6 random things that happened on this day, March 17th, in Showbiz History. Happy Saint Patrick's Day!
1941 The National Gallery of Art opened in DC eighty years ago today.
1991 The 44th annual BAFTA Awards honoring the films of 1990 are held. Italy's Cinema Paradiso (which we were just discussing) is a huge hit winning 5 awards and Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas emerges triumphant with the top prize (Dances with Wolves, which will beat it at the Oscars a week later, isn't up for the BAFTAs until the following year, but it loses then to the homegrown title The Commitments)...
2000 Erin Brockovich starring Julia Roberts opens with Julia commanding a then record paycheck for an actress ($20 million) and it's another big hit for the 90s superstar. A year later it snags well deserved Oscar nominations for Picture, Director, Actress, Supporting Actor and Screenplay. (We're still pissed that it missed Best Editing.)
2006 She's the Man, a star vehicle for Amanda Bynes (remember her?), opens in theaters. Audiences gasp and squeal when the then unknown Channing Tatum removes his shirt (at least they did in our theater). By the end of 2006 he was a major star with Step Up and A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints following She's the Man's into theaters that same year.
2014 Sia releases the hit single "Chandelier" with a very popular video starring dancing Maddie Ziegler. They recently reunited for the autism musical Music to horrible reviews but Golden Globe favor.
2017 Disney's live action remake of Beauty and The Beast opens to a gargantuan $174 million dollars at the box office, despite a lead who couldn't sing, dooming us to endless regurgitations of animated classics always referred to as "live action remakes" even when they're animated.
Today's Birthday Suit
Happy 70th birthday to Kurt Russell, famous since his early teenage years, pictured here with his love Goldie Hawn in Swing Shift (1984) and with Sylvester Stallone in Tango & Cash one of many examples of homoerotic/ homophobic action flicks of that era.
Other showbiz birthdays today: John Boyega (Detroit, Attack the Block), Rob Lowe (St Elmos Fire, Parks and Recreation), Lesley-Anne Down (North and South, The Great Train Robbery), Arye Gross (Big Eden, Minority Report), Mark Boone Jr (Memento, 30 Days of Night), Gary Sinise (Forrest Gump, Mission to Mars), Patrick Duffy (Dallas, Man From Atlantis), Japan's Nijiro Murakami (Isle of Dogs, Mukoku), Matthew St Patrick (Six Feet Under, War), and singer Grimes
And late greats (left to right): Brigitte Helm, silent film star of Metropolis and L'Argent fame pictured left in pasties and her "false maria" seductive gown; blaxsploitation star Rudy Ray Moore (Dolemite, Disco Godfather) who Eddie Murphy recently played to acclaim in Dolemite is My Name; beloved trailblazing singer and occasional actor Nat King Cole (St Louis Blues, Cat Ballou); and ballet icon and occasional actor Rudolf Nureyev (Valentino) who recently got his own biopic with the Ralph Fiennes directed The White Crow.