Showbiz History: Hurston's work, Nicole's night, and Fame's debut

7 random things that happened on this day, January 7th, in showbiz history

1891 Best-selling author Zora Neale Hurston is born in Alabama. Where's her biopic? Hell, where are the movies based on her books and plentiful short stories? The only movie length adaptation has been the TV movie Their Eyes Were Watching God (2005). 

1971 Today is the big "5-0" for Jeremy Renner, twice Oscar nominated (The Hurt Locker, The Town), but whose promising gifts were completely swallowed up by a desire to become a franchise star which was both successful in a supporting sense (9 years and counting as Hawkeye in the MCU) and not in the headliner sense (Mission: Impossible... Tom Cruise quickly taking the franchise back, Hansel & Gretel... one and done, The Bourne Legacy... Matt Damon quickly taking the franchise back)...

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Showbiz History: Aretha, Mame, and Florence Pugh

5 random things that happened on this day, January 3rd, in showbiz history

1897 Marion Davies born in Brooklyn. The 1930s film star is best remembered in history as the mistress of tycoon William Randolph Hearst. Multiple films have featured their relationship including current Oscar hopeful Mank (2020).

1952 Dragnet begins airing in its regular time slot Thursdays at 9:00 PM on NBC (a couple of weeks after the pilot airs). The influential series -- which basically created the #1 tv genre, the procedural, will run for eight seasons, be relaunched in the late 1960s for another four seasons and spawn three movies. The last of those was a comedy in 1987  starring Tom Hanks just before Big served as the bridge between popular comic actor and serious actor, netting Hanks his first Oscar nod. Two short-lived one season attempts to revive Dragnet were attempted in 1989 and 2003 respectively...

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Barack Obama's Top 10 Lists

Okay top 14 and top 10. President Barack Obama, who has gifted us with his favourites lists in previous years and revealed the taste (no surprise), and is now involved in the movies as a producer has released his favourites list for this accursed year, writing:

Obama visiting with a "Crip Camp" activist

Like everyone else, we were stuck inside a lot this year, and with streaming further blurring the lines between theatrical movies and television features, I’ve expanded the list to include visual storytelling that I’ve enjoyed this year, regardless of format.

His top 10 (sorry, 14) movies and top 10 tv shows after the jump...

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Elisabeth Moss reads "The Lottery"

What a morbidly thoughtful surprise! NEON would you like to consider Elisabeth Moss as Shirley this season for awards. So here's Elisabeth Moss reading "The Lottery," the famous short story that catapulted noted horror novelist Shirley Jackson to fame. The video is 22 minutes long but if you don't like being read to you can always read to yourself direct from The New Yorker. 

If you haven't yet watched Shirley, streaming on Hulu, you should. It's a good creepy but non-scary option for the season with excellent performances from Moss and screen husband Michael Stuhlbarg and interesting production design too. 

Links: Madonna's Biopic, "Fast Times" Read, Pattinson's Return, and "Popeye" Remaster

• CNN Madonna will direct the biopic she's been teasing about her own life. She's co-writing it with the brilliant Diablo Cody (Juno, Young Adult). It'll be interesting to see if Madonna can pull this off. She used to have such a great sense of humor about herself and that would come in handy here. No word yet about casting though the internet rumor mill has us convinced they're looking at Julia Garner (Ozark)
• Awards Daily Delroy Lindo will be submitted as a Lead to the Oscars for Da Five Bloods
• Theater Mania It took her long enough! Broadway star Laura Benanti is finally releasing her first album (next month)

Tatlany Maslany, Fast Times, Popeye and more after the jump...

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