Showbiz History: Cinderella, Paris is Burning, and George MacKay
Saturday, March 13, 2021 at 8:00AM 7 random things that happened on this day, March 13th, in history...
Olivia's first Oscar
1947 The 19th Academy Awards are held honoring the best films of 1946. The Best Years of Our Lives triumphs and remains one of the greatest decisions the Academy ever made in Best Picture. Meanwhile Fredric March picks up his second Best Actor Oscar (for the same film) and Olivia de Havilland picks up the first of her two Best Actress Oscars (for To Each His Own). "On the Atcheson Topeka and the Santa Fe" from the Judy Garland musical The Harvey Girls wins Best Song...
1982 Cop drama T.J. Hooker starring William Shatner, Heather Locklear (fresh off her breakthrough role in Dynasty) and Adrian Zmed (fresh off his breakthrough role in Grease 2) premieres in on CBS. It would run for five seasons.
1987 Sam Raimi's Evil Dead II opens in movie theaters.
1991 The Harlem ball drag documentary Paris is Burning opens in theaters after its buzzy festival run. The Queer community is still quoting it to this day, sometimes without knowing where the lines originated. RuPaul's Drag Race and Pose both steal from it on the regular. Oscar did queer filmmaking sooooo dirty that year when they rejected both Paris is Burning and Madonna's Truth or Dare for Best Documentary Feature. Both are indisputable classics of the genre and both proved immediate pop culture sensations and box office successes. One of my personal fav episodes of "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" was when we looked at this doc.
2014 Captain America: The Winter Soldier has its world premiere in Los Angeles. It's still the best Marvel Cinematic Universe movie. (You heard me.)
2015 Disney's Cinderella starring Lily James and Cate Blanchett opened on this day. It's still (by far) the best of Disney's "reimaginings" of their animated classics and secured a very well deserved Best Costume Design nomination for Sandy Powell. In fact, it was another "double nominated" year for Sandy Powell. She's pulled off that hat trick not once but THRICE in her career with dual nominations in 1998 (Shakespeare in Love, Velvet Goldmine), 2015 (Cinderella, Carol) and 2018 (The Favourite, Mary Poppins Returns). Just incredible.
2017 Happy 4th wedding anniversary to Alison Brie and Dave Franco who were married on this day six years after first meeting... (so happy 10th?). They are major cat people (judging by instagram) and we always appreciate that.
Today's Birthday Suit
Happy 29th to George MacKay (1917, True History of the Kelly Gang) who is surely one of the most exciting young actors working, currently expert at playing haunted determined men. And surely there's more range left to see since in his earlier film roles like Peter Pan and Pride he wasn't in this current possessed mode though there were hints of it coming in Captain Fantastic.
This image is from a British miniseries called The Outcast. Have any of you seen that? And if so is it good?
More showbiz birthdays today: Dana Delany (China Beach, Hand of God), brilliant casting director Victor Jenkins (Broadchurch, Fleabag), Oscar nominated composer Terence Blanchard (BlacKkKlansman, Da 5 Bloods), French auteur André Téchine (Wild Reeds, Rendez-Vous), Emory Cohen (Brooklyn, Place Beyond the Pines), Oscar nominee William H Macy (Fargo, Shameless), Iceland's Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (Th Deep, Secret Life of Walter Mitty), French star Pierre Niney (Frantz, Yves Saint Laurent), Annabeth Gish (Mystic Pizza, Haunting of Hill House) Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild, Speed Racer), Kaya Scodelario (Maze Runner, Crawl), Harry Melling (The Old Guard, Harry Potter and the Sorcerors Stone), Noel Fisher (Shameless, Twilight Saga), Nimrat Kaur (The Lunchbox, Wayward Pines), 80s child actor Rossie Harris (Airplane!, Testament), Lucy Fry (Bright, Wolf Creek), Steve Bacic (X2, Wonder), Adina Porter (True Blood, American Horror Story), Director Tim Story (Fantastic Four), one-name celebrity musician/actress Charo, South Korea's Nara (Itaewon Class, My Mister), Poland's Wiktoria Gasiewska (Katyn, Nobody Sleeps in the Woods Tonight), and Oscar winning rapper Common
And late greats like Glenne Headley (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Dick Tracy), Oscar nominated screenwriter Joe Ranft (Toy Story, Brave Little Toaster), Paul Stewart (Citizen Kane, In Cold Blood), Oscar nominated director Henry Hathaway (The Lives of Bengal Lancer, True Grit), Margaret Tallichet (Stranger on the Third Floor, Girls School) who was also the wife of legendary film director William Wyler, and the voice of Hall 9000 itself, Douglas Rain.
Reader Comments (15)
Glenne Headley was a delight - gone too soon. And 100% agree on The Winter Soldier.
Douglas Rain is iconic as the voice of Hal in 2001. He is the best example of why voice over performers should be eligible at the Oscars.
The hunky/sexy Adrian Zmed funny with Tom Hanks and Michael Dudikoff in 1984's Bachelor Party, full of politically incorrect situations - the 1980s are absurdly politically incorrect for today's eyes and ears, and very very white for those who value inclusivity, - but the vulgar kind of humor of other times today sounds like if the jokes were from a Doris Day movie.
I recently saw Winter Soldier and enjoyed it a lot. However, I think Ragnorok and Black Panther are far stronger outings. I’ll note that I don’t find Cap particularly compelling, though the relationship he develops with Natasha work really well. But Ragnorok is just far more fun and entertaining, and looks great and Black Panther hits on important and deeply political themes in a way that appeals to me.
I take great expection to lumping Paris Is Burning with Truth or Dare. One was totally original and refreshing and an introduction to a trend. The other was nothing but a shameless promoting of a pop star who was already on the way to over-saturation and ripping off pop culture for all it was worth.
rrrich -- then you're misremembering history. Truth or Dare was considered quite daring and unusual at the time. and spawned lots of academic writing -- people were fascinated. Madonna is so often misremembered because people have been ripping her off ever since so that a lot of the things she pioneered seem very part for the course now but they were not at all when she did them. Definitely not some random commercial for a celebrity to promote themselves. I think it's one of the best music docs ever made.
Joe G -- one of the reasons i love it so much is it feels more like a standalone than most of them. Though Black Panther is also fairly good on that front of feeling like a whole film and not just like "an episode"
Alison Brie should have several Emmy nominations by now.
I love Bachelor Party. It wasn't all white as the character of Rudy was Mexican but cool and wild as fuck. I love that fucking film. Whatever happened to Tom Hanks?
Why is To Each His Own so damn hard to see?!?!,
Davidandwaffles, I found it online a while back through...means. A very good performance in a melodrama, though Celia Johnson was much better and Jane Wyman too.
a) The podcast episode where both Nick Davis and Nathaniel (along with Joe Reid) discuss the lengths they had to go to to see Truth or Dare is still one of my favourites.
b) 1946 really had a phenomenal best picture line-up. I know The Razor's Edge isn't that well liked, but I loved it. As I do the rest of the line-up
Yes! Justice for The Razor's Edge!!!
Olive DeDoucheilland!
The Outcast is just all right.
As a MacKay devotee it is my duty to watch everything he’s in. Have you seen him in Been So Long, also starring Michaela Cole? Strange little musical, and he’s, ahem, fantastic in it.
One of my Top 5-ers for sure. :)
Also, I want Sandy Powell to costume my entire life now that Ishioka is not with us.
Glenne Headly was absolutely wonderful, miss her.