Showbiz History: Jane & Tom, Elizabeth Taylor shouting "Gladiator!"
Thursday, January 21, 2021 at 9:00AM 6 random things that happened on this day, January 21st, in showbiz history
1973 Jane Fonda marries activist Tom Hayden (they were already pregnant with son Troy Garity, who followed his mom into the acting profession). Hayden is played by Eddie Redmayne in the Best Picture hopeful Trial of the Chicago 7 which takes place from 1968 through 1970. The couple divorced in 1990.
1978 The soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever hits #1 on the Billboard 200 Album chart (where it will stay for an incredible six months). One week later the film will lose all of its categories at the Golden Globes even Best Song "How Deep Is Your Love" which loses to "You Light Up My Life"...
1982 Jet Li makes his film debut at the age of 19 in Shaolin Temple which premiered on this day in Hong Kong. He was billed as Lianjie Li but during the press tour, they settled on his nickname "Jet" for future movies as it was easier for international audiences to pronounce and remember. Jet Li hasn't been making movies recently due to health problems but he does have a brief role as the Emperor in Mulan, currently streaming on Disney+
1995 The 52nd annual Golden Globes are held. Forrest Gump and The Lion King, the top two box office grossers of 1994, take the Best Picture prizes. None of the Globe categories transferred fully intact to Oscar that season but it's worth noting that their Foreign Language Film lineup was better than Oscars. For the 1994 film year they chose Farinelli (Belgium), Eat Drink Man Woman (Taiwan), the ravishing epic Queen Margot (France), the brilliant Three Colors Red (Switzerland), and the Gong Li picture To Live (Hong Kong) while Oscar only included the first two, alongside Burnt by the Sun (Russia), Before the Rain (Macedonia), and Strawberry & Chocolate (Cuba). Different submission rules accounts for some of the differences of course. In both cases, though, what a good year for that category!
1996 The 53rd Golden Globes were held on this day, exactly a quarter century ago, celebrating the 1995 film year. Sense & Sensibility and Babe share Best Picture honors making this particular Globe year way better than the Oscas which gave the top prize to Braveheart (*vomits*)!
2001 The 58th Golden Globes are held. Gladiator and Almost Famous take the Best Picture prizes while The West Wing and Sex & The City are honored in TV. But all that anyone remembers about this evening was Liz Taylor's drunk confused and giddy exuberance when announcing...
"GLADIATOR!"
Today's Birthday Suit
Today would have been the 95th birthday of bodybuilder / philanthrophist / actor Steve Reeves who was a famous star in the 1950s for Italian-made sword and sandal epics, most notably the Hercules series. We first learned his name, as so many teenagers of the 80s and 90s surely did, via Tim Curry's "sweet transvestite" in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Let me show you around, maybe play you a sound
You look like you're both pretty groovy
Or if you want something visual, that's not too abysmal
We could take in an old Steve Reeves movie
Other showbiz birthday today: Oscar winner Geena Davis (Thelma & Louise, Accidental Tourist), Oscar winner Paul Scofield (The Crucible, A Man For All Seasons), Oscar nominee J Carrol Nash (Sahara, A Medal for Benny), Craig Roberts (Submarine, Neighbors), Telly Savalas (Kojak), Booboo Stewart (Twilight Saga), Michael Wincott (The Crow, Talk Radio), Izabella Miko (Coyote Ugly, Clash of the Titans), Ken Leung (Lost, The Inhumans), Robbie Benson (Beauty & The Beast, Harry & Son), Karina Lombard (Legends of the Fall, Wide Sargasso Sea), Svetlana Khodchenkova (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Director David F Sandberg (Lights Out, Shazam!), Steve Reeves (Hercules franchise), Lars Eidinger (Clouds of Sils Maria, My Little Sister), Ann Wedgeworth (Sweet Dreams), Bollywood's late actor Sushant Singh Rajput (Dil Bechara, MS Dhoni The Untold Story), Benny Hill (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Benny Hill Show), Baby Spice Emma Bunton (Spice World), and director Gorô Miyazaki (son of Hayao) whose latest Earwig and the Witch (2020) is hoping to be an Oscar nominee in Best Animated Feature this year.
