholic home where concepts of family, religion, educational attainment and patriotism were key essentials – and he lived up to all of them.” Donovan was later tabbed by the Kennedy administration to meet with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. He had to negotiate the release of prisoners who were captured by Cuban authorities during the Bay of Pigs invasion, which U.S. officials had supported in the hopes that it would lead to the overthrow of Castro’s Communist regime. ♦