Jesus Christ, It's time to play "Cast This!" again

By Nathaniel R

Paul Nolan as Jesus in the most recent Broadway revival (2012)This just in: NBC is prepping its fifth live musical for April 2018. Their first Sound of Music was a mixed bag quality-wise but a giant ratings hit. Since then they've had two critical and ratings successes (The Wiz and Hairspray) and one failure (Peter Pan). The fifth will be Andrew Lloyd Webber & Tim Rice's rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar. It's made frequent regular appearances on stages all over the world since its debut in 1970. It even had a Golden Globe nominated film version in 1973 directed by Norman Jewison who was, at the time, a very hot commodity having recently made three best picture players: The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming! (1966, not a sci-fi time travelling movie about the current US government), In the Heat of the Night (1967) and the Best Picture nominee Fiddler on the Roof (1971).

No casting has been announced but they're said to be seeking "authentic recording artists." What does that even mean...?

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Jess ♥︎ Isabelle, Part 37

Ginger lovers unite! Vive Cannes indeed. More photos at THR and delicious quotes like this one from Jessica on her first trip to Cannes:

When Tree of Life went to Cannes, all the interviewers were asking me about my favorite actors and actresses because I was new to the industry, and they wanted to get to know me. I was always gushing about this little, unknown actress Isabelle Huppert. (Laughs). Everyone kept saying, "She's here." And so they were trying to get an introduction. We had dinner in Paris. And when I said to her: "Oh, I love you. You're my favorite actress," she goes, "I know." (Laughs.) Because that's how much I was talking about it.

Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before

Robert here! It's a day that ends in a Y which means it's time for another Hollywood whitewashing scandal. This time around we've got the announcement that famously white actor Zach McGowan, of "Shameless" and "Black Sails" fame, will be playing the part of real-life native Hawaiian decorated World War II hero Benehakaka "Ben" Kanahele in an upcoming film called Ni’ihau. Below are pictures of McGowan and Kanahele for comparison.

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Today's 5: Hulk out with Joan Crawford, ol' sport!

Good morning film fans. Make today a good one. We'll help with suggestions as to mental memes and mood boosters for the day.

Five showbiz anniversaries of note today (May 10th) and how to honor each of them 

2013 The Great Gatsby opens in movie theaters. It's yet another hit for Baz Luhrmann and yet another Oscar-winning moment for his wife/collaborator Catherine Martin. It's also, to date, your only chance to see Leonardo DiCaprio in a pink suit.

In its honor today: Listen to that great soundtrack and annoy your friends by calling them "ol' sport" all day!

1977 Joan Crawford dies (as just dramatized on Feud's finale). But like all of the great film stars, she's immortal...

with Clark Gable in CHAINED (1934)

People have been trying to reduce her or count her out since she first became famous but she held on for decades with an iron grip...

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Pedro Party: The Outrageous "Dark Habits"

We're celebrating Pedro Almodóvar all week. Here's Nathaniel R on Dark Habits (1983)

Julieta Serrano and Marisa Paredes in DARK HABITS (1983)

It's a Pedro Party! For the next week we'll be celebrating the career of the great auteur Pedro Almodóvar. We were just discussing which male actors we'd love for him to work with but let's let the official party begin with one of his nearly all-female efforts Dark Habits. His 1983 "pelicula" is about a cabaret singer Yolonda (Cristina Sánchez Pascual) who is hiding out in a convent of wacky nuns. But let's not confuse the movie with Sister Act because it would eat that 1992 comedy and then apologize sheepishly over a cake and acid dessert... 

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