Judy by the Numbers: "Look For The Silver Lining"

Anne Marie is tracking Judy Garland's career through musical numbers...

Believe it or not, 1946 actually represented a change of pace in Judy Garland's career. Judy only had three credits to her name that year: one starring role (The Harvey Girls), one cameo delayed by reshoots (Ziegfeld Follies), and one appearance in a biopic (Till The Clouds Roll By). In fact, this change of pace was a conscious choice on the part of Mr. & Mrs. Minnelli. If Judy looks like she's glowing a bit more than usual under those arclights, that's because Judy Garland was pregnant.

 
 
The Movie: Till The Clouds Roll By (1946)
The Songwriter: Jerome Kern (music), Buddy G. DeSylva (lyrics)
The Players: Judy Garland, Robert Walker, Van Heflin, June Allyson, Lucille Bremer, directed by Richard Whorf & Vincente Minnelli 

The Story: Till The Clouds Roll By is a Jerome Kern biopic, which (in the true MGM style) fabricates or glosses over nearly all of the composer's life in favor of a Technicolor musical extravaganza. Judy plays Marilyn Miller, a megawatt Ziegfeld Follies star whose heyday was encompassed the 1920s. At her peak, Miller had had musicals and songs written for her on Broadway, including "Look For The Silver Lining," from Kern's musical Sally. Miller was even beginning to break into Hollywood when illness, substance abuse, and alcoholism forced her into retirement in the early 1930s. Marilyn Miller died in 1936 at age 37, another sad showbusiness story. None of this makes it into the movie, though. Besides, Judy was so focused on the upcoming birth that she may have missed the all-to-prescient warning of the woman she portrayed.

When Garland filmed her two songs for the Jerome Kern biopic, she was already four months pregnant. MGM covered up the pregnancy by fitting her clothes a little looser, and inserting a sink, some dishes (and some dancers' hands) between Judy and the camera. Five months later (nine months before the movie was released) Judy and Vincente welcomed into the world a bouncing baby talent: Liza May Minnelli.

Share Your Emmy (Comedy) Ballots

If you follow me on Twitter you may have already seen these but I've shared all my ballots for TV acting as it's the only thing I have energy for today. Tough week for the world so honoring comedy seems emotionally right, laughter being the best medicine. Otherwise today is a mental health day break from blogging.

Younger (S2) my fantasy for a Best Comedy Series nomination. I'm aware it won't happen

Trust me when I tell you that I had to leave out a ton of people I love.  But unlike Emmy I move on if a performance doesn't continue evolving (even if I still love it just as much) and I also move on if, in my personal fantasy ballots each year, I feel like I've amply awarded that actor for that character already. Even if they continue to excel. Rare is the case when I would nominate the same actor over and over again from a strong ensemble show as most performances as well as most shows have peaks and valleys when it comes to various characters.

My ballots are after the jump... Share yours in the comments!

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Next up on "Hit Me With Your Best Shot"

Wanna join us? It's easy to play. Just...

1. watch the movie
2. pick your favorite shot
3. post that shot to your blog, twitter, instagram, tumblr or wherever and say why you chose it. Hashtag it #HMWYBS so we see it
4. we link up on the night of the event when we post the roundup

TUES JUNE 28th
To Catch a Thief (1955, Alfred Hitchcock. US. 106 minutes)
Something light & summery as the weather keeps on heating up. Join Cary Grant and Grace Kelly on the French Riviera. Winner of Best Cinematography at the Oscars. [Netflix Instant Watch  | Amazon | iTunes]

Nicole Kidman Reuniting With Jane Campion

While we've been pounding the drum for our Emmy hopefuls in the past week, we got some new television casting news to obsess over: Nicole Kidman has signed on for the second season of Top of the Lake.

The previously rumored casting is most exciting for the reuniting of our beloved star with her The Portrait of a Lady director Jane Campion at long last! This coming season will jump forward in time with Elizabeth Moss's detective returning for a brand new case, so it's fair game on what role Kidman will play in the investigation. But a lack of details is the tiniest of complaints when you are reuniting a pair that collaborated on what is some of the most underrated work for them both.

Game of Thrones's Gwendoline Christie is also joining this season, but this won't be Kidman's first actress heavy dive into long form television. Next year, she also has HBO's Big Little Lies coming with both Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern. That's hours of Kidman to soak up, not to mention her upcoming films How to Talk to Girls at Parties and Lion (and Genius out now), so rejoice away!

This second season of Lake has been longing gestating since the miniseries first debuted in 2013, winning Moss a Golden Globe and becoming a Netflix staple. If you haven't caught up to it, now's the time for a binge watch before one of our favorites signs up.

It’s only 'It’s Only the End of the World'

Josh here, reflecting on the backlash against Xavier Dolan now he’s seen It’s Only the End of the World at the Sydney Film Festival

In what must be a true sign of success, Xavier Dolan was booed and savaged by critics at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year when his latest film It’s Only the End of the World premiered. The reaction was swift not just against his film, but against the filmmaker himself. Dolan address this, and reacted strongly to The Playlist which remarked “It's simply impossible to believe that a story this stridently self-pitying could not refer, more or less explicitly, to writer/director Dolan himself… It suggests a level of martyred self-involvement on Dolan's part that is tantamount to a persecution complex”. This was just one of many vicious reactions online and especially on twitter, against the film but then, in turn, against Dolan for defending himself against criticism.

The apparent taboo of a filmmaker reading, and responding to a critic was a major sore point. As though a critic should get the final word. It’s hard here not to recall the brilliant monologue from Ratatouille...

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