Showbiz History: Regina King, Happy Days, and Meryl's sixth Globe win
Friday, January 15, 2021 at 9:00AM
6 random things that happened on this day, January 15th, in showbiz history
1948 This date is iffy (the internet can't seem to agree) but some say John Huston's classic The Treasure of Sierra Madre had its premiere in Los Angeles. At any rate, factually, it came out in sometime in January. A year later it will be up for four Oscars including Best Picture and win Best Supporting Actor for Walter Huston, the director's father. Later Huston will direct his daughter Anjelica to an Oscar win for Prizzi's Honor making him the only person in Oscar history to direct two family members to Oscars. The Hustons were the first three-generation Oscar winning family. The Coppolas followed later...
1974 Happy Days premieres on ABC with a plot about Richie Cunningham hoping to lose his virginity to the town's fast girl. In this teenage horny angst way and in its 1950s "nostalgia" setting it was like a spiritual sequel to the smash hit movie American Graffiti (1973) which (non-coincidentally) also starred Ron Howard. The sitcom will spawn FIVE spinoffs (Laverne & Shirley, Blanksy's Beauties, Mork & Mindy, Out of the Blue, and Joanie Loves Chachi) plus two non prime-time cartoons, and two pilots for additional spin-offs that weren't picked up. It would run for 11 seasons but literally "jump the shark" in season 5.
1999 ...twas a banner year in film but not everything was golden. Val Kilmer and Mira Sorvino's romantic drama At First Sight, the Annette Bening psychological horror film In Dreams, the James Van der Beek sports movie Varsity Blues, and the Jamie Lee Curtis Donald Sutherland sci-fi horror picture Virus were the first major releases to emerge in the new year (in the US at least) and weren't necessarily screaming "this will be one of the great years of cinema!"
2007 The 64th annual Golden Globes were held with the strange outcome of Babel triumphing in Best Picture Drama (without winning anything else) and the expected outcome of Dreamgirls winning in Best Musical or Comedy. But the happiest wins of the night were Meryl triumphing for The Devil Wears Prada both because nobody gives better speeches and because it's one of her three best performances... and Alexandre Desplat unexpectedly winning Best Score for one of his all-time greatest efforts The Painted Veil (he wasn't nominated at the Oscars because he wasn't yet a default nominee them).
2012 69th annual Golden Globes were held with The Descendants and The Artist emerging as the Best of 2011 winners. That was the night that Hollywood couldn't stop their juvenile giggling about the size of Michael Fassbender's dick and the night Viola drank up and lost to Meryl (predicting the Oscars. sigh). It was also the night that prompted us to make this gif we always wanted to find reasons to reuse.
2019 Carol Channing dies at 97. *sniffle*
Today's Birthday Suit(s)
Happy 50th birthday to Emmy and Oscar winner Regina King, queen of the designer suit and one of Hollywood's most talented forces. For her birthday today, watch One Night in Miami, her directorial debut. It just hit Amazon Prime.
Another actor we love: The very underrated Victor Rasuk who we first fell for in Raising Victor Vargas. Subsequent credits include Godzilla, E.R., Stop-Loss, Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, The Mule, and the Fifty Shades trilogy. He would have also made a good choice for "Today's Birthday Suit"
Other showbiz birthdays today: TV star Lloyd Bridges (Sea Hunt, Roots), Jamie Clayton (Sense8, Hung), Andrea Martin (My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Diane), Austria's two-time BAFTA nominee Maria Schell (Gervaise, The Heart of the Matter), Marjorie Bennett (Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, "Duchess" in 101 Dalmatians), Victor Rasuk (Raising Victor Vargas, Godzilla), Margaret O'Brien (Meet Me in St Louis), and Dove Cameron (Liv & Maddie), Eddie Cahill (Under the Dome, Miracle), Mario van Peebles (Heartbreak Ridge, Damages), Chad Lowe (Life Goes On, Supergirl), composer/actor Ivor Novello, DJ Jazzy Jeff, and Phyllis Coates who was the original Lois Lane in Adventures of Superman. (She's one of the oldest living screen actors. Happy 94th to the actress today)
Reader Comments (18)
Not a great 1999’s entrance, I agree. But I like In Dreams, it’s a minor Neil Jordan movie with beautiful cinematography and great art direction.
Didn't Matthew Knowles say that Meryl Streep won over his daughter because of racism?
How weird is it that Beth Leavel will be playing the iconic Miranda Priestly created by Meryl Streep, while Meryl Streep turned in a Dee Dee Allen performance created by Beth Leavel. Frankly, I would have rather seen both of them in their original roles they were both BORN to play. Been listening to the Broadway The Prom soundtrack, and boy, Beth's version of It's Not About Me is spectacular.
BTW-The Devil Wears Prada IS one of Meryl's finest films and performances.
Wasn't Happy Days itself spun off from Love, American Style?
I'll always remember IN DREAMS because it was the first date I ever had with a girl.
Please note: I'm gay now. :-) lol
Ignoring the Chinatown snub and looking at John Huston's only acting nomination for The Cardinal, should it have been three generations of Huston Acting winners? I'd still give it to Melvyn Douglas in Hud, but some may feel differently.
Raspberries.
Yes the "Happy Days" pilot was part of "Love American Style" it was called " Love and the Happy Days" it had different actor playing the father and was a bit more realistic than the eventual series
Virus is total rubbish but i'll watch Jamie Lee in anything.
1999 was the year Sorvino slipped away and was rarely seen in major movies after that,was it the Weinstein effect.
In Dreams has some really weird imagery and as underrated in my opinion plus Aidan Quinn was hot.
The Academy were misguided in not giving Meryl a 3rd for Prada maybe they didn't realise how iconic that role would be come,Helen Mirren fine in The Queen but she never wowed me in anything except in Gosford Park.
Helen Mirren steamrolling for The Queen always confused me. She was quite fine, but I'd probably place her 5th that year. Great lineup, though.
I'd've liked to have seen a 3-way tie in 2007 between Mirren, Streep and Judi Dench in Notes on a Scandal. They're all pretty tremendous.
I remember watching In Dreams and thinking "this has some great cinematography for a really generic genre picture."
Maybe because I went into it with low expectations Varsity Blues turned out to be much better than I thought it would be. It's no great lost gem but an enjoyable sports/coming of age drama.
Carol Channing's stage legacy is so huge it's a pity her special brand of personality didn't translate well to the silver screen. She was just too BIG and too MUCH but once seen she was unforgettable.
Virus was terrible and Jamie Lee Curtis said it is the worst movie she's ever done. Actually, I think Christmas with the Kranks is the worst film she's done.
Meryl winning for The Devil Wears Prada felt right and it is the performance that I think not only proved something people already knew but I feel like it was her coming out party to a new generation that allowed her to become something she hadn't been. A draw. I'm still waiting for that Meryl Streep action franchise.
@ken s, i agree about the great performances by Mirren, Streep and Dench in 2007. I feel like Notes on a Scandal, in which both Dame Judi and Cate Blanchett were terrific, was totally overlooked. I've watched it twice so far. Such a smart and gripping film. The thing that was wrong with The Queen is that they never gave you the feeling these people lived in uncommon luxury.
Desplat actually was nominated, but for The Queen and not The Painted Veil. It took the music branch a while to give a fair shake to some of his more interesting scores (like his Wes Anderson stuff), but by and large they mostly seem to like his prestige-y work.
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I LOVE Meryl in TDWP obviously, but not a chance in hell ANYONE was beating Mirren for The Queen that year. Or any year.
Thankfully the Globes have seperated awards for Drama and Comedy/Musical.^^"