Showbiz History: Olivia marries, Spice Girls act, and Gone With the Wind premieres
Tuesday, December 15, 2020 at 8:00AM 7 random things that happened on this day, December 15th, in showbiz history
1939 Gone With the Wind has its world premiere in Atlanta, Georgia. The premiere was very well documented because the movie was so famous even before release. It was three days (!!!) of festivities in Georgia for the world premiere to usher in the surefire blockbuster. NYC followed a few days later and LA just after Christmas before the movie went nationwide in January of 1940. If you adjust for inflation it's still the highest grossing movie of all time (with Star Wars, The Sound of Music, E.T. and Titanic completing the top five).
1978 Ryan O'Neal risks a sequel to his blockbuster Oscar hit Love Story (1970) called Oliver's Story, new in theaters on this day. It's hard to capture lightning in a bottle twice and critics and audiences weren't fond...
1984 Superstar Olivia Newton-John (then 36) marries actor Matt Lattanzi (then 25). They'd met on Xanadu (1980) where he was a dancer. He even had his own brush with fame, outside of Olivia, briefly as the lead of the sex comedy My Tutor (1983)
1995 A big Friday in movie theaters, twenty-five years ago today, as children's fantasy adventure Jumanji, cop drama Heat, and the romantic comedy remake Sabrina all open wide. Meanwhile French oddity City of Lost Children and future Golden Globe champ Sense and Sensibility both open in limited release.
1997 Spice World has its world premiere in the UK before a Boxing Day release. If you ask us all pop stars should make a big gaudy comic movie about themselves at the peak of their fame.
2004 Million Dollar Baby arrives in movie theaters, upsetting Martin Scorsese's (The Aviator) and Annette Bening's (Being Julia) plans to finally win their Oscars. Scorsese gets his two years later. Annette still waits.
2006 Dreamgirls opens in limited release before going wide for Christmas. It's a big hit and scores 8 nominations but in the end it only wins two Oscars: Sound Mixing and Best Supporting Actress. It's Oscar claim to fame? It's one of the six most-nominated films that DID NOT score a Best Picture nod.
Today's Birthday Suit:
Happy 38th to Charlie Cox
As annoying as all those Disney announcenents were this past week for their feeling of cannibalization (franchise franchise franchise gobble gobble), one rumor thrills. Several sites are speculating that Cox, who was so smashingly good as blind crime-fighting lawyer Daredevil, is reprising that role twice over, as a guest on the forthcoming She-Hulk series as well as in the next Spider-Man film. I'll believe it when I see it but it's nice to dream about. Mmmm Charlie Cox. Dreamy.
Other showbiz people born on this day (actors unless otherwise noted): Michelle Dockery (Downton Abbey) , Adam Brody (The OC, Promising Young Woman), TV star Don Johnson (Miami Vice), Ralph Ineson (The Witch), Stuart Townsend (Queen of the Damned, Salem), Helen Slater (Supergirl, The Legend of Billie Jean), Tim Conway (The Carol Burnett Show), the late Mrs Pierce Brosnan Cassandra Harris (For Your Eyes Only, Remington Steele), Oscar nominated Jeff Chandler (Broken Arrow), Director John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side, The Rookie), Director Julie Taymor (Frida, The Glorias), Harry Lister Smith (stage & screen & voice work), Oscar winner Katina Paxinou (For Whom the Bell Tolls), and cinematographer Joseph Macdonald (The Sand Pebbles).
And because we love Olivia de Havilland and Vivien Leigh, here's an extra gif of them just landed on the tarmac in Atlanta in advance of the GWTW premiere to start your day.
Reader Comments (17)
Matt Lattanzi was a heartthrob in the 80s. Not that I lived the time, but I know it anyway. :-P
And Olivia Newton-John ruled the 80s!
Gone With the Wind, Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh & Co they're never too much, always welcome. And Viv gorgeous even with messy hair.
Charlie Cox, wonderful in any role and image; I read somewhere that they are looking for another actor for Daredevil.
Spice World is strangely good and fun, making good use of the members' persona.
Charlie Cox is shaved in that photo. NEGATIVE POINTS!!!
Olivia and Vivian apparently got along really well even if Bette Davis was de Havilland's friend and hated Leigh (and vice versa).
More Charlie Cox yes
Million Dollar Baby has aged wonderfully. So delicate, so tender, yet unbearably sad. Oscars were so right!
It's seems appropriate that GWTW and Spice World opened on the same day as they are both cinematic masterpieces that have stood the test of time and profoundly changed the way in which we viewed the medium.
Baby -- !!! 😂
You managed to throw me into a reverie about Clark Gable's eternal hotness ("Whatta man, whatta man, whatta man..."), only to short-circuit me with that photo of Charlie Cox's face and (yes, sadly hairless) torso. It's too early in the day for all that.
TheDrMistery: Bette Davis hated everyone and everybody. Except her male co-stars. Like Mae West, she used to speak ill of all female stars, because she hated competition. She got along with Olivia because she never felt threatened by her. Miss DeHavilland - who was really a loving person - would never take her WB queen's crown.
Oh the effortless glamour and class of the GWTW stars and Carole Lombard! Of course I realize it wasn't effortless but they made it seem that way.
I think Charlie Cox as Daredevil actually worked. I heard he might be in the next Spider-Man film and that would be cool. I hope he's given some exposure in other MCU films and maybe his own solo film. He's awesome.
Love Story.... *vomits* What a piece of shit that movie is. "Love means never having to say your sorry".... that is such fucking bullshit.
Matt Lattanzi was a huge crush. Omg
Love Story will always have an allure because of Ali and Ryan’s extraordinary beauty. Sigh
Matt Lattanzi is the Aaron Taylor-Johnson of the 1980s.
Magnificent piece!!!
Regarding Matt Lattanzi, it’s unforgettable his brief appearance in Rich & Famous, Cukor’s swan song, where he’s seduced by luminous Jacqueline Bisset.
The auditions for Gone With the Wind are wonderful . You can see that Paulette Goddard is a possible Scarlett. What is said is that the producer wanted Norma Shearer from the beginning and she passed on the project. Bette Davis would have refused the role when she learned that her Rhett Butler would be Errol Flynn - she, like some, thought he was unable to act to save his life. Gary Cooper said no to the role of Rhett Butler because he thought it would be the biggest flop in Hollywood history.
Leslie Howard was a reluctant addition to the cast saying that Ashley Wilkes was too weak a character and he was too much too old but Selznick promised that he could be associate producer as well as star in Intermezzo, which he starred in and was a hit and the Hollywood debut of Ingrid Bergman.
Jack L. Warner was unwilling to lend de Havilland out for the movie. The Actress turned to Warner's wife Anne for help. Warner relented, and she was signed to the project a few weeks before the start of principal photography.
For the role of Mammy Hattie McDaniel met producer David O. Selznick in full costume of the character to beat her biggest rival, Louise Beavers. He only submitted her for Oscar consideration to the Academy when she came to his office with pages of glowing reviews for her performance from film critics; and she then lobbied for him to submit her for consideration.
Victor Fleming believed the film would fail spectacularly, so he took a salary instead of a percentage of profits. How would he know?
Paramount released at the time expensive movies that failed at the box office: Paint Your Wagon (1969), The Adventurers (1970), The Molly Maguires (1970), Darling Lili(1970) and Catch-22 (1970). It wasn't until the double whammy of Love Story (1970) and The Godfather (1972) that the Paramount fortunes were revived. For this they treated Love Story like if it was Citizen Kane. It was a phenomenon then.