5 random things that happened on this day, February 20th, in showbiz history...
two Oscar-winning Roxies, Ginger Rogers & Renée Zellweger
1939 A shameful moment in US history: an American Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden. Footage from this event became the basis of the recently Oscar nominated doc short "A Night at the Garden".
1942 The film Roxie Hart adapted from the play "Roxie" opens with Ginger Rogers playing the murderous showgirl. Roxie would go on to pop culture immortality with the long running musical adaptation of the play and its Oscar winning counterpart, called simply Chicago...
1946 Tomorrow is Forever "The Great Drama Of Our Time" (as the tagline claims) starring Claudette Colbert, Orson Welles, and tiny Natalie Wood opens in movie theaters.
1970 Judge Hoffman sentences "The Chicago 7" to five years in prison each and the defendants make statements about the sham political trial. The very sensational court happenings are dramatized / condemned in the current Best Picture hopeful The Trial of the Chicago 7. Are you rooting for it in any Oscar categories?
1988 The classic Dusty Springfield / Pet Shop Boys duet "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" peaks at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the biggest hit of Dusty Springfield's career (in the US) long after her '60s heyday. While there have been attempts before it looks like we're finally getting a Dusty Springfield biopic. The current iteration of the proposed biopic was first announced back in 2018 as the directorial debut of Carol's genius screenwriter Phyllis Nagy with Gemma Arterton starring as Dusty. That version is still on apparently as Arterton discussed vocal training and being nervous about stepping into those shoes as recently as a month and a half ago.
2015 Kristen Stewart becomes the first American actress to win a competitive César Award in France, Best Supporting Actress for Clouds of Sils Maria. The top prize goes to Mauritania's Oscar nominee Timbuktu. Adele Haenel manages to beat both Marion Cotillard in Two Days One Night and Juliette Binoche in Clouds of Sils Maria to take the lead actress prize for Love At First Fight.
Today's Birthday Suit
Happy 50th birthday today to trans activist, actress, and author Calpernia Addams.
The trans activist, who was born in Nashville, first came to widespread fame due to the trial surrounding her military boyfriend's abuse and murder by homophobic / transphobic fellow soldiers. The resulting film version of that story, Soldier's Girl (2003) was the breakthrough and film debut of the actor Lee Pace playing her. He received a Golden Globe nomination. Addams also coached Felicity Huffman for her Oscar-nominated role in TransAmerica. Things have changed a lot since then for trans actors of course and now Hollywood is starting to cast them rather than having cisgender actors play them.
Other birthdays today: Iconic directors Robert Altman (Nashville, Gosford Park) and Mike Leigh (Secrets & Lies, Happy-Go-Lucky), Legendary trailblazer and Oscar winner Sidney Poitier (Lilies of the Field, The Defiant Ones), Oscar nominee Brenda Blethyn (Secrets & Lies, Pride & Prejudice), Miles Teller (Whiplash, Rabbit Hole), Lauren Ambrose (Six Feet Under, Psycho Beach Party), Richard Beymer (West Side Story, Twin Peaks), Anthony Head (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Imagine Me and You), Germany's Julia Jentsch (Sophie Scholl, The Edukators), Lili Taylor (Dogfight, ), Bosnian director Danis Tanovic (No Man's Land, Death in Sarajevo), Danielle Pineda (The Vampire Diaries, Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom), Willie Garson (White Collar, Sex and the City), Jack Falahee (How to Get Away with Murder, Mercy Street), Sandy Duncan (The Cat From Outer Space, The Hogan Family), Imogen Stubbs (Sense & Sensibility, Erik the Viking), Andrew Shue (Melrose Place, The Rainmaker), Michael Zegen (Marvelous Mrs Maisel, Frances Ha), Oscar nominated cinematographer Jordan Cronenwerth (Peggy Sue Got Married, Blade Runner), James Wilby (Maurice, Gosford Park), Tony winner Jessie Mueller, supermodel Cindy Crawford, comedian Trevor Noah, singers Rihanna and Nancy Wilson, and the late great Kurt Cobain of Nirvana fame.