Links: Sally Sings, Scarlett Settles, and Sorkin Speaks

• /Film If you're in Los Angeles, there's a live-to-film concert of Nightmare Before Christmas coming on October 29th and 31st. Billie Eilish will be doing "Sally's Song"
• Vulture Best Actress will cause even bigger than usual stan-wars this season
• Vanity Fair Aaron Sorkin finally breaks his silence about his long working relationship with disgraced bully producer Scott Rudin

• Letterboxd an interview with Melanie Lynskey for her new film Lady of the Manor
• Tom & Lorenzo Maggie & Jake at the Lost Daughter premiere at NYFF
• The Guardian why haven't there been more black queer love stories post Moonlight?
• The Times Jake Gyllenhaal interview
• Uproxx a really fun perceptive review of Venom: Let There Be Carnage
• Variety a report on the "Power of Women" dinner in Beverly Hills
• FSR a brief history of Marcia Lucas and Star Wars

Finally... According to Variety Scarlett Johansson and Disney have settled their Black Widow dispute out of court AND Disney has added that Tower of Terror starring Scarjo is back on. This all obviously means that Scarlett was paid handsomely enough for everyone to make nice again. Deadline, in a follow-up piece, suggests she received an additional $40 million for Black Widow. Good for her again for reminding the mighty Mouse House that a contract is a contract and they can't treat people this way. Especially not people with the means to fight back so Scarlett did everyone in Hollywood a service. (The millions of obnoxious people calling her greedy online should burn their latest paycheck without cashing it -- just one to put their money where their mouth is -- and then clock how they feel about not being paid for their work as promised). The new streaming frontier has thrown Hollywood economics into disarray and that's particularly true for the talent. They used to make lots of money in residuals for example... sort of an accidental pension plan but streamers have not been structured to pay people more if their show happens to be a success (unless it's a long running tv series of course and they need to renew contracts). Eventually all this will be ironed out but until then its safe to assume that the corporations are not willingly sharing the new wealth since they're not yet expected to. Expect a lot more battles over paydays and, one assumes, the actors union getting a little more wise to the new streaming economy, contractually speaking.

HollyShorts Pt. 2: Amanda Seyfried, Sofas, and Cigarettes

By Ben Miller

The virtual HollyShorts Film Festival is in full swing and begins to focus on specific genre categories as the days roll on.  It's an Oscar Qualifying Festival so nominees or even a future Oscar winner could well emerge. In part one we looked at nine shorts with a couple of familiar actors appearing. While there is just too much to cover, here are nine more highlights and a few more celebrity actors, too...

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Revisiting the original "A Star Is Born"

by Cláudio Alves

As the next Supporting Actress Smackdown approaches, The Film Experience is celebrating the cinematic year of 1937. It was then that Hollywood consolidated its favorite myth about itself. While the story model had been making the rounds for ages, both in gossip and on-screen (check out What Price Hollywood?), William A. Wellman's A Star Is Born is the first movie of its name. The tale of Norman Maine and Vicky Lester, his downfall and her rise to fame, would be told three more times to great effect, but one should never forget the original. Not when the movie is this pristine, written to formidable effect by a team that included the legendary Dorothy Parker and performed with utmost conviction by Fredric March and Janet Gaynor…

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Middleburg Honorees: Ann Dowd, Dakota Johnson, and more...

by Nathaniel R

We previously reported on the six films getting major attention at Middleburg Film Festival and now we know some of the stars who will be attending given the honors & conversations scheduled: 

Agnes Varda Trailbazing Film Artist: Ann Dowd (Mass)
Actor Spotlight: Dakota Johnson (The Lost Daughter)
Director Spotlight: Kenneth Branagh (Belfast)
International Spotlight: Paolo Sorrentino (The Hand of God)
Ensemble Cast Spotlight: Simon Rex and cast (Red Rocket)
Distingued Cinematographer: Ari Wegner (Power of the Dog)
Conversation: Hair and Makeup artist Donald Mowat (Dune)
Conversation: Songwriters Kathryn Bostic, Amie Doherty, Lesley Barber, and Diane Warren

Which of these talents would you most like us to interview? More after the jump including our own panel plus our favourite annual Middleburg event...

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Deborah Kerr @ 100: The legend, the legacy, "The Innocents"

by Cláudio Alves

For decades she held the record of being the most Oscar-nominated actress never to have won the statuette, with six unsuccessful nominations. In a piteous gesture, the Academy granted her an honorary award in 1994. How fitting that Deborah Kerr received such tribute from the hands of Glenn Close, the current holder of the older actress' erstwhile record. Considering this trivia, it'd be easy to remember Kerr's legacy through the prism of Oscar history. That would be a mistake. I state it as someone who first encountered the British thespian through her nominated roles, constructing a mental image limited by AMPAS' taste. As it turns out, despite her numerous nods, the most outstanding Kerr performances weren't so highly celebrated by the Academy. Simply told, that Oscar-y sextet doesn't do her justice. 

To celebrate Deborah Kerr's centennial, let's remember her range beyond golden laurels, her incandescent talent, the power she brought to her films. Let's honor her by reflecting on the actress' greatest work - the nightmare that is The Innocents…

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