99¢ rentals to fill in the Oscar gaps

UPDATE 10/23 Sadly these deals have all expired and they're back up to $3.99 per film.

While we wait (impatiently) for the major Oscar contenders to show themselves to general audiences, why not check out an older Oscar nominees for kicks and to fill any gaps in your Oscar knowledge. Here are a few that iTunes is offering to rent for just 99¢... naturally I have to share the posters for the ones with exclamatory taglines.

• Sunrise (1927)/ Street Angel (1928) for Janet Gaynor, the very first Best Actress winner and the only Best Actress winner to win for multiple roles simultaneously (they changed the rule thereafter)
• In Old Chicago (1938) Tyrone Powers in a six-time nominated film which won Alice Brady supporting actress
• The Rains Came (1939) starring Myrna Loy and up for six Oscars
• Blood and Sand (1941) this torreador drama starring Tyrone Power won Best Cinematography
• This Above All (1942) a romantic drama starring Joan Fontaine and Tyrone Power received 4 nominations and a win for Art Direction
• The Snake Pit (1948) Olivia de Havilland in an asylum (!) in one of the original 'deglam' roles. Six nominations including Best Picture
• Pinky (1949), a racial drama about a woman who can "pass" as white received 3 acting nominations

• Come to the Stable (1949) a comedy about nuns which was up for an inexplicable 7 Oscars losing all of them -- we recently wrote about it
• The Young Lions (1958) three nominations including cinematography for this Marlon Brando / Montgomery Clift World War II picture.
• The Best of Everything (1959) three nominations including costume design for this Joan Crawford picture that January Jones hated so very much in that one episode of Mad Men

All Four Oscar Acting Charts Updated

Heads up. We've begun the mid October overhaul of the charts. All four acting charts are updated with the biggest shakeups coming to Best Actor with Christian Bale and Clint Eastwood suddenly both roaring buzz-wise. Please take a look and comment. BEST ACTOR (Christian Bale & Clint Eastwood on the rise) | BEST ACTRESS (Davis and Aparicio on the rise) | SUPPORTING ACTOR (Robert Forster and Sam Elliott on the rise) | SUPPORTING ACTRESS (with Colman gone it's anyone's game)

Thoughts? Do share. 

AND THIS JUST IN 10/15: Olivia Colman will be campaigning as lead for The Favourite with Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz officially "supporting" for the tragicomic triangular relationship. The charts have been updated to reflect the switch in presumed campaigns. Mostly this means Supporting Actress has no frontrunner... which is exciting. 

Beauty vs Beast: Ye Olde Switcheroo Movie

Jason from MNPP here with this week's "Beauty vs Beast" -- this Friday the latest iteration of the freak-filled Halloween franchise hits theaters, but what of another Freaky Friday that cast the great Jamie Lee Curtis in a pivotal role? In 2003 - yes it turned 15 this past August, if you want to feel ancient) Mark Waters' remake of Freaky Friday with Curtis playing mama (then daughter) to daughter (then mama) Lindsay Lohan hit theaters, and it was a great big hit success with everybody. (I mean Jamie Lee should've snagged an Oscar nom, dammit.) So why don't we all eat a fortune cookie and repeat after me...

survey services

PREVIOUSLY We ventured back to Wes Anderson's Rushmore last week and y'all took Bill Murray's side in a squeaker (just 53%) - said lylee:

"Team Blume only because Max is so annoying (even though they're both annoying, and Blume in some ways has less excuse to be so immature)! Really, the beauty here is Olivia Williams, whom I found very appealing in this, if a little softer-edged than in her later roles. She's still one of my favorite slightly-below-the-radar actresses out there today."

Showbiz History: "The Story of Us" Hits Theaters, "You Light Up My Life" Tops the Charts

10 random things that happened on this day, October 15th, in showbiz history

1888 A letter written "From Hell" was postmarked on this day for the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee. Was it actually from Jack the Ripper? The letter is now lost and the murders were forever unsolved. The story has fascinated Hollywood forever. Anyone remember the movie From Hell (2001) with Johnny Depp and Heather Graham?

1917 Exotic dancer Mata Hari is executed in France for espionage. Many films have been made about her.

More after the jump including Joan Crawford, Penny Marshall, Michelle Pfeiffer, a missing hunk, and "You Light Up My Life"...

Click to read more ...

Open Thread

What's on your cinematic mind? Do tell in the comments! I was mostly thinking about three things today...

1. Why it is that some great film stars transfer so superbly to the stage and others do not? 
2. The way you never can tell if a film is going to linger or not because sometimes films you loved you dont find yourself thinking about a lot afterwards and other films you were a little cool on might keep popping back into your brain - do you know what I mean?
3. Melissa's cat in Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Bradley & Gaga's dog in A Star is Born, and Viola's dog in Widows. I love when movie characters have pets. I think way more movie characters should have pets. Real people have pets so why not movie characters?