Beauty Vs. Beast - Two Talented Misters

JA from MNPP here with this week's "Viva l'Italia!" edition of our Beauty Vs Beast series - buongiorno and welcome. First a note: I'm going to be out of town next week, so this week's poll will be open for two weeks until Monday April 7th. Where am I going to be, you ask? Well crazily enough I'm going to be in Italy, what a coincidence! (Obviously not a coincidence.)

I didn't choose this week's competition soley due to the fact that I'll be stomping the same grounds that these characters did - oh it didn't hurt, but I've also got The Talented Mr. Ripley on my mind due to the passing of the marvelous character actor James Rebhorn this weekend; he played Dickie's father, the jazz-hater who instigates the whole sordid affair. "I'd pay that fellow a hundred dollars right now to shut up."

That said The Talented Mr. Ripley is giving us exactly what this series was created for - you've got a sympathetic maniac and an unsympathetic victim to choose between, and the film does not make the picking easy. But I'm gonna make you pick anyway!

poll by twiigs.com

Again you've got two weeks, until Monday April 7th, to vote and to make your cases for which ever character you're rooting for in the comments, so have at it. Persuade me - I am actually undecided myself! This is a tough one.

PREVIOUSLY ON As for last week's competition pitting the boys of In Bruges against one another, the puppy-dog eyes plus and the guilty conscience were just too much to resist - Colin Farrell's Ray rode away with precisely 2/3rds of the vote, leaving Ralph Fiennes' Harry cursing (and cursing, and cursing, and cursing) in the dust. As Deborah put it:

"Harry was kind of playing Sexy Beast, whereas Ray was an original."

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)