Link Show

Madwomen and Muses quits on Hannibal and objects to its treatment of women
The New Yorker on technological anxiety and the uselessness of unplugging
Entertainment Weekly Character actor James Rebhorn (Homeland) dies at 65 
TFE over the weekend, we talked to Alfre Woodard about her favorite roles

Grantland great piece on that brilliant and prescient sitcom The Comeback from Lisa Kudrow (which might itself be coming back) 
Movie City News if you don't mind a lot of spoilers, here's David Poland on Noah
AV Club ohmygod. The Breakfast Club's actual detention was exactly 30 years ago today. 
Cinema Blend Jurassic World concept art
Variety a contrary opinion: 'why Divergent is better than The Hunger Games'
i09 first teaser for the TV remake of Rosemary's Baby
Pajiba ranks the cameos in Muppets Most Wanted 

And in case you haven't heard the new season of American Horror Story will be called "Freak Show". So naturally I have to wonder if Sarah Paulson will be the bearded lady or a two headed creature or some such. 

Are you ready?
...for Hit Me With Your Best Shot: LA Confidential  (1997) tomorrow night? Joining us?

Today's Watch
I don't know if you've seen this web interview series "RuPaul Drives" The episodes always features a sublebrity of some kind in the car with Ru. This is the best episode yet primarily because John Waters gives good quote and interview shows are always dependent on the special guest. I so wish he'd make movies again! (They seem to agree that Female Trouble and Serial Mom are the fan's favorites) 

And no, I haven't forgotten that I was supposed to be writing up RuPaul's Drag Race each week. I'm just three weeks behind now. Sigh. I'll post something tomorrow for sure to catch up on it. 

Yes, No, Maybe So: "X-Men: Days of Future Past"

In my superhero clogged mind, Spider-Man 3 has remained the gold standard of a dubious honor: by the time it had arrived you could justifiably feel like you'd seen the whole movie what with the multiple trailers, numerous clips and stills and two previous features with the exact same cast. X-Men: Days of Future Past has been teasing its teases and characters and counting down to its trailer for what feels like forever but it retains at least some mystery. I hope this is our last taste before the movie opens on May 23rd. It's not likely but I can dream. 

Because I am a glutton for punishment and The X-Men were a huge part of my developmental process as a human being (you don't even want to know how obsessed I was from the ages of, like, 8-18) will do like what we did with Maleficent. A Yes, No, Maybe So™ reaction to (almost) every last piece of the trailer.

Deep breath before the plunge. Okay let's go...

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Women's History Month: Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke as Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller

Our coverage of Women's History Month continues with abstew on "The Miracle Worker" (1962)

Born: Helen Adams Keller was actually born with the ability to see and hear on the day of her birth in June 27, 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama. It wasn't until she contracted an illness, most likely scarlet fever or meningitis, at the age of 19 months that she became both blind and deaf.

Johanna Mansfield Sullivan (she would always be known as Anne or Annie) was born April 14, 1866 in Massachusetts. After the death of her mother in 1874, Annie and her brother Jimmy were sent to an almshouse where she lived for 7 years. It was there, in 1880 (the year Helen was born) that she became blind after an untreated bacterial eye infection called trachoma.

Oscar winning performances after the jump...

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"There's a name for you ladies..."

... but it isn't used in high society outside of a kennel."

Great Moments in Screen Bitchery #40, Joan Crawford in The Women

(I thought it high time to revive this series)

Review: Divergent

This review originally appeared in my column at Towleroad

Erudite. Dauntless. Abnegation. Amity. Candor. Doesn't have quite the same ring as "Charisma. Uniqueness. Nerve and Talent" does it? But it's with the awkwardly titled five factions of DIVERGENT's world that we begin. In some future Utopia young citizens must choose their faction (a fancy word for tribe) on their 18th birthday after taking an aptitude test that reveals where they truly belong. They have the option of any faction but most, we are led to believe, choose either the tribe they grew up in or the tribe of their aptitude and these are often the same. Nature vs. Nurture and all that, you know.

Our heroine Tris (Shailene Woodley) lives with her parents in Abnegation, the "selfless" tribe that runs the government -- your first clue that this is total science fiction! They also feed the homeless (aka the "factionless"), dress like monochromatic fashion-forward Amish and eschew mirrors. Beatrice is played by Shailene Woodley and her parents are Ashley Judd and Tony Goldwyn (Scandal) - our first clue that this is actually a Dystopia*; how long could any of them survive without mirrors?

Tris is ready to jump and we continue after ours...

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