Showbiz History: Babs hits #1 and RuPaul's Drag Race debuts
Tuesday, February 2, 2021 at 10:31AM 5 random things that happened on this day, February 2nd, in showbiz history...
1970 The 27th Golden Globes honoring 1969 cinema were held with Anne of the Thousand Days (drama) and something called The Secret of Santa Vittoria (comedy) winning Best Picture. We've literally never heard of the latter until this very moment which is rare for us when it comes to films named "Best Picture" at any award show. Most of the actors who won (barring comedy categories of course) repeated their wins on Oscar night except Best Actress Genevieve Bujold (Anne of th Thousand Days)...
1974 Babs lands her very first #1 hit with the immortal classic "The Way We Were". She would have 4 more #1s in her career: "Evergreen" in 77, "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" in '78, "No More Tears (Enough is Enough)" in '79, and "Woman in Love" in '80
1996 Ridley Scott's young hunk ocean adventure White Squall opens in theaters with Jeff Bridges captaining a ship filled with a who's who of new would-be twenty-something stars like Ryan Philippe, Scott Wolf, Jeremy Sisto, Ethan Embry, Balthazar Getty, and David Lascher. Career results varied but all of them are still working. Other new releases that day were The Juror and Black Sheep and in limited release Antonia's Line and anime classic Ghost in the Shell. Happy 25th to all of them.
the great Nina Flowers
2009 RuPaul's Drag Race begins its long still-raging run on Logo TV. I was watching that very night with friends. The cameras were absolutely smeared with vaseline. The episode was called "Drag on a Dime" but over the years of the series, the budget went way up and the economics of drag really changed to the point where contestants were arriving with wardrobes as expensive as a downpayment on a new home. Puerto Rican queen Nina Flowers won the first challenge but eventually Bebe Zahara Benet "Cameroooooooon!" won the season.
2020 Just last year on this day Sam Mendes 1917 won the BAFTAs for Best Picture and Best Director. The same thing had happened at the Globes a month earlier, setting up an Oscar night where 1917 looked like the frontrunner. But it was not meant to be.
Today's Birthday Suit
Happy 25th birthday to last year's most revelatory breakout actor Paul Mescal who you're probably sick to death of us raving about. Hopefully Normal People wasn't a fluke and he turns out to indeed be one of the best of his generation. He has two features due in 2021 (or 2022 if the pandemic keeps on keeping on): Carmen for Natalie Portman's ballet star husband turned director Benjamin Millipied, and The Lost Daughter, Maggie Gyllenhaal's directorial debut co-starring Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, and Dakota Johnson.
Germany's Franz Rogowski (Transit, Undine), Farrah Fawcett (Charlie's Angels, The Burning Bed), Zosia Mamet (Girls, The Kids Are All Right), Alex Sharp (Trial of the Chicago 7, The Hustle), "Stritchie!!!!!" herself Broadway legend Elaine Stritch (30 Rock, A Farewell to Arms), Gemma Arterton (Prince of Persia, How to Build a Girl), Oscar nominee Bonita Granville (These Three, Merrily We Live), Spain's Macarena Gomez (Dagon, Shrew's Nest), Ellie Bamber (Pride & Prejudice & Zombies, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms), Brent Spiner ("Data" in the Star Trek franchise), Germany's Barbara Sukowa (Lola, Berlin Alexanderplatz), Duane Jones (Night of the Living Dead, Losing Ground), Rich Sommer (Mad Men, Hello My Name is Doris), Tony winner Marissa Jarreet Winokur (Never Been Kissed, Fever Pitch), Italy's Salvatore Esposito (Gomorrah, L'Eroe), Michael T Weiss (Jeffrey, The Pretender), Frank Albertson (It's a Wonderful Life, Bachelor Mother) Jennifer Westfeldt (Killing Jessica Stein, Friends with Kids), Juju Chan Szeto (Wu Assassins, Crouching Tiger: Sword of Destiny), Tom Smothers (The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour), Tony winner Cady Huffman (After Forever, The Company Men), Oscar winning director Frank Lloyd (Cavalcade, Mutiny on the Bounty), Oscar nominated screenwriter Douglas McGrath (Bullets Over Broadway, Emma), screenwriter Jenny Lumet who was absolutely robbed of an Oscar nomination (Rachel Getting Married), novelist Ayn Rand, pop star Shakira, kpop star Victoria Song, and supermodel Christie Brinkley.
Reader Comments (13)
I know Anne of the Thousand Days has a bad rep but I have a soft spot in my heart for it. Richard Burton was excellent, and Genevieve Bujold was better than Maggie Smith (but not Jane Fonda). The Secret of Santa Vittoria was actually nominated for two Oscars, Score and Editing. It is thoroughly godawful and I had a tough time making it all the way through it just once. Poor Anna Magnani. She deserved so much better.
Barbara Sukowa is Streep-level good. Her work in BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ and MARIANNE & JULIANNE is breathtaking. She's pretty impressive in HANNAH ARENDT and Fassbinder's LOLA, too.
Off the top of my head I'm going to risk that The Secret of Santa Vittoria starred Anthony Quinn and Anna Magnani. I think it was directed by Vittorio de Sica. That is, Italian film royalty. Let's see how I did... Oops! I got the director wrong. It was American director Stanley Kramer! Based on a novel by Robert Crighton. The film was released in NY on 29 October 1969.
If The Secret of Santa Vittoria actually won, what the heck was the competition? Are there four comedies "worse" than it?
Barbra not winning Best Actress for The Way We Were really bugs me even now. I mean, she could not win of course, but to lose to A Touch Of Class which is godawful. Worse than The Secret of Santa Vittoria? Who knows since no one has seen it.
Dave -- the other nominees were CACTUS FLOWER, GOODBYE COLUMBUS, HELLO DOLLY!, and PAINT YOUR WAGON. So it sounds like any of them would have been a better option.
I've seen every Best Actress winner, and Glenda Jackson in A Touch of Class is probably my least favorite. I know she has a lot of fans here, but her appeal on-screen is somewhat lost on me. Regardless, she certainly shouldn't have beaten Streisand, Burstyn, or even Woodward that year (I haven't seen Mason).
the early seasons of Drag Race are almost unwatchable now... not because of the content but because of the budget. It really benefitted from switching to VH1....
Why is nothing in Logo in HD?! It's 2021!
Wow, then I am flummoxed. Is Santa Vittoria a hidden gem? Who knows? I guess Cactus Flower and Goodbye Columbus split the "sex comedy" vote and Hello Dolly and Paint Your Wagon split the bloated musical vote? I'm at a loss.
Jules, I can't say for sure that Glenda Jackson in A Touch of Class is the worst ever, but it may be up there. Certainly the movie is borderline unwatchable.
To be perfectly honest, having seen those five nominated flicks, I'd probably vote for THE SECRET OF SANTA VITTORIA. If nothing else, the picture's wild experiments with a comedic tone and World War II drama make it more interesting than its competition. I also appreciate the cast, especially Magnani. Still, it's not a great movie. Just a surprisingly fascinating project of Stanley Kramer, a filmmaker whose works I tend to despise.
Barbra Streisand was better in The Way We Were than she was in Funny Girl. It's also a better movie.
Sorry to be a desenter about La Babs but Ellen Burstyn deserved the 73 Oscar.
Franz is more my type than Mescal,he'll have to live up to all this hype and some don't.
"The Secret of Santa Vittoia" was a produced and directed by Stanley Kramer- who is better known for serious Oscar bait films like "Guess Who is Coming to Dinner" and " Judgement at Nuremberg" "White Squall" is a good adventure movie and a source of gay fan fiction
JACKSON4EVA