Showbiz History: Chéri, Elvis, and Top Gun: Maverick?
Wednesday, June 26, 2019 at 8:00AM 7+ random things that happened on this day (June 26th) in history...
1925 Charlie Chaplin's classic The Gold Rush premieres at the Egyptian theatre in Hollywood. Tickets were $5.50 (which would be around $70 today)
1971 The 21st annual Berlinale begins (it used to be held in the summer rather than February). The winner will be Vittoria de Sica's Italian classic The Garden of the Finzi Continis which will win the Oscar the following April for Best Foreign Language Film...
1977 Elvis Presley's very last concert is held in Indianapolis. He dies in August.
1987 The Mel Brooks spoof Spaceballs opens in theaters
1979 Moonraker, i.e. James Bond in space, has its world premiere in London before hitting movie theaters very soon thereafter in both the UK and the US.
2009 Eventual Best Picture winner The Hurt Locker (which Michael just celebrated in his amazing series "The New Classics") and Chéri starring Michelle Pfeiffer in her first leading role in then several years both opened in US movie theaters. Somehow not even the costumes of Chéri get nominated at the Oscars. Boo!
2020 Top Gun: Maverick, a 34 years later sequel, and Lin-Manuel Miranda's movie musical adaptation In the Heights are due to face off in movie theaters on this very day next year!
Today's Birthday Suit
Happy 49th birthday to actor Nick Offerman. It's still so offensive that he was never even nominated for an Emmy for his perpetual hilarity on Parks & Recreation. He and the brilliant Megan Mullaly are couple goals.
More Birthdays
Oscar winners: Composer Dave Grusin (The Milagro Beanfield War), Makeup artist Dick Smith (Amadeus)
Oscar nominees: Actress Eleanor Parker (Caged!), Writer/Director Paul Thomas Anderson (Phantom Thread), Actress Jeanne Eagles (The Letter), Cinematographre Pawel Edelman (The Pianist)
Directors: Jerry Schatzberg, Olivier Dahan
Actors: Peter Lorre, Aubrey Plaza, Chris O'Donnell, Dany Boon, Jason Schwartzman, Robert Davi, Ricky Jay, Sean Hayes, Matt Letscher, Gedde Watanabe, Josef Sommer, Arjun Kapoor, and Wen Zhang.
Other celebrities: Ariana Grande, Chris Isaak, Terri Nunn (Berlin), Mick Jones (The Clash), Patty Smyth, and Derek Jeter.
Reader Comments (10)
How in the world does PTA not have a single Oscar? I don't understand the Academy's relationship to him. He gets a Best Director nod for Phantom Thread but misses a Screenplay?
I don't understand.
I hate the cast of The Prom. Hate it!
I didn't realize Dave Grusin had an Oscar. Bizarre! What was the context?
Nobody expected him to win that year. He wasn't even there. I had my money on Zimmer for Rain Man (I would have voted for Williams).
Dave Grusin were working in Hollywood for decades at the time, so his win was also a career prize.
In 1988, I would for sure, choose George Fenton marvelous work in Dangerous Liaisons as the best of the year...
And speaking about scores, Alexandre Desplat should also have be nominated for the delightful Chéri music.
Nat i'm fuzzy on your thought on MIchelle in Cheri,should/could she have broken into that 2009 line up.
Doug, omg i used to listen to the soundtrack to Dangerous Liaisons so much. I was pretty shocked that it lost the Oscar that year.
mark -- she was not in my own top 5 that year. I like her in it (of course) and she made my finalist list but in the end I couldn't live without this the top five.
Pfeiffer was so luminous n delicate in Cheri!! Kinda like Garbo in Camille..
With the right push, she might hav gotten the Oscar!! Too bad Cheri din go down well w audience n critics
Nick Oferman is funny and looks hot Megan is one lucky woman...
Michelle was great n Cheri. Certainly thought she merited an Oscar nomination. Perhaps the fact that she'd not had a leading role for 6 years hurt her chances. Critics panned the movie, but liked her role.
Her co-star (I can't even remember his name) was only so so.