Curio: Crocheted Movie Costumes

Curio: Celebrating the arts, crafts, quirks, and cosplay of fandom...

When I was a child my mom made all my costumes for Halloween and I have resisted store bought ever since, sometimes at great cost and stress to my Halloween-loving self. So what a creative mom this little tyke has. Stephanie Pokorno of Ohio crocheted this ET costume for her son freehanded and tried it on him as she went making the whole thing in a single weekend. More details here. Incredible. 

This crochet queen also shared a How to for making a Harley Quinn wig (though I shudder to think how many Harley Quinn's we'll see this October - we're betting it'll be the most ubiquitous costume of 2016) and dressed her other son in a crocheted poncho modelled after Clint Eastwood from The Good the Bad and the Ugly.

You can follow Stephanie's creations on Instagram or at her site Crochetverse. Do you know what you're going to be for Halloween yet? 

Doc Corner: American Crime Stories in 'Tower' and 'The Witness'

Consider this: half a century ago, among the first people in the modern history to be shot and killed by a mass gunman at an American school included a pregnant woman and her unborn baby, a Latino teenage delivery boy, and a father of six. These people and fourteen more were all victims of Charles Whitman who, after murdering his mother and his wife, took a collection of rifles and ammunition to the 27th floor of the main tower building at the University of Texas in Austin and for 96 minutes fired at anybody who moved on the ground below.

Now, consider this: after 49 years of guns being banned on campus, the state of Texas’ 2015 “open carry” laws mean anybody just like Whitman could walk onto the same space today that once saw so much blood spilled and who could argue? It seems absolutely baffling that the cite of what it known as America’s first mass school shooting is now going backwards in time along with the rest of the state (and the country?). How quickly some forget the people they pay lip service towards wanting to protect.

So it is appropriate then that Tower should come along to try and remind us of the tragedies of before and, however indirectly, the absurdities of today...

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National Coming Out Day (and other things to celebrate today)

Happy National Coming Out Day! Coming out may be a political act but it's also a personal one, and life-saving for most because who wants to live a lie? It also shifts the world like nothing else when it comes to civil rights for LGBT people. If you had told us in the 1980s how many celebrities would be "out" by 2016 we'd have cried tears of joy. Thanks to everyone who has been brave enough to change the larger world by changing their own. Ripple effects, people. One of my favorite annual events in this regard is Towleroad's "Most Powerful Coming Out" lists for each year. Here's 2015, 2014, 2013, and 2012. The most recent celebrity to publicly out themselves is Sara Ramirez of Grey's Anatomy and Spamalot! fame who is bisexual. 

We don't watch Grey's Anatomy but any excuse to share Sara singing "Whatever Happened to My Part?" we'll take it.

IT'S THE UNOFFICIAL ANTHEM OF (SUPPORTING) ACTRESSING

But that's not the only thing to celebrate today, not even within Supporting Actressing. On this day in history as it relates to showbiz after the jump...

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And The Winner Is... Julie. No, the Other Julie.

137 days until the Oscars. Random Trivia Attack!

Did you know that Julie Andrews (The Sound of Music) losing to Julie Christie (Darling) for the 1965 Best Actress Oscar is one of only two times that the Best Actress winner has beaten a fellow nominee with the same first name?! Now you do!

The Only Other Time It Happened
1989 Jessica Tandy (Driving Miss Daisy) beating Jessica Lange (Music Box)

P.S. Though if you aren't terrible strict about it you could say three times given the case of Helen Hunt (As Good As It Gets) and Helena Bonham Carter (Wings of Dove) but that one hurts to bring up so never mind!

The "Bad Moms" Sequel You Don't Want Is Coming

Chris here. One of the biggest success stories of the past summer was Bad Moms. The film's strong word of mouth and box office staying power flew in the face of the more macho movies that came and quickly went during this lackluster season. With a fun cast of likeable stars including headliners Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn, and Kristen Bell you can see how distributor STX Entertainment would want to replicate their biggest success yet. They've just announced a sequel is being fasttracked, but don't get too excited.

Next year's sequel will flip the script in the lamest of unexpected ways: Bad Dads.

Call me crazy, but isn't the concept Bad Dads exactly the kind of film we get all of the time, the antithesis of which made Bad Moms's concept so appealing to audiences? This flies in the face of exactly how the film was able to financially merit a sequel in the first place, not to mention denies us a potential franchise of Hahn being hilarious.

There's no word yet if Dads will be a direct offshoot and keep any characters, or if writer/directors Jon Lucas and Scott Moore will return, but STX is planning several films, reality shows, and consumer products. Does this film have any chance of being unique next to the bawdy manchild likes of Old School and The Hangover?