Wednesday, August 10, 2016 at 12:15PM Today is World Lion Day so let's gaze at those utterly majestic felines posing with actors and actresses because it's an excuse to honor them. A beauty break gallery after the jump featuring Kirsten Dunst, Joanna Lumley, Buster Crabbe, Gregory Peck, Cara Delevigne and more...
Tippi Hedren with her pet lion "Neil" in the 1970s
Wednesday, August 10, 2016 at 10:00AM On this day in history at it relates to showbiz...
The Director and I
1787 Mozart competes his chamber piece "Eine kleine Nachtmusik" which has shown up in dozens of films over the years, many of which are classics. Here is but a small sampling of films that have used it in the past 40 years or so: Picnic at Hanging Rock, Alien, Sophie's Choice, The Bride, Hope & Glory, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, GI Jane, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, Milk, and April and the Extraordinary World.
1896 Oscar nominated director Walter Lang (The King and I, 1956) is born
1897 Jack Haley is born. Enters screen immortality when he gets the part of the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz when Buddy Ebsen has a terrible allergic reaction to the makeup...
Wednesday, August 10, 2016 at 7:52AM 
So should we wish Norma Shearer a happy 114th in heaven or not?
As I was prepping an "on this day..." post I discovered that the internet does not agree on the birth date of The First Lady of MGM, Norma Shearer. TCM and IMDb say August 10th while Biography and Wikipedia say August 11th. Biography goes one further and even says there's disagreement on the year with 1900, 1902, and 1904 all cited which is perhaps why the Encyclopeida Brittanica doesn't give her a birthdate, just a month. Didn't Canada keep records at the turn of the century?
Nobody agrees on anything about Norma, including her Best Actress win for The Divorcée (1930) which I was alarmed to realize some time ago is not always held in high regard despite her being utterly fabulous in the movie. Gotta love those Pre-Code movies. We should probably do a mini-series on them at some point.
Whatever her actual birthday, TFE often feels festive about her. Three cheers to Norma this morning (your Old Hollywood fix since Judy by the Numbers, our beloved Wednesday morning pick me up, is delayed for the time being).
Canada, Norma Shearer, Pre-Code Tuesday, August 9, 2016 at 9:39PM 
How I Feel / How I Wish I Felt as demonstrated by DeliveranceI seem to have done something to my shoulder* so typing has become painful. People are performing superhuman feats at the Olympics whilst looking sexy and I'm watching like a mangled corpse in my living room. Fun times. Alas, that means this week's Best Shot Special Edition focusing on both cinematography and a Best Costume choice (as tribute to Orry-Kelly with the release of the documentary "Women He Undressed") might be very late. I'm taking frequent long stretching breaks.
Best Shot Articles Elsewhere
• Jason Choi *first time participant* looks at the final sequence in An American in Paris (1951)
• I Want to Believe relates to Sugar Kane in Some Like it Hot (1959)
• Dancin' Dan on Marilyn's curves and despair in Some Like It Hot (1959)
• Allison Tooey looks at the musical Les Girls (1957)
• Timothy Brayton has a lot to say about the Best Picture winner An American in Paris (1951)
* by shoulder I obviously mean back (the pain likes to surprise me as to where it will show up) because I have a historically problematic one. When everyone is looking at Olympians like "what are those circular bruises on their bodies?" I'm all 'Oh, so and so's been cupping' because I've basically tried every treatment in my lifetime.
Tuesday, August 9, 2016 at 4:00PM Will Smith is a big movie star and has been one for a very long time. What would he choose to wear to promote his new superhero movie at fancy premieres in New York and London?
Why brown and blue suits, as if he's going to the latest formal after work function...
