Overheard @ Box Office: "for my brother, I think...Three Stooges"

Exiting the laughter-filled theater after Whit Stilman's comic whatsit Damsels in Distress last night, I noticed a surprising amount of grumbling about the movie. Say, weren't you all laughing heartily just minutes ago? I know I heard you laughing. It's impossible to please those Upper West Siders!

Two men in front of me weren't impressed and one was clearly planning another movie outing soon with his brother. 

Guy Who Picks The Movie: For my brother, I think... Three Stooges.
Other Guy: And it might be better movie." 

The WTF comment haunted me the whole way home.  What kind of a crossover audience might Damsels in Distress and The Three Stooges have. Which is to say who would be torn between them if they only had money for one ticket? LOL. It has to be a previously undiscovered demographic. To quote Suzanne in Postcards from the Edge when momma Doris suggests she could have had Joan Crawford for a mother... "These are my choices?"

Here is my best, my only, guess at the overlap...

That's all I got!

TOP TEN (Estimates)
01 THINK LIKE A MAN  $33 new 
02 THE LUCKY ONE  $22.8 new
03 THE HUNGER GAMES  $14.5 (cum $356.9) Reviewed
04 CHIMPANZEE  $10.2 new
05 THE THREE STOOGES  $9.2 (cum. $29.3)
06 CABIN IN THE WOODS $7.7 (cum. $26.9)
07 AMERICAN REUNION $5.2  (cum. $48.3)
08 TITANIC (3D) $5 (cum. $52.8) Centennial
09 21 JUMP STREET  $4.6 (cum. $127)  Reviewed
10 MIRROR MIRROR $4.1 (cum. $55.2) Reviewed

Below the Top Ten...
Damsels in Distress doubled its screen count but is still a long way from indie hit status. Darling Companion, opened on only 4 screens despite a name cast. (Yes, they're all senior citizens but couldn't they market this more widely to older viewers? I mean it's only been 9 years since Diane Keaton carried a $100 million multi-quadrant hit.) Further down the list the Weinstein Co's Oscar horses of 2011 are all about to return to the stable ending their theatrical runs as they hit DVD. The Iron Lady is dragging herself to a $30 million finish, The Artist is ending with $44, and Coriolanus and W.E. are... well, better luck on DVD. 

What did you see this weekend? Do you love stunt casting? Which reality TV star would you gladly follow into the movie theater for some legit camera acting?

Rose McGowan Has No Interest in "Real". Do you?

I have no interest in 'real.' I find real people boring."

Those telling words were spoken by the actress Rose McGowan on the penultimate episode of the latest season of RuPaul's Drag Race. I suddenly appreciate Rose more. It's true that reality is not exactly her forte. She's best known as a television witch and when popular culture eventually forgets her, isn't it entirely likely that the single enduring image from her career will be that Grindhouse chick with a machine gun for a leg. It doesn't get more much unreal than that. 

The final four drag contestants were the acclaimed Cher-loving Chad Michaels, the large glamourous Latrice Royale, "busted show queen" Phi Phi O'Hara and funny spooky Sharon Needles. I knew that hateful Phi Phi would make the final three because someone despicable always makes it to reality tv finales. But never mind that. Let's talk movie references! (We'll get back to movies soon but we're clearly having a 24 hour television binge)

Sharon Needles won much movie-movie praise from Rose McGowan...

If somehow Liza Minnelli in Cabaret and Jean Harlow had a baby and threw it in white puffy boots with the perfect poodle, it would be you.❞
-Rose McGowan to Sharon Needles. 

I'm not sure how she gets Sally Bowles and Jean Harlow (other than the hair color) out of Sharon's severe chic poodle look but it's wonderful to hear actressy icons referenced in contemporary contexts. Which is part of the reason RuPaul's Drag Race is so great --  there are always a couple of actressexuals in the cast who can't help but reference the movie and music divas.

Meanwhile Chad Michaels went for a Cruella de Vil inspired look (and was shamed for it -- "too old") but when she took off the furry wrap, she looked like a superhero. A retired superhero maybe but still...

Do you find reality boring?

How do you like your Rose McGowan?

Who are you rooting for to win RuPaul's Drag Race? 

Mad Men @ the Movies: Charlton Heston Starkers and "A Star is Born"

In "Mad Men @ the Movies" we look at the best show on television through the lens of its movie-loving ways. Obviously there are spoilers.

5.3 "Tea Leaves"
In the third episode of the season Betty Draper Francis (January Jones) returns and there's more of her to love to hate! She's been packing on the pounds. At first there's a thyroid scare but it turns out Betty is just depressed and fat. The episode ends with Betty helping herself to a second ice cream sundae (to the tune of The Sound of Music's "I Am Sixteen"). Why not? 

