7 random things that happened on this day, January 31st, in showbiz history
1941 Alfred Hitchcock's comedy Mr & Mrs Smith, no not the Brangelina one, opened in theaters starring Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery. Yes, Hitchcock once made a screwball comedy without thriller elements.
1961 The Misfits, the elegaic last film for both Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable and one of Montgomery Clift's last pictures, has its world premiere in Reno, Nevada. It will open in movie theaters the next day...
Mary Tyler Moore won Best Actress, Drama for "Ordinary People"
1981 The 38th annual Golden Globes are held with Ordinary People (drama) and Coal Miner's Daughter (musical or comedy) winning Best Picture. The Globes used to classify music-centric biopics as musicals though in the past decade they've stopped doing that. If their recent habits had been in place Fame would have surely won Best Comedy or Musical, though like Coal Miner's Daughter, it's also a drama. But can we stop to marvel and shake our heads in confusion that comedy classic 9 to 5 wasn't even nominated for Best Comedy?!? It received three nominations, ALL of which went to Dolly Parton (Best Actress, Best Song, Best New Star) but she didn't win any of them!
Meanwhile Shogun (drama) and Taxi (comedy) win for TV; the Globes used to group miniseries in with regular drama series in their awards.
1986 The comedy Down & Out in Beverly Hills opens in theaters becoming a huge hit and making Bette Midler a true movie star again after four years off from the big screen post her bomb Jinxed (1982). But then her movie career was always spot since she was often concentrating on her music career instead.
1987 The 44th annual Golden Globes are held. Platoon (drama) and Hannah and Her Sisters (comedy) win the Best Picture prizes. Only one of the acting winners, Marlee Martin (Children of a Lesser God) continued on to an Oscar win. The other acting winners were Bob Hoskins (Mona Lisa), Sissy Spacek (Crimes of the Heart), Paul Hogan (Crocodile Dundee), Maggie Smith (A Room with a View), Tom Berenger (Platoon). Wouldn't it be so exciting to have a year with some awards-speech variety again? It's been so long since this wasn't exceedingly rare.
2010 Winter's Bone wins the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, proving the breakthrough for young Jennifer Lawrence who will very quickly become a superstar and Oscar favourite.
2020 Kitty Green's The Assistant opens in limited release, generating more discussion about the #metoo movement and unintentionally heralding the fact that 2020 was going to be a great movie year for female directors. Though it hasnt fared particularly well in the awards race, two key Spirit nominations aside, for a good stretch people were calling it one of 2020's best. Have you seen it?
Today's Birthday Suit
Today would have been the 79th birthday of avant garde queer legend Derek Jarman who died too young at 52 of AIDS-related causes. He gave our current cinema two genius talents and Oscar winners: Tilda Swinton AND costume designer Sandy Powell. The world should be eternally grateful and Jarman's name should be honoured more frequently. His films are still thought provoking and bold today. They are also filled with lots of male nudity. If you've never seen any Edward II (1991) is perhaps the most accessible (though it's hardly less confrontational), Sebastiane (1976) is the most naked, and The Last of England (1988) is the most Tilda-specific (though she's in several of his pictures).
Bonus Birthday suit: Glynn TurmanOther showbiz birthdays today: Current Oscar hopeful Glynn Turman (pictured left with his Emmy win for In Treatment) of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom fame turns 74 today!
Other birthdays or anniversaries you can celebrate today include the iconic Carol Channing who would have turned 100 today (more on her a bit later), operatic Mario Lanza (also would've been 100 today, the legendary Tallulah Bankhead (Lifeboat) who is played by Natasha Lyonne in a very small role in next month's biopic United States vs Billie Holliday, Kerry Washington (Scandal, Django Unchained), Oscar nominated composer Philip Glass (The Hours, Kundun), Oscar nominee Jean Simmons (Hamlet, The Happy Ending), Kelly Lynch (Drugstore Cowboy), Oscar nominated producer Megan Ellison (American Hustle, Zero Dark Thirty), Oscar nominee Minnie Driver (Good Will Hunting, Beyond the Lights), Mrs Degeneres Portia de Rossi (Arrested Development), Jonathan Banks (Mudbound, Breaking Bad) Justin Timberlake (Palmer, The Social Network) director Dexter Fletcher (Rocketman, Eddie the Eagle), Suzanne Pleshette (The Birds, The Bob Newhart Show), Bobby Moynihan (SNL), Joel Courtney (Super 8, The Kissing Booth), Australia's Rahat Adams (Pacific Rim: Uprising, Liar Liar Vampire), Anthony LaPaglia (Lantana, Empire Records), 70s star James Franciscus (Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Hunter), Paul Scheer (Veep, Wet Hot American Summer), South Korea's Lee Yeong-ae (Joint Security Area, Bring Me Home) Joanne Dru (Red River, All the King's Men) and musician Marcus Mumford (aka Mr Carey Mulligan).