Reader Comments (17)
Elizabeth Taylor saying “Gladiator” is a joy, but often overlooked is her even more amazing “y’all, y’all, y’all” closing a few minutes later which is fabulously random. And the reality is hr award presentations were ALWAYS joyously clumsy and giddy affairs ranging from the 1970 Best Picture Oscar to Midnight Cowboy to the all-time champ her presenting the 1981 Best Musical Tony Award to 42nd Street. I think a post of clips of Elizabeth’s award-giving history would be a fabulous celebration of award season and Dame Elizabeth (and please include that Tony clip!)!
IT’S MY BIRTHDAY!!!
Elizabeth Taylor should have done more comedies; it's easy to understand why she was given more roles in dramas and melodramas, but she always exudes a sense of humor in her speech and always seems don't take herself so seriously. /// Braveheart is very good. And contains Mel Gibson at the height of his career as a leading man / superstar / box office draw. And Russell Crowe only got the role in Gladiator because Mel said no - he thought he was old to play the part.
Not the best image of the beautiful Steve Reeves who had a face and body made for the movies
Hayden is depicted as a douchebag in Chicago 7. I need a complementary HBO doc or something.
I just finished Jane's memoir My Life So Far, and it is excellent (maybe the best celebrity memoir I've ever read). She's a great writer and so honest about her life, her faults, and her encounters with other famous people. (And Tom Hayden is depicted as a douchebag there, too. Ted Turner comes off as the best of her three exes.)
Much of the non-inclusion of Trois Couleurs: Rouge in the Oscar's line-up for foreign-language film was because of the film's co-productions involving Switzerland, Poland and France. They were a bit purists then, but then again, even now. That film continues to age well upon re-watching.
Just for the record: the Oscar and Golden Globes line-ups of foreign-language films that year were both wonderful although I admit some of those films I loved before did not have the same pull much later, while others that I did not really care about then, resonate more now.
Wide Sargasso Sea is a wonderful film (it is always a staple in film school syllabi). The film was remembered more for the graphic contents but I thought it was a good distillation of Jean Rhys' novel -- the anti-colonial answer to Charlotte Brönte's "Jane Eyre". Karina Lombard as the 'mad woman in the attic' in the Brönte book is mysterious, beautiful, and unknowable -- so precise for the role. The film also starred post-Flirting Naomi Watts but I didn't notice her then.
Jet Li is in Romeo Must Die!
I always thought Jet Li was a good name so he and his advisors did well. I was wondering where he's been lately.
1995 was such an odd year for movies and nominees as I recall. Almost all the nominees were unconventional in some way, leading to the win going to the most conventional (read dull) nominee in the group, Braveheart.
You mention Strawbetry & Chocolate here, a wonderful movie. Sad info: one of the directors has just died.
Sense and Sensibility - THE GREATEST. I've been thinking of Emma Thompson's run of Howards End/In the Name of the Father/Much Ado About Nothing/Remains of the Day/Sense and Sensibility this week after rewatching Remains of the Day.
If anyone hasn't seen her Golden Globes acceptance speech for Sense and Sensibility, it is just wonderful.
happy birthday Fadhil!!!!
The trio of Liz, Liza and Michael Jackson were all supposedly good friends. Now we have Liz slurring and being just plain stupid. There is also the sad/pitiful/hilarious Liza on Home Shopping Network selling her clothes and being high on some sort of drug or booze. And of course Michael at the end of his life was on some feel-good drug that eventually took his life. No wonder some of us are addicts!
Braveheart, ugh.
"You Light Up My Life".... what an awful song.
I saw Tom Hayden in the Jane Fonda documentary. He's kind of a douche but he came off well and fair. I still prefer Ted and I hope that before he dies. He gives Vince McMahon a kick in the fucking balls. Revenge for World Championship Wrestling and a big fuck you to WWE so that All Elite Wrestling, New Japan Pro Wrestling, the National Wrestling Alliance (if it survives), and every other wrestling promotion can thrive.
Jaragon -- well, it was the only naked one i found ;)
@ Nathaniel & Jaragon
Young Steve (well, he's also young in the posted image)
Yikes!
Never thought I’d see praise for the sexist, racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic (all instances of these episodes were taped), on this site, but everyone has their own view. Personally, I say his horrid personality spills over into both his “acting,” and his “directing.” And yet he’s seemingly forgiven and invited back into the Oscar family while Woody Allen remains ostracized for unproven charges. To Mel Gibson : Be gone, along with that racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-Semitic fascist hero of yours, Donald Trump!