Showbiz History: "Blame It (on the Alcohol)" or Pazuzu
Tuesday, January 26, 2021 at 8:00AM 8 random things that happened on this day, January 26th, in showbiz history...
1931 Cimarron premieres in NYC. It becomes the first western to win Best Picture
1961 The Mark opens in theaters. You have to see the trailer to believe it (film distributors were so excited at the new raciness of the 1960s). Stuart Whitman, a rising star of the time and a last minute replacement for Richard Burton, received an Oscar nomination playing a ex-con child molester who is suspected of a new crime...
Max von Sydow and Linda Blair at the Golden Globes for "The Exorcist"
1974 The 31st annual Golden Globes Awards are held with The Exorcist and American Graffiti winning the Drama and Comedy categories (future Oscar winner The Sting wasn't nominated for any prizes). The Globes also nominated Paper Moon's little Tatum O'Neal in the correct category (lead - there's only one scene in the movie that doesn't include her) which freed up the other little girl of that awards season, Linda Blair, to win Best Supporting Actress for The Exorcist. We had SO MUCH FUN discussing that particular Oscar race years ago with Dana Delany and other special guests.
1985 The 42nd annual Golden Globe awards are held with Amadeus and Romancing the Stone winning the Best Film prizes and Murder She Wrote and The Cosby Show the TV favourites. This was the first of Kathleen Turner's two consecutive Golden Globe wins for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy... she did not have similar luck at the Oscars (sigh). Every single movie category (barring the comedy categories which Oscar doesn't have) except International Film repeated their wins at the Oscars.
2001 The romantic comedy The Wedding Planner with JLo and McConaughey and the cheerleader crime comedy Sugar & Spice both open in movie theaters. Remember those ones?
2003 The Sundance Film Festival ends with American Splendor taking the Grand Jury prize and The Station Agent the Audience Award. Both had some awards success later in the year but Oscar voters mostly ignored both of them, save a lone screenplay nomination for Splendor.
2009 Jamie Foxx drops his single "Blame It (on the Alcohol)" which becomes a huge hit and Grammy winner. The music video was an all movie star affair starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Forest Whitaker, Samuel L Jackson, Ron Howard, and Jamie Foxx with other stars making cameos.
2014 The Sundance Film Festival ends with Whiplash winning the Grand Jury and Audience Prize. The feature will make Damien Chazelle a star director and win J.K. Simmons an Oscar.
Today's Birthday Suit
Happy 72nd birthday to one of our favourite character actors, David Strathairn. He's currently co-starring in Nomadland where he offers companionship to fiercely independent Fern (Frances McDormand) on her journey.
Strathairn made his debut in 1979's influential indie Return of the Secaucus Seven (pictured left) and career highlights since have been numerous but we're especially partial to Silkwood, A League of Their Own, Passion Fish, River Wild, and Good Night and Good Luck. Next up he'll play Toni Collette's drunk carny husband in Nightmare Alley for Guillermo del Toro.
Other Showbiz Birthdays today: The iconic Paul Newman (Hud, The Hustler), Scott Glenn (Silence of the Lambs, The Bourne Ultimatum), Cameron Bright (Birth, The Twilight Saga), Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, Winter Sleep), Oscar winning screenwriter Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons, Atonement), Oscar winning eye-candy genius Catherine Martin (Moulin Rouge!, The Great Gatsby), Sweden's Björn Andrésen (Death in Venice, MidSommar), Director Mimi Leder (On the Basis of Sex, Deep Impact), French director and serial husband of actresses Roger Vadim (Barbarella, ...and God Created Woman), France's Melvil Poupaud (Laurence Anyways, A Christmas Tale), Director George Tillman Jr (The Hate U Give, Soul Food), sexy Gilles Marini (Sex & The City, Brothers & Sisters), Kathryn Leigh Scott (House of Dark Shadows), Joan Leslie (Yankee Doodle Dandy, Sergeant York), Charles Lane (It's a Wonderful Life, You Can't Take It With You), South Korea's Park Hae-il (Memories of Murder, The Host), Egypt's Suad Husni (Saghira El Hob, Khally Balek Min ZouZou), Composer and former Prince band member Wendy Melvoin (Purple Rain, Nurse Jackie), talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, and hockey legend Wayne Gretzky.