One of the themes of the new season is aging and the rise of youth culture is evident. Betty is referred to as middle-aged by her doctor. Don, previously an icon of cool, is now 'so square he's got corners' to both his younger wife (she's 20, he's 40) and the young teenagers he meets at a Rolling Stones concert (he's there with Harry Crane on business). When the teens hear that the men are in advertising they instantly think of Bewitched. "You're Derwood and He's Mr. Cravitz."

Later after smoking a joint Harry is trying to impress the teens with celebrity stories. 

Charlton Heston and Esther Blodgett after the jump

Click to read more ...

Smash: "The Coup"

I don't really have the heart to review this week's new Smash episode at length because it was surprisingly terrible and I don't want to pee on the news that Smash has been renewed for a second season. That's good news even if we're getting kind of worried about the show's absolute refusal to let Megan Hilty be the star because they want it to be Katharine McPhee. McPhee is decent enough as an actress but too bland to carry the show. What's more the writers decided that Karen "couldn't 'play the sex' " as an actress and yet in every single number McPhee performs she's all seductress beauty-posing. Weird.

The schizo episode even had room for a Grease 2 like number

Grace Gummer -- one of Streep's two doppelganger actress daughters -- guest starred as Eileen's do-gooder daughter but the plotlines were so all over the place (and the scenes so short) that it felt like twenty episodes in one. Or like it didn't even happen since the ending was basically like hitting a reset button!

Set List: For the first time there were no good numbers and surprisingly few of them, too.
Best Moment: Liked Derek and Tom's showdown. Loved Julia's exasperation that she can't escape Ellis, the annoying assistant.
Gay Gay Gay: That moment when Ellis kissed his girlfriend.
Anjelica Awesomeness: Not really.
Curtain Call: Did this episode happen at all?
Grade: D

Previously on Smash
1 Pilot 2-3 The Callback, Enter Joe DiMaggio 4-6 The Cost of Art, Let's Be Bad, Chemistry, 7 The Workshop

Mad Men at the Movies: Gillian Hills and 'Zou Bisou Bisou'

It's been so long since the best series on television was airing (17 months!) that this new version of The Film Experience has never seen an episode of "Mad Men at the Movies". Last night the miserable sexy funny smart complex men and women of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce returned to take us all back to the sixties once again. In this series we document the show's love affair with the cinema. Don Draper (Jon Hamm) is a movie buff and references tend to be sprinkled in for vintage flavor, character detailing and thematic resonance. Unfortunately this two hour premiere had no movie references. Damn!

5.1 "A Little Kiss, Part 1"
5.2 "A Little Kiss, Part 2"
The episode opened oddly with none of the familiar characters and a confrontation between African American picketers and immature men at an ad agency (not SCDP). By the time the episode ended, a small plot detail in the middle brought it all full circle with the unfamiliar site of the SCDP lobby filled with black applicants applying for jobs.Between the sobering bookends we were treated to a very strong premiere full of humor and potential for the season ahead. The talking point beyond the closing scene was surely the "zou bisou bisou" scene where Don's new wife Megan sang to him seductively in front of all his friends at a surprise birthday party. But the single most brilliant scene involved Joan (the great Christina Hendricks) bringing her baby to the office for a visit. We're talking perfect character farce  The choreography of the scene was so brilliant they should teach it film school... er television school... since it practically defines what this particular medium can do. Very little of what was going on emotionally and inside the character's head was actually spoken but if you've been following all the characters for years all their child-rearing issues and past romances and conflicts just made the scene hilarious and nimbly so. Perfection. A

Megan performing "Zou Bisou Bisou". 

Slate has the translated lyrics and some theories about why this song.

The hit song was originally sung by Gillian Hills who was also an actress. In 1966, the year this new season takes place, Gillian was on screens as "The Brunette" in Michelangelo Antonioni's classic Blow-Up (highly recommended) which is about a fashion photographer who believes he's accidentally photographed a murder. Blow-Up wasn't the only classic to feature her. She also has a role in A Clockwork Orange. 

Jane Birkin and Gillian Hills in BLOW UP (1966)

Mad Links
Flavorwire a pop culture guide to 1966 when the season takes place
AMC Janie Bryant on the costume designs for Season 5
Technabob Mad Men as an 8 bit game
IndieWire beginnings: each season's opening scene
Pajiba 10 of January Jones' bitch faces to celebrate the show's return 
NPR Eleanor Clift remembers what it was like to be in secretarial shoes as a typist in the 60s