Linkpack

• TFE reminder -- LAST DAY TO VOTE ON THE 1987 SMACKDOWN!
• Vanity Fair Dolly Parton might save us all again. She donated to a promising COVID vaccine
• People 80s star Andrew McCarthy is releasing a memoir called Brat. We are so reading this. That 80s run surely has so many stories: Class with Jacqueline Bisset, St Elmo's Fire with uh.... everyone, Pretty in Pink, Less Than Zero, Mannequin. 
• Vulture Stacey Abrams has a theory on Buffy the Vampire Slayer's perfect boyfriend (no, really!)
• Hollywood Life Leo DiCaprio and Emile Hirsch (hadn't heard their names in a bit) hang out at the beach
• Out will reveal their annual Out100 List on Thursday but among the early honorees are Janelle Monae, Joe Mantello, Theo Germaine (The Politician), and the gay couple behind the divisive Antebelllum movie
• Variety the longlists for  a few categories in this year's British Independent Film Awards (nominations will come in December)
• Deadline Quentin Tarantino has a book deal the first part of which is Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood related
• Vox on the National Book Award finalists

Link Roundup

• Advocate straight actors still not feeling any hesistancy about taking on gay roles that could be played by underemployed actually gay actors. Viggo Mortensen is the latest, he even wrote it for himself
• Coming Soon I don't know quite why I expectd Jordan Peele, who got famous in comedy, to transition out of horror films but he's sticking with the genre. After Get Out and Us his third horror feature lands in 2022 (no plot, title, or cast details yet)
• My New Plaid Pants ohmy. There's a pretty gay rumor about the long delayed Dev Patel picture The Green Knight which co-stars Joel Edgerton

More after the jump including Andrew Scott, The Queen's Gambit, A Quiet Place sequels, new film projects and new TV series... 

Click to read more ...

Remembering Rutger Hauer (1944-2019)

by Nathaniel R

"All those moments will be lost like tears in the rain."

Thus went the immortal words of Roy Batty, in Blade Runner (1982) as he breathed his last, betrayed by the cruel brevity of life. Rutger Hauer improvised one of cinema's all-time greatest death scenes when he was just 38. The actor, who turned 75 this past January, has now passed on, dying at his home in The Netherlands after a short illness.

Rutger Hauer first came to worldwide fame in 1973 as the star of Paul Verhoeven's Oscar-nominated sexually provocative Turkish Delight (the most successful Dutch film of all time). More buzzy international hits from his home country followed. Hollywood soon came calling as they usually do when someone who can speak English fluently has multiple imported hits...

Click to read more ...

Q&A: Buffyverse Actors, The Isabelles, Actresses We Don't "Get"

by Nathaniel R

This is always so much fun. Why do I go so long inbetween "episodes"? You asked a bunch of questions so here are a bunch more answers. Continue the conversation with your own answers to these questions why don't you? We thrive on community here not just blabbering at you. 

So let's get right to the Reader Qs, shall we?

RYAN T: Just got back from vacation where I visited Italy for the first time. Alas no epic romance Call Me By Your Name style... but it did make me wonder: what are some of your favorite Italian films?

NATHANIEL: I have never been to Italy. AND I have never had an epic vacation romance. I FEEL CHEATED! I could definitely use some boning up on Italian cinema and am happy to take suggestions from all of you.

I'm afraid my answers in this regard are very "basic cinephile" but here are the 8½ I'd probably list as my favorites...

Click to read more ...

Beauty vs Beast: Make News Not War

Jason from MNPP here - I didn't take my lead on this week's edition of "Beauty vs Beast" from Nathaniel's "On This Day" post earlier but it's not a surprise that we'd both want to mark the 67th birthday of William Hurt with an acknowledgment of Broadcast News, because I think any sane person will snatch the chance to talk about Broadcast News when it's offered. I did actually contemplate a couple other of Hurt's performances for a minute - maybe Body Heat or The Accidental Tourist? But he's made a career of making the women across from him shine and I knew Kathleen Turner & Geena Davis would dominate those conversations...

... as would Holly Hunter, which is also why we're keeping her out of this even though it's Holly's birthday today too. Sorry, Holly! You'd win way too hard.

But does Hurt stand a chance against Albert Brooks' sweaty sidekick Aaron? The film's clearly on Aaron's side, no matter how kind it does try to be to Hurt's pretty boy destined for the anchor's chair. (Can you say Fake News?) Still it's some of Hurt's best work and Brooks, right-sided though he might be, sure can be a bit much, so I ask you...

PREVIOUSLY We were still riding high on Buffy fumes last week and so we had you face off the show's two best Big Bads, but you should never bet against a Valley Girl God with a taste for the shinier things - Glory stomped that puny human mayor with 60% of your vote. Said Matt St Clair:

"No contest. Glory. She is the best Big Bad of the series and had all the best lines.

"Did anybody order an apocalypse?"

"There's ice cream and puppy dogs in it for you if you start singing."

"So this is where the Slayer eats, sleeps, and...combs her hair."