Reader Comments (21)
David Straithairn should have win the Oscar for My Blueberry Nights.
Strathairn is an actor who never phones it in no matter what the role,a latter day Martin Balsam.
The only time I have held a trophy on national television, you motherfuckers.
Miss Turner, you didn't attend in 85, 86, and 89. Maybe they assumed you didn't give a damn.
I always thought Sugar & Spice was a little gem of a movie. Definitely not a 'great' film, but a rather enjoyable one.
So odd that Turner missed the Oscar cut the years she won the Golden Globe...and then made the cut the time she lost the Globe.
I don't campaign. Who do you think I am? Brie Parsons?
I loved American Splendor then and still do. Paul Giamatti and Hope Davis had believable chemistry. The film also benefited from the appearances of the real Harvey Pekar and Shari Springer Berman. That film beautifully and vividly captured the bluesy precariousness of an artist's life.
I once attended a session where Christopher Hampton was discussing and detailing the intricate, challenging and daunting task of translating Choderlos de Laclos' epistolary novel "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" into the vibrant play (and later, film) that we know. I saw that play on Broadway a few years ago with Janet McTeer and Liev Schreiber as the Marquise and Valmont -- it was a bit anti-climactic and not as tense dramatically as in the film version. Nevertheless, Hampton's screenplay Oscar for Dangerous Liaisons was truly deserved.
Love that pic of Von Sydow and Blair. How handsome was he!
Roger Vadim, this guy really did have a "type". Brigitte Bardot, Annette Stroyberg, Jane Fonda, Catherine Deneuve, etc.
American Splendor(2003) is amazing.
When will we finally admit that Kathleen Turner is a remarkable comedienne and put her in the pantheon of the comedy goddesses alongside icons like Carole Lombard and Jean Arthur? The world needs to talk more about Romancing the Stone(1984) and The Jewel of the Nile(1985).
The novel Cimarron is a very entertaining well written novel, the movie that Hollywood made out of it except for one very good scene-the land rush-is dreadful. The second worst Best Picture winner after Around the World in 80 Days.
The Mark has excellent acting but is a tough sit. Whitman deserved his nomination.
I'm not much of a JLo nor a McConaughey fan but they worked well together in The Wedding Planner making it a pleasant diversion, and Judy Greer stole her scenes as Lopez's assistant.
Yeah, very handsome shot of von Sydow there (and of Strathairn for that matter, but he always looks handsome).
"Return of the Secaucus Seven" is a forgotten film - a true independent production before Hollywood took over Sundance and made it a low budget Oscar bait factory
Who is the guy jumping?
Belvedere -- that's David Strathairn in his film debut --as the article says ;)
I first saw David Strathairn in the cable show The Days And Nights Of Molly Dodd, starring Blair Brown. Does anyone else remember that? It was sort of the precursor and more relatable version of Sex and The City. And Strathairn was the elusive Mr. Right as I recall.
Joel6, but is Around The World in 80 Days better than The Greatest Show On Earth? ;-)
I remember watching the 84 Globes and thinking Mia Farrow was robbed, I still think so, Of all her work in Woody Allen films, I think she deserved at least 3 Oscar nominations, for The Purple Rose of Cairo, Broadway Danny Rose and for Alice. Maybe even for Hannah and Her Sisters. And personally, I think she should have been nominated and WON for Rosemary's Baby. Surely Patricia Neal was in on a sympathy vote, and Farrow would have made that an almost perfect quintet. Still shocking how Mia had been overlooked so many times I always thought she'd be a good choice for an honorary award, but not so sure anymore.
Dave in Hollywood-Greatest Show isn't deserving of its Oscar that's for sure but it's big and glitzy and entertaining in its way. Around the World just lumbers along stuffing as many notable faces in as possible too keep the audience's attention away from the fact that it doesn't have any story to tell. Obviously that worked at the time but now if you're not aware of who all the cameos are its just a big mess that lurches onward for far too long.
Sugar & Spice is awesome. A dim-witted James Marsden, cheerleaders being robbers, Melissa George with a massive crush on Conan O'Brien. What is there not to love about that film?
Is there a way you can pause the pic so I can stare at the cock and balls display?
Joel, I haven’t seen Cimarron, but there isn’t no way in hell it’s worse than Green Book. No way at all.