8 random things that happened on this day (Oct 24th) in showbiz history
1962 The depressingly prescient classic The Manchurian Candidate involving Russian infiltration into the US government arrives in theaters, receive tswo Oscar nominations: Supporting Actress Angela Lansbury (who won the Globe but lost the Oscar -- argh!) and Film Editing. It deserved to win both races and it's so annoying that it didn't make the Best Picture list.
1969 After a few scattered premieres and openings in big cities, the Paul Newman / Robert Redford western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid opens everywhere...
It will receive 7 Oscar nominations, winning four of them including Best Cinematography.
1986 Soul Man a comedy in which C Thomas Howell dons blackface (to get into college on an African-American only scholarship) is the highest grossing new release for the weekend. Can you imagine? This was only 32 years ago! Among the unbelievable taglines was "He didn't give up, he got down."
(Since it was an October weekend it was surrounded by future Oscar nominees in the box office top ten that weekend like Crocodile Dundee, The Color of Money, Children of a Lesser God and Peggy Sue Got Married.)
1987 Michael Jackson's "Bad" single hits #1. The video by Martin Scorsese (!) had been out for almost two months at that point.
1997 Modern sci-fi classic Gattaca arrives in theaters starring Jude Law and Uma Thurman as perfect human specimens and Ethan Hawke as a man only pretending to be genetically superior.
2008 'Happy' 10th anniversary to Clint Eastwood's Changeling (2008) which honestly still annoys us because without its blatant Oscar seeking, Sally Hawkins could have been nominated in Best Actress for Happy-Go-Lucky instead of Angelina Jolie since Hawkins, you know, deserved to win the Oscar!
2009 Britney Spears hits #1 with "3" her song about... counting.
Maureen O'Hara arrives at the Governors Awards
2015 Maureen O'Hara died at 95. We'd like to thank the Academy again for giving her an Honorary Oscar before it was too late. And we're still so proud of how much we celebrated her here three years ago with articles on her breakthrough The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), her ravishing leading lady years via Black Swan (1942), her skepticism in Miracle on 34th Street (1947) her personal favorite The Quiet Man (1952) and that 40something comeback as the sexy, funny and dazzling mother of scheming twins in The Parent Trap (1961).
Today's Birthdays
Oscar Winners: Actor F Murray Abraham (Amadeus), Producer Merian C Cooper of King Kong and The Quiet Man fame (Honorary Oscar), Actor Kevin Kline (A Fish Called Wanda) -- have I ever told you how much my mom loves him?, and Designer Tony Walton (All That Jazz)
Oscar Nominees: Cinematography Arthur Edison (Casablanca), Screenwriter Moss Hart (A Star is Born, the 1954 version)
Actors: Tony nominee Raúl Esparza, Ashton Sanders, Kim Ji-Soo, Casey Wilson, and Hideo Takamatsu
Other Showbiz Peeps: Screenwriter Dave Callaham, Director Martin Campbell, Singer Drake, Batman co-creator Bob Kane, Singer Monica, YouTube star PewDiePie, Designer Zac Posen, Cinematography Roman Vasyanov, and Director Matthew Warchus (Pride) who we had a great interview with a few years back.
Today's Birthday Suit
Happy 58th birthday to Tony winner and Emmy nominee B.D. Wong (an actor we've always loved - how great was he on Mr Robot?). Here he is as "naked Charlie Chaplin". We have no idea why this photo was taken or what it's about but Wong shared it on his twitter page so we're sharing it with you.
