8 random things that happened on this day, February 23rd, in showbiz history
1939 The 11th Academy Awards are held with zany family comedy You Can't Take It With You winning the top prize and Jezebel pulling down both Lead and Supporting Actress. This past summer we spent a lot of time discussing the 1938 film year. What's more, I even ranked all ten Best Picture nominees and guest starred on the "And the Runner Up Is..." podcast about it (icymi). Honestly these viewing projects, but especially 1938, got us through the first few months of the COVID lockdown.
1950 The 7th Golden Globes are held honoring the best of 1949. All the King's Men wins Best Picture (as it also would at the Oscars later). It was the last year of the Globes before they begin to separate their categories into Drama and Comedy but the next piece of Globes trivia is even more unusual...
1956 The 13th Golden Globes are held with East of Eden (Drama) and Guys and Dolls (Comedy/Musical) winning Best Picture. Neither film was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars afterwards though they both received multiple nominations. This is the only time in history when that happened!
click to embiggen
1996 Twenty-five years ago today, on co-star Kelly MacDonald's 20th birthday (!), low budget grimy frantic Trainspotting opens in the UK (before a summer release in the US). By the fall it's an international hit and one of the most profitable British films of all time. It catapulted its young cast and crew into major players but especially leading man Ewan McGregor (turning 25) and director Danny Boyle (turning 40) who had made their debuts together two summers earlier with the critical darling thriller Shallow Grave (1994). Despite Trainspotting's immediate success and cultural influence, the film performed meagerly with awards (as youth-oriented films tend to) nabbing a single nod or win here or there but no high profile prizes. The only American group to truly embrace it was the Boston Society of Film Critics, who tended to be quite daring and off-consensus in the 1990s; they gave it their top prize naming it the Best Film of 1996.
Meanwhile over in the US theaters, the considerably less-well-received Mary Reilly opens with Julia Roberts and John Malkovich taking on the much-filmed Jekyll & Hyde story. Happy 25th anniversary today to both films.
1997 Classic Best Picture winner Schindler's List (1993) makes a much hyped debut on nework television, completely unedited and without commercials to an enormous ratings response. The event wasn't quite unprecedented but it was a big deal.
That was the night he came along, the one night stand that never went away.
1999 Queer as Folk premieres on UK televisions, introducing the world to 18 year old Charlie Hunnam and... um... lots of televised gay sex (the full series is available to stream on Amazon Prime. The America remake, also streaming on Prime, follows the very next year.) Its creator Russell T Davies has a new series on called It's a Sin about AIDS hitting the UK in the 1980s. Have you watched it yet?
2003 The 56th BAFTA awards are held honoring the films of 2002. Roman Polanski's The Pianist beats Chicago to the top prize. Curiously, Adrien Brody loses Best Actor even though his film won; that situation will reverse at the Oscars though at both ceremonies Roman Polanski takes Best Director.
2018 The comedy Game Night and the sci-fi drama Annihilation both open in movie theaters and collect somewhat passionate fans. At least for some elements of their productions.
Today's Birthday Suit
Happy 38th to Emily Blunt who we've loved for 17 years now after first seeing her in 2004's My Summer of Love. Devil Wears Prada, Edge of Tomorrow, Mary Poppins Returns, Sicario, and Young Victoria later and still no Oscar love!?! It's maddening. Remember when she teamed up with Cate Blanchett for some full tux fashion?
Other showbiz birthdays: Niecy Nash (Claws, Reno 911!), Dakota Fanning (The Alienist, War of the Worlds), Kelly Macdonald (Trainspotting, Giri/Haji), "Charlotte" herself Kristin Davis (Melrose Place, Sex and the City), Samara Weaving (Ready or Not, Three Billboards), Josh Gad (Frozen, Beauty and the Beast), Callan Mulvey (Outlaw King, Rush), Emily Cox (The Last Kingdom, Jerks), Emilia Jones (Locke & Key, High-Rise), Aziz Ansari (Parks & Recreation, Master of None), Spain's Álvaro Morte (Money Heist, Mirage), Marie-Josée Croze (The Barbarian Invasions, The Diving Bell and Butterfly), and producer Marshall Herskovitz (Thirtysomething, Traffic)
And late greats including Oscar-winning director Victor Fleming (Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind), Oscar nominee Peter Fonda (Easy Rider, Ulee's Gold), French director Claude Sautet (Un Couer en Hiver, Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud), Argentinian star Linda Cristal (The High Chaparall, The Perfect Furlough), Czech director Jirí Menzel (Closely Watched Trains, I Served the King of England), actress Mary Pat Gleason (The Crucible, Mom), and Oscar nominee Diane Varsi (Peyton Place).