You spoke and asked us to keep doing this series but we have to simplify so it won't be as deep divey. We still hope it's fun for you -Editor
4 random things that happened today, December 7th, in showbiz history
1979 Star Trek: The Motion Picture opens in movie theaters, the first major move in transforming the shortlived 60s tv show into an undying franchise.
1990 Mega-blockbuster Home Alone was enjoying its fourth (of an astonishing twelve!!!!!!) weekend atop the box office charts while two future classics and two of the best films of the year opened in limited release...
They were Edward Scissorhands and The Grifters. We love them both to this day, don't you? Happy 30th anniversary to those excellent films.
Jane and Ted in 1990
Meanwhile, superstar icon Jane Fonda and billionaire Ted Turner announced their engagement. She abruptly retired from acting soon thereafter and people, including young Nathaniel, blamed him. But she has long since revealed that he wasn't the reason. She was miserable with her career at the time and wanted out and he happened to come along at the same time. She returned to acting in 2005, four years after their divorce.
2001 All star heist classic Oceans 11 opens with huge numbers in movie theaters, becoming the biggest hit of Steven Sodebergh's career (grossing nearly half a billion globally), just 9 months after his Oscar win as Best Director for Traffic (2000). (Listen, Ang Lee should've won that particular Oscar but since they were going to give it to Steve all the time, Erin Brockovich was the correct answer!)
2019 Little Women has its premiere at MoMA in New York City before opening on Christmas day in movie theaters and becoming both a major hit and an Oscar nominated Best Picture. Quick: when was the last time you thought of this now just one year-old movie?
Today's Birthday Suit
Happy birthday to one of the best actors of his generation Nicholas Hoult, pictured here in a pair of stockings in The True History of the Kelly Gang. He was born 31 years ago on this day in Wokingham, England.
Okay, maybe he doesn't yet have the reputation of 'one of the best actors of his generation' but we'd argue that he will and that his beauty has merely delayed the rep (as is often the case with young male actors -- blame the double standards of the patriarchy!) His work in films like Mad Max Fury Road, Warm Bodies, The Favourite, and TV series like The Great (among others) shows a good sized range, bold swing confidence, a solid grasp of genre and tone, and a sly understanding of how to play absurdist or droll comedy. And we assume he's just getting started. Huzzah, etc.
Other people we ❤️ born on this day: Brilliant Jeffrey Wright, inimitable actor/musician Tom Waits, hilarious Broadway trouper Julie Halston, and Oscar winning giants of actressing, Fay Bainter and Ellen Burstyn