Hairspray ST and medieval betrothal -> marriage times

[burntcopper]

Listening to the soundtrack of the Hairspray film. We approve. :g: (I was considering buying the Broadway soundtrack but I heard the samples and... oh god. everyone's voice grates, which admittedly could be related to West End vs. Broadway style. And the original momma Turnblad is deep and gravelly and after I was used to Michael Ball singing it as a woman it's just... no.) Anyway. The film soundtrack is fully bouncy and good - most of the actors don't have powerhouse voices of the stage but they don't grate, which is the main thing. Michelle Pfeiffer, you clearly need to exercise your pipes more, since you had a much more powerful voice in Grease 2. James Marsden : DO MORE MUSICALS. you're way too much fun when you do cheesy (also see Enchanted).

Anyone seen the film? is it worth buying? (play.com has it for a fiver) Did they keep the more explicit actions in?

Question for the historical nuts on the flist. Working out nano timelines and plausibility with regard to real-world politics of medieval era. (I'm trying to make this make sense. Which unfortunately means trying to apply logic and historical implications to a fantasy world. Yes, SUICIDAL. This is going to break my brain. Insanity is a given because this is nano.) Anyway. To shut the Telmarines up a bit and make it look like they're trying for stability and unity, Susan's been betrothed to Caspian (and of course groaning that she managed to avoid a political marriage for fifteen years last time). So. Um. I need to figure out what's plausible for time between announcement of engagement and marriage. The only ones I've been able to find where there was an engagement of much time in royal alliance marriages (admittedly most of my knowledge is the Plantagenet era), it was *years* because the betrothal was declared when they were children, and most of those, they were sent to be a ward of court on announcement of betrothal. The others (engagement as adults), it's a couple of months max. Ages I'm going with for everyone is Peter - 16/17, Susan - 15/16, Edmund - 14, Lucy - 13. Caspian 19-21 since film Caspian is older than Peter (instead of the other way round like he is in the books), so age isn't an issue for Susan getting married straightaway.

help? please?

Comments

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know the betrothal laws - also see one of the reasons the Princes in the Tower were declared illegitimate, Elizabeth Woodville was engaged to someone else when she married Edward. And Isabella, John's wife. Engaged, kidnapped by John (apparently a very common way to get heiresses), *still* considered lawfully engaged to her previous fiancé when John died.

However, John's a pretty good example of how betrothals go out the window if someone richer/more politically astute comes along.

However, I'm not going down this route - partially because nothing of the sort is mentioned in the books, partly because I have too much other stuff going on, and also it strikes me that the current crop of Telmarines are really isolationist.