OTD: Babs, Shirley, and "Cool" from West Side Story

On this very gay day (4/24) in history as it relates to showbiz...

1873 Silent film director Robert Wiene, best known for The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920) born in Breslau (Note: other online sources disagree with the IMDb on this birthdate but it's always fun to think about Caligari)

1927 Oscar winning cinematographer Pasqualino de Santis born in Italy. Classics include Romeo and Juliet, The Damned, Death in Venice, and L'Argent

1930 Richard Donner, superstar director/producer of the 1980s, behind films like The Goonies, Lethal Weapon, and the first two Supermans. Apparently retired after 16 Blocks (2006) with Bruce Willis

1931 The Public Enemy starring James Cagney and Jean Harlow was enjoying its opening weekend at movie theaters. It was a big hit, ending in the top ten of its year. Variety claimed it was "low brow material" attempting to be high brow by its craftsmanship. If only critics knew in the moment -- they almost never do even now -- that "low brow" genres regularly produce classics.

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Beauty Break: Happy Anniversary to... Men's Briefs?

On this morning's today in showbiz post we forgot one important anniversary. Or rather we just saved it for later as it deserved everyone at full attention. On this day in 1935, eighty-two years ago, the first pair of men's briefs were sold in Chicago and they flew off the shelves. That's right. The tighty whitey did not even exist before 1935. They were later retroactively named "jockeys" and have gone by many names since.

Surely this deserves its own cinematic beauty break? Ready set go...

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Podcast: Jupiter Etcetera

Remember us? It's been a month. How did that happen? Nathaniel, Nick, Katey and Joe are finally reunited. We had intended to talk Oscar nominations but we're so far past Nomination Morning that the conversation has a mind of its own and just goes where it may. Nathaniel keeps trying to bring up Nightcrawler and Ben Affleck, Amy Adams, Magic Mike and Djimon Hounsou's agent work there way into the conversation, too.

[42 Minutes]
00:01 We're back. DGA Awards & Birdman
10:54 Eddie Redmayne vs Michael Keaton vs Bradley Cooper
19:30 Original Song: Selma, The LEGO Movie
23:11 Beyond the Lights & Gugu Mbatha-Raw
27:20 Seventh Son & Jupiter Ascending 

This IMAX showing of Seventh Son begins in 5 minutes pic.twitter.com/QJzXS4eNCK

— Nathaniel Rogers (@nathanielr) February 6, 2015

REFERENCED IN THIS PODCAST
American Sniper Conversation from the podcast "Fighting in the War Room" 

Please to enjoy and continue the rambling conversation in the comments. You can listen at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. 

Jupiter Ascending & More

Yes, No, Maybe So: "What a bunch of A-holes"

Oscar season has crushed my will for timely YNMS entries since everything 2014 is a "No, No, Maybe No" until March 3rd, you know? But let's catch up very briefly so that we don't start at a deficit once the Oscars wraps and a new film year is truly free to begin. After the jump we'll discuss the new trailers and other marketing blitz business regarding Guardians of the Galaxy...

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True Oscar Stories: Djimon Hounsou

Djimon Hounsou has two Oscar nominations.

One for each pec.

this post is dedicated to Dame James