28 Days Until Oscar

Today's number is 28. I trust you know that Gloria Swanson was ALWAYS ready for her close-up. 

She's best remembered for Sunset Blvd (1950) but that movie couldn't have existed, at least not in the perfect form it does, were it not for her earlier silent screen stardom.  Her first Oscar nomination came for Sadie Thompson (1928) in the very first year of the Oscars. The movie was also nominated for Best Cinematography but both the DP and Swanson lost the Oscars to Janet Gaynor and Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, respectively. Swanson wasn't the only female superstar to play Sadie...

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Tweet Story: Huppert, Gibson, Barbarella

One great thing to watch right now: PERSEPOLIS. It's vital that we make the stories of immigrants feel specific and real and human to us. pic.twitter.com/92ySv37Emp

— BrightWall/DarkRoom (@BWDR) January 28, 2017

Thought about what would happen if Isabelle Huppert had to reveal a hidden talent for a mag's video content, laughed, and then shuddered.

— Jackson McHenry (@McHenryJD) January 27, 2017

After the jump a gorgeous mini-review of 20th Century Women, a valid question about Barbarella, a fantasy about female auteurs, and more amusements... 

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It's the Year of the Rooster

Well... starting January 28th but we were feeling it today.

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Pfandom: In 1980, Pfeiffer Hit the Big Screen

P F A N D O M  
Michelle Pfeiffer Retrospective. Episode 4 
by Nathaniel R 

obsessed with Pfeiffer's eyeshadow in HOLLYWOOD KNIGHTS (1980) 

She didn't quit the supermarket. That's something we need to understand immediately about Michelle Pfeiffer's methodic rise. After losing the beauty contest and landing an agent in 1978, winning TV gigs and moving to Hollywood, she merely transferred to a different supermarket. She was very practical and very focused, according to those who knew her when, taking acting classes and going to cattle calls but always showing up at work. Many stars bios are littered with colorful anecdotes about brief early jobs but in Pfeiffer's case, supermarket checkout girl, was an actual job that she stuck with until the acting, well, stuck.

One of her teachers, who had described her as a tardy, disinterested but smart student in high school recalls meeting her just before her career took off in the grocery store...

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Who will win or could win the SAG Awards?

Last year, the Screen Actors Guild Awards had a ready-made anti-Oscar narrative with a slate of winners that features colorful casts (Orange is the New Black) and Idris Elba as the supporting actor winner during the #OscarsSoWhite backlash. This year, there's no clear media narrative and SAG even has to make do without a Best Picture frontrunner since La La Land is understandably not up for their top prize (Outstanding Performance by a Cast... also referred to as "Best Ensemble" by many). So what will they choose this year? Who knows!

Viola has won four SAG awards, two for How to Get Away With Murder, two for The Help

We'll find out tomorrow night but what we're most looking forward to the lifetime achievement tribute to Lily Tomlin which will happily be presented by her 9 to 5 co-stars Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton. But back to predictions. Will Viola Davis win her fifth SAG in five years?  Let's make the tough calls after the jump...

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